Hunt with CrackerC 5.31.09

[Noah]

Mark came up to meet us for a hunt this morning, it was still fairly cool when we turned out at daylight.  I was looking forward to seeing his Monkey dog hunt, so I left mine in the box and we put him and a young dog of Mark's, Cricket, out(I had A.J. in hand to catch).  The place was real wet, and LOADED with giant tiger mosquitos as we eased around the edge of the swamp.   Killed 2 medium moccasins within 50' of each other, to Lee's delight....   Bumped over a dozen deer, and plenty of turkeys as we slogged along in the mud. 

Probably worked a half mile before Monkey trailed off into a Palmetto head and dissapeared for a few minutes.... When he started baying, we headed that way.  Cricket wasn't real sure about going to him, and the hog soon broke and headed out of town.  By the time I got Ellie out of the box and collared up, the hog had pulled out and I sent her in the general direction.  She found the track and went with it.  We all jumped in the truck and made our way around as close as we could get, and they were about a half mile in to the swamp.  Me, Lee, and Mark started heading to them when Mark realized he'd lost his tritronics somewhere on the flooded property    So he stayed behind to look while me and Lee went after the dogs.  I took Shiner and A.J. with us to help, with Cricket following along.

They had already made it over a mile deep, and were stopping, then drifting according to the tracker.   About a 1/3 of a mile out I could hear the faint bay of the two dogs, still drifting, and sent Shiner to them.  With the bay solidified, we quickly made it to them, sent A.J. in, and caught a good sow.   Ol' Monkey was none to happy Mark wasn't there and let me know when I clipped him to a tree   Getting him on the tree was the easy part.... getting him off was another   Got the sow marked and loosed and we made our way out to the truck. 

Finally found the shocker, did a little cow training on my young dogs, and called it a day.  It was nice to finally see old Monkey hunt, and meet Mark, very nice guy that I'd take hunting again any time.

Lee and Ellie, sow had some decent teeth.  Would've had Monkey in with the shot, but he wasn't in the mood


Monkey and Cricket tied up while we got the hog loosed

[Texas_Cur]

Healthy lookin sow Noah.  Monkey sounds fo-real!!!!

[cward]

good job!did he find his tritronic!

[hunterdan58]

Glad ya`ll had a good hunt and good time, Good job..

Danny

[crackerc]

Noah,

I would like to thank you for inviting me on the hunt this morning. You, Lee and the landowner and his family made me feel welcome. Thats the kind of people I like to meet. I also had a great dinner...you can look at me and tell I like good food!!!    Course, thats why I am not as fast as I once was too!

I am embarrassed that I didn't make it to the bay since I had a dog in there. When I realized I had lost my Tri-Tronics I went back to look for it where I thought I lost it but couldn't find it. When I went back to the fence to get back with you and Lee you two were long gone to the dogs that we couldn't even hear. I remember when I used to be able to keep up, its Hell getting old and fat!!!   BTW, after the dust settled Noah, Lee and I backtracked and found the Tri-Tronics close to where Monkey first bayed. It was damp, but luckily wasn't in deep water and it still works.

I also apologize for Monkey...I kind of forgot to tell you he wasn't overly sociable around a caught hog...I just never thought about you going to him bayed and me not being there. Luckily you guys were able to get the hog marked and released and get back to the truck with all the dogs and without getting Monkey bit!!  OOOPs!!! Sorry about that!

The jury is still out on Cricket, that was her third time in the woods. I didn't raise her I got her from some cow people down south of me as a pup, just to play with as I didn't have a pup to start. She may or may not work out, just have to hunt her some more to see if she stays or goes.

I liked your Ellie dog she is unique. I didn't get to see your others go, but Ellie sure left when you turned her to Monkey. And her and Monkey had the hog bayed at the end of a long run, thats the name of the game!!

Thanks again, we will have to do it again one day...minus the snakes....LOL  Lee, can I get an amen!!!

[Noah]

Monkey is for real, he's a real solid dog.  I'd love to see him hunt some more, Mark has a real good handle on him.  Like I said Mark, I don't blame Monkey one bit for not wanting me to handle him, I wish all my dogs were like that..... don't have to worry about anybody stealing him for sure!   Him and Ellie worked pretty doggon good together for never hunting together before.  He hunts real similar to my Snappa dog, just more finished.

Again, I had a great time Mark, thanks for coming and I hope we get to hunt again soon!

[matt_aggie04]

Good hog guys, that is a real nice sow.
MG

[joe]

nice hog, good lookin woods.

[Noah]

Thanks yall, Joe, how's your dogs going now?

[Mike]

Sounds like y'all had a good time!

