Well folks, I thought I would pass a little time and tell about a hog hunt that took place about 9 years ago. Now Sulphur River is a little river that runs from Paris, Texas on down into Arkansas and into Red River. covering over 150 miles long. This little river catches a lot of run off water and at times can get out of it banks, way out and be 10 foot deep in the timber in the bottom lands. Well this hunt took place one winter when the river was out of it banks and the water was high enough to put the wild life onto islands (hills in the river bottom that were high enough that the water did not cover) but water was all around it. Now that the setting is set , this morning we decided to go hog hunting with some young cur dogs we had raised. Half mountain cur and half yellow black mouth cur. These were as natural bay dogs as ever hit the ground. I had a male named Clyde and a female named Bonnie, together they were trouble
and my nephew had a male that he call Hank. We took Hank and Clyde and 5 of us, ( my self, son Derrel, nephew David and friends Danny and Scott. (Scott was a large boy of 15 years old) the other boys were all in early 20's. Two 15 foot long john boats & motors and headed up the river. We located this large island and tied boats and turned dogs loose. In no time after landing we had walked upon large rooted out places. We knew that it was fresh sign and hogs were not far. This island had a large field in the middle and had grown up in briars and small sapling. Now Clyde was working a track real careful like around a large briar patch and the boys were in a hurry to get somewhere, after Hank I think, darn if I know where, but they were ahead of me some 50 yards or more when Clyde jumped a black sow out of the briars and here she came by me with Clyde in hot pursuit. The old gun roared and the hog went down with Clyde closing in for his mouth full. Well a short field dress job and off we went again. The dogs went south west to the far corner of the island and bayed. Well the boys in all their excitement took off in a dead run to get to them. I just kind of took my time and listen to the dog baying and watch the action. "Boom" "Boom" "Boom", I could hear the guns talking, then I saw Derrel long stepping north and could hear the dogs baying ahead of him. Another Boom and a hog down. I walked over to him and ask how many and he replied, don't know, hogs went every direction !. This boy was pumped. We field dress this hog and had the dogs on leash waiting for the others to get back together with us. When they all got to us, no body else had a hog
I had to polk a little fun about all the shooting and no meat. Then David said they went east and Danny said yeah and they wanted to go after them again. Nothing would stop them now, so off they went again, 3 boys and 2 dogs. In about 15 minutes Derrel and I heard the dogs baying and the guns start talking. This time 3 hogs went down. Folks, if you have been keeping tab, this is 5 hogs on the ground, all of which weigh a 110 lbs up to 250 lbs. and guess what. The sun is going down in a hurry and it is a long ways to the boats for 5 hogs. After a lot of draging and sweating, I did mention this is winter time, well we did sweat alot that evening. The last hog was Derrel's which was the fartherest away and dusk was upon us. We had one small 2 cell flash light , so I told Derrel and David for them to go get the last hog and I would stay with the boats and holler them back , so they would not get lost in the dark. It is a good thing I stayed at the boats too. Mama did not raise a fool. Now I mentioned Scott being a large boy of 15 and still not sure of his manhood in the dark. Especially when the other boys were pranking with him and also a large boar hog was in the brush popping his teeth and grunting at them all the time they were trying to get this last hog out. Finally with ropes tied to the hog and sticks tied in the end of the ropes to allow 2 men to get ahold onto the end and drag, all four boys were working to get this hog back to the boat, but Scott kept looking over his shoulder in the direction of the old boar that was making all the noise. Derrel, Danny and David were all giving him billy-heck for not pulling and to forget about that boar and just pull, when Derrel went to salpping his pants lets and David went to squealling like a wild hog, and Danny yelling like a wild man and Scott dam near drag the hog over all of them and half way to the boat before thay got him stopped. The laugh was a good one and Scott took it well. But did promise to whoop some ##*%* when he got old enough. This kid was 6'3 and 220 lbs at this time. We were lucky to have had some spot lights in the boats and was able to get back down river safely. We did dress hogs until after midnight.
Hope you folks enjoy this
little hunt , cause we sure did.
!