Arizona Afield: Javelina HAM scouting on New Year's Eve

It was the morning of the last day of 2011. My typical hunting partner and I headed out to the Santa Rita Mountains in search of Javelina. My buddy, being seriously afflicted with girlfriend-itis, had to be home by 3pm to get a serving platter for a dinner party they were hosting which really threw a wrench in my want to be out all day-long plans I had... Anyways, mental health problems aside he and I rode out to put some optics to the test and see if we couldn't find some pigs. We primarily focused on several of the prominent rocky canyons that have an abundance of ocotillo, prickly pear, grass and some shrubby cover. We found a good sized herd on the first canyon, and several herds in other canyons. From our glassing point we saw a group about 1100 yards away from us and approximately 200 feet in elevation up from our glassing point. In total we found 8 pigs in this herd, with 2 of them being very good sized animals approximately 60 pound critters.

My intent is to hunt with my handgun, however being a realist I do not know what to expect in terms of being able to stalk them in close. I have a black powder rifle firing 50 caliber sabots with 240 grain 44 caliber handgun bullets from Nosler. I will use my black powder gun if I feel I can't get in close enough to do the job with a handgun. I know that my gun can easily handle javelina out to 150 yards if need be. The question would be more of an issue of my stalking skills once we locate a herd. I am not the sneakiest white man in the desert.

Either way check out the photo below, and post a comment below if you can count the number of javelina in the photo I shot. I will post a photo later which shows the number of pigs I could identify and which will all be highlighted in the frame. Weidmannscheil!