EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Ive always thought that I looooove to hunt hogs, Im addicted, I have to do it, I cant sleep without dreaming of hunting hogs. Well up until tonight. I finally realized that I do not Looooove to hunt hogs. After spending the night searching, looking, wearing dogs out, looking everywhere. Casting the dogs over and over with nothing to be found. Not a bump, a squeal, a bark, ....... NOTHING! Not EVEN one single TRASH! FOR GODS SAKE!

Nope, its not hunting hogs that I looooove!

Its CATCHING HOGS that I LOOOOOOOOVE!!!!!! YEP, I live for the bay, the flip, and the tie!  ;D  All of that hunting (searching) business is for the birds!

 What about yall? Do you love the hunt or the catch? Why?

I  agree catching is the thing we all look for!! But I love the hunt and spending time with the people I hunt with also and I am sure you do too. It does get depressing when you hunt for several days and don't catch any thing but it happens a lot here in the piney woods where I have to hunt not many hogs and they run like crazy but we catch one every now and then and it is all worth it!!

I think you were just tired and exhausted and a little surprised and disappointed at a dry run. After reading all y'alls exploits and
adventures for a few years I guarantee you are addicted to the whole kit and kaboodle, hunting and catching ;D

Well, here's how I look at it. Its kinda like fishing, you cast and cast never knowing when your gonna get that strike but when you do the fun is on! Wouldn't be much of a hunt if you dropped the dogs and bam a bay. Would probably get old after a while. Hunting builds up the anticipation that when you do hear that bark your adrenaline gets to pumping! Its just fun being out there with your dogs and friends. I do know what you mean sometimes it gets old going and nothing. The past four hunts we haven't caught a thing:( just not a whole lot of sign or they run out of the country.

Its all about the hunt. Sure I enjoy catching hogs like the rest. When I go hunting its usually training dogs or just watching them work. I would be content just baying the hog and calling dogs off but I can't do this every where I hunt.
Not everyone catches hogs everytime out  if they do they got lots of hogs.

The catch is just the prize at the end of the party.

Yep....this is my category.  All about the DOGS....that hunt hogs.  :laugh:

Like you said the hunting part is for the birds. I usually have to drive at least an hour. I want to catch a pig not hunt or run a pig I want to get my hands on him!!

Ok, I was tired, stressed and just ranting last night. Looking, looking, looking, and more looking for hogs got the best of me.
 
I love to take people hunting. Mostly others that hunt like we do. But I also enjoy taking what I call spectators. People who have never hunted hogs with dogs and are there to watch. We took a couple and their son last night. They also invited another couple and their son to go.

 Which is fine but I have noticed that Im a little more stressed than usual with more than two spectators on the hunt. Im not sure why, I just am.

 I think its partly due to the pressure I feel to catch a hog so these spectators can see what they came to see. The longer the hunt goes without producing a catch, the more agitated I feel.

 But I was surprised that we didn't even get on a runner or nothing. I know everyone has dry runs from time to time but we have been catching a lot of hogs in this area. Maybe the hogs have had enough and moved out for a while.


 On another note. This has nothing to do with my thread but its interesting. On one cast last night, we put Buckshot, Tracker, and Sweetpea on the ground.

They made a good couple of circles and then Buckshot and Traker came back. Sweetpea was still out about 200 yards and we heard her yip, and then all of a sudden she made a sound we are not very familiar with, it sort of sounded like she was caught by something and trying to get loose. Like a very distressed choppy bay.

James put two dogs on the ground to go to her in case she was fighting a hog or something. The dogs head her way quickly. We shinned the spotlight in her direction and we see her eyes in the light. She was booking it back towards us really fast. The dogs that we sent to her were working the area that she just came from. She is a seasoned hog dog. She doesn't run from hogs.

She got back to us, we checked her real good for injuries and didn't find anything. She was big eyed and panting hard. The other dogs eventually came back to us also. We were scratching our heads over this.

At the end of the night when we got home, and were putting dogs up, one of our male dogs that was running loose tried to mount Sweetpea. Its about time for her to start coming into heat.

I wonder it her strange encounter was maybe with a male coyote who caught her scent.

They made a good couple of circles and then Buckshot and Traker came back. Sweetpea was still out about 200 yards and we heard her yip, and then all of a sudden she made a sound we are not very familiar with, it sort of sounded like she was caught by something and trying to get loose. Like a very distressed choppy bay.

James put two dogs on the ground to go to her in case she was fighting a hog or something. The dogs head her way quickly. We shinned the spotlight in her direction and we see her eyes in the light. She was booking it back towards us really fast. The dogs that we sent to her were working the area that she just came from. She is a seasoned hog dog. She doesn't run from hogs.

