A couple of my hunting partners came down this weekend. Buddy and Scooter from the Wharton and Beaumont areas. They brought down Chulo, Moe, Little Man, and Pepper for some training/tune-up. Friday we turned them loose and Moe had one caught in no time, but before anything could get to him, hog got loose as I was turning out the catchdog. After a while, we decided to turn loose my young dogs Pancho, Bear, Kate with old veteran Repo. Dogs opened on some hogs and in a matter of minutes we had about 5 different bays going on. Finally the dogs get together and get one stopped. Buddy sends in Chulo to help them out and I cut my young Bulldog Tough loose. Scooter gets there and they have about a 100 lb sow caught. We pull the dogs off and release her. We have a few more races and bays but they break before we can get to them as the hogs don't hold very long. Chulo bayed one up by himself for about 10 minutes but my catchdog was with my wife and Buddy and was already wore out as he kept running with the dogs after we pulled him off the first hog. After another hour of hunting we call it quits for the evening.
Saturday around 4, cloudy and cooler. Buddy and Scooter load up their dogs and I load up Taco, Darrell, Walker, Daisy, Cy along with catchdog Jack. We let out Buddy's dogs along with Taco and Darrell. Chulo and Little Man get after some hogs a couple hundred yards in front of us and the rest of the dogs are still hunting back west across the big sendera. We drive around and listen. After about 10-15 minutes we see Chulo heading toward us. We decide to cut the hounds loose and no barks after about 10 minutes. Buddy makes the comment, your dogs are learning to hunt like curs and we start laughing. Well after another few minutes Walker opens up in the east thicket heading west. Then a few other dogs open up as well. We have a few races going on now. We go back and forth watching the hogs and the dogs cross. Buddy and I get on a sendera and see a bunch of shoats cross and I want to get rid of those so my catchdog Jack who is in the truck sees them. I cut him loose but before he can get to them, he hears Walker and Daisy to his left. So he turns and heads to them. Buddy and I drive around and we hear Daisy and Walker heading back north. Buddy tells me he hears a hog grunting back to the west. We drive down and sure enough Jack has a sow about 120 lbs caught by himself. I grab my disposable camera and take a few photos. I hollar at Buddy to cut Taco loose who we picked up earlier but Moe is coming to the truck and Buddy sends him to me. He catches with Jack. Scooter gets there and we pull both dogs off the hog and let her go. After an hour or so the hounds get hot and start to come in. We notice Walker and Darrell are covered in blood, so they have caught a hog sometime during the hunt. We take the dogs back to the kennel. Those yellow dogs are as tired as the hounds and its my turn to tease Buddy telling him his curs are going to start running a track like the hounds. We have a good laugh. The rain starts in and we are already wet as we unolad those dogs. Buddy tells me, since its cooler and we are already wet, lets take your other dogs out. The ones I call the A-Team. We load up Tanner, Ruger, Pinto #1, Pinto #2, Sam with catchdog Tex. I tell Buddy it will be fast and furious as these dogs don't bark much and they are fast and stay packed together. We turn them loose on the south sendera. Dogs run down about 500 hundred yards and cut to the right. Pinto#2 goes left though and in a few seconds heads back across to the west. Buddy says Pinto #2 must hear something. We drive around and sure enough, dogs are already caught. I get to them and see the dogs have already tore up this hog and there is no saving her. I call Buddy on the radio and tell him to send in Tex for practice. Tex comes in and catches as well. I took a few good photos of this. Scooter gets there and we start pulling off dogs. I go ahead and put the hog out of its misery. Buddy stays back and gives Tex a lesson in leaving a caught hog which he needed as he always wants to sneak back.
What a great weekend and there is nothing better then catching hogs with your buddies.
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