Went and made a round with some buddies last night, turning out right after dark. We took only a handful of young dogs and cast them from some high pines going down in to a swampy bottom. We were talking for about 10 minutes and heard them strike about 200yds from us. They got about 550yds from us and everything was sitting down bayed, it sounded like they were about to catch and then everything started moving again. It was slow, making me think a walking bay for a minute. Well they ended up breaking after just a minute and everything started stretching out. After about 30 minutes everything but Red, Ranger, and Monkey started coming back to us.
We decided we would load up the couple pups coming back and then work down towards Red and Ranger, who were out around .95 by that time. We chit chatted for a few more minutes and then heard my scooter dog baying, up towards the truck 200yds from us. My buddy Easy’s little catch dog was sitting there with him and then we heard a squeal so we start up to them. Well we just moved by the sound of the pig, and when we got there we found Desmond’s little female pup by herself on a little pig. We checked the garmin and realized that there were two caught, the other was roughly 190yds from where we were. We grabbed up the pigs and dogs and decided to drive closer to Red and Ranger, they had been working alongside a dirt road, about 300yds off the side of it. Well as we started to head to them I saw Ranger swim the river, but Red stayed and was working the edge.
We were able to get 430yds from Red and we took a catch dog in to him. I had a weird feeling going in to him, he wasn’t baying a nice consistent chop like he normally does. He was letting out a weird screaming bawl for 5-10 seconds at a time and then would go silent for 30 seconds, but I could see he was cutting super tight knots. Well the catch dog (I say that but she’s actually a young dog that’s normally running loose hunting close range, she just catches good and so we decided to lead her in) wouldn’t go to him. So we tried to walk her in closer inside of some small pine saplings and briars and then Red came out to me. At that point I was a little frustrated because I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I walked to where he was circling and thought maybe he killed a piglet and was barking at the dead piglet, which I’ve seen him do before. I never could find anything but some fresh pig turd. The guys said they’ve caught lots of pigs there so my best guess is that he was either trashing or he was running a little piglet in those briars and ended up losing it when it heard us coming in. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t know for sure, but then Ranger sat down bayed at .96 so we loaded up and drove that way.
We pulled in to a little road that went towards Ranger and parked 250yds from him. We walked in to 80yds and didn’t hear anything at all. Now I’m thinking we are 2/2 on disappointments lol. We got to 44ft from him and again, nothing but silence. I started to get a little worried that maybe he was laying there dead, but then he came on out to us. Now I’m thinking both of my young dogs have made me look like a fool, lol. They’ve been my lead dogs for a little while now and have been hunting great, and this just isn’t in character for them. I told the guys to give me just a minute and let me walk in to where he was. Well I’ll be darned, Ranger led me right to a little pig that he had killed. I was real glad since there were two fellas that I hadn’t met before that were hunting with us and I figured it doesn’t look good when my two have passed pigs close to us just to come up with a zero way further out. But I couldn’t be prouder of Ranger. He was over 2 miles as the crow flies from where we cast the dogs, and he had been running for an hour and a half.
I’m not 100%, but I think they struck a momma sow initially and some of the pigs with her tried to hide while she ran. Then when the few came back they just found the pigs that tried to hide. The one Ranger killed was the same size and looked identical, and based off of his track I think he ran that same pig the whole time, he ran beside roads but never left the woods, and skirted the edges of fields, crossed a little river and multiple creeks and finally came to a stop in a finger of woods that came out to make a hedgerow in a field.
Desmond’s Monkey pup bayed something during all this but it broke and he didn’t get it stopped again. He’s pretty rough so I’m betting it was something big. All in all it was a real fun hunt and great experience for the pups. My pups are only 16 months old, the others are somewhere close to that age as well. Nothing big but it was a good start for 2022!
The green track is Ranger, there was a mile of track below this before him and Red split.
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