TDHA Contest - Feedback wanted

[Circle C]

ATTN: contestants, volunteers, spectators, etc. I would like some feedback on what needs improving to make the TDHA contest bigger and better for 2009.  Any thoughts are appreciated, and we would like to see what needs to be addressed while things are still fresh on our mind.

Some things that have been mentioned so far include.

-Improved PA for announcing weights
-Larger weigh in area, with more visibility for spectators


What are we missing? What ideas do you have to make the contest bigger and BETTER.

Circle C

[Russ]

Some kind of portable skinning/cleaning area to hang the pigs from, or bigger tables and more people to help clean and sort meat and hogs on. I'll talk to the Wildlife club on campus about getting some "reinforcements" up there next year for ya'll 

Other then that who do you need to talk to about booth booking? I may know some orginizations/clubs that maybe interested in this type of event.

[aladatrot]

Contact Cody Weiser at WBUSA about booth bookings. The expo gets bigger every year, and I can't wait to see it next year.

Cody's email is wildboar@brutalboarcreations.com. His phone number is 1-866-307-1999 (toll free).


We'd love your help in getting us more volunteers for next year. This year, the contest doubled our expectations. Kind of caught us off guard :O) Next year, I think we should plan and be prepared for at least 25,000 lbs of pork. That is going to affect (like you said) how much room we have for the processing. There is another wash area like we were in at the other end of the expo center. We can plan to have that area set up for cleaning as well. I too felt we were cramped in the wash area, and there just wasn't room for all that was going on in there. We will just have to plan bigger for next year!
THanks!
M

[madshark]

Chris,
Since the TDHA site gremlins    have still not seen fit to allow me to post over there, I'll put a couple of suggestions here.

1)  There should be some means to allow a team's heavy hog in the combined weight, if it doesn't win heavy boar/sow.  I understand not paying out on the same hog in the heavy boar/sow and combined weight.  But if a hog doesn't make heavy boar/sow for the contest, it should be counted in a teams 3 hog weight.  Just my opinion.

2)  By the end of the day Sunday we were throwing a lot of meat away because it had gone bad.  It seemed like the first hogs in Sunday laid in the bottom of the pile for several hours.  If we could work out some sort of FIFO system we could likely save more meat.

I would like to thank you guys for your hospitality.  I'm looking forward to next year, already.

Mark Duncan

[Circle C]

I agree that we need a FIFO and lots more ice.

The skinning and cleaning area will need some streamlining from next year. Any thoughts on that will be appreciated.

Do we need to arrange skinning racks?

Y'all tell me what is needed to make it better, and I will see what we can get done in the next 12 months to make it happen

[Mike]

That's good point Mark about some of the meat going bad. We need to keep each team's hogs seperate and handle it accordingly... some of the hogs were bad when they got there. I'll be bringing this up to the board on how we need to resolve this issue.

Thanks again for all your help this weekend!

[Russ]

If you could make a portable rail that the hogs rolled down you could cut the backstraps (and since easier to reach the tenderloins too), the cut the hams off at the end and dump the carcass in the trailer. That way you got less tables and the tables avalible are there for meat cleaning and prep. While the wash racks are nice (concrete instead of mud) I'd look to moving it outside to the limestone parking lot with a slight slope to it. or put the meat cleaning elsewhere and set up the rail inside the two wash down areas.

[Circle C]

Let's talk about divisions.

If the TDHA Contest was to be divided into different divisions.

Dogs and Knives?

Dogs and guns?

Trapped hogs?

Tell me how to make sure that the hogs entered into various divisions are harvested within the rules.

I keep hearing that the knife hunters, don't want to compete with the gun hunters, and I can understand why. Now is where we need your help. Tell us how to do it Very Happy

How would this work. Would you enter into the contest? How about payouts. Do you apply entry fees to each division, or do you spread it across?

Give me your thoughts, so we can get some things on paper.

Remember, we want this to be a fun productive contest, where the contestants feel they were treated fairly, and the most possible pork is hauled in for Hunter's Harvest.

[Sean]

chris i don't think you could have a trapped hogs category and ever really know for sure if they were trapped during the contest. too easy to stockpile them. if you can think of a way they could prove or disprove that let me know, but i don't think it can be done. just my thoughts...

