BEGINNER'S LUCK
by Evan Wood
After hog hunting with several buddies for some time and becoming extremely hooked, me and my older brother decided to buy our own dogs. We started calling around, and after two weeks of searching we finally put together 2 bay dogs and a catch dog. The first three dogs we got come from a good friend, 1st bay dog (Jake) 2nd bay dog (Blaze) and our catch dog (Ugly).
Our first trial day with the dogs was on a sunday night. We were so excited to finally get to go hunting when we wanted, could'nt wait for light, so we leashed the bay dogs up and put the cut vest and collar on Ugly. We were off!! It took about a half mile to hit the hogs feeding area, but right when we did, it was go time! The dogs took off, completely silent. Me and my brother looked at each other trying to figure out if this was a good thing. Five minutes later they was bayed up, that sweet sound, but little did we realize in all the excitement it was another half mile to where the dogs were bayed.
We broke through green briars, jumped creeks, tripped over rocks, fell down hills, and even ran straight into a couple of fences. Finally after 15 minutes of running the hardest that i have ever ran in my life, we were getting close. Ricky had Ugly on a leash and was about 30 yards in front of me, he broke Ugly loose and completely cleared the last fence that separated us from the bayed up beast! Ugly ran in and took his shot, smoked this hog down! Ricky yelled in excitement, and this gave me a lil more drive, so I also cleared the fence.
The dogs had the pig in a creek with briars around it, and I was running so hard and fast that when I jumped for the creek, I completely cleared Ricky, the dogs and the hog! As soon as I hit, I spun around and went to work. We grabbed hold and threw him, and with me sitting on the side of this pig we realized that we was so excited to go hunting we only brought zip ties to tie with. We wasn't exspecting to catch a hog this big on our first run. The zip ties were rated for 175 lbs, so we figured if we put 3 or 4 on the legs that there would be no way he could break them. Well we was wrong, while we were pulling the dogs off, we heard the 1st one break POW!! And yeah we was thinking exactly what u are! So I ran over to the boar and grabbed the freed leg and waited for Ricky to come help restrain him.
We grabbed our cellular devices and went to calling anyone who would answer. I rang Derral Wade up and told him to come as fast as he could, and to stop and grab bailing wire at my house. He finally made it bout 15 minutes later, and we tied him up with bailing wire. By this time my other brother and dad had arrived and was on there way back to get the tractor, to drag him out. Our friend we bought the dogs from also came over to lend a helping hand. He found it pretty funny that we had tied the hog with zip ties and then bailing wire. Pretty redneck, but its hard to hide it, this deep in the south. We finally got him out and wieghed him, he hit the scales rite at 327, with 3 and 1 half inch cutters. Pretty lucky brothers if you ask me. This is just another exciting story from here in Stratford Oklahoma.