ANTICIPATION IS KILLING ME!!!

[armyCOMBATmedic]

Hey guys, figured Id let all my new friends on here know that Im getting ready to go out with clayton on my first hog/dog hunt Saturday morning (16AUGUST). Im so pumped, that I cant sleep, Its 0130hrs right now and Im linking up with Bryant at 0400hrs for the drive up to the place we are hunting, Ill be sure to bring a camera and definetly share my first expierience with all of you. Wish me luck...... IM ALREADY ADDICTED and ain't even scratched the surface. Stay tuned for stories!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gardner32]

i know the feeling i was addicted to hog doggin before i even started lol good luck out there

[shawn]

you'll get even more addicted once you go and catch one. it's like being a crack addict, lol.

[Noah]

Welcome to the addiction, it only gets worse

[clint]

like everybody said, it gets worse,, youll be wanting to go everyday

[hogdoggin91]

WHats your story? i love hearin first timer stories

[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.

[gardner32]

i hate to hear that yall didnt get a hog but thats why they call it hunting. hopefully next time yall will get a big one and we can see some pics

[aussiedogger]

did you end up getting all the dogs back okay??

[Noah]

OUCH   That's a heck of a way to do your first hog hunt!  Somebody forget the GPS?

Funny story.... I'd never live it down if my friends told yall some of the places I've drug them through...

[clint]

beats sittin on the couch atleast,, hope you get one next time

[Bryant]

WOW...what a day yesterday was.  I'm not sure I've ever walked quite so far in one day and pretty sure I don't care to do it again.  I paid too much money for a nice Polaris for that type thing, and my feet still really hurt today.

The day started off perfect.  We had a hunt lined up on a new place near Corsicana where we hadn't previously been.  The landowner had given one of the guys permission to run, but no one was very familiar with the layout of this place other than it was about 2,000 acres of solid woods without even a road through the middle. 

One of the guys with us has pretty short range dogs and most of the time unloads at the truck and lets his dogs run around while everyone gets ready.  As soon as we all fired up and headed towards the woods we didn't get 5 minutes down until his dogs were gone and we had a bay.  The bay would last a short bit, then we would hear them down the woods a little ways.  We followed briefly and finally agreed they were solid enough to unload the bulldogs and head in.  Two others had catch dogs, so Zeus stayed in the box.  One guy stayed at the four wheelers to try and keep the other dogs civil.  (All mine, and several others were still in the buggies).  When we got in the woods, we heard no sound.  Waited...and finally a bay a good ways in.  A waist-deep wade across a creek got us close enough to turn the two bulldogs in.  They either missed or the bay broke but either way, we had no hog caught and two bulldogs on the ground.  Not a good scenario.  Finally we were able to get the bulldogs caught and listened again.  We finally decided to return to the four wheeler, get the tracking system and check the dogs location.  This is where the fun begins.

Long story short, we headed out in the wrong direction.  Radios wouldn't work.  GPS batteries were dead.  (Didn't mark the four wheelers anyhow).  Clouds covered the sun (when we could see up through the dense brush).  Hollering produced no responce....we were lost.

As armyCOMBATmedic said, we walked and crawled for close to six hours.  Several times I felt just like the guys on Survivor as we would sit for a break, then take a vote amongst our group of six on which way we were heading next.  I was really distraught when I was informed that armyCOMBATmedic wasn't even packing any MRE's in his tote.  (just kidding on that part)

FINALLY, we approached a gravel and dirt road which eventually led to civilization.  A nice man mowing his yard gave our entourage a ride back to our vehicles in the back of his stock trailer. (after I heard him chuckle, and make a comment under his breath that "you guy's HAVE been walking a long way").  I was never so proud of a ride in all my life, and this guy was equally proud of the adult refreshments and $30 gratuity that we put in his pocket.

We were resting at the trucks, when the other guy showed up that we had left at the wheelers that morning.  After taking inventory of what we had snapped up and brought out, it was determined that three dogs were still out.  A track, and about an hours time got the others back and we were headed home.

So no...we didn't get a hog although if it hadn't been for our 6-hour detour I feel certain that we would have.  I will have to say that even before my assurances that this was NOT a typical hunt for us, I never heard one complaint from armyCOMBATmedic.  He was a pleasure to hunt (or walk) with, and we'll get this guy on a hog really soon.

Lesson learned for the day:  In unfamiliar areas, mark location on GPS (including fresh batteries), and take the tracking system into the woods!

I have to go elevate my feet and tend to this poison Ivy now....

Bryant

[Jeff]

my first hunt was similar, only we werent lost.  we walked about 4 hours in the mornining, went to dairy queen, and walked about 2 hours in the afternoon. luckily we did catch 3 hogs right before we gave up.

i'll bet the soldier wasnt as tired as the everyone else, was he?  probably a walk in the park for him.

[mwl06]

one of my very first hunts with a fellow who ended up being a very good friend of mine ! we walked and crawled  and walked for close to 5 hours before we got  going the right direction and we walked for another 30mins till we made it to the hard road where a couple of nice fellows gave my friend a ride back to his vehicle  about 8 miles down the road !  was the last time i went to the woods with out a compass or a gps !

[capt jack]

i think we have all had hunts like yours. glad every thing worked out and you didnot lose any dogs. dont give up army it gets better, your first hog makes up for all of the trouble.

[Mike]

Now that's a helluva first hunt to go on!

Don't give up... it gets better. Just shows that you never know what to expect chasing these dogs through the woods... it's always a new adventure.

[armyCOMBATmedic]

You can bet your hind end I aint giving up that quick!!! It was fun, even if we were lost. I learned so much about signs of hogs and there habitat. Hell, I had 6 hours to get real familiar with it..... Every turn in the woods brought me to another question. That was quickly answered by these pros. I have no doubt in my mind that Bryant and his buds will get me on a hog.

Oh yeah and as far as the MRE goes, Id rather eat the mud we were walking on.

And for the "walk in the park" comment, well It really wasnt all that tough of a walk when your used to doing it with a ruck sack of 45lbs a medical bag of 30lbs not  to mention all your body armor that weighs another 40lbs. Although I think everyone of us was suffering from a little case of "The trench foot"

And just so everyone knows about my dedication to this, I woke up the very following morning (today) and did it all over again with Travis, Brandon and Randy and there 2 boys. Still no pigs tho.

[shawn]

you'll get em soon, and it starts feeling good when you get em more regular, then REALLY good when its your own dogs with no one elses dogs help, like i said, its worse than some drug addiction, lol

[got2catchem]

You keep hunting with those guys and you'll get on some soon. They are a good group of guys. Just curious, which catchdogs did yall cut loose?

[Bryant]

got2catchem,

I think you probably already know the answer to that.