Well I am back..if only halfway......

[crackerc]

Some of you may know I got my dogs wrecked back in Feb. That was on a Friday. I have had some personal issues since then. The day after I got the dogs wrecked my better half moved out (had nothing to do with the dogs getting wrecked) and so my world had a lot happening in it, a short amount of time. Now I am single again for the first time in 20 years..........

Anyway, been busy trying to settle things and split things up. Haven't had time or desire to hunt .

Been a couple months, dogs were healed up (and fat and out of shape...kind of like their owner!), so I took off and went hunting last Thursday with my buddy Dave. First time my dogs have been in the woods since Feb when they got wrecked.

Here is how it went :

 I finally knocked the dust off my dogs and took them hunting. First time since GSW hunt last Feb and wrecked dogs.  Dave and I went Thursday to a 2000 acre tract he deer hunts. Not a lot of hogs, but some come through. It borders a state WMA, so the hogs come and go.  I was hoping to find a blind crippled hog the dogs could stop easy for their first hunt back.

Got there and rode the 4 wheelers a mile or so looking for tracks. Didn't see any hog tracks crossing the roads or even at a feeder where Dave had dumped the corn out days before.  Went towards another feeder that was working and where Dave had seen some hog tracks earlier in the week. Stopped about 1/4 mile shy of the feeder and let Monkey and Spur out...together...well, you know what that means....they went hunting!

The dogs went ahead of us as we eased along on the 4 wheelers, then turned and went down into a big cypress strand that is real wet right now. I figured it would be too wet for hogs to be laid up in it, but about 10 minutes later we hear Monkey bark once, then a catch and a hog squealing. We hurry and get there and Monkey and Spur have the 70 lb or so boar hog caught. We roll the hog over and as I am tieing the hog I realize the hog isn't blind...but he IS crippled..... Must be how they found and stopped him!  Monkey and Spur leave and the hog starts to squealing again as I am tieing him. Monkey comes back and tries to grab the hog so I tell Dave to leash him, as I am sitting on the hog.

I lead Monkey out, load him on the 4 wheeler and go back and drag the hog out "single handedly"....as in no help........hmmm......Dave wasn't offering to drag, he must be out of practice...........

Got the hog out and loaded on my 4 wheeler next to Monkey and no sign of Spur. I whistle and wait a while..no Spur. I am thinking "surely he isn't going to pull a disappearing act again, his first trip back"........but he did. We drove to the fence and listen.....A mile into the WMA (where we are NOT allowed to go) we can hear him bayed every breath...............Dave and I left our guns walked all the way to him and I got him whistled off the hog when we got close, and we got the heck back on our side of the fence! Aggrevating close hunting dog............

Moved and went up closer to the highway where Dave had seen a hog off the road a few days before. Saw a few tracks, but not much. It was about 10 Am or so and starting to warm up so I let Monkey out by himself. He hunted around some but never really acted like he smelled anything, then we went back on the other side of the 4 wheelers and hadn't gone 200 yards when Monkey bayed ahead of us and we heard a big hog break. All went quiet, then we heard a running fight, water splashing, Monkey catch, then a fight, then a bay....I am thinking...not again. We head that way and the hog breaks, I see trees shaking as it tears out but I can't see the hog its so thick. Monkey bays again, we head that way and the hog breaks again. We are steadily getting closer to the highway and I can hear the semi's and cars whizzing by and Monkey is headed that way...not good. He bays again, we head that way and see a big red hog but its 50 yards from Monkey looking his way but its not the hog he is baying. The red hog was in the175-180 lb range it seemed. It broke when it saw us, and so did Monkeys hog. He stopped it again, still closer to the road, I snuck in, saw a black hog and shot it dead with my .22 magnum...the one I SHOULD have had at GSW........it turned out to be a big sow, but I could see powerlines above the road from where I shot the hog and I wanted it stopped before it crossed the road and got my dog run over!

Good hunt, three hogs bayed, no dogs wrecked or run over (but I was worried there for a while). Here are a couple pics of the crippled hog. His back leg was curled up and grown solid. You could not straighten his leg out and he had been walking on the joint to where he had built up a pad of callous on it. Don't know if he was born like that or if he had been shot in the leg and it healed that way.

Next hunt I need to find a blind hog, then the dogs may be ready for regular healthy hogs after that....

Here are two pics of the crippled hog.




Here is Monkey next to the tied hog on the 4 wheeler....he is trying to sleep if the hog will quit shaking the 4 wheeler!


Hope everyone else is doing okay.

[KDB]

nice hog and good story!

[BarrNinja]

Hey crackerc.

I was wondering where you got off to. Figured you were just giving the dogs a good break. I didnt realize your whole world had been turned inside out.
I hog hunt with good dogs is about the best therapy you can have in my opinion!

Good to have you back.

[spazhogdog]

Glad to see you are back to hunting, missed reading the stories.

 It seems your dogs were ready to start hunting again.  We still have to meet sometime.  Did you get any of the 1 st phase hog hunts? Terry got Lake Pan

[crackerc]

Alan, between getting the dogs wrecked and my personal issues it has been a hectic last few months. I am just now getting used to things the way they are now and getting my life back to semi-normal anyway.

