I have owned a few and have hunted behind many. I do not own a blue anymore for hog huntin. But I would be curious to see what other people's experiences have been with them.
I have found that they aren't as good to me as a catch dog compared to the rednose pit or americans. But alot of places you get your blue pits from around here are show dogs or they come from a line of show dogs . They just don't seem to have the heart to be that great catch dog you want. In my opinion of course.
They go crazy for a hog like any hog dog does but I have seen a few get banged up and turn around and leave the hog standing there with their tails tucked.

Not meaning this to discourage anyone of blues I'm just speaking my experiences and curious of others.

Redriver--- I use dc50s dc40s and dc30s. The 50s in my opinion are better than the 40s and 30s.  Buddy of mine we hunt together all the time. He has nothing but 40s . Just the other day we had one of my dogs with a dc50 and one of his with a dc40 get straightened out on a big boy and they run almost 2 miles from us. I had both dogs on my garmin and that dc40 did nothing but lose communication . My dc50 was the only thing we were relying on because we pretty much knew his dog was with mine and vise versa. So these are the reasons why I believe in the 50s better.

Cajun , thank you these are the pocahontas plotts I got from Eugene.
Out of his male "Poncho 2" and one of his females " ole miss".

Thought it was appropriate to throw my 2 pups out there. 5 months old.

This has been an argument around our parts for a long time .
However like mentioned already it's personal preference. 
I have owned APBT that were the real deal. I have never owned an ambull but have legged a bit of hogs using one. I believe there are pros and cons to both breeds of course like any anything.
But what I have found to be the best catch dog for our situation is American bulldog X APBT.

We are covered with palmettos and thick briar patches . Not only does a full blood  American sound like a freight train going to the bay but it takes him a little longer to get there cause of his size . But if the hog does break the Americans have more stamina to run than the APBT.

APBTs are more light on their feet get through the thick stuff well and do better in the tight quarters . They aren't quite as loud running in and  when they get there and the hog wants to fight, well bring it on because APBT is a hogs worst nitemare.

So what we have started trying out (along with multiple other hog doggers) is the ambull/ Apbt cross. Perfect scenario is 3/4 Apbt 1/4 ambull. This gives you a mid size hell on paws that will run and fight till he dies . With jaw power to hold any hog .

Hope this adds value to this thread . Thanks for reading .

Cajun , I hope you asked Santa for that picture of the beer bayed in the creek blown up in a frame for Christmas.  That is a heck of a picture my friend.

Indeed what a good topic oconee. Good hog with some good lookin plots.

I had a 2 acre pen out of regular field fencing and wood posts.
Stretched a strand of hog wire around the bottom of the whole pen . Made a 20 ft by 20 ft holding pen inside the 2 acre pen out of hog panel stapled to the inside of thicker wooden posts with posts closer together than usual probably every 5 foot. The holding pen is where I brought new hogs and put them in there for a couple days and fed the rest of the hogs near by. Usually when you let the new hog out he went straight to the pack on most occasions and didn't try to escape. The holding pen worked great for getting what hog you wanted to butcher out or training puppies or cutting boars whatever.

I agree with the above replies. Buddy of mine that I hunt with has some of the most broke hounds I have ever seen. If he has a problem with a hound jumping and running deer. He will take the hound hunting at night. Ride around till a deer jumps the road and puts that hound on it. He said wait till the dog is running him good a couple hundred yards in and gas him with the shock collar. He stressed to me to not shock the dog right off the road or when returning to the road. He said it only takes a couple times.
Good luck I hope you get it worked out.

Yes. It's not hard to figure out when a gator has ruined your day. You will track the dog (if collar wasn't bitten ) but even then you will have a ? At the scene. But you will track them to the water and if the garmin is still working at the time you could be standing on the edge of the water and watching the dogs position on your garmin change when it's pointed out into the pond . Now the guy that hunts with us did get that gator and if I remember the story right he retrieved one of his collars back. But mainly he wanted that gator gone to eliminate another threat. 11 footer in the woods you hunt isn't a good thing.

Lol Georgia Hawgs I guess we are raised in it and it's all we know so it's not a big deal. Gators can be a true pain in the ass that's for sure. Mainly in the warmer months . But recently a guy that hunts with us lost some dogs to a 11 footer. So that kind of thing is what bothers us the most. Florida can be tricky. From the venomous snakes to the gators to the terrain.
But you know I live in Lakeland Florida which is about 3 in a half hours south of Perry where we hunt.
The woods around the house and local to us aren't near as thick and nasty as Perry woods.  The Perry woods will make or break ya to be a Florida hog hunter .

I agree horseback is definitely a great advantage at times I'm sure. I'm jealous of that I admit.
However us here in these Florida swamps especially in the Perry area 80% of the hog bays are in the thickest  "wait a minute vines " you ever seen.  Horse would probably throw you off and look at you like you were stupid if you tried to get him in there to the hog. Lol

So we pretty much have to man up and drag them out of the block by hand in order to do anything with them.

Drug this one out alive. Half hitch the bottom jaw or top which ever is better for hog. Then half hitch the snout shut with same piece of mule tape. Then tie in a stick handle.  Have your partner tie in a stick handle on the tag end of the hog tie and get after it.

Lol yea let me know what they say. Give them the link to this thread. Haha.

I'm not real sure how long the 50 has been out but I know not long. Maybe a year in a half? I could be wrong.
But in my opinion I don't think you did bad for buying that 320/50 combo . I have no complaints of them . Especially if you bought brand new you shouldn't have any issues for a few years and maybe longer.  I still have dc30s working and they have been around for a long time. So what I'm trying to do is pick up what 50s I can for a good price and sticking with them till they quit on me. Lol
Just to save money .
Only thing that's aggravating is eventually all the brand new ones will be gone and only thing you will be able to buy is used or refurbished.

Oh ok. I figured without having a bark detection it wouldn't know the difference in when a dog is "sitting down" or "treed" .

Well hopefully I can get a few more of the 50s and have them for a few more years before I have to worry about upgrading . By then the prices on the alpha will be cheaper and I'll upgrade and be behind for the next unit I'm sure. Lol.

Yea just read that the T5 does not have bark detection and the battery life is actually slightly lower than the dc50.  Apparently it was designed for the competition hunters.

I understand the business aspect of it. But what about customer service. Look at how obsolete replacement collars and parts are for the dc30 . I still have 3 or 4 dc 30s . Not to mention you find replacement collars for a dc30 and they are double the price of a replacement collar for a dc40 or 50.  There almost forcing you to upgrade, but I guess that's just the way it is.

If I remember reading correctly the t5's do not have the bark indicator in them. So does this mean it won't show "treed" anymore? That will suck because I like that feature.
I know my logic is far from most people and garmin especially but if it's not broke don't fix it.
Is the t5 that much better than the dc50? All I have seen is battery life improvement . Which in my case I have no problems with battery life on collars.  ( I'm talking from a person using the astro 320 that doesn't benefit from the advantages of the alpha)  I'm just to far behind I guess. I finally venture out into the dc50 world and they quit making them . Lol..

I wonder what the reasoning is behind that decision if that is indeed the case. I personally haven't had any problems with the dc50s.
The t5's in my opinion from just comparing them to the older garmin collars aren't any better and they are more expensive . 

I heard rumor that Garmin is no longer making the DC50 collar..
Does anyone know this to be a fact or is it just a rumor.

I'm hoping that it's not true because I happen to like mine.
Thank you.