Cutter Bay's 1/15/11 hog hunt

[12-GAUGE]

I met up with Steve and his girlfriend's son Waylon. Waylon had also invited his school buddy Charles to tag along. Steve and I really wanted to get the boys the opportunity to stick their own first hog. We started off roading the hounds, and eventually they left the road on a track. They bayed it up, and as I was heading to them, getting within 150 yards, the hog broke. Charles saw it go across the "last" road. We let a couple of the dogs go across thinking they may bring it back, but after a while, I decided to go in and call them out. We went right back in to the same block they had originally jumped, and got one going in a short time. Again, it crossed out of the block.

We decided we needed to get into the middle of the property we were hunting to give the boys a better chance at their goal. Steve went one way, while I headed the other. If one of us found something, we would convey it on the CB. After a short time not seeing any fresh sign, I decided to enter the block via a submerged woods road. I went through several deep holes, and finally came up on more of a hill. I liked the trees I could see farther in the block, so I pressed on. I turned the 4 dogs I had out in a recently burned area. Ramsey, Beulah, Dempsey, and Pistol all went in search of swine. I followed them for a little bit on foot, and noticed that there were some good hogs living in the area. I headed back to the truck to let Steve know what I was doing. Within 5 minutes, Beulah and Pistol showed back up at the truck. I boxed them.

I heard Ramsey open one time. After looking at the Astro 220, I could see Ramsey and her 5 1/2 month old pup Dempsey were together. After about 10 minutes, they showed bayed. However, I never heard a bark. I figured they were lazy and laying down or something. Steve and I talked on the CB for about 30 minutes. He had turned Ira on a track, and Ira was moving it good. I told Steve I was going to see what my dogs were doing in the thicket, and I would be back within 30 minutes. He was just going to keep up with Ira.

I headed towards my 2 "slackers". They were roughly 300 yards from the truck. As I walked through the wall of brush that grew along a ditch with water in it, I began to hear them bawling. The dense thicket was blocking my ability to hear them from the truck (it was very windy as well). They were not bawling every breath, but enough for me to know they were looking at pork. I got within 35 yards of them. It was super thick. My arms were getting clawed to death in all the briars. I could hear the slight movement, but not much. As I tried to get closer, they broke. I let them bay back up several hundred yards away, and decided to head for the truck.

I drove farther into the block. Once I was with 250 yards of them, I turned Beulah and Pistol out. As we headed towards them, Beulah started hearing them. She left in a hurry to join in. Pistol, however did not ever leave my proximity. I heard Beulah join in, and within 30 seconds, the race was on. Pistol was getting deep, so I decided to let him try to catch up. I headed for the truck. I called Steve on the CB to let him know what was going on. He said he was just getting Ira picked up from the other side of the property. He had got on a rangy hog, and had crossed several blocks. As I drove around the block, I saw Ira’s location (in Steve’s dog box) on my Astro. He and I lined the road the best we could where my dogs were being projected to cross. As they got about 220 yards from the road, I noticed that Beulah split. I could hear them good. As I was listening, I could hear Dempsey roll into a very nice bay bawl. Within a few seconds, the Astro showed her bayed. Within 15 seconds I heard Ramsey join in. Sure enough, Ramsey was also showing bayed. I yelled down to Steve that those 2 were looking at the hog. Ira was on a mission to join in with Beulah’s race. The boys headed down towards my truck. Once there, Charles asked if he could borrow my hunting knife. His had broken during the day. After he got it on his belt, we headed for the bay. Beulah and Ira made a great big loop, and headed directly back towards the bay. The hog picked up the bayed hog, and off to the races again. Pistol was making his way to the bay, and the hogs ran right by him. Now, he too was in the race. Of course he is silent on track, so the Astro was the only way I knew that.

Realizing that there were multiple hogs, I surmised Ramsey and Dempsey were baying a sow with pigs, thus the reason they were not bawling like crazy when they were bayed in the first spot. I’m sure Ramsey did not feel adequately equipped knowing her backup was a 5 ½ month old puppy. Once they were able to hear me coming to them, they had begun to get bolder. They ran a circle in the block going right back to the spot they were bayed the first time. We tried to get close to them, but the hogs took a different exit route the 2nd time around the block. Once we were on the main road that surrounds the block, I could tell that they were going to cross a specific woods road. I drove down it, hoping to cut the hogs off. I could hear my pack coming right to my truck. I could also hear some other dogs way in the distance. The dogs trailed to a water hole I was parked at. They all took a few drinks, then back to trailing they went. It took them a little bit to figure out that the hogs had not crossed the road, but rather, went around it. I picked up Pistol and Dempsey as I could tell they were getting wore down. Both being under a year old, I did not want to overdo it with them. Keeping it fun is what it is about. A plott and a walker eventually trailed up to the water hole as well. Their owners parked behind me and Steve to ask if their dogs were there. I asked them if they had dumped behind my dogs, and they assured me that they did not. They said they saw the hog cross the road, and dumped directly on it. I was thinking, wow their dogs are super slow dogs. My dogs passed them up by 8 minutes. Their dogs literally came down the exact same trail my dogs had taken.

