Message #13183

[armyCOMBATmedic]

alright boys so today was a long day, We met early this morning for the hunt and made a short hour drive up to the spot. I couldnt believe the routine these guys I went with had. I kind of stood back, felt a little useless at times as we were unloading the dogs and wheelers but be fore I knew it Bryant had already downloaded everything on the truck. We were on the trail within 15 minutes. Sooooo The fun the begins. This was my first dog on hog expirience so I didnt know what to really expect, we were in a trail with 4 four-wheelers and 1 team of dogs were running around beside us. Within the first 5 minutes we were jumping off the wheelers to listen to a ruckus of barking in the woods. The guys were saying that they had bayed a pig. We grabed the catch dogs and mad our way towards the barking. As we got closer the barking seemed to get further, each time this happened over and over, The barking would seize and we decided to make our way back to the wheelers, before we got out the barking picked up again. We headede back to the dogs, there was talk from the boys that it was possibly a really big hog making it near impossible to bay it up. As we got closer and closer we realesed two catch dogs, we were still unable to see the pig but we could smell it. I started getting that infamous chest thumping heart beat like the first time you went deer hunting and found yourself looking down the sights of a huge buck. Once again the barking seized and we were standing around waiting for it to pick up again. We bagan walking in one direction. Befor we knew it we had walked a couple miles through unknown areas. we hate to admit it but we were lost. At this point we are missing dogs, unsure of our location, unsure of the ATVs location, we had know food no water, we were waist deep in creeks and on or hands and knees through some really thick areas. We were just walking in one direction for what seemed like forever. We reached a lake that we had no idea that was even there, we decided to take a gravel road till we could find some one to give us a clue where we were. Finnally we reached some what of civilization. We met this guy and he agreed to give us a ride back to where we put in. In the end we had walked something lke 15 miles withing 5-6 hours. We were still missing dogs, and still didnt have any hogs. Through it all I  was assured this wasnt common way of hunting but with all that said I still had so much fun. I learned so much. And I have so much more to learn. A Sincere thankyou goes out to bryant and his friends for taking me out. I hope to be out there as soon as possible again. Hopefully the outcome next time will be alot different.