ohio russians

[SCHitemHard]

you aint kiddin, i go on a walk through trails and its like the trail ends and i gotta make my own lol

[Mike]

Ha ha.. I guess y'all have never been to Texas.

[SCHitemHard]

just galveston and beaumont for deer hunts and hogs on cousins land, i would love to hit the hills and north texas

[rdjustham]

Shoot we are spoiled down here in South Fl.  Gotta plenty of hogs, plenty of nice ranchers that let you hunt their land    and nice wooden bridges and trails all through the cypress swamps, palmetto thickets and pepper bushes. 

[SCHitemHard]

but you got snakes and gators.....

[rdjustham]

but you got snakes and gators.....

and that aint all that will bite your ass..lol

[rdjustham]

my point was, different places offer different terrain "issues". 

[jhy]

Eurasian blooded hogs are more hard wired for survival so their instinct of "Fight or Flight" leans more to "Flight" first.  The hogs around my house started out as pure Eurasian blood, and it took 8 years or so for me to get dogs that had the bottom to wear them out on a consistent basis.  I have tried everything in the dog world to find the ultimate dog for these hogs and the bottom line is that you have to devise a gameplan and stick to it.  For example I will start them with curs and if they can not get them stopped after 4 or 5 hours, I will cut them off and put hounds on them to wear them out for a while, then turn curs back to them.  I also have RCDs that I will send from as far out as 500 yds as long as I can get to them quickly (which does not sound like that would work for you all due to the terrain you hunt.  I also like turning a jagd into the bay to help shut them down in thickets.  The most successful combo is 1 cur dog and 2 bulldogs, that way you do not pressure them into "Flight" as easy.

Joey Young

[SCHitemHard]

good points, ive thought of jagds or maybe a lacy or a smaller dog to not make it so intimidating to the hog to keep it in the same spot. plotts in my eyes are rougher dogs anyway and the terrain doesnt make it better. it may not be texas but its a challenge anywhere from florida to the rockies. hogs are hunted differently. 

[tnhillbilly]

Well ive hunted them all and ain't none of it as rough these mtns. Not sayin it ain't rough in other places but it just don't compare. Like Mike said, a good dog is a good dog any where you drop it. Whether its hound, cur, Rcd or whatever. I run plotts and have for 20 yrs. Ain't seen but one that was straight catch and hold. If you got 5 dogs of any breed caught or tryin to catch 3/4 mi Out you ain't gonna have them long.
    With few hogs in rough terrain, its been my experience the longer ranged colder nosed dogs that wont quit, that will put enough pressure on him to make him stop, but back up and bay when he does, not keep over pressuring it causing it to keep breaking bay.
   If its rough and gonna take an he to get to them, you need dogs that can hold the hog til you get there, either with a gun or catch dog.
     If I was gonna go the catch route I would use hotter nosed shorter range dogs.
Ive hunted with both, and both showed me hogs, both styles work, you just have to decide which suits you better, and go thru dogs til you find a couple that will CONSISTENTLY produce hogs. This usually takes A LOT of time, and effort.
    As far as the plotts being all that rough, some are but most ain't real catchy, the curs that ive seen seem to be more catchy. just my .02
 

[tnhillbilly]

If its gonna take an hr to get to them, you need dogs that will hold them at bay, til you get there with a gun or catch dog.

[jassenswisher1974]

I believe I have the dogs, My plott Bessie is down due to a litter she had 2 weeks ago. My dogs princess and bacon are coming on real good. They caught a sow a month ago and when we got there princess had it behind the ear and bacon had it by the butthole and they had it caught till we got there. My 2 plott pups are only six months old so it will be a while till we know for sure. Whats difficult too is where these pigs are so deep. Bacon and princess will hunt out run a track till they find a hog. We have lost them on the garmin a bunch. The problem with curs is when my deep dogs strike (all are silent) after 400 -600 yards a cur will come back. I got real tired of that and let me say this I know there are incredible curs out there and if I had the hogs and they werent so deep I would use them but we tried curs and we werent getting it done. I am getting it done now. Still have a long way to go but on the right track. We have been catching some 40-50 pounders but want to see what they do on a big one.

[SCHitemHard]

tom didnt your dogs get on a hog with swish but got pulled off? i rem somethin like that

[RyanTBH]

Ha ha.. I guess y'all have never been to Texas.