Within a few hundred yards, Ira went right and my females went left. I told Steve I was going to keep up with mine. He decided to go to Ira. The walker and plott also went in the direction of my dogs. I told the guys that owned them (along with the other 5 trucks in their hunting party) that I had my dogs on GPS, so I knew where they were heading. They all were hunting deer dog style (shooting shotguns off of their dog boxes). I told them my hounds were black in appearance, and to be sure not to shoot them. They all seemed to know what I was getting at. I drove around the corner, now leading this 6 truck blockade. I went up to the next corner and stopped. There were several trucks in the road just ahead of me. My dogs popped out in the road directly in front of my truck. I looked and sure enough, they are trailing a track right down the middle of the road. I drove up to where they left the road. It was directly in front of 3 trucks. Immediately, I hear them both baying. I’m thinking “what is going on”. I asked one of the guys at the 3 trucks what just happened. He said nothing. We were just letting you all line the road. I told him, he’d have to be crazy for me to believe that. I walked 20 yards into the brush to see his buddies holding a big sow down. They were trying to tie her. Unfortunately, this property does not allow the transport of any live hogs. I then see people everywhere trying to catch dogs. There were literally 12-15 dogs on the dirt. I told my two females to go to the truck. They followed me out. I told them to load, and they both jumped in. Of course that was not before 3 different people tried to lay hands on them. I told each of them to let my dogs be, and I would load them myself. The guy that owned the walker asked how I was able to have them load on their own. I told him, “it’s easy, they have handle”. Their whole group was completely amazed that a hound could load.

I grabbed my drag handle out of my dog box storage. I walked to the sow. They were still trying to tie her up. As their doing this, I stepped down on the sow to get her to open her mouth. As she did, I placed the drag in her mouth, and cinched it down. The guy tying her asked what that was for. I told him it was to make it easy for me to drag her out. They look on their faces was priceless. I started to drag her to the road. Once out in the open (behind my truck), I pulled out the only knife I had which was my pocket knife. Charles had my hog sticker. With everyone standing around, I asked the guys who had been tying her why they would dump their box on a hog that was being run by another group. They admitted that they were not doing any good so they were just driving around. When she came out, she had run right down the middle of the road directly at them. They slammed on the brakes, and dumped their boxes. I told them, I had been running it for some time, and was not happy they dumped on it. They apologized, jumped in their trucks, and left. Then the guy with the walker and plott admitted that they had dumped in behind me as we rounded the corner because he wanted his dogs to get some good running experience. I let his whole crew know that there were plenty of hogs out there, go beat some bushes. I was nice about it, but got my point across.

After I loaded the hog, I went to get up with Steve and the boys. He had been keeping up with Ira. He had bayed several times for 20 minutes plus, but every time Steve and the boys went towards the bay, it would break. After getting tired of the whole thing, Steve decided to call it a day. We got Ira caught up, and decided to go find some other friends who were out there on Saturday as well.

We found them in time to join them going to a bay. Jody’s walker bayed a nice listed sow. After we all took some pictures, we headed for the local buffet for some late lunch action. We had a very eventful Saturday to say the least. In closing, I’m not sure what would possess someone to dump their dogs into someone else’s race, but it sure is annoying. If your dogs are not able to go find their own hog, it might be time to get other dogs. I’m really not sure if my dogs would have ever actually caught that sow on their own, but that was for me to find out. This particular piece of property seems to have hogs that will bay up, but when they sense someone coming in, they leave quickly. It is one of those properties that I can see a need for a true catch dog to be part of the equation. Until next time, enjoy your dogs.

[12-GAUGE]

Gr Ch Cutter Bay's Ramsey







Cutter Bay's Dempsey



Gr Ch Cutter Bay's Beulah







Steve, Beulah, Waylon, and Charles

[Mr.pacojack]

Nice job guys

[boardog]

way to go.............. i just dont get that whole dumping into someone elses race thing. sounds like thos fellas need to get some real dogs if they want to actually find the hogs!