[catchdog7469]

Chris all in all i think the it was good just a few thing the pictures were never asked for which pretty much made hauling that camera around usless and the second thing and i don't know the man from Adam, but think that having a certified hog buyer hunting in the contest who just so happened to catch the only hog over will just shoot low and say 250 i think the correct weight was 397 gutted is just a bit fishy to me if i remember correctly the hog was clean from any dog marks. Folks don't catch hogs like that often and for sure not with out a dog having to put some teeth one on him some where to shut him down.  Also in the rules it stated all contestants must be in line at 12noon and i believe the last truck pulled in at after that 12:15.  Once again all in all though it was well put together. May be instead of the pictures next year there can be a polygragh like they use in the STAR fishing tournament and split divisons for shot hogs and stuck hogs. 

[Circle C]

catchdog,

 a polygraph is in the works. It should eliminate any cheating.

  There is a lot of talk about the big hog, and his position in the hog market. What many people don't know is that they have some excellent hunting grounds that consistently produce huge barr hogs.

The head dude on this site has a similar honey hole (or so I have heard) that also produces huge hogs. They are out there.

I will try to get some pictures of the big dude online that might show him a little better. The pictures I have of him show a ripped ear, and in one I have seen blood behind the ear as well as bite marks in the arm pits.. The hog was huge no doubt, I personally have no suspicions of foul play.

[Mike]

The head dude on this site has a similar honey hole (or so I have heard) that also produces huge hogs. They are out there.

Shhhhh... don't tell anybody!

[BRUTE]

catchdog,

 a polygraph is in the works. It should eliminate any cheating.

  There is a lot of talk about the big hog, and his position in the hog market. What many people don't know is that they have some excellent hunting grounds that consistently produce huge barr hogs.

The head dude on this site has a similar honey hole (or so I have heard) that also produces huge hogs. They are out there.

I will try to get some pictures of the big dude online that might show him a little better. The pictures I have of him show a ripped ear, and in one I have seen blood behind the ear as well as bite marks in the arm pits.. The hog was huge no doubt, I personally have no suspicions of foul play.

THat brings the next point. If hogs from a game fence don't count then why should BARR hogs count. There are very few natural barr hogs. I have caught 1 barr hog since I have been hunting... EVER. IF you hunt places that catch hogs, cut them, and release them to be caught again that is the same as getting them out of a game fence.

[Russ]

catchdog,

 a polygraph is in the works. It should eliminate any cheating.

  There is a lot of talk about the big hog, and his position in the hog market. What many people don't know is that they have some excellent hunting grounds that consistently produce huge barr hogs.

The head dude on this site has a similar honey hole (or so I have heard) that also produces huge hogs. They are out there.

I will try to get some pictures of the big dude online that might show him a little better. The pictures I have of him show a ripped ear, and in one I have seen blood behind the ear as well as bite marks in the arm pits.. The hog was huge no doubt, I personally have no suspicions of foul play.

THat brings the next point. If hogs from a game fence don't count then why should BARR hogs count. There are very few natural barr hogs. I have caught 1 barr hog since I have been hunting... EVER. IF you hunt places that catch hogs, cut them, and release them to be caught again that is the same as getting them out of a game fence.

I bet for every barrow we catch (after cutting them) we missed or will never get 5-8 of the others we cut. I think leaving them out is throwing to small a net on the competition

[reburn]

You know I'm going to jump in here and say something.    Just because he caught a huge hog is no reason to call him a cheater.  3 years ago my partner and I showed up to the Cuero competition with 3 hogs. The first one went 247 dressed which took the big hog jackpot; he was a big red hog.  Our next hog was a 211 pound solid white hog (This caused a big fuss).  Our 3rd hog was a 179 pound red hog that we caught out of the same group as the big hog.  The way we run our dogs we turn the pits loose less then 50 yards out and usually have the hog over and legged and the pit off inside 90 seconds.  This is the way we hunt and this is the way we like to catch hogs so we can take them back to the pens and use them to train.  They don’t do us any good with infected cut up falling off ears.  On the same token our pits don’t have scissor bites (they are all undershot a bit) and don’t type writer bite or shake.  They grab and hold and that’s it.  This minimizes damage a lot.  Here is a prime example this hog was caught with our dogs 5 hours before this picture.  Do his ears look messed up.  And the catch dogs were on him for more then 90 seconds I assure you.  One dog on each ear.




