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I have only hunted in Arizona, California and Texas. I have never hunted moose and the like so I can only go on what I have done. I would be hard pressed to have just one most memorable hunt to say the least.

I was taught how to hunt, track, camp and care for game by my grandfather. He instilled in me that all the animals that I take are trophies regardless of the size of its horns or how big its body was. To treat the animals any less would be disrespectful of the animal and the life that I had ended.

We had many a hunt together and to this day I wish he could be with me again. I have him with me at least through what he taught and gave me, whether it’s hunting or just living. He passed at the age of 93 a few years back and I still think of the hunts and our time together. My grandmother would always say that when the two of us were together things became a comedy of errors. I will you give an example of one of many of these that had happened with us.

This was back in 1987 or so and is about a javelina hunt undertaken on a bet with my grandfather. I had gone out on opening day with my uncles and other family members to hunt Box Canyon for javelina. I at this time still hadn’t shaken the affliction we all know as buck fever. I was to take one side of a deep gorge and still hunt it to the next saddle and my family would do like wise on the other side.

I had maybe walked about and hour when I spotted a small herd , 8 to 10 animals not more than 80 yards from me. Needless to say I couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn that day. My family managed to take a couple later in the day.

The hunt wore on and everyone who had a tag had managed to fill theirs. Man was I feeling bad. The last day of the hunt rolled around and I just gave up. I couldn’t see anyway of getting a javelina and just ignored the alarm clock

It was around 8 am when my grandfather came to me and said that if I was willing he would find me a “pig”. I said it was no use and wasn’t worth the effort as I had blown my chance. Well he just stared at me for the longest time and finally stated that he would bet me $10.00 that I would get one. My part of the bet was that when I did get one that I would have to give him the money for a bottle of Canadian mist and a bottle of Mogen David. I agreed and off we went.

We had driven to an area that we had hunted previously and started to still hunt some rolling hills and greasewood thickets. Now this whole time I am positive of the waste of time this would be and I really wasn’t giving this my utmost attention. We had covered close to 2-2 1/2 miles when up pops in front of me two big old boars. I was dumbstruck, I just stood there staring, heck I didn’t even lift my rifle to my shoulder. My grand father was telling me to shoot so he says, I didn’t here it. The javelina just trotted off with me standing there with my jaw on the ground. Needless to say my grandfather wasn’t too happy and it didn’t take long for the kick in the pants I got to wake me up

Well once I got my head cleared I took off in the direction the”pigs” went but I never did find them. I did manage to kick a smaller one off its bed and managed to redeem myself to a degree. My grandfather was all smiles when we met back up even though he had to jumpstart me so to speak. Needless to say when we got back to town I paid up, after all he had lived up to his end of the bet. We had many a time such as this and there isn’t a one of I would do over in any way.

Sorry this was so long winded. Thanks for your time.

Coues