EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Well we loaded up and headed west on Friday and found ourselves around the Garvin Store area on the Texas hill country to do a little hog hunting.  We settled in and ate dinner with the ranch managers and and loaded dogs as the sun was setting with high hopes to go catch a few hogs.  We made our first drop and Brandi opened shortly and we got a rude awakening wo the kind of hogs we were up against...runners!!  A few drops and long empty handed races later we headed to the camp house for a nap with our heads in our hand.  I slept in and Mike and Chris went and hunted where they found a hog of a rattler!!  It was still feeling good out when we we decided to go hit a few protein feeders and as luck would have it the hogs were there in the middle of the morning!  Dumped the dogs and had a bay so Mike Chris and Richard headed that way with the bull dogs and a short while later had a nice sow caught and tied about 1200 yards later.  After working on getting the dogs cooled off we headed back to the house to get some food and a nap.  Last night we tried again only to be outrun, but we brought home the "pork" with a couple of porcupines  ;D.  Got up this morning and drove on back to the house.  I could right a whole different post on how nice this ranch was and how nice the ranch managers where.  Just good people that were awesome to be around and enjoyed hunting.  Had a good time folks, look forward to the next adventure haha  ;D  Thanks again Chris for making this trip happen!

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Quills in the sow's nose....ouch!!
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Double Fang!
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matt know exactly what you mean bout the hogs wanting to run...one of my good friends is the manager of a 1500 acre deer ranch full of protein feeders and i truly believe thats gives the hog that much more energy to run...(not that they need anymore)

That is some real pretty country there.....sounds like a good time as well.

Bet that is a nice change of pace as opposed to these thickets.

Thats how I like to see those porkypines.Heck of a snake.

Did y'all eat the snake?

Yall fellas are getting rangy. Good pics.

Welcome to  my world. LOL

What an awesome place, absolutely beautiful.  That wide open looking terrain, I'd have to have me a stag or three handy...

Purdy country and nice story. ;)

Good hunt... ugh huh... mmm mgh

Heck let a fellow know, yall came right by my house and hunted land within a couple miles where I do. What ranch was it, sure looks familar.
Yall come back let me know would love to meet up, watch someone elses dogs get outrun would be nice for once, joking.
Really let me know we could BBQ or something.

Dang, I wish that Id have known that. We were hunting a short trip north of you on 83 this weekend. We should have gotten together.

Same thing for us, running hogs...... We ended up catching 3 or 4 but they were all small and all races. We were on 7K ac but couldn't seem to stay on it and a buddy lost a dog that they saw chasing a hog across a Kline Grass field. Next trip, I'm taking my bull dog crosses.

Luckily, we didn't find any Porcupines.

Steve

Steve same for you, give me a call next time. Would love to meet some new folks. Grew up here so I know most of the area, and still hunt several ranches on 83. Dont have to take my potlickers, just like meeting new folks.

TxMaverick,

   One of the ranches is a corporate ranch owned by a friend here in LaPorte. The other ranch we hunted is his personal ranch. Close to Will Calcotts place on 83.  
I was really surprised that the dogs held up as well as they did.  ~ 20 miles on the ground on 3 of the dogs, their collars read 41  miles, but some of that was riding on the mule to the various feeders and water tanks.  I fully expected their pads to be blown within the first couple hours.  I would have liked to shut down a few more, but I guess that's hunting.   I have been told by a number of people that it takes the dogs a bit to get used to hunting in that area. We had better luck on the property with less shin oak.  

that shure is a pretty place, sounds like a real fun trip..

Yep it takes some getting used by all. My top dog put 56 miles on one night up here, got 7 hogs and was on the 8th when I headed him off before he hit the YO.

Oh this is the ranch you told me about Chris, good glad yall got to hunt it. Let me know when your coming back, dont have to take my potlickers, just love to visit.

Here are a couple pictures I pulled off the camera.

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Cabins - Jay, you may recognize the place from these cabins if you have been there before. I am told this place was dogged some before the current owners bought it a few years ago.

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In hindsight, I wish I would have kept the hide from this sow and had it tanned.
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This is one of the pen deer.
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Sitting here, sipping a cold beverage, and telling war stories...It does not get much better than that for me!
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Angel and I had a great time, thanks for having us along Chris. It sure was hard to load up and drive home yesterday.

Those hogs love to run... a couple of barks and the race is on. It looks like a lot of open country, but they were always in thick shin oak and cedar. I was real suprised these soft-footed dogs held up that well in the rocks.

The sow was nursing and still fat and healthy... all that protein feed shows. ;D  She was 175 on the scale.

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Oops,  lied..... I was quite a bit North of y'all, near Menard. Id have sworn that Garvin's Store was north of Junction.

Anyway, We only head out there once a year between June and August for an association officers meeting. It would sure be nice to meet u with some others while we are there though.

Steve

dang  ,, thats a really nice place.

nice to see you with a hog Chris  ;D

Craig,

   I can only catch hogs on weekends now. ??? Looking back the last couple months, I have had dry runs almost every time I hunted a weeknight, and every weekend I've been successful...not sure what the deal is. 

I like the pictures....sounded like a nice weekend.

It seems to me the pigs like to run on those high fence places....dogged or not. I know I always have heck...

I'll second that.  The only high fence place I've been on was full of runners.  It was a small place less and 200 acres but seemed like the hogs were doing laps in there :(.  We ended up with a few hogs and caught an earless boar so we did all right but had to work for it.

Matt, was it all open like that or was there some thick stuff?  Seems like it always takes the dogs a hunt or two before the get up to par in new terrain.  It happens to us every year during grain season...first hunt in the corn almost always results in no hogs and me scratching my head wondering where i'm gonne get some new dogs from.

Waylon

The scenery pics are VERY deceiving!!!  The areas that we hunted in were shinnery and cedar thickets and for those that don't know a shinnery thicket is like a corn field of oak trees, very thick, very hard to move in etc.  We got on and saw plenty of hogs but the terrain and brush made it challenging to get the hogs shut down and caught.  I know when I use to hunt out west we hunted around similar stuff and the hogs loved the shin oak for the all the reasons mentioned above.  Between that and the rocks the dogs think you have taken them to the moon when they hit the ground.
Matt

glad you found that bad boy and i didnt i cant stand snakes

I do know the ranch chris just never hunted it, only did AC work on it a few years ago. Prob before these people owned it. Anyway glad yall had a good hunt. Aint the shin oak fun!!!