Hi Lori,
Once again, its nice to get a question from the female gender of hog
hunters. We need more of ya'll....smile . I'm guessing
your question
is " What to do when you're between a rock and a hard spot and a hog is
staring you down or thinks you would be a nice target to hit"
LOL
Lori, I assure you I'm not laughing at you, just at the question.
You
see, your question has brought back some "QUITE EXCITING" memories
that
ALL hog hunters get from time to time. . I truly don't know if I
have
an answer for you, but will post it at the end of the story.
Memory number one. A few years ago, I had a dog that I was trying
to
make a coon dog. He was bred for hog hunting or big game hunting, but
due to his rare color and personality, Beckie, wasn't real excited about
me putting Blue Boy on hogs. So, one of my students/football players
Grandfather and I became friends. Ruben (the grand father) is a long
time coon hunter and has trained some mighty good dogs over some 50
years. I basically told Ruben about my dilemma on hunting Blue Boy on
hogs and he suggested just to start hauling the dog with him when he
went coon hunting and we would see if he had it in him to be one. To
make a long story short, we went several times and he was beginning to
find and tree his own coon. One night, I brought along a new dog I was
trying out that had been coon hunted. We turned Blue Boy , the try dog
and Rubens dog loose. They struck pretty soon. However Rubens
dog
went to the right across the fence and the two I brought went to the
left. I knew Rubens dog was sound, and just figured my two were back
tracking. Rubens dog Treed about 300 yards to the right, and low and
behold, my two treed to the left around 150 yards to the left. We
decided to go to my two first since they were closer. I promise the
following is true to the best of my memory!!!! The two dogs were in
the edge of a slough and I couldn't see them due to the thick brush
along the edge of the bank. We walked up to I guess within 20 feet of
them, still not being able to see them but they were chopping hard. I
could see the tree they were barking underneath. I scanned the tree
with my head light and there low and behold sitting out on a limb was
Mr. Coon. Ruben said, "there he sits" I told him I
was going to get
the dogs. I couldn't walk to them, so I was crawling through about 10
to 12 feet of brush through a small opening. The dogs were still
hammering. All of a sudden I heard the slush of water and the dogs
break in barking. I looked up and running full speed towards me was a
bout a 300 LB boar and the dogs were on his rear end. Its amazing how
your life flashes before you eyes in, shale I say "eye opening"
situations. I've seen it three times in my life. Once
when I was at
the Mesquite Rodeo and had my hand hang in my bareback rigging and the
rigging slipped down between the bucking horses two front legs while he
was bucking and stomping the snot out of me. Another at an IRA rodeo
while hung up and the third, this night I'm talking about coon hunting.
It all happened in a flash. What I did was back peddle on my hands
and knees as fast as this fat boy could go, and luckily there was a tree
at the opening. I jumped up, grabbed the tree and pulled my legs up
seemingly all at the same time as the boar ran under and hit my
knees. To this day, I think the dogs just happened to
bay a hog
underneath the same tree a coon was sitting in. I don't crawl in
game
trail holes quite so eagerly any more....haha
Second memory. A man came down to go hunting with me from Lufkin,
Texas during the summer. Due to the heat, we could only start hunting
about 3am after it started to cool off. We caught a nice hog in a
swamp that night that wasn't the easiest hog in the world to get to much
less get out. One of my dogs, Clyde, got an artery in his shoulder
cut
and was bleeding out, so I had to carry him while holding pressure on
the wound. While the others took the dogs and blazed a trail back to
the truck. It took me awhile to get out with Clyde since there was very
little open walking and having to crouch over most of the way out.
Clyde was ok with a little medical attention once I got back to the
truck. It was about day break now. The land owner had stayed
out with
us all night and we were on our way out in the vehicles. Just before we
left, we came across what looked like a fresh crossing. So I turned
my
Babe dog out along with my visitors good cur gyp. In just a little bit,
Babe began to bark along with the other dog. I sent in another dog to
help, and we quickly drove around to a closer area. I had one young
catch dog with me that had been on 3 hogs I think in the woods. All
three times he had done real well, but all three hogs were in fairly
open country when he was used. Well on this hog, the brush and thick
grass was about chest high, I tried turning the young catch dog to
them, but he basically couldn't move at all unless he followed our
tracks in pushing down the brush and grass. We got up to the bay and
all three dogs were baying hard on a real good boar hog pushing 300
lbs.. The catch dog as bad as he wanted to couldn't make it at all
with out help. Basically what we did was, my visitor just grabbed
the
dog and launched him over the brush and grass to the hog. The dog hit
directly on top of the hogs head and the hog went to work on him while
he was down. I guess this took the heart out of the dog because when he
got to his feet after the ordeal, he went to barking and I knew we were
in for trouble now. The hog broke and ran into a uncut milo field about
100 yards before the dogs shut him down again. All I had was a SKS
rifle in my truck, so I went to get it. Two of us walked out into
the
field, with me in the lead holding the gun up. I walked up real slowly
to the bay. You couldn't see a thing until you were right up to it.
I
eased up to get a shot at the hog, and one of my dogs was directly on
the other side of the hogs head and I couldn't shoot, at this point,
I
saw the hog look at me. So did the other man, I said "OH S$^T!"
and
began to ease back. I turned to look and my compadre is already in a
full run back to the four wheeler. I did the same, the hog was in hot
pursuit. I truly don't think he was after me like a rodeo bull is after
a fallen rider, but what I was doing was blazing him a trail to follow
through the thick milo. I had the gun held firmly with both hand
straight up and down in front of me. I felt like at that moment I
was
running for my life...haha I looked back and the hog was right
behind
me with the dogs behind him, I knew I was getting close to the four
wheeler, I looked forward only to come to the crashing conclusion that I
had caught up to my friend and he was stopped at the four wheeler. I
crashed into his back and the front sight of the military rifle crashed
into the top of my nose. the hog ran past, the dogs stopped him and I
quickly harvested him with the rifle. I still think about that hunt
when ever I look in the mirror to comb my hair due to the gashed scar
on my nose. And the young catch dog never spent another night at my
kennel.
Another time a person kinda has a helpless feeling is baying one up
in a rice field. there are no trees are anything but your feet to
use
to get away from them.
I've had quite a few of these encounters, as all hog hunters do with
time. About the best advice I can give you is the same advice I give
people who come over to my training pasture. When your going up to a
bay and the hogs not caught or for that fact is caught. Always look to
see where there is a tree big enough that you can run to and pull
yourself up, 99% of the time the hog will simply run underneath you
and go on his way.... buttttttttttt, I have another story about one
we
caught, tied and then I turned loose that treed me like a coon dog....
that was an exciting one too....haha
Guess that's one of the things that makes hog hunting so wonderful is
the stories we all come up with from the hunts, hardly any are the
same and there's usually always something happen.....haha That's
another reason why we love it i guess....... :-)
Good luck and good hunting,
Jim