So had my friend Mark come up to make a hunt this mornin'! I'd warned him about the pace we set in the summertime... gotta catch and roll... catch and roll before that heat catches you!!!
Hit the gate at daylight, was a foggy, chilly morning... lulling a man into believin' "maybe it won't be THAT hot today"....
Well it was 91 when we quit hunting at 1:30pm and I'm still doctorin' on my Shine for heat stroke....
For our first set, I told Mark to put his dogs up on my box so we could make a round and see if we could catch or wind an easy one before hitting the bush...We typically do this not only to pic any easy ones off the edges, but as we ride around, we take note of where the dogs wind and come back to hit those spots later... good way of locating where the hogs are at that day.... but ol' Monkey(Mark informed me) considered this to be "practically cheating" and would have no part in it
HahA!! Seriously, poor Monkey was out of rythm from the start as I'd made Mark leave his truck at Mack's house so we weren't bringin' an entourage onto the rancher's property
Strange truck, my Snappa was in heat(in the same box I was askin' him to rig Monk on.... don't see why he'd be distracted....
)... So I just drove to where we been hammerin' the hogs at the last few wks and we walked Monk and Spur in with Bucho in hand... made a big loop and couldn't bump anything so pulled up and headed to another side of the property...
Kicked Monk, Spur, and Scarlet out and led the expedition in towards an area we've come to call "Jurassic Park" ... to Mark's disgrin....
Got in a thousand yds and Monk pulled out.... we waited and listened for a spell... but no good... Been around the Monk long enough to know when he pulls out he on one... Mark left his tracker at the truck so we made our way back and tracked... by that time Monk had fallen off and was headed in...
Startin' to get hot by now...
10am, we usually done huntin' by then in the summer... but I went ahead and kicked Shine and Spinner out while Monkey was comin' out... they beat around as we waited on Mark's dog, who finally came out with blood all over his face
Poor Monk caught him one and WE DIDN'T EVEN GO TO HIM!!!
While Mark was coolin' Monk off, we eased in towards a ditch I wanted to dunk Shine and Spin in before gettin' serious... they were already perty hot from beatin' bush for 15 minutes by themselves... comin' up on the almost dried up ditch we see this big red boar hog stand up out of the mud hole and just stare at us at about 70yds... hissed at the girls, but they didn't see him and went back into the palmettos to hunt... but BUCHO saw him REAL GOOD
.... been hesitant to turn his big ass loose on a cattle ranch, but he's got enough time under his belt now to give him his chance... Ol' Bucho rolled on.... the great white buffalo galloping towards the near sighted red boar.... oblivious to the ever closing great white about to take a big-ol-bite of seal blubber...
Well... that ol' boar finally saw him at about 5yds and HAULED ASS!!! Leaving poor lumbering Bucho in a cloud of dust
... OH well, he might not be the worlds greatest RCD but he's hell on a hog if one will stay still long enough for him to get aholt!!!!
So here's where it get's ugly... Shine and Spin roll in, pick up track, and roll out... hard... 10 minutes later, we see Shine backtrailing on the garmin kinda funny.... then stops... we got to her and find her in a hot, nasty, black mud wallow in the sun tryin' to cool off... but the mud was actually makin' her superheat.... not good. Pulled out our water and started wetting her down... got her back to the truck and she went stiff... threw her in the truck and halled ass to the tank to try and cool her off better but she was in perty bad shape... she's drinking, actin' real sore/stiff/weak and I got her in the house to watch her till she comes around...
So got her cooled off and decided to keep pushin' on... Kicked Lee's Camo dog out with Shiner's son, Sawfish, to see what trouble they could get into... didn't take long... bayed a bunch of cattle up perty quick in a bay head... got 'em shocked off and sent 'em on... a hundred yds later we hear Sawfish bay up again....
.... got in and the bay broke
... nother couple hundred yds away we heard squealing
Ol' Sawfish's first hog!!! Lil' guilt, but we all were proud for the lil' guy!!!
Lee and Lane, Camo and Sawfish... first hog for Lee's new team
Got back to the truck and kicked the Meatheads out.. they rolled in a strand and as I was tryin' to call them out for lack of sign, Chub bayed up by herself and started crunching pigs.. takin' after the sow and catching her with Snappa in another bayhead... Make that THREE times I've heard Chub bay now!!! She might just be on to somethin'!!!! May have to start huntin' her by herself finally!!!!
The Chub and me
'Nother grass patch hog the Meatheads piled up from the other night
Kicked the Heads out again down by Ellie's creek... not seen any good gators in it in a while... they jumped a lil' boar hog and ran him for 10min before muggin' him... did some puppy training with him and called it a day!!!
Hot day... but a good day all the same! Hope Shiner comes out of it.. she lookin' perty rough right now....
Thanks for comin' up Mark, hope I can get you on more hogs next time!!! And can't wait for your description of the hunt... always way funnier than mine!!!