That year at Cuero we were called cheaters when we weighed in and it almost resulted in one boy getting very badly hurt.  The reason they were calling us cheaters was because of the white hog.  I will not tolerate being called a cheater and I was boiling.  Fighting should never be taken lightly and if you call some one a cheater you better be prepared to say it to their face and back it up.  I have very little patience for anyone being called a cheater with out any kind of proof other then well that hog isn’t all messed up and my dogs can’t do it with out messing him up.

My whole point is that this is BS saying it sounds fishy and he didn’t have dog marks on him ECT.  If you had a problem with it you should have said something to his face and the judges faces there.  Not sitting behind a computer screen days later.  It is just in bad form.  Just out of curiosity which team were you on catchdog7469?


FOR THE RECORD I WAS ON NOT ON THE WINNING TEAM.  I ALSO DO NOT KNOW ANYONE ON THE WINNING TEAM.

[BRUTE]

My whole point is that this is BS saying it sounds fishy and he didn’t have dog marks on him ECT.  If you had a problem with it you should have said something to his face and the judges faces there.  Not sitting behind a computer screen days later.  It is just in bad form.  Just out of curiosity which team were you on catchdog7469?

4TH

I agree. its not a good deal to accuse people. I have said before I would almost hate to win a contest because every one automatically assumes you cheated.

On the same note, alot of us know what actually goes on at these contests. SOme one always spills the beans.

YOu can not cheate a polygraph test... 

[Sean]

i am in full agreemant with reburn about this. although i know you were trying to explain why the contest needed certain rule changes, to call someone's entry out on here- days after the contest has ended is in bad form. unless their is proof, then those allegations are innapropriate to make on a public forum(especially one where the accused is not a member). it would have been much more appropriate to just say there needs to be a polygraph in the next one and left it at that. otherwise the issue should have been taken up at the contest, or in private with the contest coordinators, or with that contestant at the very least. if people have good suggestions on how to make the contest better next year, then by all means tell chris(Circle C) what you think they should change. if anyone wants to tarnish someone else's reputation with blatant accusations and no proof, they had better be doing it in private. again, inflamatory remarks about other people on this site is against our policy here. this applies to Everyone who chooses to post on these boards! from the admins to the mods to the members. 
i should have caught this sooner, but i am not always thr most thorough about reading each and every reply on every post.

[c.miller]

Polygraph would stop a lot of the nonsense. If yall was to split the contest between shot hogs and caught hogs than a team would have to enter the contest which pertains to them (or they could enter both) and you would have separate payouts. If a hog showed up at weigh-in with a bullet hole in him them he would only be accepted in the shot hog contest. Meaning doggers who shoot their hogs would be competing against a team that only stalks and shoots. With that being said....a team could not own a dog...and could enter the shot hogs contest...meaning more meat...and more jackpotted money. Mentioned earlier in this post someone stated that some of the hogs that showed up to the weigh in was already spoiled....was those hogs removed from weigh-in?

[Mike]

THat brings the next point. If hogs from a game fence don't count then why should BARR hogs count. There are very few natural barr hogs. I have caught 1 barr hog since I have been hunting... EVER. IF you hunt places that catch hogs, cut them, and release them to be caught again that is the same as getting them out of a game fence.

Brute, then you've never hunted in East Texas. These ol' boys out here have been hunting and cutting hogs for generations... that's the way their daddys and grandaddys lived. They cut EVERY boar they catch. There's places where you'll catch more barrs than boars any time.

[catchdog7469]

OK maybe my statement was poorly worded Guess the way it should have read is "could sound fishy to some" If I would have thought the man Cheated i would have said something there. That is not what i was trying to say. Was just trying to let Chris know there was alot of complaints about a buyer competing it was not about who won what. I was not stating anything about the fact that it was a barr hog as our team caught a barr as well in free range and we don't cut hogs so i can't tell you how it got there it happens. Reburn We placed 4th had alot of fun doing so with good friends and were able to help folks out as well as that was the point of the event. I was not trying to make and aligations towards anyone just trying to pass on information as that is what Chris asked for was feedback. Sorry for any misconseptions.