The dogs healed up good, they have a few extra scars and such, but did well for their first hunt back. That road did have me worried though......that and the gators we kept seeing in the woods. Its about to get hot here, they say it will be 93 degrees today. Not exactly good hunting weather, especially when your dogs are fat and out of shape from not hunting in several months.

Hopefully things will get better in the months to come.

spazhogdog, I was drawn for the GSW dog hunt. There is a BIG boar hog in there with some dog marks on him, a few .22 shells in his head and I am pretty sure he has MY name written all over him, as I will be hunting him come Feb. He better find a new zip code as I will have more firepower next year........

I don't know if I ever told you guys the rest of the story about that "invincible" hog that wrecked Monkey and Spur. They ran him for 2 miles (in a straight line with the GPS, have no idea how far they ran the route they took), bayed him for two hours until we could get to them, I shot him EIGHT times, he still cut and wrecked dogs and ran off.

As Lynel and I were taking the dogs out, we ran into some guys I knew, they saw my dogs and they asked what happened. I told them we ran into a fire breathing dragon, not a boar hog! They said they needed to catch him, so I kept going out with the dogs, Lynel took them back into where we had the hog bayed. They went to the exact spot, found blood (which was probably my dogs..not the hogs) and put out a couple hounds. The hounds trailed off and jumped within about 300 yards. The race was on, the guys jumped in their truck and ran around to try and get ahead of the hounds. I never saw the guys again, so wasn't sure what the outcome was.

I had a guy call me a few weeks ago and tell me what happened. Seems the hounds ran the hog about 1 1/2 hours, never stopped him. It was getting close to dark on the last day of hunting, so they caught the hounds up and another guy dropped a couple curs on the track. I was told the curs finally got the hog stopped (he had dogs on him almost continually from that morning until dark) and they went in with two bulldogs to finally catch the hog.

They turned the bulldogs loose right at dark, they heard the catch, then a fight, and the hog crossed a dim trail ahead of them shaking one of the bulldogs as he went............

They got the cur dogs back an hour or so later....but no bulldogs. They didn't have tracking collars on the catchdogs, so the man at the check station let them stay at the campsite that night and let them in the next morning to look for their bulldogs...which they never found. They are presumed dead.

I am telling you guys, that was no ordinary hog. Monkey and Spur ran him a couple miles, stopped him, kept him bayed two hours, I shot him 8 times , mostly in the head, Monkey and Spur tried to catch him, were both hanging off him at one point before he wrecked both dogs, then the hounds ran him for miles, more curs ran him, bulldogs tried to catch him , all in the same day, and he STILL whipped everything!

Hopefully he isn't breeding a bunch of sows this sumer to produce more like him!!

[spazhogdog]

Wow, that hopefully was, one bad boar and not some freak of nature that is still alive. I am sure that he whipped all the other boars when it came time to claim a girlfriends, so watch out for the offspring.  I hope I don't ever run into one like that.   We went hunting the other night and I know what you mean about the gators, swamp birds aka moquitoes, and the heat but that is summer time.

[sfboarbuster]

Your getting me excited for next year mark!!

[BarrNinja]

Dang Mark!

That is a bad one!!! His attitude is probably going to be worse next year! Im glad you,re bringing more fire power for him.
 Heck of a story! I will be looking for another one about the "GSW Dragon Boar" around February of next year. I sure hope you get him!

[make-em-squeel]

Glad your back i love your posts and dogs. Surely that 8 shots killed him a wk later from infection...who knows. Good Hunt

[HIGHWATER KENNELS]

Man, sorry to hear about your situation in the past, it does happen to good people.  That was a dang fine story man, good to hear you and your dogs are back at it.  Good luck to ya in the future man

[hogdoggintn]

Great stories. Glad to hear that you are getting back to hunting. 

[goose]

aint no better therapy out there than just you and your dogs....when im hunting i just forget the rest of the world exist....man wish i had a boar like that to breed sum sows around here to cull out the muts running the roads around here

[Cutter Bay Kennels]

Mark,

I'm glad things are turning around for you.  We got some good draws ourselves.  Between my buddies and me, we have most of the hunts we wanted to attend this upcoming season.  Good luck on the rank one.  That is why I continue to hunt there.  Big, nasty teeth. 

Peace out,
Josh

[DubbleRDawgs]

well glad to hear things are better and you are back hunting

[crackerc]

Thanks for all the kind words and posts guys. It has been a rough couple of months, so I am still trying to get back into my normal routine of hunting some. Just in time for summer......

Here is a pic of the second hog Monkey bayed that was headed to the highway. I didn't have a camera with me, due to all the water, but my buddy had his. This was the only pic we got and it isn't a good one. You can't see most of the hog as its under water. And this was a DRY spot in the woods, we were in ankle deep to crotch deep water the whole way trying to stay with Monkey as the hog kept breaking and heading to the highway. I finally stopped it, but not the way I would have liked. Too close to the road to put more dogs out...............

goose, I wish I could send that boar hog to you and get him out of the places I hunt!! Hogs like that will definately tell you what kind of dogs you have. I was just proud my potlickers ran him for miles, stopped him and kept him bayed 2 hours. If I had more than a .22 pistol. he wouldn't still be around now........I won't have that problem next Feb for that hunt!

[cward]

Mark Sorry for your split I know it can take a toll on you!!But glad your back in action!!!