Javelina Entries Now Accepted by Pope and Young, Boone and Crockett

Born just more than a century ago in Babylon, New York, the late great American comedian Rodney Dangerfield famously built his stand-up career around the signature self-deprecating phrase of "I don't get no respect."

Thousands of miles to the southwest of Long Island, the desert dwelling collared peccary, or javelina as most bowhunters know them, lives with more than a little disrespect too, languishing daily in a remote and hauntingly beautiful corner of the American wild where conditions are harsh and danger lurks on a daily basis.

But whatever disrespect the javelina may have endured from bowhunters over the years, that’s about to change as a recent announcement from the Boone and Crockett Club and the Pope and Young Club promises to bring a little known southwestern species into the bowhunting limelight thanks to new found possibilities in the record books.

For those that might not be completely familiar with the javelina, officials with the Pope and Young Club note that “…javelina are medium-sized hooved mammals native to the southwestern United States and nearly all of Mexico, inhabiting a variety of habitats ranging from dry deserts to tropical forests. While they may resemble a nonnative boar or pig, peccaries are technically classified in a different family that existed independently in the Americas for millions of years. While many different forms of peccaries went extinct, the collared peccary evolved in South America and spread northward into Mexico and the southwestern United States over the last few thousand years.”

Still something of an unknown desert hunting possibility to many bowhunters, a P&Y news release last week indicates that the path for the species new-found recognition and record-book respect officially began when a proposal to include a new big game category for javelina was brought forward to each organization’s records committee in recent months. P&Y says that proposal was initiated by a working group made up of wildlife managers from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and old Mexico, as well as other hunting conservation groups.

The bowhunter’s organization then says that biologists submitting the proposal for a new big game category noted that the collared peccary appears to still be expanding their range northward in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Because of all of that, the Boone and Crockett Club Records of North American Big Game Committee approved the creation of the new category in December 2024. That was followed up in April 2025 at the Pope and Young Club's biennial convention in Glendale, Az. where P&Y membership gave its approval to the new category being included in the bowhunting record book maintained for decades by the Club.

All of this, of course, will take place when fair chase hunting and minimum score requirements have been met in the harvest of javelinas. And while the Boone and Crockett Club will accept entries of any hunter taken animal as well as “picked up” or found individuals of the species, the Pope and Young Club will of course only accept entries of javelinas taken with a bow and arrow.

What are the minimum scores for a javelina to gain record book admission? According to P&Y, javelina skulls will be measured in the same manner that both organizations currently use to measure bears and cats. Meaning that only the greatest length and greatest width are recorded to the nearest sixteenth of an inch in that measuring process.

The new javelina category, which Pope and Young says will be effective immediately and is retroactive, meaning that “…any javelina skull taken prior to the establishment of the category is eligible for the records programs as long as it meets the minimum entry score,” will have a minimum entry score of 13 14/16 inches for Pope and Young or 14 5/16 inches in order to qualify for Boone and Crockett.

Needless to say, all of this has created a bit of a stir with new excitement happening within both organizations, including B&C which held its 32nd Big Game Awards Program gathering just last month in Springfield, Mo.

“The Boone and Crockett Club established our records program well over a century ago as a way to measure conservation successes that helped to recover and sustain North American big game species,” noted Mike Optiz, chairman of B&C’s Records of North American Big Game Committee. “The record book is a way to honor exceptional animals that are maintained on the landscape due to professional wildlife conservation and management. It has been 27 years since a new species category has been added to our record book, and we are excited that including collared peccary in our records program will increase hunter excitement as well as increase support for their conservation.”

Optiz’s counterpart at Pope and Young was equally excited by the new possibilities for the javelina in the Club’s record book and the organization’s ongoing conservation work.

“After hearing the presentation by leading biologists, it was apparent that collared peccary (javelina) is indeed a native North American big game mammal that is well managed and growing quickly in popularity for hunters—especially when pursued with a bow and arrow,” said Roy Grace, P&Y Records Chairman. “It will be exciting to see the scientific data points we will gather from this new species, while offering a new category of big game species to pursue for the record book.”

With javelinas finding strongholds in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and south of the border in Mexico, bowhunters possessing the appropriate tags have taken the species for years as incidental critters while pursuing other desert Southwest big game species. Javelina have also developed hard-core followings for bowhunters looking for something to do in the “off-season” months, critters worthy of a well-placed arrow and some hard-earned respect when little else is open in the bowhunter’s world.

Here at Bowhunter, we’ve certainly enjoyed pursuing javelinas through the years, and there will be more to come on as Editor-in-Chief Christian Berg continues to guide the magazine deeper into the 21st century. And while we’re not sure if there will ever be a saddle hunting story about chasing javelinas, there just might be a few more how-to stories of pursuing them on foot or from ground blinds, some desert bowhunting adventure stories, and perhaps even a tale or two about how to cook up a javelina after you’ve filled a tag.

So stay tuned, because after years of the javelina getting only a smidgen of the respect that the great little desert game animal is due from bowhunters, the spotlight is turning brightly onto the collared peccary. 

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