The "better" good old days..........for me.

[BarrNinja]

In a lot of ways I consider myself still living in the good old days because there seems to be more hogs than ever however, Ive had better in regards to hog hunting thats for sure.

20, 15, and even 10 years ago when my dogs bayed a hog, 99% of the time it was all over with! Finding the hogs was the challenge back in those days for me and catching them was the icing on the cake(the easy part!)! If it was multiple hogs no problem. It didn't take the dogs long to track them all up and we would soon catch them. In other words, if the dogs initially found say 5 hogs together then we would end up catching most of them if not all eventually. Im not just bragging on my old dogs either . Most of the hog hunters I knew got those kind of results in those days.
If a hog broke a bay in those days it was rare that it traveled for more than 100 yards before the dogs shut it down. I have them run for miles these days on a regular basis!
For example just last weekend we bayed a group of hogs and managed to get one caught pretty quick. When the smoke cleared after catching the 1st hog we ended up traveling 1.57 miles to catch another hog that was with the same group we bayed to begin with. We managed to catch one more hog from that group that went almost 1.5 miles in a different direction entirely!
In summery - only 3 hogs caught covering over six miles out of a heck of a lot more that was found in that group initially.
It didn't used to be that way thats for sure.
Rare was the time when you came across a "bad runner" back in the "better good old days". These days it seems to be the norm!
I have my theories on why these hogs are adapting and running like they are on fire but I would really like to hear the thoughts of other hog hunters on the subject and what they are doing to adapt themselves.

[Mike]

I've talked to the old timers out near me and they said the same thing. 15 or more years ago they could bay hogs all day long and catch them with no problem. One of the places I hunt, 7 or 8 years ago it was nothing to go catch 4 or 5 hogs in a couple of hours with just puppies. Now, it's a whole different ball game... your lucky if you catch one, but you always get in a race.

Hogs are very smart and learn to adapt. You notice the legs on some of these hogs these days? Look like they came off a deer. I predict in the next ten or twenty years it will only get worse... maybe one day we won't be able to catch them with dogs anymore.

[Wmwendler]

10 or 20 years ago, how many other hog hunters did you know?   Now days there is a dog box in every truck and any young kid whose parents will let them keep dogs around is a pro hog hunter.  That results in more educated hogs.  But, in my opinion 90% of it is learned behavior.  Let a place go with out dogging it for a few years and the hogs bay just as good when you come back as when they did in the good ole days.   Problem is you let a place go for a few months and when you come back it is sold and houses built on it.  My biggest problem is loosing places to housing subdivisions and Houston Lawyers with more money than brains.

Waylon

[HogzgoneWild]

All the "ol timers" I've talked to say the same thing, its my hope and opinion that just like the hogs we as hogdoggers will adapt and develope new skills to train and mold our huntin partners to find, bay, and catch these marathon runners. And just like us our dogs will also adapt and be able to handle these changing situations, I've seen it many times, an all bay dog will run several only to get frustrated when they won't stop and fight and eventually adapt til they find a way to shut em' down. whether it be catch em' or run em' somewhere and refuse to allow them to break. Hogs get faster and run further= dogs get faster smarter and become gritty as he!!.

[BarrNinja]

Great point Wmwendler .
I dont even know most of the hog hunters in my area these days and I see them everywhere!

Im putting these hogs in the same category with coyotes and whitetail deer myself. I agree with Wmwendler that they are adapting through learned behavior mostly and they are dang good at it! Same as coyote and deer.
But there is something else thats happening out there in the woods and Mike hits on it with his question " You notice the legs on some of these hogs these days?".
Thats how these hogs are evolving!
In the wild its always been survival of the fittest and these hogs are simply adapting and evolving like other species according to habitat and predator base. More specifically, us hog hunters.
 
My point is simple. With increased hunting pressure from all of the "pro hog hunters" these hogs are learning that if they run fast and fare enough they can make a get a way! The ones that make that get a way (usually the more leggy ones) are the ones that continue to reproduce making more leggy little running sob's.
Its not happening over night but if man can bread a dachshund with 3 inch legs to work in badger hole then why cant mother nature bread a leggy hog to run like a race horse enabling it to get away from its predators given a little time.
Natures way of selective breading to accommodate a hogs predator base. Hog hunters!
Just my theory but it makes since to me.

Mike, I agree that its gonna get worse but we will always be able to catch them with dogs. Us predators adapt and evolve with our quarry also.




 

[khoghunter27]

I have also noticed how more hogs would rather run then stop fight ,but I agree with hickory there way more hunters than there used to be and theres alot of thoses hunters that will run every mutt they find that even sniffs on a hog and doesnt realize that every dog doesnt have the skill to shut down a hog so therefore those hogs learn they can get away. Just my opinion not trying offend no one. The easiest way we have found to catch those running hogs is to get another pack ahead and sandwich them in.

