I got the young dogs out today for an early morning hunt. My wife's Blackmouth Cur pup, Cutie Pie made her first hunt and did a pretty good job for such a young dog. She stayed busy all day and was there at the bay with the older dogs. This morning was pretty overcast with a light drizzle so we made several turnouts on likely area's for a hog to hole up out of the weather. We had no luck except for the dogs catching a little shoat in the first hour or so. We moved down into a pretty deep draw that has been showing a lot of rooting and other hog sign.
The whole draw is pretty thick cover so we roaded the dogs down the trail in it's bottom. We watch our newest dog, Gizmo, ( full sister to our Keeper and Woolly dogs, one litter prior) take off into the cedars. I shut the pickup off so we could listen and the other dogs scattered into the brush. About ten minutes later we heard Gizmo open up down the draw signaling that she'd found a hog and had it bayed. We watched the other dogs move toward her on the GPS and soon my buddie's dog Black arrived, followed by Woolly, and then Keeper and Pie showed up together. Once all the dogs were there and we were sure the bay was going to hold we started driving toward the bay.
We got as close as the wet conditions would let us drive and unloaded the catch dogs, Beetle and B.A. We moved toward the sound of the bay, but the barking would come and go. We weren't sure what we were getting into so we held the catch dogs with us until we could be sure. As we got to the bay we realized that the barking was coming from a brush pile made when the rancher had used a bulldozer to clear cedar trees. We could hear the dogs and hog on the edge of the pile and all we could do was hope that they were on the edge and not inside the pile. There would be no way to send a catch dog into the pile and get in after it to deal with the hog. The only options would be foolishly crawling into the pile after an uncaught hog or trying to break the bay and hope we could get the hog stopped again. Thankfully the hog was bayed under a large cedar tree right on the edge of the pile. The hog and bay dogs were all jammed in a tiny opening under the cedar's branches and backed up to the pile the only way in was a small opening in the branches maybe two feet across and high.
We let the catch dogs go from maybe twenty feet away and pretty much followed them through the opening. I was on my hands and knees and still ducking to make it through. When I made it in I had a little more room but still not enough to flip the hog like we normally would. I was running pretty low on ideas and good sense and the hog was trying to pull the catch dogs, who had no room to maneuver farther into the cedar so I crawled up on the sow's back and sat on her shoulders. B.A. was caught on the right side, blocking the sow from going deeper under the cedar. Beetle had more room to work on the other side and was holding the sow from moving too much. My hunting buddy reached through the opening and grabbed the hog's back legs and we finally got everything slowed down enough to get the hog stuck, and then the catch dogs broken off and the bay dogs gathered up.
It was a fairly small sow, about 100-120 pounds, perfect eating size. The young dogs worked well, and Gizmo is fitting right in with her younger sisters. She's struck hogs on two of our last three hunts. We're real glad to have her.
Me and the sow
My buddy and the Blackmouth pup Pie
My buddie's dog, Black
Gizmo and the hog on top of the dog box
Family photo- Keeper, Woolly, and Gizmo
Rooting damage from the hogs
Dogs checking it out
Hog wallows
The dogs
BA waiting to get out of the box
The whole draw is pretty thick cover so we roaded the dogs down the trail in it's bottom. We watch our newest dog, Gizmo, ( full sister to our Keeper and Woolly dogs, one litter prior) take off into the cedars. I shut the pickup off so we could listen and the other dogs scattered into the brush. About ten minutes later we heard Gizmo open up down the draw signaling that she'd found a hog and had it bayed. We watched the other dogs move toward her on the GPS and soon my buddie's dog Black arrived, followed by Woolly, and then Keeper and Pie showed up together. Once all the dogs were there and we were sure the bay was going to hold we started driving toward the bay.
We got as close as the wet conditions would let us drive and unloaded the catch dogs, Beetle and B.A. We moved toward the sound of the bay, but the barking would come and go. We weren't sure what we were getting into so we held the catch dogs with us until we could be sure. As we got to the bay we realized that the barking was coming from a brush pile made when the rancher had used a bulldozer to clear cedar trees. We could hear the dogs and hog on the edge of the pile and all we could do was hope that they were on the edge and not inside the pile. There would be no way to send a catch dog into the pile and get in after it to deal with the hog. The only options would be foolishly crawling into the pile after an uncaught hog or trying to break the bay and hope we could get the hog stopped again. Thankfully the hog was bayed under a large cedar tree right on the edge of the pile. The hog and bay dogs were all jammed in a tiny opening under the cedar's branches and backed up to the pile the only way in was a small opening in the branches maybe two feet across and high.
We let the catch dogs go from maybe twenty feet away and pretty much followed them through the opening. I was on my hands and knees and still ducking to make it through. When I made it in I had a little more room but still not enough to flip the hog like we normally would. I was running pretty low on ideas and good sense and the hog was trying to pull the catch dogs, who had no room to maneuver farther into the cedar so I crawled up on the sow's back and sat on her shoulders. B.A. was caught on the right side, blocking the sow from going deeper under the cedar. Beetle had more room to work on the other side and was holding the sow from moving too much. My hunting buddy reached through the opening and grabbed the hog's back legs and we finally got everything slowed down enough to get the hog stuck, and then the catch dogs broken off and the bay dogs gathered up.
It was a fairly small sow, about 100-120 pounds, perfect eating size. The young dogs worked well, and Gizmo is fitting right in with her younger sisters. She's struck hogs on two of our last three hunts. We're real glad to have her.
Me and the sow
My buddy and the Blackmouth pup Pie
My buddie's dog, Black
Gizmo and the hog on top of the dog box
Family photo- Keeper, Woolly, and Gizmo
Rooting damage from the hogs
Dogs checking it out
Hog wallows
The dogs
BA waiting to get out of the box
Brush pile sow
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