Got into some family groups

[Hollowpoint]

Went to a public place a couple hours north of me Friday, we get parked and start walking down the road. There was some relatively fresh sign and the dogs were zooming all around trying to figure it out. We keep pressing forward but the dogs still haven’t lined one out yet.

We cross the creek and the dogs start splitting up in groups, then we hear the first domino fall, a couple bacon bits, then they get the sow in some water. Another group of young dogs stop a sow about 1/4 mile away right in the middle of some of the nasty briers. It was nice walking until we get to the bay, then it was like she went into a concertina wire factory.

We have a pair of youngsters that show bayed way off, and they’ve been there for a while. One is my friends young walker hound and the other my newest (7 mo old) catahoula gyp named Lacy. She’s showing a lot of natural hunting instinct and can get gone. We finally make it to where the young dogs are and it’s another sow about 80lb or so. They have her in a creek and by the time we get on scene it’s been about 45 minutes.

I had two dogs run a track and end up on someone’s private property. Owner calls me and tells me he tied them to his fence in front of his place. I’m still a mile and a half from my truck and hoofing it, when my Dan dog decides he wants to go in another direction. He doesn’t respond to me calling or toning him, I figure I’ll deal with him later.

I get to my first two missing delinquents and they’re just like he said, box them up and start looking for the other one. Question mark city and a long ways off on some private land. The owners were super nice and actually drove me around their property in their buggy looking for him. That’s the VIP treatment I was not expecting. I get back in my truck and drive back towards we’re we let out, when this drive track I got gets a hit and says he’s treed up ahead. My alpha 100 still showing no comm, he’s right on my shirt I left. The alpha gets a signal right when I get close.

All in all a good day, all young dogs and they got a lot of experience trailing, stopping and baying. This little gyp I think is going to be a firecracker, she shows me more than any other pup I’ve had at that age. I hope she stays alive long enough to prove it.

[t-dog]

Sounds like the dogs were hustling and learning. That’s good to see. That pup has a pretty head shape and a good look in her eye.


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[Hollowpoint]

As a side note, the fella who caught my two dogs and tied them, being a non hog hunting land owner, does what a lot of folks around here do is utilize the state trappers. Apparently the trapper was there when my dogs showed up, he’s telling me how we scatter hogs all over the state by hunting dogs. I was on a mission and being as nice as I could, just wanting to get my dogs back and thought it best not to engage in a debate at that time.

I’ve heard people say that before, I’m of the opinion those hogs are going to go where they can eat for free and be near water and shelter/cover. I don’t think we put them in areas where they’ve never been before. I figure the trappers say that because it helps their cause, if I was a trapping a property I would not run dogs on it or thermal hunt it. But in general, I disagree with the premise.

[The Old Man]

  That trappers theory is ridiculous to anyone that thinks logically. Hogs unmolested in a decent habitat will reproduce until that habitat struggles to support them. At that point (if not before due to natural roaming) they don't practice population control, nor all die off. They venture out looking for another sustainable area. As population grows it spreads out, just look at humans. Look at the bear in Ok and Ark, there was a time there were virtually no bears there, Arkansas reintroduced them many years ago and they did well, began to spread out all over the state and into adjoining states. It doesn't take hogs as long due to their reproduction rate, bear do not raise cubs more than every other year, normally less than 3 are born . Usually do not breed before 3 years old or older. Hogs breed much younger (6-8 mos) have more pigs, and in a good year, may well have 2 litters. That old crap about them having 10-12 in a litter 3 times a year is not truly viable in hog farms much less in the wild, but still a higher reproduction rate than most wild animals, and have few natural predators.

