EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

My buddy Tim got a call from his cousin a while back, about a bunch of Australians that wanted to go piggin’ in Texas, that he was tasked with showing a good time. Tim called in some favors and put this whole day together. A Wednesday.

We split 7 aussies in to 2 groups. Take one group hunting in the morning, meet the other group for lunch with everybody at the Cistern Country Store for lunch. Then take the other group hunting and leave the other group to drink beer with the locals.  Reconvene about dark, that was the plan. It turned out to be a good one.

Kicked out about 8:15 yesterday morning with the first group. 8:21 we had about 60 head scattered in a pasture among a Ranger and Canam running and shooting amongst them. Mind you, these are like finance guys and guys that are going to be doctors and stuff. These arent Australian pig hunters, so this is all absolutely bonkers to them.
 Meanwhile, the dogs had number 1 caught about 800 yards across the pasture. Caught the hog. Tim’s anne dog and Curtis rolled into the neighbors 250 yards and were bayed. We roll in there they get to watch me shoot this hog over the dogs in a pretty cool spot where we all got to walk up over the top of the bay. 
  Get dogs back, are re grouping and here comes a hog right in to our lap. Thankfully our dogs wanted to pretend to atleast have some handle and stayed quiet in the box till the hog was about 20 yards from us, they never made a sound till their feet touched dirt. We dumped on him and caught a good little boar about 200 yards later. He gave Tim’s roach dog a pretty nasty “joker” type cut. 
 Went back to the big brush and kicked back down, caught like 3 more in short order all decent hogs. Then the dogs on the trailer started barking and we thought maybe some hogs were trying to sneak to a hole in the fence(place is 500 acres field fenced but it’s about 5 holes in any direction) Sure enough take dogs over there and put them out on the pond to get water and we catch a shoat right by the trailer. Caught another small group trying to cross a pasture so we kicked down on them and caught 2 more or so. Ended up with 9, all the Aussie guys got to stick one. And besides roach everyone was okay.

Made it up to cistern store for lunch with the whole crew about noon. They very quickly became local celebrities and precedent was set for the party that would ensue. Ate some great cheese burger and shot some pool. Talked culture and politics and every thing else you could imagine that would come up. It was a blast and more fun was yet to come. I’ll have to write more on afternoon hunt later today. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20241017/1ee1892b2160c5b6f2d2e4b4675f62f4.jpg)


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Viewers discretion advised lol.

https://vimeo.com/1020649775

https://vimeo.com/1020648495

https://vimeo.com/1020648601

https://vimeo.com/1020650811

It looks like they had a heck of time Slim. I’m glad y’all were able to show them a good time. Lots of action going on.


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About 4 o clock we rounded the 2nd group up and went to hunt some volunteer sorghum that the man who owns the grain said 2 big boars had been hanging out on a pond on the edge of a field. We are using all females at this point as 2 of Tim’s young gyps Tiny and Alley were in heat. We have sketch, Anne, Gidget, tiny, alley, and Misty.

Kick them down on the pond and Misty and Anne pull out and go to head to the brush. The other dogs go and bay one of these boars on the edge of the sorghum, before we can get over there he disappears on them. Well we send them ahead to Anne and Misty bayed and they fall in. As we are headed to them, that boar hog crosses our face headed back to the sorghum.

Catch about 150 lb sow with dogs and we head back to the buggy with all of them. At some point Anne slips off ahead of us and goes back into the sorghum and puts the boar hog back up. He bounces around in about 200 acres of sorghum for a good half hour. We pack some dogs to him and finally he runs all the way back to basically where they started him and bayed under a windmill in the sorghum. As Tim his cousin Clay and I are headed to them, the 2nd boar crosses the road in front of us leaving town. We take out after him through the middle of the sorghum but realize we don’t have any dogs to pack to him. So we pull off and go to dogs bayed. Cut cardi from 50 yards and she smacks him underneath the windmill. She got knocked off when he come out from under there but was caught again in about 10 yards. Good boar about 220. The Aussies were stoked. Was the best hog we’d caught all day. (I got to get the picture of this one)

We had about 45 minutes left of huntable day light so we figured what the heck. We went and turned out one more time where that other boar came out of the sorghum. Takes a little bit but sketch did what she’s been doin most of her adult life, and gave me everything she had. She trails this boar through a set of cows in an absolute dust bowl and shows bayed a couple hundred yards in to the brush. Help goes and we follow.
 we get in there, send cardi and she hits and the woods come alive. He ran to a group and now it’s a scramble. If you’ve hunted for any length of time you know, catching a big boar once he dumps you on a group just about never happens. Every dog on the ground manages to stick this big boar coming out of the group. They run him 2-300 back into the sorghum and hang him. I was there in pretty short order to get him thrown and Tim and the rest of the crew got to walk in to a man laid on a his side. A heck of a hog to end the day on.
Tim ended up having to run cardi to the vet. Hog got up under her vest and cut her pretty good right through the arm pit. She’s going to be alright though. This ended up being far and away the best single day of hog hunting we’ve ever head. 14 or 15 with the dogs and a couple more with the buggies. Dogs really really jammed on em, which was a welcome confidence boost that we might still be on the right track, after gettin our butts handed to us by T-dog and his nephew a month or so ago.

After the conclusion of the hunt, we went back to the beer joint, partied with the whole little community and land owners. Played some music bingo, told a whole pile of lies and half truths. Finally 10:45 we had to bow out. Them Aussies don’t have a lick of back out in them and holy cow can they drink some coors light.
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At some point in the beer drinking somebody said they bet we can get a picture with the whole bar. So we did. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20241019/36055a6d4cf5ec23d4053aac3e4cde30.jpg)


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https://vimeo.com/1021259972
Back story to video. They are wearing rugby jerseys to a charity deal they all have a rugby team for they do to raise money for concussion research, in memory of a rugby player who did from having too many. Dougal’s dad is actually a rectum surgeon so they had him sponsor it as a joke, or as they would say “to take the piss outta ya”


https://vimeo.com/1021260078 2nd big boar


https://vimeo.com/1021260433 and here’s Dax when he decides we can get a picture with the whole bar.


There’s a chance with how well this went, we might be doing this again for some more Aussies. I sure won’t be mad if we do.


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  Good story Slim and a heck of a hunt. I net those Aussies had a great time.

Lol looks like a good time for sure. That ole boar looks like bruiser.


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Definitely showed those blokes a good time, you guys wracked up a good body count on the hogs too.

Well done Slim, they'll have tales to tell for years

He was full growed Thomas. Everyone involved had a blast, wish yall could have made it. Hope the misses is feeling better.


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I sure think we did. We wore them hogs out. Make sure you get with Thomas on you coming back next year. We will get together and make a run around us.


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Slim, it will be towards the end of his stay. It usually takes me a couple weeks to get the Washington out of him!


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Lol

Much appreciated, I’ll most likely be down there in the next month or so.