St. Gunner
Member
You probably won't know the names, but these are the names or net handles of some of the guys I hunt with...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Went out Yesterday with BigGuns, Slayer, Calvin, Randy, and a first timer named John. It was one of the slowest hunts we've had in a long while. I had doubts about it when I called Dennis at 7:05 to see where he was at, he's never late and he was just leaving the house... So Slayer and I started with Calvins dogs, since all we brough where Bulldogs and Calvin was taking care of some family obligations for the first couple hours. We really covered some country, walked a mile or so with the dogs and then Dennis showed up and dumped Daisy and Stone on the ground and we walked some more. We couldn't find any real fresh sign, most recent a couple days ago and so we just kept on pushing on. As it neared 11am we hadn't so much as gotten a bark, it was like the woods where empty. Calvin arrived and we where discussing the next battle plan and where to head when I glanced down the sendero and about 100yds away a hog blazed across the sendero. We quickly got the dogs on the track and Daisy had him bayed with some of the other dogs in a short order a couple hundred yards from where we saw him cross. I could hear him fighting the dogs and Slayer and I turned the bulldogs loose from about 60yds out. Off Bandit and Hondo go, both amatuers, Bandit had three hogs up to this point in the woods and Hondo had none. They are barely out of sight when the hog breaks the bay at the sound of rifle shots up above on an oat patch. We watch in amazement as the two bulldogs try to catch that hog as he goes across a Kline grass patch. The baydogs finally got far enough ahead and the wind picked up enough that we simply lost them. Dennis, Slayer, and I pushed on in the direction they left, I was able to get Bandit back on a lead but Hondo was MIA.
I knew the pasture they where headed into and its a funny situation we have permission from the landowner to hunt whenever we want, but the man who leases it, doesn't like us in it with the dogs when he has cattle there. So in hopes of being good neighbors we try to stay out and never venture into it unless the dogs started a hog someplace else and go there. Which keeps us in good graces with the guy who leases it and so he tells folks what good guys we are...
I split from Dennis and Luke and head to where I think they will go, i'd scouted it last year when we took a young man with MS rifle hunting and we had a real concentration of hogs in one spot next to a stock tank. When Bandit and I rounded a corner off the main road and onto a narrow sendero a boar was breeding a sow about 20yds out. Bandit wanted to go but our rule in that pasture is only what the dogs have bayed to keep the leasee happy. On the way up the sendero I begin to hear the dogs baying and every little bit another hog is running across the Sendero, I'm keeping count and at about 53 I hear a shot, then suddenly I am up to 67 head across the sendero. I am listening and realize something is coming my way, pretty soon Daisy crosses with a big sow coming right towards me. I dash over about 20yds and get on the trail the hog is using and draw my pistol and wait. Pretty soon she busts out of the brush and tries to follow the trail but I am in a spot she'll give me a quartering away shot when she turns the corner so at about 5' I let one loose into her head since Daisy is about 5 steps behind trying to make the corner. She hits the ground at the shot and rolls right back onto her feet and takes off. I do one of those stupid look at the pistol things and wonder what happened, then turned Bandit loose and told him to catch that thing. So boom off he goes, an amatuer bulldog solo on an unbayed hog. I head in the direction they are going and it becomes pretty clear that the shot had no real effect on her. I am about 200yds from where I shot when the race comes to a screeching halt just to my rightside and I can hear her raising a ruckus. I run on in and Bandit has her caught and Dennis's Stone dog is trying to help, cept she has him by the skin on the ribs and is shaking him. Daisy is baying like crazy. She tries to walk off with the bulldog when I get there and I get her tail before she goes to far and pull her back into the opening. Suddenly I realize I am loosing my grip on the tail and next thing i know she is looking at me in a little six foot opening with a bulldog catch dog on one ear. I see Stone sneaking up on her and when he grabs the other ear she spins to him and gives me a shot at her legs and I get her flipped and killed.
Then the best thing happens, everyone shows up to help drag and break a trail... Hondo had been back with the other three guys for awhile so we got all the dogs back in one piece, no staples needed for the day(which is always a good hunt).
After this we went to check a couple other places we have really been working on pretty hard lately and couldn't cut a fresh track on any of them. So we ended the day with one hog, which aint to bad, just no up to our normal haul, but it extended our aint been skunked in Dewees hunts to right over a year.
The dogs hunted like champs, just wasn't much to find. My shot on the sow, hit just behind the left ear, went across the back of her head and exited leaving a hole in the offside ear, just didn't hit anything vital in its short trip. We had her weighed and she took the scales to 178lbs dressed, so a respectable critter and I have a whole bunch of sausage on the way again...
Steve
I'm attaching a pic of the hog and Bandit and my ugly mug, mainly cause I am proud of the pup. He's my little girls Bulldog and when she saw the pictures last night she did her normal, "Bandit is the bravest dog in the world." I'm sure since it is raining the bravest dog in the world will be hanging out on my couch in a short while napping with my daughter.
