Man... not even sure how to start into this hunt... so much happened I'm still tryin' to remember it all...
.... I have never been accused of having much sense... I tend to push myself, and everyone with me to the absolute limit(it tends to weed the weaker friends out real quick
).... most times past the point "of comfort" to say the least... and today was an exceptional example of said stupidity....
Started out at daylight... a typical start to another scorching summer hunt....
No wind, 100% humidity, and muggy.... right from the start.. I turned Shine and Spinner out(excellent longer range team) as we headed into the badlands inbetween us and the sawgrass... Saw a 100#er cross out in front of us and they had him mugged in the palmettos in about 5 seconds... girls quickly rolled out again, makin' several 1000yd loops before pullin' out and runnin' another one...
...NOW. I'm gonna tell yall now, my Shine dog has turned into the type of dog that I don't care to hunt with honestly... she's gone and developed waaaaay more bottom than I care for... The last half dozen hunts, if she doesn't run at least one hog for several hours there's somethin' wrong...
.... Well, today was no exception... They jumped this second hog and it was off to the races... Loop after loop after loop.... finally lined him out and bayed up deeeep into some baaaad stuff we don't like goin' in... heavy myrtle brush and vines, you gotta basically "duck walk" or crawl through the stuff and it really sapps your energy tryin' to get to a bay... not to mention how hard it is for the dogs to keep up with one in the stuff...
... anyways, both girls were baying(usually a bad one when this happens....) for about 45 minutes until we could get into them... finally got to a hundred yds and I looked over at Lee and said, "I gotta catch my damn breath before we do this...
"... Lee didn't protest much
... so we sat down on a felled palm, drank some water, and caught our breath as the girls hammered away....
Intermission... cue elevator music whilst you view one of Lee's many lizards from this yr(die lizards die
)
Continuing
..."You ready?" as I glanced over at Lee... "Let's do this"... and we eased in... Bucho in hand, we slid in real easy like to see what was what... got to within' about 30yds and could see Shine's tail wagging as she bayed some heavy brush... Heart now pounding out of my chest... cut the Bucho loose and he sailed in and we heard squealing?
... got in and found them caught on another 100#boar... very strange for them to be baying a hog this small...
... so here's where it gets interesting... dogs were hot, we were hot... Lee is pretty much deaf(just so you know if you ever hunt with him
), with his hearing aids he's perty good, but when there's a lot of sound(like at a bay
) his aids seem to tone out and he's back to 100% deaf lol... can make for interesting times...
... So as he's dispatching the hog and I'm tryin' ta pull dogs off, in the midst of all this commotion, I hear(feel) the unmistakeable uttering of a big hog... REAL close.... We were in a bad spot, no trees big enough to get behind, dogs were focused on first hog... and here he comes... big black boar about 250 commin' to knock us off his lil' brother lol....
.... I started hollerin at Lee to watch his back, but he didn't hear me at first
.... so I started pointing and waiving my arms real big and he got the point HAHA
Boar made several mock bluffs up to about 10 feet before Shine finally saw him...
She hit him like a linebacker... she really made me proud I gotta tell you...This dog would die to protect me, no doubt about it... that boar hog slung her like a rag doll and she held as I finally got Bucho off the first hog and pointed him at the trainwreck in motion... he made it all of about 2 steps before turnin' and re-catching on the original hog...
.... meanwhile, Shine is gettin' beat to hell and the boar finally slings her up into the bushes and takes off, with Spinner now on his ass... Spinner bays up a 100yds off and Shine gets there and we got a good bay going... Send Bucho in again, and this time we end up with a good red sow... SERIOUSLY
?
Oh well, still a hog I guess!
Girls were beyond gassed at this point and both limping... leashed up and headed back out(over a mile) to try and find some water to cool the dogs off in..
"To hell with moccasins" Bucho says... "I'm goin' in!"
... more in a minute...
