17 January hunt

Turned out this morning around 7:45. It's rained the past couple of days (about 3-4 inches) so the creek system that runs through the property was high and it was wet, muddy and the temp was 37 degrees. This was Pistol's first woods hunt so we had the shock collar on her to educate her about the cattle. We pulled in and the cattle was right there. We bumped her a time or two in the box when she fired up on them. Then my mistake was not snapping a lead on her until we got through the cattle...Murphy showed up and the brand new battery in the collar died. She fired on the cattle again and it took about 45 minutes to get her to come off them. Of course she drug a couple of the older dogs who know better into the festivities with her. After we got the dogs lined out, we started the actual hunt.

We kept Pistol on the lead until we got our first bay and then turned her to it. Turned out to be a young boar that we sent the bulldogs to just seal it....guestimated weight 150 pounds. Dispatched the hog and got the dogs to relay as there was plenty of fresh sign in the area. About 10 minutes later, we had another bay and dispatched a shoat. Continued to hunt back in the direction of the trucks. We were about 3/4 of the way there when Jazz opened up about 450 yards towards the front of the property (where the cows were when we started the hunt). It wasn't solid as Jazz bays real loose unless she has help. She opened up a time or two more before the other curs could get a bead on her and join in. When they did, we new it was a good hog because Woodrow was baying it. We started making our way to the bay through some thick, thick brush. The hog broke but the dogs got it stopped a couple of times before it put on it's track shoes and hit the jets. All of the dogs started coming back in except for Jazz and Pistol. They had crossed the road and were trailing tried calling them back in, but they were a almost two miles from where Jazz started the hog. We got the truck and drove to within 600 yards of them, walked in and was finally able to call them out. I was glad to see Pistol running with Jazz. If she'll do that regularly, we'll have her lined out in no time. Here's the picture of the first hog...didn't bother getting one of the shoat.

It seems Pistol is a quick learner, she didn't even want to look in the direction of the cattle at the end of the hunt. They were no more than 10 feet from the truck.