NV_Hunting
Member
My 10-year-old drew his first elk tag this year and we decided to pick up a javo tag since there's a few in the area we were going to be hunting in. Now he's been on quite a few hunts with me from Black bear in AK, Antelope in NV and Deer and Javo in AZ, but we were both pretty stoked for this hunt. He's been shooting really well all summer so I knew that if we could find some cow elk or javos we'd have a pretty good chance of harvesting. I talked to him on the drive to the unit and he said he didn't have a preference on what he harvested first and that he was just excited to get out and spend some time looking for critters. Unfortunately, we did do any scouting in this unit other than google earth, ONX etc. Weather was pretty warm, and the wind was swirling really bad. After setting up camp we went to a glassing knob and glassed for the evening, other than a tarantula my boy found all we glassed was a few hunters making their way through the canyons we were glassing. We decided to try another spot in the morning. Seemed like the wind howled all night and it was a fairly restless night for both of us, but that didn't stop us from popping up at 4:15 grabbing some gear and heading out. We got to another glassing spot in the dark and glassed for a few hours. Nothing but a few coyotes and cattle. We drove a few miles down the road to get out the wind and check some other draws. We decided to hike about a mile to the point even though the wind was bad, on the way back we could loop around and have great wind for the other side of the canyon. We found some fairly fresh rubs and sign but didn't see much. As we got close to the point, we could smell something funky, almost like javo but maybe like a rutted bull? about 100 yards later I catch some movement to my right about 60 yards out- Its some Javos! I turn to him and ask him if he wants to take a javo- No hesitation- he's ready to go! I get him on the tripod, and we wait for them to make their way to the break in the brush. One steps through and he says all I can see is an eyeball. I tell him wait till he steps past the cactus. The javo takes a few steps and I call to stop him, before I can tell him to shoot, Kaplow the javos on the dirt! He racks another round in, and we watched for a few seconds until he stops kicking. My boy is grinning ear to ear in complete awe, we put the gun down and hug, I'm so proud of him, he did awesome! We walk up to the javo and he's toast. perfect shot right behind front shoulder, heart shot, no guts. We take some pics and I realize I left my game bags in the truck. We hike back to the truck grab the bags and back out to break it down. We moved it to the shade to start cooling it off. I bought him a knife set last year for Christmas and he was excited to use it when I pulled it from his pack. We broke it down and packed it up and hiked back to the truck still smiling to the point of sore cheeks. We put the javo on ice and He had a Victory apple cider. Glassed another spot that evening and didn't see much besides antelope. Got up at 4:15 again and glassed another spot, just eating the dust and wind. After Bedding a nice 3x3 (no deer tag) I asked him if he wanted to practice stocking in on a deer. We got to 200 yards of this buck and his does. I talked him through how we would have set up for him to take the shot and played it out for him. We stood up and watched the deer move off and hiked back to the truck. We decided to head back home and get the Javo broke down that evening. Such a wonderful hunt and a great time in the outdoors, still smiling ear to ear every time I think about it!
