EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

I was reading the topic on "rollin out" and I guess I've changed a lot in my old age because I don't even care if my dogs "roll out" whereas I used to want them to.  As I ponded the reason for not caring anymore, I realized why I quit caring.  Most of the real big boars are loners and usually when a dog starts rolling out its obviously a group of hogs and rarely does any of the roll out bays produce a top quality boar.  Now I realize there are exceptions to this but for the most part a lot of guys would have to agree that you'll probably just end up with a bunch of tied sows and shoats!  The real big boars are mostly found alone and bayed up quickly and caught if a guy has some good catch dogs.  These big hogs usually think they can whip every dog in the country and won't run a lick.   Now the more I thought the more I realized that my ideal of a good hunt would bore most guys to death!!!!   I don't care one bit about catching a giant with teeth like deer ribs hanging out and I'm to lazy to chase a dog that's baying hog after hog every hundred yards.  I like the race!!!   The longer the better!!  Now on work nights I prefer a little different approach but when I have the time I'll turn more plotts into a bay instead of catch dogs just to break the bay and run the hog some more.  Well I'm sure by now ya'll all think I'm crazy, but that's my thing now a days!!  My ideal of a successful hunt would be a 8-10 mile race with good road access to keep me in hearing distance and a good bay-up at the end and the size of hog don't even matter.  Now I know that sounds stupid so lets hear what everyone wants out of a good hunt?  Good dog work, Big hogs, Big numbers, Big toothed hogs, or just any Ol' pig and a good time with the friends???    Please don't use this post to attack my "idiotic ways" of hunting!!!  lol

I'm with you there... I love a good, long race with a hog at the end. That's the kind of dog work I like to see.

Agreed, I'd rather see a dog hunt his tail off, grub out an old track, get in a good long race, and bay up a 150 pound hog, then stumble across a big boar hog crossing the road in front of us, that stops a hundred yards in the bushes. I guess As long as I don't see the dog, either bayed up or I go pick him up somewhere, I'm happy,..weird I know

Any hunt that ends with a pig or one where a dog learned something or I learned something and every one made it out ok is a success to me

U love to hear the race. I do also. Growing up running deer dogs that's was half the fun. I love to catch a good hog also. As long as I have fun. get to see the dogs work.plenty of laughing with friends. no dogs get hurt. That is a successful hunt. A pig at the end is all the better. I think to many get hung up on the biggest or most pigs and miss the real enjoyment of the hunt. 


Shotgun
Arkansas

^^^^like it

Alvin- you couldn't have said it better man.  I pack as many hounds in my Ranger as I can, just to turn them all loose.  I am happiest when they are all out running in a tight pack and my dog box is empty.  Just me and the bulldog sitting their listening to a race, sipping on something cold to drink.  I like it when I have four or five dogs packed up so tightly it looks like one dog on the garmin.  The bigger and longer the loops on the garmin, the better I like it.  I guess a lot of fellows like to be zoomed in on the garmin.  I like being zoomed out so I can predict where the hog is going to next, if I am lucky, I can get around and see him cross and then see a bunch of hounds cross behind him.  When those hounds cross Im watching to see who is in the lead.  Lead dog tends to get a little more in the food bowl at the end of the night! 

Agree with shotgun

My idea of a good hunt is a dog taking a cold trail for a couple miles striking the hog. Letting the hog tie its running shoes and start running. Go kick some fast dogs to the race, three hours later kick some more fast dogs to the race, hopefully get a bay after a few more hours. Then a good catch with the bulldogs. Stick that runnin sob or cut his nads. The end :)

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My favorite hunts are like this. Haul the dogs til I see a decent track not a monster but about a 150-200lb and put about two dogs on his track they trail about 300 yards and bay him in the bed for a few min and then break and run about 5 or so miles and we go pack a few young dogs in and they bay again with a few of the young dogs there that has made about two or three hours of race and then break again and run another hour or two and then they finally bay him but it's going to take about a hour to drive around to and get around there and they are barking every breath and then catch the hog. My buddy's are not like this they want to catch a lot. But to me I love to run them for a while before we catch them and I like to pack dogs on tracks.

