EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

When I was a young man 39 yrs ago I was fortunate to meet a older gent named JUDE HART ,from Batson,Tx . He was a tall & lanky man and allways with a big smile on his face.This man was a dog man. He was a curdog man. When they bred a female ,, the puppies were all kelp for hogdogs,deerdogs,or cowdogs.A dog had to fail at all 3 chores to be culled. Very few was culled. I spent lots of time with old Jude & enjoyed every minute of it.He told me these unbelivable stories about baying hogs up and driving hogs back to the right-a-way, then roping the ones you want.Told me about driving hogs with dogs and horses from Batson to Beaumont to sell them at the market. The whole time I was thinking YEA--RIGHT. I TOLD HIM,, JUDE YOU JUST DONT UNDER STAND. You cant do that with todays hogs. He would just laugh at me , and i'd just roll my eyes. Thats when I learned my first lesson about the wisdom of our elders.I'll never forget the first hunt Jude invited me on. I told Jude I'd bring 6 cur dogs and 2 bulldogs. He said no, bring your best curdog & I'll bring a old dog and a pup..Second lesson learned, when someone invites you on their place to hunt let them tell you what dogs to bring.I said Jude , how are we gonna catch a hog,with 2 strikedogs and a pup? He gave me a big ole grin and said we'll rpoe him.I said ok and I was thinking bull$%#&. We loaded up his 2 mules & wagon & saddled up 2 horses & 3 curdogs. Jude tied the horses to the back of the wagon and away we went. Wish i had pic.
Seem like we rode forever, crossing creeks, making way to Judes camphouse in the middle of the big thicket.Jude just griping the whole way bout them dam deer hunters is leasing up the whole country,, paying a arm & a leg to get on a lease. it was $35.00 to $50.00 per family back then for a deer lease in east texas on paper company land.We were crusing along in the wagon drinking a cold one when ole Jude said theres some rooten . We looked at it and he said that looks like its less than 8 hrs old. I said Jude in 8 hrs that hog could be in Louisanna.He said put your dog on that track. I said ok. I will have to tell ya.I had my toes crossed, all my fingers were crossed and standing there with my legs crossed.I let old red out of the wagon and he took off down the right -a -way and I was screaming at him to come back. The track is over here. Red came back and I drug him to the rooten and crammed his nose in the rooten and I sicked him and let him go. Red went to the wagon and peed on the wheel , I said proudly ,,, Nope,,, more than 8 hrs old,, told ya. I jumped back in the wagon with Red and said lets go find some more. Again ole Jude kinda chuckeled . He called me LEE-VON. He said LEE-VON,,lead old King over there and let him sniff that rooten. I said ok , but I really did'nt want to. I took King and as soon as he put his nose in that rooten King barked 1 time, Jude said let him go , he'll find them hogs.So I let King go. King worked & worked about 2 minutes and Jude said let the other 2 dog go. His pup went straight to King and the 2 left. It was like old King was waiting for his son so they rolled out. Red left with them then he came back. Old Jude looked at me & said you ought not have eat that bacon this morning for breakfast, and I said why, he said ole Red must smell that pork on your breath is why he came back. I laughed but i did'nt want to. We got off the wagon and got on the horses and I heard some barken about a mile off. Ole Judes hearing was'nt too good and he said , point to where you here them, so i did. Now when the dogs bay I uselly take off like a jet before they break. Jude just got the horses in a little trott and when we got about 200 yards from the bay i hallered at Jude to stop . I sicked ole red and he joined in on the bay. When Red chimed in ,, I look at jude and said YEP, ITS A HOG. Jude bout fell off his horse laughing at me & Red. So Jude said get your rope ready but do what I tell ya. We eased up and shure nuff the hog broke bay. I knew right then we should of brought my bulldogs. Jude said thats ok , he aint going nowhere. Sure nuff the dogs stopped him in about 200 yrds. We eased up again,he broke, went 50 yards, we kelp easing up and he kelp breaking and after about 4 breaks the hog bayed to fight. Jude eased up and roped him and we cut him and Jude ear marked him and let him go. This blowed my mind. I learned right then that there are dogs that work hogs and they are dogs that chase hogs and bite-um in the but which makes a hog run even more. We stayed in them woods for 3 days and I bet we bayed over 100 hogs and we cut about 10 to 15 of them.That was my first experence of learning how to make excuses for my dog,,ole Oed. Over the years I've learned about every excuse there is. Don't eat pork chops or bacon before you go hunten cause the dogs can smell your breath and they wont hunt.lolSOME OF YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD OF THE HART BLOODLINE,,, THAT JUDE HART

LAVON

awesome story lavon! a perfect one to start this board off right! thanks for sharing it with us. 8)

Helluva a story LEE-VON! ;D

Great story man.   I really enjoyed reading it. 