[crackerc]

Noah,

I think I may have posted these before, but here are a couple of pics of the barr that cut Monkey down last summer. Me and one buddy were two hours from home and Monkey was the only dog we had with us.  Monkey left us and bayed down in a bad thick creek bottom. The hog broke as we were literally crawling into the bay and went about 200 yards then Monkey went to baying again. Dave was on one side of the creek and I was on the other. I was about 100 yards away when i heard Dave shoot, he had a pistol with him. Then I heard the hog break, knocking down trees and brush, then I heard Monkey bay again. In a few seconds I heard Dave shoot again, then it sounded like Monkey was getting killed, he went to squalling and screaming, then Dave shot again. Meanwhile I am about to kill myself trying to get there.

When I do get there, Monkey is on the ground covered in blood and so is a big barr. Dave had shot the barr 3 times with a .357 at less than 30 feet and hit him all 3 times and he still wrecked the dog.

We carried Monkey out and went to working on him. Finally got the bleeding stopped, put him in the dogbox and went to get the hog. Both of us together couldn't move the hog. We had to run a long rope down through all the thick stuff to the hog and try to pull him out of the creek bottim with Daves 500cc 4 wheeler. Dave drove and I kept having to swing the hog around big trees, palmetto roots etc going uphill.

Finally got the hog to the hill and got him to the truck. Monkey was out so we gutted the barr (it was around 90 degrees) and I headed to the house 2 hours away.

Got home and another buddy came over to help. We got Monkey in his pen and cooled down (he was awake but couldn't walk and his gums were as white as could be). When we went to clean the hog both hams were full of bite marks and blood where Monkey was applying brakes everytime the hog tried to run.

Barr weighed 205 on my scales, gutted. Monkey paid a price for being that rough on a hog, now he has wised up some. He will still put teeth on one, but on those 200+ lb hogs he isn't as crazy as he once was!

I told you on Sunday when he bayed it sounded like a big hog, he has a different bay on a big hog than a small hog.  Here are a couple of pics of "Monkeys Hog".

And you guys that don't know Noah, he is a good young guy that is serious about his hog hunting. Lots of interest and one I predict will be around for a long time in this sport.

Noah, did you and Lee go check out that other place Sunday night? Just curious if you had any luck.

[craig]

nice hunt guys!!

crackerc,
  man that barr has some blades on him 

[Noah]

That is a good bar right there for sure!   Thanks for the compliment Mark, I try to keep a relaxed attitude when I hunt... but once my dog rolls out I tend to get real serious real quick  Just ask Lee, I think I've hollered at the poor guy so many times during the heat of the chase.... I'm suprised he'll even hunt with me!

We did go out Sun afternoon and tracked where a big group had come out of state property, fed in the club, and went right back to state land.... all between 12:30 and 16:30(when we got there), right in the heat of the day.... hopefully we'll catch them on the club one of these days, there were a couple big boys in the group.

[crackerc]

Well, you could probably tell on Sunday that I have mellowed out a LOT since I have gotten older.......I was sitting on the dog box talking to the landowner while you and Lee were gone to the bayed dogs!!

I used to be the first one in the woods, first to a bay, wanted to be the one to leg the hog......but that was 25 years ago and I got over a bunch of that....

This is definately a tough physical sport and it suits the young guys better than the older guys. Now I let the younger guys do all the legging especially since I had my right hand broke by a  horse.  I just love watching the dogs work and want to see a dog do a good job. I don't care a thing about killing a hog anymore and don't even want the hogs we do have to kill .

Lee seemed like a good guy too. Don't be too rough on him though, GOOD hunting partners are hard to find!! I know sometimes in the heat of catching the hog we all get pumped up and excited and I have been guilty of doing things then too that I normally wouldn't do.

Too bad about that group of hogs, I was hoping you guys could get on them.

I thought I would post the pics of Monkeys hog since I had told you about him getting cut down last summer. Sure wised him up on those big hogs!

[joe]

well i have two pups that are about 4mnths now. i put them on a pig for the first time about a month ago and all it took was for me to make it squel once and they both ran over to check out what was going on. i let it go and when it went to run away they both caught the little fella. so i was proud. hopefully one of them will make a dog. i dont know if it helps out or not, but i have been dragging hot dogs through the yard and letting them trail it. they been doing good at that. just tryin some things with them, been going through a few dogs and wanna work with these more than i have before.if they turn out half as good as ellie i will happy.

[HogzgoneWild]

good huntin guys..

[crackerc]

Craig,

I normally keep the skulls off the big barrs if we kill them. I had a buddy come over and help clean that barr and I gave him half the hog, gave the other half to someone I work with. I took the head out in the woods behind my house and put it on an anthill. Went back a week or so later and the whole head was gone....don't know if a coyote or something else drug it off, but now I don't have it. And I never even measured his cutters as I thought I would have the skull. I will tell you this though, he definately had the ivory to wreck a dog, just ask Monkey!!