[matt_aggie04]

This is a good topic.  I don't know what the (legal) answer is to the problem.  On places that I have free reign I would kill the leggy ones and turn the short legged ones loose.  Or incorporate some new domestic blood in to the area.  It seems from hearing stories dating back from the 50's a hog was much easier to work then when they were mainly feral domestic blooded swine.  Enter russian hogs into the equation and you end up with a hybrid where some really want to fight and others run like a cheetah.  I think that breeding over the years with a more russian influenced hog could have something to do with it??  Just an idea but I will agree that some places have hogs that are nearly impossible to stop.
MG

[WestTexasCurs]

15-20 years ago,I knew one other man that ran hog dogs.And he lived down by Brownwood,not even near me.Now they are everywhere.When one of them gets out,another pops up.Kinda like hogs,we aint never gonna get rid of them.LOL

[txmaverick]

Showing my age..............35 years ago there was very few hogs in the hill country, you never saw one on the highway, never saw one at a deer feeder, never saw one out just driving around the pasture. The only sign you would find would be when some livestock was killed. Back then there was only one man in 100 miles of us that had hog dogs and maybe futher. No one used curs, or catch dogs; only full blood running Walkers. It was nothing to start a boar at daylight and kill him after dark that night, no tracking systems back then didnt help. In those days 1 good hog a week was doing great.

At about 18 I remember my dad telling us that it wouldnt be long and there would be as many hogs as whitetail deer in the hill country and i thought he was full of it. Of course he was right as dads usally are.

I hunt some of the same country we hunted 35 years ago and I can say without a doubt I catch to this day 10xs the hogs we caught back then. One a week was good back then...........my avg now is about 3 every time i turn out (11 in the last 3 hunts) on the same country.
Curs and catch dogs stoped those runs we had back then but keep in mind this is on country that not many have dogged.

What i see on ranches were several others have hunted before me is a lil different and i dont mean to step on toes here (cause i loose hogs too) but so many are running trashy worhtless dogs that they spoil the hogs. So that by the time you get on them with good dogs with some grit they know the game already. Running totally closed mouthed dogs has helped that for me.

The main problem is the number of hunters yes but most of all the number of hunters that dont have a clue about what they are doing.
I have had young men here tell me they had a hog run a dog to death.........after investigation find out the dog was on an audad the whole time and they didnt know what the dog was running and yes the dog over heated and died.

In my area I dont see the hogs changing in physical appearance but for sure getting smarter and most of it is from being trained by clueless hunters.

Maybe its just the difference in where I hunt but I catch more faster today than I ever have in 35 yrs, and I have used this type dog pack for the last 20 yrs.

Again I dont mean to step on toes or point so please no one take it that way.

[txmaverick]

Had to come back and state the obvious, could it be you have just caught or run most of the hogs out of those areas and are only left with spoiled boars? Just a thought.

[Wmwendler]

I agree with you on spoiled hogs......people say they are dog smart hogs.  Well ok......thats true to some degree but the hog was smart before he ever met a dog.  I say Dog Spoiled is more accurate.  Cows get dog spoiled if you used sub-par cow dogs that let cows break bay.....same can be said for sub par hog dogs.  But we are all guilty of spoiling a few hogs, just some more than others.  I spoiled one today, or maybe he was allready spoiled, but I didn't un-spoil him.  I Blame the wind, and the thick yaupon, and my dogs were tired, and he was a smart hog that was dog spoilt.

Waylon

[BarrNinja]

txmaverick,

Dont worry about steeping on my toes. They went numb the minute I joined this board. lol.

To answer your question - " could it be you have just caught or run most of the hogs out of those areas and are only left with spoiled boars?"
That is definitely the case in one area I hunt and Im pretty sure its that way in another place I just started hunting. I still hunt them though. When we find one in those areas its usually a real nice maverick boar.
Caught a nice "spoiled boar" Good Friday after 6 hours of hunting without seeing hardly any sign at all.
I would bet money it was the same boar I ran over 15 miles back in January. He finally gave it up completely (after 4 plus hours of mostly running) standing belly deep in the creek. I didn't have the catch power, desire, or need to shoot a boar that size so I called the dogs off and called it a day. He just stood there in the creek and watched me wile I called off my dogs and lead them away. I couldn't help but laugh. We were all worn completely out!

Learned behavior, dog smart, dog spoiled. Its the same thing to me. Whatever you want to call them they are usually the ones that are left to bread in the heavily hunted areas.

[southernhoghunter]

has anyone thought about this all these maverick boars being caught if you dont wont to kill them catch them castrate and turn them loose and leave for next time they will grow bigger better meat no feed invested in them...second have any of you ever thought of turning a feww domestic boars and sows loose in your hunting areas...the result will be bigger litters better meat and they should bay up easier...me and my hunting partners have been thinking about doing this....we just love going out with our dogs and catching  hogs it doesnt matter how much russian strain is in them to us we know what are dogs can do no need to brag  its all about having fun

[BarrNinja]

Hey southernhoghunter,

That’s good advice. I can’t speak for others but I practice changing out the boars were I can. I haven’t considered turning out domestic stock in years due to the number of hogs in my area these days but it is surely something to think about.
Reminds me of an old rancher I used to hunt for that has since past on. He told us repeatedly if he ever caught the low down, sorry no goods that turned the hogs loose in our county that he would go broke if he had to, suing them and having their butts tossed in prison. lol.
We just told him that if we ever caught wind of the scoundrels we would surely let him know.      

[ETHHunters]

We have a place on the sabine river and 95% of the hogs are listed. And maybe the other 5% will run. They bay and stay bayed. You can catch hogs there to you are wore out. Its a good idea to put a little domestic blood back into the hogs of today.