Hog Hunt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Went out Yesterday with BigGuns, Slayer, Calvin, Randy, and a first timer named John. It was one of the slowest hunts we've had in a long while. I had doubts about it when I called Dennis at 7:05 to see where he was at, he's never late and he was just leaving the house... So Slayer and I started with Calvins dogs, since all we brough where Bulldogs and Calvin was taking care of some family obligations for the first couple hours. We really covered some country, walked a mile or so with the dogs and then Dennis showed up and dumped Daisy and Stone on the ground and we walked some more. We couldn't find any real fresh sign, most recent a couple days ago and so we just kept on pushing on. As it neared 11am we hadn't so much as gotten a bark, it was like the woods where empty. Calvin arrived and we where discussing the next battle plan and where to head when I glanced down the sendero and about 100yds away a hog blazed across the sendero. We quickly got the dogs on the track and Daisy had him bayed with some of the other dogs in a short order a couple hundred yards from where we saw him cross. I could hear him fighting the dogs and Slayer and I turned the bulldogs loose from about 60yds out. Off Bandit and Hondo go, both amatuers, Bandit had three hogs up to this point in the woods and Hondo had none. They are barely out of sight when the hog breaks the bay at the sound of rifle shots up above on an oat patch. We watch in amazement as the two bulldogs try to catch that hog as he goes across a Kline grass patch. The baydogs finally got far enough ahead and the wind picked up enough that we simply lost them. Dennis, Slayer, and I pushed on in the direction they left, I was able to get Bandit back on a lead but Hondo was MIA.
I knew the pasture they where headed into and its a funny situation we have permission from the landowner to hunt whenever we want, but the man who leases it, doesn't like us in it with the dogs when he has cattle there. So in hopes of being good neighbors we try to stay out and never venture into it unless the dogs started a hog someplace else and go there. Which keeps us in good graces with the guy who leases it and so he tells folks what good guys we are...
I split from Dennis and Luke and head to where I think they will go, i'd scouted it last year when we took a young man with MS rifle hunting and we had a real concentration of hogs in one spot next to a stock tank. When Bandit and I rounded a corner off the main road and onto a narrow sendero a boar was breeding a sow about 20yds out. Bandit wanted to go but our rule in that pasture is only what the dogs have bayed to keep the leasee happy. On the way up the sendero I begin to hear the dogs baying and every little bit another hog is running across the Sendero, I'm keeping count and at about 53 I hear a shot, then suddenly I am up to 67 head across the sendero. I am listening and realize something is coming my way, pretty soon Daisy crosses with a big sow coming right towards me. I dash over about 20yds and get on the trail the hog is using and draw my pistol and wait. Pretty soon she busts out of the brush and tries to follow the trail but I am in a spot she'll give me a quartering away shot when she turns the corner so at about 5' I let one loose into her head since Daisy is about 5 steps behind trying to make the corner. She hits the ground at the shot and rolls right back onto her feet and takes off. I do one of those stupid look at the pistol things and wonder what happened, then turned Bandit loose and told him to catch that thing. So boom off he goes, an amatuer bulldog solo on an unbayed hog. I head in the direction they are going and it becomes pretty clear that the shot had no real effect on her. I am about 200yds from where I shot when the race comes to a screeching halt just to my rightside and I can hear her raising a ruckus. I run on in and Bandit has her caught and Dennis's Stone dog is trying to help, cept she has him by the skin on the ribs and is shaking him. Daisy is baying like crazy. She tries to walk off with the bulldog when I get there and I get her tail before she goes to far and pull her back into the opening. Suddenly I realize I am loosing my grip on the tail and next thing i know she is looking at me in a little six foot opening with a bulldog catch dog on one ear. I see Stone sneaking up on her and when he grabs the other ear she spins to him and gives me a shot at her legs and I get her flipped and killed.
Then the best thing happens, everyone shows up to help drag and break a trail... Hondo had been back with the other three guys for awhile so we got all the dogs back in one piece, no staples needed for the day(which is always a good hunt).
After this we went to check a couple other places we have really been working on pretty hard lately and couldn't cut a fresh track on any of them. So we ended the day with one hog, which aint to bad, just no up to our normal haul, but it extended our aint been skunked in Dewees hunts to right over a year.
The dogs hunted like champs, just wasn't much to find. My shot on the sow, hit just behind the left ear, went across the back of her head and exited leaving a hole in the offside ear, just didn't hit anything vital in its short trip. We had her weighed and she took the scales to 178lbs dressed, so a respectable critter and I have a whole bunch of sausage on the way again...
Steve
I'm attaching a pic of the hog and Bandit and my ugly mug, mainly cause I am proud of the pup. He's my little girls Bulldog and when she saw the pictures last night she did her normal, "Bandit is the bravest dog in the world." I'm sure since it is raining the bravest dog in the world will be hanging out on my couch in a short while napping with my daughter.
Hog Hunt