Good storry. 8)

I really enjoyed that one as well....tell another  ;D 

Matt

no matt, you tell one.lol. remember your post started things rolling for making this section. and didn't you say you had a few tales to pass along to us?? hmmm?  ;)
 

Nice, Great job telling the story

THANKS FOR THE KIND WORDS. YALL

LEE--VON,,,

ADD THAT ONE TO MY ALAIS LIST.. ;D

Good story Lee Von.

Good Story!

Good story Lavon my grandpa gets on me for using bull dogs too tells me "If you had WORKIN DOGS you wouldn't need them worthless bulldogs" I tell him times have changed we got different hogs  ;)and he just laughs at me and tells me "You are the 5th generation to hunt with dogs I guess the other four were wrong" Nope just the way I have fun doing it and remind him that that is why I do it and not as a way of life.

Levon,

Thank you for this story. I have to admit it brought a tear to my eye to think of Jude. When I was a kid I practically grew up on his front porch. He taught me more about dogs and horses than anyone else ever could. I still miss him to this day. He was like a grandfather to me.

i loved the story ,i am a first generation hog dogger and wish i would of had someone like mr. jude around when i was growing up. it's hard learnin the ins and outs of this sport the hard way ,but i still love it . thanks!!

Great story there...I like hearing storys about the old days.

Really good story, someone needs to get these wrote down before they're gone.

this one needs to be in a book.  you guys (ethd) should consider putting something in print when you get enough of these old school stories together.

that sounds like a good idea

Run across this story and thought it was so good it needed to be brought back to the top............

Awsome story.

Great story man, ive heard of old timers talk about doing it that way , it was told to me that hoghunters of today want to make a scene of the hunt and rush the dogs and ruin the hogs .

Boy, that's STRONG right there!! Where's all them folks that were posting on this thread? I recognize about half of em.

"There are dogs that work hogs and dogs that chase hogs"   Priceless "fact"  That man was from Florida wasn't he ;)

Great story!!

Great story keep them coming

Lavon had a 100 percent pure jude hart bitch that he kept for breeding...in the late 1980's she was toothless but still produced one more litter and she was about 10 years old I believe...she was red with good leg and built to work all day...about 45-50 pounds...nice ear too...

I'd love to see some pics of Hart dogs if anyone has them

I don't know any hog huinting stories about Jude Hart first hand. because i was bout 10 r 12 when he died. but i have sat at the table with my Grandpaw n heard alot of em. one story that i have heard a hundred times ill tell.

Starts off  Paw Jude and Curtis Hart was going to pen hogs.They rode from judes house horse back brought two dogs Rebels n Bruno.jude would neck the two dogs together n tell them to get behind. till they got to were he wanted to hunt.  they found a hog bed in the Loop about two miles from the pen. old bruno started barking in loping in a circle Curtis said you could see the pigs moving under the pine straw. just in a minute them sows started coming in. when they got the hog all rallyed up they started driving them to the pen.
I dont know how far they got but curtis said one old boar was getting restless n left out Jude told him. hear take 22 n when they stop him shoot em but be sure you kill him cause when you shoot they going to catch em. curtis rode to em shot the hog jump down slapped the dog on the nose n rode back to the bunch. where jude was loping circles around the hogs to keep em bunched up. when Curtis  got back Jude told him Curtis Lamar we cant pen these hogs right now. so they drove them on past the pens to the pipe line a mile r so past the pens. when they got up there pawpaw said the hogs had settle down n wre driving good so they turned n started to the pens.
when they got to the pens Curtis said old bruno was the only dog that would drive all the way inside the pens with the hogs. Said there was a ladder in back of the pens he would climb over in out the other side.

great story, i enjoyed it, well told with appropriate language for all ages  thanks, Jim

Great storys

what an awesome story,  I could hear story's like this one all day . Keep em comin !

X2!!!

I got a pup from Dewayne (JUDES son) and man I think she is going to make a heck of a dog. Now she isnt a true Hart dog, just because she come from Dewayne but she sure has the making. Heck everytime I see you post something Lavon I call Dewayne and tell him.

I don't know if you realized this or not, but this posting of Lavon's is almost 5 years old.  Lavon hasn't even been on here for 3+ years.

 

ya I realize it know lol

crap i didnt know that post was so old makes me feal retarded but fig if somebody could tell a story on my great grandpaw i could too

wish i knew a guy to talk o like jude