She got back to us, we checked her real good for injuries and didn't find anything. She was big eyed and panting hard. The other dogs eventually came back to us also. We were scratching our heads over this.

At the end of the night when we got home, and were putting dogs up, one of our male dogs that was running loose tried to mount Sweetpea. Its about time for her to start coming into heat.

I wonder it her strange encounter was maybe with a male coyote who caught her scent.
[/quote] we had the samething happen last night we were on a runner and there were alot of yotes around as well. My buddies dog trigger just sat down at 800 yards and wouldn't move. Thought he was caught but go there and hes just standing on a hill in some brush and won't move. Had to pick him up and carry him out a ways before he would walk then he ran to the wheelers. Thinking one of those yotes may have scares him or something cuz they were close!

 we had the samething happen last night we were on a runner and there were alot of yotes around as well. My buddies dog trigger just sat down at 800 yards and wouldn't move. Thought he was caught but go there and hes just standing on a hill in some brush and won't move. Had to pick him up and carry him out a ways before he would walk then he ran to the wheelers. Thinking one of those yotes may have scares him or something cuz they were close!
[/quote] it didn't quote right. My reply

it didn't quote right. My reply
[/quote]


 Its so weird that coyotes would scare the heck out of a dog like that isn't it. I guess it would be like us walking in the woods and having an indian sneak up on us.  ???

Ms. DJ, I bet it was that sasquatch that they were talking about on American Hoggers ! :D He probably migrated North East following available food sources. You should have tried that womans bigfoot call ! ;D ;D

Might sound corny but catching hogs is just a reward/bonus for me. I spend time with my dogs and hunt them because it is the biggest stress reliever I have found. Sure it's frustrating at times when I haven't caught a hog in a while (like the dry runs I've been having) but that's part of it. It's 90% my fault because I don't have access to land that hogs are always on. I love to run in and how the dogs that I am there to seal the deal and flipped the hog but I also love just loading them up and hitting the woods.

 Lmbo! Bigfoot would be my second guess. In that case, I don't blame the dogs for being scared and running back! That Bigfoot scares the heck out of me too! The only two things im scared of is spiders and Bigfoot!  ???

 Of course James said that if there is a bigfoot, he wants to bay and catch him so he can retire.  :D

 Don't get me wrong. I love to spend time with the dogs and watch them do their thing. But last night it was like trying to catch fish in a swimming pool.

 .....plus, I seem to relax and be more in tune with the dogs when there isn't a big group of "spectators" around.  :)

I somewhat disagree. I just love to watch my dogs work a track and just hunt in general. Regardless of catching pigs or not I love being out in the woods. Now yes after several hunts of going dry it gets irritating.  Getting a pig at the end is just a treat for the dogs and a excuse for me to brag about them to my buddies.  ;D

Seems like we go huntin all the time. Every now an then we catch one  ;D

To me the hunting is like the foreplay. I do love the hunt but I want some action after a while or I ain't happy.

Hahahah!!!

I NEVER like dry runs!

I don't mind so much the hunts where the dogs strike and get out ran. I don't like it when they get burnt. But...on these hunts you learn and so do your dogs.

With me...the age of my dogs more often dictates how I feel about the outcome of the event, lol.

running to the bay and flipping the hog is my favorite part...i love going in for the catch!!!

X2

I never like getting out ran. To me that just means my dogs quit. Which they tend to do that a lot.

what i like most about hunting is getting on a hog thats got nothing on its mind but running, i know this sounds crazy but i like for them to run for several hours and then later on in the day and several miles later it has to come to a bay. to me that just shows good dog work and thats what i like, if it was up to me i wouldnt even take a bulldog hunting, when the bay dogs bayed id drive my fourwheeler in there and make him break and have another race. im sure im probably the only one in the united states like this but its just what i like. so id guess youd say i like the hunting the most

I like to catch atleast 1. It don't have to be big but I want 1 every time. I don't get that but hey that's what I want. Even when duck hunting I like to get atleast 1.  It's not so much for me but for the dogs. Kinda like a reward. I prefer not to have to chase dogs all day or night that is just agrivateing. Dry runs don't bother me to much because it happens sometimes but dry runs for me turn into trash breaking sessions that I'm not sure I'm winning.

Note to self.

Buy more shock collars or rat shot. Something.

This part to me is tough. I'm like that with spectators and anyone I may invite to hunt. If I can't get them on a pig within an hour I start to stress. If I can figure out the right area they moved to before the end of hunt and we get a race I'm fine. If its a runner and they can't stop it well that's on them. I did what I said I would do and got them on a pig.