[t-dog]

It’s probably better that it was you than me because I would’ve engaged him in the debate. Ask him what the 3 concerns of ANY wild animals are? Answer: Food, water, and safety Question 2 would be how many hogs is your trapper catching at a time,  how regular, and what is the average size of the hogs being caught? The how many is subjective to how many there are in the group to potentially be trapped and the type of trap being used. He might trap a few a day for a few days and then it’s likely over until all those bigger hogs that watched the dumb smaller ones get trapped have another litter, and he will catch fewer of the next litter because the sow will school the coachable pigs. Most of the trapped hogs will be big shoats and smaller sows, especially if the hogs have ever been exposed to traps before. Maybe he’s never had traps on his place before but likely someone in close proximity has. What is used to get the hogs to go in the trap? Food and when the dumb hogs go in and get trapped, the smart ones hang around and cause damage because their pigs are in the traps. Once the dumb ones are all caught, the smart ones keep coming to eat what food they can without jeopardizing being caught. So essentially you are just continuing to invite them. You aren’t giving them a reason to go elsewhere. Down here in our area we have a different dynamic than the oldman does where he’s at. We caught two sows one day that both weighed 170-180 each and both were close to pigging. Out of curiosity we cut them open to see how many pigs they were carrying. They had 12 a piece/24 total in them. Now how many would’ve survived out of those I don’t know, but it isn’t uncommon at all to bay 4-5 sows and them have 25-30 pigs between them. We have consistent groups of 50 or more hogs if you count grown hogs and pigs or shoats. Now what causes those litters to get smaller and what causes fewer sows to have pigs? Stress does and the only two stressors a wild hog has is Mother Nature and humans for the most part. We have watched litters go from every sow having multiple pigs to only one or two sows having 2-3 pigs during the droughts. Those litters also get smaller when they are getting pressured in every way possible by humans. That pressure takes its toll. The spreading them is absolutely bs too. There are too many cameras that prove that. I have seen numerous times that we’ve hit a place and catch multiple hogs in a day and that very evening or night the same group would be back on camera at a feeder or water hole again. They may scatter while we are hunting, but when we leave they regroup. They don’t just take off running every direction and put down roots wherever they run out of gas. I talked to a guy about a month ago. We were hunting and he was getting hogs out of a trap on the same property. We were in there about a week prior to that. He told me that he trapped 34 or 3500 head of hogs in 2025. That sounds like a lot but he has numerous traps and will trap anywhere within 50-60 miles of home, providing the land owner lets him know when there are hogs in the trap. That trapper you are speaking of is full of it and I would’ve told the land owner to not let people prey on his lack of wild hog knowledge. It should be insulting for people to think they can just blow smoke and manipulate you. I’d have told him that his trapper has an uneducated theory and that I have definitive proof and he was welcome to go with me anytime to see it first hand.


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[make-em-squeel]

nice looking dog/s

[Hollowpoint]

Old Man, I agree with everything you said, in the moment my mind was focused on getting to the truck and getting those dogs back without getting him anymore frustrated. I could hear in his voice, he wasn’t exactly pleased with my dogs coming on his place, and I was glad he just didn’t shoot them.

T dog, same deal, you guys can articulate the facts much better than I can. But given the circumstances I just wanted to get them back and not let them get hit on the road or someone driving by picking them up. I was stressing out a little bit, in the end it turned out ok. We had a decent talk and if I end up over there again, I feel I have a better than average chance of a positive outcome.

Again in the moment being a mile and a half away from the truck, I took the diplomatic approach (which is not my norm), in an attempt to maintain cool heads for the well being of those dopey dogs.

make em, thank you.

[t-dog]

Hey at the end of the day you gotta do what you think is best for you and your dogs. You were there to know the mod and situation.


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[NLAhunter]

Sounds like good hunt sounds like they are wanting to work

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[cajunl]

Good hunt and good looking dogs.

A lot of times its not worth the hassle. People have their mind made up.

Its the same thing, that the dogs run deer off. We all know it doesnt! Cell cameras prove the fact over and over.

The guys that run deer dogs will have a buck on camera and run him, try to kill him. That same buck will be on the same corn pile that evening. But you can show a deer hunters the picture with the proof and they still wont believe you!

[t-dog]

Two things promote learning. The most common promoter are hard lessons. If you walk head on into a tree, you either either learn to walk around it or suffer the consequences. The second promoter is want to. If a person wants to learn they can be taught. Those that want to learn are usually the open minded type. Close minded people learn anything they learn the hard way if they learn it at all.


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[HuntingHeritage]

 I believe if hunting hogs with dogs affected trapping in any measurable way, other nations like Australia and Japan whose government agencies are for the most part in not dog hunter friendly would have ended the practice long ago.