I grew up having a lease loaded with hogs, I walked those woods nonstop growing up and gave the hogs hell with my 30 30.......my junior year of highschool I worked at gander mountain and met a guy that ran dogs', I only knew of a handful of guys that ran dogs (all of which were quite a bit older than I am) and I wanted in but had no idea how to go about it or who to talk to, I asked him a couple times but for one reason or another we never did go....drank alotta beer together but never did make a hunt........ anyway I left the job and didn't talk to the guy again for almost a year. I went to drug test for a job and the same guy is walking out of the drug testing place......we bs'd for a while and I asked him if he was still hunting and if he had any dogs or puppies he would sell me to get started and mentioned that I had a big place loaded with hogs to hunt but no dogs and didn't know anyone.......his response was something along the lines of "when are we going" lol.......longer story short he had 2 litters of pups on the ground (just some ol mixed up curr dogs) and told me 100$ a piece and to come look at em.......he then asked again when are we going hunting and I replied I'm ready whenever, it will be 100$ a hunt
..... we ended up making a deal and trading a pup per hunt.......I picked up 5 pups, that was over 10years ago and he still hunts with me damn near everytime I go lol, he owes me a least a solid million haha, we ended up becoming very close friends and hunting partners and are still to this day.........I would still rather have him next to me in the woods than just about anyone else. Sometimes I think I should whoop him for getting me into this, never had a more expensive hobby but I do love being in the woods and I've always enjoyed working with dogs.
We hunted 90% of the time off horseback..........I still enjoy it FAR more than on 4wheelers but until I have the land to keep horses I'm stuck on a 4wheeler unless I go with him. Now days I hunt horseback every chance I can but its about 75% 4wheeler 25% horseback.....
All the dogs I started with are long gone, I've owned some great dogs and some not so great since then BUT I know that I will never have dogs as good as those crossed up mutts...........I am a firm believer that you CAN make a decent dog good and a good dog great if you hunt them nonstop.........we used to hunt at least 5 days a week EVERY WEEK, we still laugh about it but its true, we both had bs 12-14@hr 40hr a week jobs and the only reason we even worked em was to pay for our hog hunting habit, I stayed at his house more nights then I stayed at my own. It was get up, go to work, get off work, go to his house and load the dogs and saddle/load his horses and be hooked up ready to go by the time he got home, we would hunt to 11-12 at night or longer depending on the dogs then go home and do it all again the next day........I sure miss those days sometimes........ A word of advise to all you youngins..........
HUNT every chance you get now, the real world ain't no fun!!! 
