high fence training

A couple of years ago, I was invited by a hunting buddy and his father to help them do some catching at a pen. They run curs and at the time had no bulldog. I had a decent dog, but nothing special at the time. To sweeten the offer, they invited me to bring my hounds too. This 500 acre high fence ranch is known for having some machetes in there. Basicallly, they have a 100 acre meat hog section, and a 500 acre trophy section. Somehow, the meat hogs had tore the fence, and had migrated to the "trophy" section. As the owner would guide hunts, they would only see little guys and gilts at the feed stands. He was just wanting them caught, and moved back into the other side. Well, my buddy's dad used to guide on this high fence when they had a dog hunt for a customer. Anyway, we loaded up the dogs, and headed for the place. Within 5 minutes of closing the gates behind our trucks, we saw a hog. He was a boar, but by no means was he a trophy. We sent two of my hounds along with 2 curs to stop him. Basically, my hounds being turned loose, was just to let them get some reps. The curs could have handled the boar by themselves. Anyway, as luck would have it, the boar ran one of my gyps down, and stabbed her good. That was a bad feeling knowing that it was going to be a long day ahead. As time went on, we caught plenty of hogs. Every other animal in there was as tame as it gets. As the truck would go by, they would follow behind looking for feed. I realized right then that hunting a high fence was not for me. Only the hogs in there were afraid of human interaction. During the course of the morning we bayed no less than 15 different hogs. We got tired of throwing hogs as you can imagine. Around lunch, his curs struck and bayed a boar that was about 250, maybe even 260 pounds. This boar was one of the trophies. He was rank. After about 45 minutes of trying to get the curs out of harms way, we were told to just catch him, and load the dogs in the truck. We were then going to go to another spot on the ranch. Well, I get the video camera out. Then, I pull the bulldog off the box. I'm about 65 yards from the bay. They are in possition to leg the boar, so they say, "release the beast". Off he went. He crashed directly into the boars head. Next thing I know, the dog is shaking his head, like "what in the world was that all about". He immediately turned and caught the ear. Richard legged the monster, and threw him to the dirt. We all took dogs to the truck. On the way with the bulldog, I saw a lot of blood. Once the coast was clear, Richard hit a tree, and the boar jogged off. As I inspected the dog, I thought his eye was missing. His face looked like he had run head on into a train. I told them that I had had enough "FUN", and whenever they were ready, I would gladdly start the 2 hour ride home. Everyone agreed that we should stop before anything got killed. The land owner thanked us for our help, and we went to the house. Once there, I went to really cleaning the wounds. His eye was there, it was just covered by a layer of hamburger that had flipped down over the eyelid. After some down time (2 months), he healed up just fine. After that, I decided that those trophy ranches have the hogs they have, because they are placed in there. They have proved themselves as trophies. With that fact, and the fact that I did not see much sport in running dogs in a 500 acre pen, I decided that was not for me. I'll take my chances on the open. You never know what you're going to get into, but that is part of the excitement. Questions lead to excitement. 40 pound shoalt or 300# boar, no fences for me.