Now I don't claim to be much of a storie teller, but I thought you folks might find a little humor in this one. Back in March of 2005, My son Matt and I got together with 2 of our hunting buddies and went a hog hunting. Now for those of you that are not familiar with these wild hogs critters, there is not much they want eat and can live just about anywhere. Farmers and Ranchers hate them with a passion. They are getting to be everywhere here in Texas. Well on this find morning of hunting we loaded up Matt's ole Beatles dog 5 year old ( he can sure find a hog), his 2 1/2 yr. old dog named Cash, out of Beatles and 1/2 cur 1/2 pit female. Also a 6 month old pup. I carried a 4 yr. old plott dog named Chief and a pup name Nig, bred the same as Cash but a year younger. Now when we got to the lease and turned the dogs loose, there was fresh rooting in the road ditch. It did not take long for Beatles to get things straightened out and the race was on. The hog took the worse thicket he could find and made his stand. Greg (one of my hunting buddies) got to the dogs first and when he went into the thicket to see what the dogs had, the hog had just made a run and hit Cash and threw him about 6 feet into the air and was going to get him when he hit the ground , but as Greg said a grey/white flash went by and latched onto the hog's rear. it was Nig. by the time the hog could turn on Nig, Cash was up and getting a hold again. Well this hog was not liking this action at all and that is when he saw Greg and made a run at him. The brush was thick and all Greg could do was draw and shoot point blank. We were lucky no dogs got shot LOL. Well after a quick skinning job and a short break, off we went again. This time Beatles struck a track and the others fell in the race. We ended up in a long slough that was full of water. The 3 old dogs were in the middle of it with a large hog. The dogs would get a hold of it and all of them and the hog would go under, then dogs would surface and in a second the hog would shoot up and take off for the bank. This went on for a while , but finally the hog got close to the bank and Matt waded out and got a hold of its hind legs and pulled it to the bank where we tied it up and leased the dogs, that was all except ole Beatles. he knew that there were more hogs and when that one was caught he headed back for another one. We got the tracking unit out and sure nuff, he was about a mile dew north. Matt and Greg took the tracking unit and headed for him with the other dogs. Johnny and I took the hog and headed the the skinning pole. After I had just about finished skinning the hog, Greg comes riding up on his 4x4 and said that he and Matt had more hog than they could handle. I looked at him kind of funny I guess and he just ask for more bullets and another gun. Now folks we were shooting a 357mag and most of the time when the hammer falls the pork drops. Not this time anyway. They had encountered 3 hogs at this bay. one boar, one shoat and a very large sow. and would you know it they all split in different directions when the first shot was fired. The boar left out going west. the shoat went east and the sow north. Now Chief , Nig and Cash went after the sow. Beatles went after the boar. Now let me tell you folks a thing or two here and now. If you have never heard a hog squeal and dogs baying then yelping , well there is nothing that will get the adrainling pumping like that. Matt was doing his best to catch the sow, had done shot her 3 times and the last time he tried to shoot her between the eyes, but shot low and she came after him, ran him around the few little trees that were close and then he decided that those trees were not going to hold up and made a dash for a distant tree that was larger. well vines caught his feet and try as he might was not going to be able to out run this big hog, (oh by the way have I mentioned that this hog was in the neighbor hood of 500 lbs.) and she is sure nuff watered off. well the sow just about had Matt caught when Cash made a last stand for him and got a hold of her rear. this turned her and Matt got to his tree. It was hot in March and the dogs had been on this hog for about 3 hours by now and were taking turns going to the water in the river and then come back and bay some more. When Greg got back to Matt the hog had wandered off into a big thicket and the dogs were knocked out and after all of that , she got away. I ask Matt about the chase and he wanted to know whick one. He stated that the ole sow could run just fast enough that he could not catch her when the dogs were fresh and could help him hold her, and then he could run just fast enough so she could not catch him. Funny isn't it (hehe) lol. Well this is a true storey and I hope you folks enjoyed hearing it.
Good hunting from the
Texascoonhunter.
it can also be really tough on the dogs not to mention the men. But it is hard work and lots of fun, not to mention some good eating pork.