Hunts like this remind a person of the real danger that is sometimes much, much closer than you might realize...
Hit the woods this mornin' and kicked Shine and Spinner out to make the first round, they trailed off perty quick and got hung up for about 20min trying to work something out... about that time they started rolling out on the garmin hard to the north... the same route we've been burned on more than a few times... we have always avoided hunting this direction as there's a 4000 acre saw grass flat there that is plumb rough to say the least... well, a mile later, that's exactly where they came bayed at....
... so in we went..
No roads in, no roads out... only way to get to this area is to pack in through some BAD rough stuff, alot of which, you spend hunched over or crawling through... I was in the lead, carrying Bucho, Lee, then Blake... Took a good 30 minutes to get to the edge of the saw grass where it sounded like they were baying about a hundred yds in...
No trees, bad thick, nowhere to go... just a dangerous spot to try an catch a bad one... We eased in real slow, not wanting to spook the hog... I was concerned they might have had him backed up in a blowdown and didn't want to send Bucho till I could see what was... The closer we got, the slower we went... not a good feeling sneaking up on a big hog with nothing but grass inbetween you and him...
As a side note, this Bucho dog is a trip... not only is he a catching machine... but here we are, literally a few yards from a loud bay and this dog isn't pulling, isn't whining... HELL, he was so calm, "I" was actually a bit concerned he might not actually go when it was time!!!
Anyways... Back to the stalk... Thinking we were probably about 10-15 yds from the hog by then.. we could see no possible blow downs, so he had to be in the grass... as Blake went to peak around a big patch of grass I heard Shine try him and sent Bucho...
....Bucho had no more than gone 5' in front of Blake and the boar hit him head on... Had I not turned Bucho loose we would have been in bad, trouble... Thankfully, Bucho got a good grip and Shine got aholt as well... got him handled and then saw the blood all over the bushes... not good...
Shine got a bad one to the jaw, poor Spin got it bad, bad in the rear end... almost hamstrung.
Bucho, as usual, came away with nothing more than a couple minor pokes....
Me and Blake and another good Shine hog
Mother daughter hunt... maybe Spinner's last for a good while...
So, now the fun began.... carrying a dog out miles through stuff that was tough enough to begin with... made for a long, hot haul out...
OH but WAIT... the excitement isn't over yet!!!
Half way out, as we're pushing through this jungle of overhead dry grass and tinder... we walk into a wall of smoke...
... and with the light wind, have NO idea where it's coming from... but realize it's time to pick up the pace before getting trapped in a raging brush fire...
Was a tense walk out, and a huge relief to finally see the edge of the pasture coming up with the rancher waiting on us in his truck!
After all that excitement, we were all about fried.. and headed to the house to doctor dogs... gonna need another bottle of pen I do believe...
