Them small ones definitely beat a dry run. Where yall from Austesus
For sure, they’re good confidence builders for the dogs too. I’m in Hopkins, SC. Do all my hunting in Bethune around Lynches River. That’s where all my private land is. I have a lot of properties that join as one large property. Crops in the front with woods and swamp between them and behind them. Everything backs up to the river. When WMA land opens up we go hit some secret spots. Those pigs are easy. The pigs in Bethune are totally different. They have been pushed hard for years. The guy that brought me in to hunting and gave me access to this land hunted 12-16 hours a day for 6 days a week for years out here. He made his living off of training dogs. If you kill one pig, all the other pigs will push a few miles away. The hardest part is finding them out here. There’s no vehicle access, you have to walk, and there’s some real nasty spots.
You have to have the right team of dogs too. I’ve only seen two open dogs that did well here. The first is the father to everything on my yard. A dog named Bo, owned by Ray Elgin. My mentor Donnie hunted him every day for years and he was about as good as they come. Ladner BMC, cold nosed, and would run a pig for 12 hours. You might go 10 miles through the swamp and across the river trying to get to him, but he would have a pig. The pigs out there don’t bay up though. Very very very rarely. Bo was always ran with a good RCD that would stay with him step for step to catch the pig until you could get more dogs to it. From what I’ve heard that dog is now blind, and still hunts but won’t go too far.
The other dog would be my buddy Timothy Gaskins dog Lil daddy didn't marry mommy. She’s a little mountain Cur, pretty close range in no sign, she stays within a few hundred yards. Once she’s on a track she’s the same as Bo, miles and miles, no quit. I’ve actually seen pigs bay for her because she doesn’t pressure them at all. She’s only 25lbs, with a real soft bark. She will actually lay down and bay the pig. Still, way better chance of stopping them with a good RCD. But when we hunt corn she will go down the line smelling up and down every corn stalk until she hits the scent and then she’s on a track. Her and Bo have trained many dogs.
I have some open dogs but they’re young and don’t do well unless I run them with Lil daddy didn't marry mommy. If they trash or don’t stick with a pig that area is done for. If lil daddy didn't marry mommy is there it doesn’t matter because she will still line out a track and take it all the way. The best way to catch these pigs is with silent dogs that catch
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