Alvin, You know where I stand.lol Just read my caption under my signature. haha

I knew I could count on Mike and Jon!!!   LOL  Ya'll didn't let me down.

Alvin, Last time I hunted with Mike ( and NathanO we had 12-14 hounds running a 150 hog.  He ran a mile or so down the levee turned and ran all the way back.  It was a good race for sure.  We were so happy listening to the race and turning more dogs in, we le the hog slip out in front of us and cross the levee.  You should have seen that pack of hounds cross the levee..it was like you stepped on a pile of ants!  The hog hit the water and the canes and we ended up catching a smaller hog, but the race made that one of the best hog hunts I've been on in a long time.  I LOVED seeing those hounds cross the levee!!  You could hardy tell which one was which.

let me see...big ranch...no palmettos and about 50 degrees...fairly open woods and I have 5 dogs out and not much hog sign...as I move along I see the dogs running at 1/2 throttle on the hunt...as long as I see a dog now and then I know there isn't a hog around...then I hear 3 chops and all the dogs head out...I stop and pull that old reliable tracker and I see all the dogs are running the cold track and running silent...I check a few minutes later and they are still running together...I slowly move in their direction...stop and check again and all the dogs are together in one spot...check in 2 minutes and still the same spot...caught hog...get here and it is a big boar already wore down...dogs are tired but keeping him bayed...I tell the dogs to get back and I shoot the hog with the 22 mag...load the dogs up and back to the house...

or same scenario but a 2 hour race and caught hog...

Hey where you guys from did not no so many liked listning to the hounds run a hog. most tell me they wont a silent dog or you cant catch a hog anymore.

Im with you Reuben, those are fun hunts even if it is thick!

Maybe this is y hogs run as bad as they do these days if y'all want to hear dogs barking all night and don't care if y'all catch anything r not y'all should get apack of yota dogs

Well red79 I knew someone would have something smart to say!  You can always tell who is having trouble catching hogs!   They'll always fine a reason its someone else's fault.  The reason the hogs run is because the ones that don't run are in someones trailer.  If a hog don't run a bunch of city slickers can catch him with collie dogs and a couple pits!  This whole topic was a trap!!  Just the reply I expected from a guy that needs to grade his dogs on numbers or size off a hog and not the difficulty of the hog his dogs catch!

Alvin, I bet you play a pretty good game of checkers.lol

I also agree, growing up with deer dogs and hearing that race for what seemed like days, makes the hunt the best, now I get the point of getting in and catching a hog right away is fun from time to time when you are planning on hunting a short time, but hell when I go I make it a point to hunt as long as I want to, I love hearing them dogs in the distance working a  cold trail.

Short race long race...makes no difference to me. Even if the hog bays in his bed you don't have to catch him right away, lol. Haven't done it in a while but "back in the day"  rolleyes we'd sit and watch the dogs work...5 minutes...10 minutes before we let the CD's go. THATS what I like. I need to start doing that again.

I like turning the dogs out and having a god time with friends. pig(s) or not if your having a good time with friends/family and no dogs are hurt that's a successful hunt.  Ive goose egged more times than I care to mention but they were all still successful. 

Goose egg is all I know, I just like stirring these guys alittle!!!  Lol!   

But if I go on a work night during the week I like to turn out early as I can catch 1 or run one and get on back to the house it always don't work out like that but when it does it's pretty nice. I try to only put on one hog during a work night that second turn out will make things turn into a all nighter but when I'm off work i go to hunt for however long whether it be 2 hours or 8 hours I enjoy good dogs working

yea it doesn't get much bettter in my eyes than sitting back on the side x side and just closing your eyes while listening to the hound singing away in the woods on a trail.  Buddies won't hunt with me much anymore because of the "Open" aspect of it, but doesn't bother me a bit.  Reminds me of when i hunted hounds with my dad, we would just sit on the tailgate and i'd look at him, his eyes closed with a big grin on his faces listening to the hounds singing away.  I sure miss the ole man.

