New Season 2015

Well, Saturday was opening day for us... first day of February hogs. Our hunters from Illinois are back and they weren't playing around this year. Neither were we or our dogs. This might have been one of the best opening weekends we've ever had!
Might as well get started!!!

Saturday:
 Plenty of folks went, no doubt about that! We split into two groups and hunted. Wasn't our best hunt ever, but we did have a good time! Turned out Tanner and Whitey to begin with and they bayed one right off the bat! 400 yards from where we had stopped the rangers. Leashed up the bulldogs and away we went! About 50 yards from the bay we turned them loose and it was like they had never taken a break. Straight to that ear!! Big boar down!!!

However, I will have to say that it wasn't ALL smooth sailing going to that hog. Every body but me fell getting back in the swing of things. I'm not going to brag too much because I have had my share of wipe-outs and there will be many more to come! We caught one more sow after him, and the other team caught 5; one big barr hog, a decent sow, and 3 piglets.

Sunday:
  More than enough people went on Sunday! First thing that morning, the game warden paid us all a little visit to make sure that our liscenses were in order. No BIG problem there. Same thing happened Sunday as it did Saturday! Tanner and Whitey bayed a big boar, but this time it was only 225 yards from the rangers. Bulldogs unloaded and away we went. 30 yards from the bay we turned them loose. CAUGHT!!! No problem!! Big Boar Down!!! Hunted from 8am to 2pm and only came up two more sows. One a good healthy one and one that had a broken back leg. She didn't make it...

Can never start them too young :)

I do want to clarify that we don't, at any point, let these hogs go to waste. They are all either eaten or given away to needy families in the area. Proving my point....

Woodie on the left and my dad, Jerry on the right.

Of course, we like to have a good time while we hunt too.... as you'll see in these pics...

Me and my best friend/boy friend James

Every body gets to participate!!

Stuck....

Finally getting out!

Stuck AGAIN!!

Told him not to mess with me!! He learned his lesson lol

From Left to Right: Afton, Jase, Charlie, ME

 

Pic we found from the good old days

 

Dad un-doing a set of handcuffs

Kody and Afton had to play a little :)

 

 

Some tired pups

It's all done in good fun!!

Dad's first buck of 2014-15 Season

 

Odd tumor

with his legs still on the floor

A death in the Hog Hunting family...

Last summer Dad always talked about how he wanted a Blue Lacy as a hunting dog, but we could never find one that wasn't priced outrageously or that wasn't half way across the country. But FINALLY I found one that was under $500 and she lived in Mississippi. I convinced mom to go meet here in Montgomery and pick up the dog and her sister for a friend of ours. He named his Lacy so we named ours Blue. (Technically, her registered name was Down South's Lacy Bell) For 5 months she and Candice lived happily in their pen together... But Wednesday night Candice just snapped. It was a massacre. Thursday morning I rushed her to the vet and after 4 hours of surgery and removing her leg he said it would be up to her. Unfortunately, she just didn't have enough fight left in her and she was found dead this morning at the vet's office. I would really like to thank Dr. Scott for everything he tried to do. It was a monumental task. He said that after all his years, that was the worst case he's ever seen. She was a good puppy while we had her...

 

She was such a goober lol

 

I guess that's just a lesson to us that we should never buy a dog.

No Good Sense, but maybe Hog Sense will do :)

Well, I have come to the conclusion that we either have hog fever or we don't have the good sense that God gave a billy goat. Yesterday, which was opening day of youth season for deer, we decided we'd take the dogs out on a wild hair that a select few hogs would be just as crazy as we were and be stirring in the cold. At 6am it was a toasty 21 degrees and there we were loading dogs.

My first sign should have been the fact that I had on 2 shirts, 2 jackets, 2 pants, a cap, insulated socks, and my boots and was still cold. The second sign should have been that we didn't have a windshield on the ranger. Sign number 3 was that the road had been worked and it hasn't rained here in a month... can you say dust storm?
But all of that aside, once we made it through all the dust and finally got to turn some dogs loose it was worth it. There were a ton of people that went. First of, Taterbug and Tanner and maybe Bo (I cant rightly remember) turned their dogs out. It wasn't long before we got a few sound off barks, but nothing major. About 30 minutes later, I happened to be looking up the hill and about 13 pigs and shoats crossed the road. I hollered at dad and asked him if we could turn our dogs out now and he said yes. Then, the race was on.

Tracker was showing them a good 6-700 yards away in the fork of a creek. So here me and dad go to try and find the dogs. By ourselves, mind you. When the tracker finally got back in range it was showing all of our dogs bayed. Pulled up within 90 yards and heard the squeal. I went out first. Once I got out there I hollered back at dad and told him they had another one caught about 10 yards farther from me. We both caught a hog each... but didn't have any string... not long after dad drug his catch over to mine we heard the cavalry coming. They brought us some string and we tied those two up.
A little ways up the road, the dogs struck again. This time they were bayed across the creek, which happened to be dry. Tied that one and brought it back. However, the group left us and it just happened that Bo's four-wheeler broke down and it them a pretty good while to get it back out to the road and he limped it back to the main road and hitched a ride on back to the group with Woodie and Melissa. Once we made it back to the group, it wasn't long before Tanner and Bug's dogs bayed again. This time they had a decent hog and killed a little piglet off to the side. So, then we turned our dogs out and they and dad went on a little "walk-about". Well, the group left going to a few dogs that were bayed. We didn't know where dad was so we stayed and waited and waited and waited. Still no dad. So I told Woodie that the only thing I can think to do was to go back to the group and hope we find him on the way. When we caught back up they had a big black sow stabbed in the road, but no dad. Loaded that sow up and Woodie said, "I'm gonna go back and see if I cant find Jerry"... He did finally.

Mine and Dad's matching hogs

The piglet and bigger hog

 

I guess I don't have a picture yet of the sow that they stabbed... Sorry about that.

I don't know if it was the cold or what, but after that people were ready to head back to the trucks, so we did. After we left Travis called and said that they had bayed, stabbed, and left another pig... and Tanner and Bo ended up with this nice sow too...

So all in all it was a good November hunt... a little chilly, but worth it!

And then there was 3...

Well, we had gotten down to one horse.. Legs.... and now we are back up to three. Mom and I both got mares. Mom got a quarter horse mare in August that she calls SweetHeart and I got a black gaited mare couple of weeks ago that I formally name Ebony's Silhouette. (I went a little crazy taking pics)

 Ebony's Silhouette

Size different much??

She LOVES the water

Leg's said he had an itch lol

SweetHeart

She had an itch too

Playing in the water with Legs

He's so dramatic