Been tryin' ta make time to go down and hunt with some friends down south for a while, with turkey season in full swing... figured it'd be a good time to make a roadtrip!!! Made the three and a half hour drive down Friday night and met up with my buddy Donny, who'd set us up a hunt on a nice ranch 15min down from his house. Met the owners and had dinner at the ranch headquarters before loading up in the buggy at dark and easin' around the place...
...Now all I had brought down with me was Whaler and Spinner(with Bucho to catch), as with Shiner now retired, they all the dogs I have left to hunt... neither of which has hunted at night more than a couple of times lol... but that's all these south Florida boys do is night hunt so when I pitched 'em out I wasn't exactly "confident" of what might happen if you know what I mean!!!
... soon as they hit the ground, ol' Whaler rolled off into a big palmetto flat as we shut the buggy off... at 600yds he sat down bayed and Spinner went to him... when both dogs set in good we got Bucho and eased to them, got to about 40yds and sent him... caught a good toothy lil' boar about 150 to start the night off! Good deal... pressure is off HAHA
Donny kicked his dogs out and they got on a group and got smoked in the thick palmettos... kicked mine back out and Whaler and Spin both rolled off again on a track, ending up down in a nasty creek bottom bayed solid about 400yds... eased in(as "easy" as a herd of elephants walking through chest high dry a$$ palmettos can be HAHA
) with Bucho, smelled boar and cut him loose at about 10yds... heard one HELL of a fight and crawled in to see Bucho in an epic battle with a good boar.... NEVER have I seen a hog toss him around like this... the boar was literally standing on his hind legs, jumpin' like a damn kangaroo with 110# Bucho waving like a rag doll 5 feet in the air!!!!
...Bucho finally got his feet back on the ground lol, and I got aholt of the sombitch and we got him barred and released too!
Donny's protege' Clay, hell of a good hand in the woods!!! Boar wasn't but about 200#'s but he was just one of those STRONG SOBS!!!
"Team Land-Shark".... Whaler and Spinner officialy earned their own team name this weekend!!
Bucho catchin' his breath (and composure lol) after gettin' manhandled by that second boar
... called it an early night, saving dog power for the next night's hunt with some more friends on a big ranch known for havin' some sho-e-nuff bruisers...
Met Fred and Corey about dark and decided the four of us would each hunt a quarter of the night, I put down first and the sharks caught a sow perty quick and then proceeded to get smoked in some bad thick spots for the next 2 hrs... Them thick palmettos down there grow so tight, a hog will get in a big patch and just wait for the dogs to get close... once he hears them, he just plows through another 50yds, then sits and waits for the dogs to crawl back close... so damn thick the hogs will just do this in circles all night, knowing the dogs just can't get to them...
Called 'em out and put Donnie's dogs out around 10pm...
... hogs still hadn't started moving yet, everything was bedded down hard so dogs had to work to jump anything up... his dogs MJ and Sugar finally peeled off and caught a nice lil' sow about midnight before we switched dogs out to the next set...
... now this property is a real good place to compare dogs at... big place, with a lot of hogs... but it's been worked hard(hog dogged) for as long as anyone can remember... hogs are REAL spooky and know the game... a dog with stopping power is pretty much a necessity if you wanna stop anything before it gets to the rough stuff...
One of Fred's older dogs bayed a good hog up but his bulldog Petie got slung off and the hog left town... gettin' to be about 4am now... we eased back through one of the groves to see if anything had come in yet... MAN I love grove hunting... the smell of orange blossom and the sound of a whipper-will at night..... nothin' better
.... sorry, back to hunting
... Anyways, easin' along shining rows when Fred's wind dog bailed off the back and headed away from the grove... let her work it out as we eased on... after another couple rows shined a good lil' boar about 200 and kicked Corey's young dog BJ out on him... dog went in about 300yds and bayed up good... grabbed lil' Petie and we headed in... Got to about 50yds and cut the dog into the bay... ran up to see a big SOB spinning like a top with Petie as a ear-ring lol
..... Hog damn sure wasn't "caught" but
he was distracted just enough for Donnie to tackle his rear end, and the rest of us piled on!!!
Ol' BJ(not more than a yr old) went and bayed up a 300#+ barrhog all by hisself... not bad at all!!!!
The gruesome threesome and BJ dog... I look forward to seeing this dog mature... sorry about them ugly suckers behind the hog... they were some tourists visiting down from Michigan that wanted to pose with a wild boar lol!!!
...think Fred said this was the 10th one this yr he's caught this size or better
All in all, was just a good dang wknd... gettin' to hunt around these guys, I learn somethin' every time... good dogs and better company, feel like a giggling little kid runnin' through the woods barefoot in the moonlight every time I hunt with these boys... just good fun
Thanks for havin' me down guys, really enjoyed it!!!!