Sometimes we can see better with our eyes closed...  :)

I try not to stir too much, Notice I said NOTHING about the WAY I hunt.  Never hunted hounds so I cat say id enjoy hearing a race or not.  I do know I don't like my dogs barkin unless they are bayed, so sitting back waiting for my buddies and I is listening to each others BS stories as opposed to listening to the dogs.

Win, lose or draw, if I feel like a dog or dogs have given me their best effort in the style I like and breed for, then I'm happy. I call that a successful hunt, wheather I catch it or not.

Guys I am in Central Louisiana (around Alexandria) and I hunt 5-6 open hounds and one cur dog.  If you've never hunted behind  hounds, I invite you to come along and hunt with me sometime.  If you cant make it here, try to hunt with someone else who has hounds.  Hunting hounds might not be for everyone but if you've never hunted behind hounds and you want to know what its like, I'll be glad to let you tag along.  You can bring your dogs and we can try to make a good hunt.

Out of the guys that posted on this thread how many grew up running hounds on deer. I think that may be part of the lure of the song of the hound. I was raised this way and sure do miss those days of 20 family members showing up about 5 and watching the old guys sit and talk dogs and drink coffee then bout good daylight everybody was in there spots when the tailgate dropped. Oh how I miss it. Even hunting the dogs down once they left hearing. Lol


Shotgun
Arkansas

Yep you boys are crazy.  Kinda different for me the fasterthe catch the better but most of my hunts are short and smaller properties. 

Just wondering all you fellas that like to run a hog how big are y'all spots I have a few spot of 1200 acres but most are 800 or less and my dogs cover them fairly fast just thinking out loud they must b some big land

Shotgun, you might say I was raised in a dog rich environment . I grew up in Fla. & all my family had running Walkers for deer dogs. We rabbit hunted, squirrel hunted, bird hunted, & coon hunted. If we hunted, it was with dogs. Just a way of life.
  When we started hog hunting in La. it was with curs. Back when I was a lot younger it was about how many you catch & how big. Now it is all about the dog work. We had Russian hogs brought into our part of the country in the early 70's & that really changed things. I will say I lucked up & got some pretty good cat curs from Sow Smith. They ran hogs in woods & kept that line of dogs. Rangy built that went about 40-55#. They had good noses & were 4-6 hour dogs on running hogs. If they were in hard running shape they could do better but I caught a lot of the runners with them. Along about 1980 I got into Plotts & started bear hunting a little bit.
  Now, whether a cur or plot, to me the most enjoyment I get is finding a track, putting a dog or two on it to get it started & listen to them coldtrail it up. If it breaks & the race is on, that is even better because I like to break them down. A lot of the time, the dogs that start it, are not always the dogs that finish it, but that is the way it is.
  It also does not matter if it is a cur or hound. As long as that dog puts forth the effort, that is about all I can ask.
  Judge, I have a 12000 acre lease that surrounds my place on 3 sides & it is not always big enough but we have other places that big or bigger but it seems like every year we are loosing spots to hunt.

Most places I hunt are large. The biggest being about 30000 acres but most people around here where I hunt don't mind if you come across the line to get a dog so it's usually not a problem if a dog runs across two land owners. I have 60 acres by my house and I might cross 10 different peoples line before I get my dog back but like I say most are good people it's usually out of town deer hunters that have something to say. If I had to hunt smaller places I would use a different caliber dog one that won't bark just grab but i sure hope it don't ever come to that.

