Well CrackerC(Mark) had invited me to a public hunt last wk where I got to hunt with some good people... I have always avoided these public draw hunts in the past as there always seems to be some drama that comes with them...
From what I have seen on the last two public hunts I have partaken in, they can be an interesting proposition given your acceptance to some level of risk... acceptance of which I reeeeally do not like HAHA
... but all the same, was a fun chance ta get together with some good people, even at the risk of dealin' with the kooks....
2nd day of a three day hunt, those that be decided to give out way WAY more permits than practical for said property. It was pretty chaotic with trucks/dogs/people with rifles lining almost every damn road...
The most stressful aspect for me was, in the event of a bay, having another set of dogs come in and get my stuff wrec
ked in a gang pile. Very legitamate concern that would prove to be warranted...
Josh(Cutterbay) was considerate enough to give me first drop on the property, which he was pretty well familiar with. Had been a long time since him and I dropped dogs with each other and I was lookin' forward to it. I dropped Whaler and Spinner and they covered a good piece, only crunching a bunch of pigs as the sun rose. Hogs were obviously scattered from the day before, the hogs that were left, were on high alert and ready to run!!!
Josh dumped his hounds next and man they have got a cold nose!!! Very cool to see, the cold trailing thing is something I have not been around in a long long time and I forgot how nice it can be sometimes!! He dumped them at a badass communtiy wallow/rub tree area and they opened up instantly LOL which had me laughin' non stop as they ground that old track out!!!
... them hounds ground that track out for about 30 minutes before finally jumping a good couple hogs that must've been bedded down... they ran several big loops over the next hour as we tried to get ahead of them... as we saw a hog cross the road, Josh asked me to turn my dogs to it as he caught his up. I cut Shine and Spinner to the track and they rolled off hard... after an hour, Spin burned out and we caught her up... as Shine continued WELL off the property... at which point, I was not entertained lol... I slung my backpack over a shoulder, grabbed Bucho, and headed to my dog... Josh did not hesitate to follow, even at the risk of a trespassing violation... a fact I appreciate.
... as we tried to keep up with Shine, Josh kept on askin' me(it was about 12noon at this point/85degrees, and we were damn sure in the sun lol)... "how far is she???" .... to which I responded... "ahh, she's just ahead"
(I did not have the heart to tell him she was staying well over a mile ahead of us as we slogged across airboat trails tryin' to keep up
... at one point, she bayed up in a sawgrass flat, we got to about 75yds and the bitch broke...I actually tried to cal her off lol... but as I have seen many times before... that hog had flat "pissed her off"... at which point, it is useless to even try
Josh tried to give up on me several times, as it was a BRUTAL hot march lol... to his credit, he stuck with me however... (we were both REALLY hoping Shine made this epic hike worth while lol...)... I stepped on, and over, several good mossicans along the way in the stifling heat... about half way to the bay, had to pull Bucho's vest as he was overheating just from the hellish walk HAHA
... more in a minute...
