I’ve been away for the last few weeks doing some hunting and traveling for the holidays. We went to Texas to visit my Mom and Brother and managed to sneak out for two days with some friends that run dogs for hogs north of Houston. The first day Steph and I hunted with a guy that uses cur dogs to bay the hog then a bull dog to “catch” (grab him by the ear or face and hold on for dear life) while we go in and stab the hog. I didn’t figure that was really possible, but after watching the dogs work I saw how it could be done. Jody and Thomas were the ‘guides’ that day and they decided that rather than kill the hogs, we would take them home alive (again- I didn’t think it possible). Apparently there is a niche market for wild boar meat in Europe… The first hog was quite an adventure as he was bayed in a deep creek bed and in about a foot of water. The dogs were all over him and I got to hold dogs while Jody and Thomas wrestled the pig down and hog tied him. Then we drug him out, put him on a trailer and took him to a pen. I would have never guessed it was possible. The second hog that day was just as much fun and we managed to get him out alive too. As you can imagine, the hogs were really upset and were pretty rough- if you were absentminded enough to get “in range” it would have been bad news. Even in the pen they would try for you if you got near the cage. The dogs worked well and did an awesome job keeping the hogs attention away from our hands. We caught two boars and penned them up. (photo attached)
The second day of hunting was entirely different, but just as much fun. Waylon, another buddy up near College Station, runs blackmouth curs. His dogs find the hogs and do a ‘loose bay’, where they make a wide circle and bay the hogs almost like a ranch dog would do with rough stock. They keep the hog from breaking and running while we sneak in and try for a shot. He was only using two dogs and they really had to work to keep the hog from running. We hunted hard all morning and didn’t have any action at the first ranch. The second ranch was a shin tangle the dogs found the hogs in a nasty thicket where they would spend their day. The first hog was a nice old boar with sizable teeth. He spotted us while we were sneaking in and broke through the dogs. I blew the shot and the dogs followed him deeper into the brush. They went to bay again and we slipped in and killed two smaller hogs at ~10 yards. The dogs were pretty fired up and before we could get the first two drug out of the brush the dogs were bayed again pretty close. We slipped in and saw the old boar that had bayed earlier facing us at ~15 yards. He was in the middle of a serious thicket and after a bit of squirming into position I was able to thread a bullet through the brush and we got him. After we had him we saw that the first shot had actually hit him in the cheek and hurt him. That’s probably why we were able to get a second chance.
We had an awesome time in TX and it was fun seeing the different dogs working. I started lion hunting yesterday in Idaho. We found a nice tom track, but it was pretty old (24 hrs?). We had a good chase, but did not tree him. We ground out an old track for ~3-4 hours and finally got it freshened up. The snow was terrible and he was able to walk on top of it. I had to trust my little black and tan dog to line it out. She worked her tail off for a long time and then they must have jumped him in some rocks. He made a long chase down to a pretty wide river and either treed without them seeing/smelling or somehow crossed and lost them. I found them there circling without any luck. It was a good chase though and I was happy with the dogs for their first hunt in a while. Two of the three 5 month old pups made the whole chase, so we’re pretty happy with them!