Tell em Mike! LOL! We get on a lot runners down here. We just have some really gritty dogs, and they have lots of bottom. They stay with the hog until we can make our way to em... of course you let em run for a little bit to get em winded. BUT we get on hands and knees and have to make our own trails, and with no ATV and still catch em. JMO

[Reuben]

I bred hog dogs for almost 20 years and this is the subject that constantly was nagging my brain...I had dogs that could find one pretty quick, stick for as long as needed...oh but sometimes in the heat of the summer the dogs would get outrun due to several factors...I never was one to hog hunt 3 or 4 days a week so the dogs would not be in top shape. So the heat and not being in top shape combining with the big killer, the thick summertime jungle vegetation...the thick vegetation in the summer gave the big advantage to the hogs...the hogs bust right through it like a hot butter knife cutting thru butter and the dogs just fall further behind...the hogs know to head for this stuff the minute the dogs strike the hog track...

so we lose dogs to heat exhaustion, alligators, maybe get one shot or stolen...cause these are long range dogs...not to mention that we might be trespassing...and possibly crippled or killed.

over the years i hunted 5 gritty curs and in the summer sometimes came home without a hog in the back of the truck...but wintertime was a different story...from the time they started a track the hog was bayed within a mile or 1.5 miles. They dogs would catch and release as they got tired and anytime the hog tried to run they would catch again. Used to be when I showed up they caught and I stuck the hog...but in this minute of action a dog could be crippled or killed because the dogs thru caution to the wind...I then started carrying a pistol and trained the dogs to back up when I showed up.

these same dogs, if hunted alone about half the dogs in the pack would back up and bay and the other half would pressure the hog to run...

but I liked hunting my pack...to me it was more about hunting and observing my dogs and catching pigs was icing on the cake...I had to look at it that way or I would have quit hog hunting...

right now I am starting a new pack and half the pack will eventually have at least a quarter pit...I am leaning toward shutting them down with a tad more grit than what I had before.

sorry about the ramblings but in my mind this is the biggest challenge... when talking hog dogs...

[SCHitemHard]

reuben i see it that way, my first dog was a cat/walker and had to much range and would always get a pig out of our hunting area and i would have to call and get permission to get my dog. i cut down my other dogs and hunted around for rcds that would work and hunt for me, last dogs i had was a bmc/cat, a hound/boxer/cat, a pit, and a dogo pit, alond with my bulldog cd. that pack worked for me cause they ran together usually within 5 yards of each other. i learned that the hogs would run so why not just make a pack that brings a hog down with sheer size. yes one or two dogs cant stop a boar if he wants to get away but 4 to 5 dogs that are pure bite and hold would be more difficult. these short range dogs, bout 500yds to less is effective to me.

[jassenswisher1974]

The biggest problem in Ohio is that we have no community of dog hunters. There are quite a few doing this but we are all starting from scratch. The guys here dont work together. One of the biggest helps to me has been the national plott hound assoc. You have a group of people rallying for good dogs and offer help. Right across the river is west virginia and they hunt bear from april till december and most of them have plotts that will run hogs as well. Its hard to get advice off here because most on here have finished dogs and we dont have any finished dogs to train ours with and guys with healthy hog populations have a different perspective of hog hunting than we do but on the other hand this site is awesome. But my west virginia buddys hunting style is hunt and let the dog maul and if the dog dies its a cull. Thats not the way they roll down south.
Its all good and in the end we have a good conversation with all the experience brought to the table and I keep my ears open and prolly need to keep my mouth shut more.

[SCHitemHard]

swish i got some guys over near me that coon hunt and hate catchin hogs, maybe a convert would work

[Reuben]

experience is good to have but when you have the right bred hunting dog...all you have to do is show them what you want and they will do the rest...

anything else is right here on ETHD...

there are some high powered mtn cur strains in Ohio I bet would make some good to excellent hog dogs. just make sure they have the size for the game.

[smarlowe]

Hey swish, not sure where your gettin your info. Nik and I didn't pay that much for those dogs, also your right about the fact that were having trouble stopping hogs, that's why I started this thread, but it doesn't mean we never catch em ! And since you think you are getting it done how bout you postpics of all the hogs with your dogs that you've taken, I believe its just the little sow you showed us awhile back. Ill have schitem post mine for me. And as far as the people here not working together? Well, you should probably pay Nik for the dog you bought from him last year ! Some of us on here are trying to learn from these guys. If you think gettin that little sow means your gettin it done now then I'm happy for ya, but really man pay for the dog. Niks been real patient with ya !