Lost some teammates.. Long read*

Before I get started... Sorry for being long winded.

But at the end of this all I left out of this place with one dog, a brand new catch vest lost, a rcd in it, and a decent bay, and hell of a future star my 2nd best strike. All lost to the biggest baddest barr I've ever been on. To be honest I left a little teary eyed.

Got a call from a buddy of mine that has leased land and has his cattle on it. All together 2,000 acres. Call and says hey man I got this place for you to come out and get some pigs off. So as I thought good deal I'll head there tomorrow ( this was sunday ) and do a little hunt maybe bay up a few and see what this place has to offer, so I can hit it hard in a couple weekends.

Started off this morning ( today) like usual headed off around 10. Got to the place around 1045. Let my team lose and had my rcd on the lead. ( my team; Mtn cur gyp/main strike catahoula male/ back up strike and a leggy catahoula/ bay) Walked through a creek bottom where my buddy had seen the tracks. Sure enough about 10 mins later my gyp lets out at 350. All my dogs are immediately there had what I thought a regular good sized pig bayed up. So as I get there it's actually on the lake front. Cat tails and thick mud everywhere. They had the pig inside the cat tails so I couldn't see and I was about 30 yards out. I knew they had a pig so I cut my rcd lose. I heard the enitial hit and heard nothing but a grunt. All of a sudden I hear a dog squel and and a bunch of brush rustling. As Im looking I see the biggest damn pig I've ever seen. I'm not gonna put a weight on it because I know my adrenaline was pumping and through off probably what I actually saw. But I will promise this much . That this pig had at least 4" hardware and had his withers come out far enough I could see them at 20-40 yards. Easily over 300lbs. So back to the story. I see my rcd shrilling as bloods comin out of its mouth and as she's on one side of the pigs cutters. I'm thinking well number 2. But I notice that there was only one dog that came out of the cat tails my gyp. So I don't have time to go investigate so I just flagged the place on my garmin and headed off after the pig. 250 yards later I see my gyp marked trees and I can here her baying in the back ground. So I head up there expecting my rcd to have let go and just be baying. I get there no sign of leggy black pitbull any where. Just my gyp bayed up by herself in a creek bottom. So as Im watching thinking of what to do I notice that this pig has one shredded scared up ear and no nuts. So immediately Barr popped into my head. Ive never been on one people around my area usually dont let pigs go? But I had heard of it here. So as i take off my lasso I had around me I see this big ass pig straight up death stare at me. My gyp didn't like that and got his focus back on her. So I got ready, through the lasso perfectly around the head. But as soon as the rope touched that pig the damn thing came hauling ass at me and about ran straight through me if it wouldn't have been for that little live oak next to me I don't think I would be righting this post right now. So after I get my wits back about me. I go back to the truck and get my 17 Remington. Now marked at 2 miles away I decided to just drive to that area. I get there and it's been about a hour and a half to get to where she was and she was still baying her ass off. I get there walk in and now theres 4 more pigs with this big ass Barr?!! One shot later I got one of them down but not the monster they take off this time thank god not towards me. I called back my gyp before she got back onto them and gave up. Oh by the way it was a good sow I got. 200 lbs. So I get my gyp loaded up and take a picture of the sow and head back to where three of my dogs went missing. I found two; my back up strike and my bay both dead in the cat tails. But no rcd. She was the only one not with a garmin on and now I regret not putting one on her. I'm going to go back look for my rcd and hope for the best tomorrow but know the chances.

So I'm out of commission now for a while. With only two dogs and a patterdale left of my team.
All I can say is that they died doing what they love and I'll catch that damn pig and put an end to it just like the one that killed my lacy if it's the last thing I do. Just time to turn the page. Get back on that horse and get these pups raised into the shoes they have to fill.