I didn't grow up with hunting dogs.  I got serious about hog hunting about 13 years ago.  I learned from a guy from FL that had FL curs.  When I came to Louisiana, I met some guys that had cur dogs for hogs and hounds for deer and coyote.  I built a foundation and for the first few years I ran nothing but curs.  I had what I felt were some good cur dogs.  I could turn them out on a pretty fresh track and they would fo 4,6,8-- yds and bay.   It was fun, but I was concerned about the inconsistency of the cur dogs.  I talked to a friend that had plotts and I decided to try one out.  I took a 7 month old gyp that had never seen a hog before and I put her on a track.  She left out and trailed that hog about 900 yds (no garmins back then).  She bayed the hog and I was hooked ever since.  I hunt everything from national forest to 26,000 acre lease to 3500 acre leases.  Most people are pretty decent around here and don't mind you going on their property just to retrieve a dog.  When they find out I am hog hunting the say get dog and the hog!

I just like good cold nosed hunting dogs that will hunt!  Mt dogs have a lot of stick and they stayed bayed when the going gets tough.  I find the plot breed to be very versatile and extremely tough.  Combine this with good speed and good mouth; it makes a great hunting dog for me.  I also like the fact that I can take my dogs to other parts of the country and they will run bear.  There is not doubt in my mind that they will run cats or just about anything else I put them on.

Just me.  And yes I like to hear a good pack of hounds hammering on any game.  I think a lot if depends on where you from too.  Hounds are strongly preferred in the mountains where you need to hear dogs.

The more I hunt the more I appriceate good dog work. I used to be all about hear a dog bark then haul a$$ drop the tralgate send the pack and 3 bulldogs so he don't run off! Lol but now I don't run but prolly 2-4 loose loose dogs and like to sit there and watch my garmin. Look on the map and see wat they're doing. Learn alot more about my dogs that way.  I also started hunting with some old timers from Arkansas that moved over here and one gentleman had a place that's 14,000 acres and he doesn't get out of his ranger. The only reason I get to come is for manual labor! Lol. He'll drive me as close as I can to a bay and there will only be 2-3 dogs on the ground ill go catch the dogs, flush the hog out, wait for a minute, then out 2-3 more fresh dogs on the track and most of the time the hog will run back to the group..... They'll rally, ill catch the dogs, flush the hogs out, they go everywhere, and turn loose and do it again. It's a blast! It's also really good for young dogs.

The biggest place I have to hunt is 10k acres. But as long as the dogs are running a hog I would say I could go 10 miles any direction and not find anyone that wouldn't let me go get my dogs. The smallest place I have hunted was 40acres but again neighbors said kill them all. I have very few places I can't with standing permission go get my dogs. A couple places want a call. 1 place has told me they had rather me cut them off before they cross but u gotta go get the dogs and kill the hog.

For the record I know lots of people around me and have a good reputation that has kept me out of trouble.


Shotgun
Arkansas

successful hunts are hunts that stand out in my mind from the past...

we are cruising along and I see my dog put his nose up in the wind and starts going into the wind...I am thinking the hogs are about 1/4 mile ahead in a wooded area...the dogs keep moving at a steady pace and just pass that area up and I am trying to second guess the location and the dogs go about a mile total into another wooded area and catch a hog...that was a highlight I won't forget...

another time we were headed to a spot that had hogs according to the ranch hand...on the way one of my dogs put his nose up and went in the briars and came back out...right away I saw what was happening so I was going to put the dog where he could pick up the scent again...but my friend wanted to go catch these other hogs so we kept on going...I like working out all possible strike but I went along with the original plan but made that mental note of the location...we went ahead and caught 3 or 4 hogs pretty quick out in the open prairie...on the way back the dog picked his nose up into the wind in that same spot...I turned into the wind and as I was riding I saw that the briars and brush was thick and way over the dogs heads so they were losing the hog scent I kept going into the wind and at some point the dogs picked up again and went on and caught a big sow...they dogs rolled out on another hot track and we caught another that had almost made it to the river...the right terrain and weather with excellent dog work not only makes it successful hunt but one that will never be forgotten...