There’s just something about calling an animal into range of a kill shot. A screaming bull working its way into your soft cow mews, a flock of ducks circling back to your incessant pleading, the horrific wailing away of a javelina call to pull them in close… well maybe not the last one.

If you love a quiet, peaceful hunt I would suggest against this tactic for hunting javelina. If you want an effective and higher success rate while hunting these little stink pigs, calling javelina might be the way to go.

I never fully committed to trying to use a javelina call, I tended to use the spot and stalk method. They were typically a secondary animal for me. If I saw them while out chasing Coues deer and it was convenient enough, I’d try to stick an arrow into one, but that was about the extent of it.

But this year would be different.

I had some friends coming into town who had limited time and no experience with javelina so I knew I would have to take hunting them a little more seriously if we were going to make their trip worth the gas money.

After talking with some experienced javelina hunters and checking out a few YouTube videos on the subject, I ran up to Tucson to pick up one of Rick Forrest’s Javelina Blaster. I heard great things about his call so I figured I’d give it a shot.

My friends rolled in the next day giving me a little time to test out the call in my office while my birddogs cowered in the corner from the banshee like screeching of the call. I was fully confident of my skill as only a beginner could be. We were going to kill a javelina come hell or high water.

We packed the truck and headed out to a spot up on a hill that gave a spectacular view of the surrounding desert. I’ve previously seen plenty of javelina in the area and thought we’d have a high percentage chance of locating some.

The hunting gods wanted to test my patience and my friends’ faith in my skill as a hunter and decided to dry up the area. Not a deer, rabbit or javelina moved about. A wasteland.

I tried explaining myself out of the situation by the fact that it was a cold morning and the javelina will sleep in in these situations. I had heard it on the internet somewhere so it must be true.

We packed up and I decided to go try some creek bottoms and give this call that was weighing down my backpack a chance to shine.

After parking the truck and heading a half mile up a promising looking arroyo, we settled us into an area with decent javelina sign and proceeded to give the call its debut.

It was loud, it was obnoxious and it certainly brought some questioning looks from my friends’ faces.

If you haven’t heard a javelina call yet, do yourself a favor and hop on YouTube and give it a listen. It’s very similar to a predator call, representing an injured or fighting javelina.

They are herd animals and very social, so when you’re representing one of their brethren being attacked by some nefarious predator, you’re going to get their attention.

Javelina are notorious for their susceptibility to calling. I’ve heard many times that they might be the easiest animals to call in. I’d have to say with my limited experience, this is a true statement.

Add that to the fact that their eyesight is poor and they aren’t terribly afraid of humans and you have an animal that is one of the easier animals to hunt.

They are great creatures to chase for the new bowhunter, youth hunters and those that love to call in their quarry. When my son is of age, you can bet a javelina will be the first animal we chase together.

I took some notes on what I thought might help another newbie in the way of calling them in. If you’re down in Arizona for an OTC archery hunt, picking up a javelina tag is well worth it. Grab a call and give it a try for yourself.

What I Learned About Calling Javelina

Stay put. Give them at least 15 minutes to get to you. The call is loud and they could be quite far away so it may take them some time to get to you.
Get yourself is a good position to see them coming from a long way off. This will prevent you from leaving your calling spot too early and gives you a hell of a show as they bounce their way towards you.
Call and call a lot. Don’t be afraid to wail away at that call. They seem to need a lot of incentive to come in. When you stop calling they often stop moving towards you.
When they get close stop calling and you can bring them the rest of the way in with a “woofing” sound.
If you spook them they won’t necessarily vacate the area. Often you can call them back in. So get back on the call if needed.

Give it a whirl and let me know how it goes. I’ll be posting the full story on this hunt shortly, but I figured I'd throw my two cents in on this method of chasing javelina.

// Fred Bohm