Well it finally cooled off down here so I called Noah and invited him down to hunt. I have a buddy who has a few places he traps and we take dogs in now and then and try to catch a few he hasn't trapped. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Noah was at my house around 4:30 AM Sunday morning. He brought three of his cur/birddog crosses and his catchdog. I took Monkey and Spur (who are both fat and out of shape from not hunting this summer). We drove two hours to the place and got there about daylight. We turned two of Noah's dogs out into a block and just eased along the edge, letting the dogs hunt. Saw some old sign and some sign that looked to have been made in the past day or so. Dogs hunted around but the hogs didn't cooperate so we cut through the block but the farther we went, the less sign we saw. Finally cut back towards the truck to re-group. Loaded up and moved to the edge of a big swamp (like 3 miles wide and 10 miles long with no roads in it), and it was decided I should turn MY potlickers out along the edge of this big nasty swamp...I think Noah and my buddy were plotting against me!
Turned Monkey and Spur out and Noah led his CD "just in case". We went along the edge of this huge swamp and may have gone 1/2 mile or so and had only seen one hog track since we moved from where we had hunted Noah's dogs. We then heard a dog bay down in the swamp a couple of hundred yards and I wasn't sure if it was Monkey or Spur at first as they sound almost the same. Monkey is Spur's sire. Then another dog barked, then a hog went to squealing......probably won't need the CD on this one. I am pretty sure Monkey found the hog and bayed until Spur got there, then caught. Spur will bite, then bay, then bite again. We got there and they had a nice spotted sow caught up under the roots of a fallen tree that went back under the tree about four feet. Would have been a bad place to catch a big bad hog.
Anyway, we legged the hog, started tying it and my dogs left. That usually means there were more hogs. We cut a small tree and Noah and I carried the hog out of the swamp on our shoulders (after me geting bit on the back by the hog- I still think Noah slid the hog down the pole to me, just to see me jump...
. He may deny this but he DID give me the biting end of the hog with a smile on his face! LOL
Got the hog out and listened. Couldn't hear either dog so we headed to the truck for the tracking unit. I am notorious for not carrying it. Who needs to with these close hunting potlickers I have right? I started tracking Monkey and he was south of us a ways. The wind had picked up, he was downwind of us, so it would be hard to hear him. We headed that way and got as far as we could drive and realized he was moving back east. I think he got outrun as the hogs had a good head start on him as it took us a while to get to the first hog. About 30-40 miuntes later he comes out of the swamp where we brought the sow out. Now I am only missing one dog. I assumed Spur was with Monkey so I tried beeping him south. I couldn't get a beep at all. Tracked in a circle and couldn't get a beep anywhere. Not good...
We drove as far south as we could. No beep. We then decided to go out the property and drive around to the south by some houses south of the place we were hunting. That took about an hour. No beep and by GPS we were about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile from where we turned out. Still no beep. I thought his collar must have quit working, battery died or something for us not to get a signal. We drove back to the property, went in the gate, drove a couple of miles back to where we had turned out , hoping Spur would be standing there, but he wasn't.
Someone had an idea ro put a different antenna on my unit and see if it made a difference. We did that and got a slight beep NE of us, but a long ways away. I mean standing on top of the dog box in the truck you had to put your ear to the box to hear a beep. We drove as far that way as we could and got a better signal, but still a long way off. Spur was off into the BIG swamp......
We again went out the gate, drove around to the next road and tried to beep. Got a signal, but again still a long ways away. The sign on this gate said "Wetlands Restoration Area- No Trespassing - Violaters will be vigourously prosecuted! " It was getting dark, Spur was a long way into this property and I wasn't going in without a pistol, just in case there was a gator swimming around with my dog in his mouth in there....Spur had been missing since about 11:30 - noon. We had a two hour drive back to my house and Noah had a 1 1/2 hour drive home after that and had to get up at 5 AM the next morning to go to work. So I decided to leave Spur and come back Monday morning. Whatever had happened to him had already happened.
I was back this morning and we beeped him in the same place. He had not moved in about 14 hours...not good. I was afraid he was gator caught as the swamps and ponds are full of them and Noah said he had gone through the same thing with his dog. Hard time getting a signal and dog seeming to be way off. We made some calls and finally got permission to go into this property to look for the dog. I couldn't believe it but they actually gave us the combination to the lock over the phone!! Remember this was a "wetlands restoration area" and we told them where we had been hunting, owners name, etc. Apparently the people in charge didn't like the hogs so they allowed us in to get our hog dog. We drove in into this several thousand acre tract neither of us had ever been on. Had no idea of how it was layed out, roads, etc.
We just started beeping the dog and headed that direction. The woods roads wound all over, never heading the way we needed to go. We finally started getting a good beep on the dog so headed down another road and got close. It was a bad swamp with blown down trees from the hurricanes a few years ago and knee deep water...just at the start of the swamp. Gators had been laying all over the place on the way in so I was really dreading what we may find. We finally got within a couple of hundred yards of the dog according to the tracker, so off into the swamp we went. We kept tracking and heading to the dog. Got right on top of him and I start calling and blowing my whistle. We lsiten and nothing. We start walking again, climbing over and under fallen trees, wading water, watching for gators and snakes when we hear something in the water. We listen and its something walking. In a few minutes, out walks Spur. Not a scratch on him, but about 15 lbs thinner !!
Spur is about 2 1/2 years old and has been hunted all over the place. He has always found his way back, even in strange places and on large tracts. He has been gone for 1-2 hours before, but has always come back. This time he ran for miles, stopped and stayed in one place for about 26 hours!! I don't know if he ever stopped the hog or not as he was way too far away to hear. I do know he was foot sore and tired. I didn't know whether to be glad we found him or pissed we had to go through all that just to get him back! And all the time I was thinking he was cut down by a bad hog or eaten by a gator. Why else would he not come out or at least be moving? I have no idea but I have never had a dog do this in all the time I have been hunting.
I guess I should say he was bayed all that time
and thats why he wasn't moving!! But I have no idea if he ever stopped the hog or not. I do know he was about 4-5 miles from where we turned him out. Very strange hunt, but at least Monkey kept us from getting skunked! I just hope next time I invite Noah down for a hunt with my "close hunting out of shape potlickers" he doesn't tell me he has other plans and can't make it!!
Anyone else ever have a dog do this? I don't mean a pup I mean a dog that has been hunted all over the place.
