Hog Hunt

01/16/2010, Saturday: Our first organized hog hunt was a unique experience for all. Us older folks found out that this hog hunting with dogs is a young man's sport. We had six experienced hog hunters come down from the Sumter, SC area to conduct the hunt for us thanks to BoMont. Upon arrival at the clubhouse and after we had all introduced ourselves, I took the leader of the group over to an aerial map of our club and showed him the areas we had been seeing hog activity, explained that we were experienced dog hunters for deer, but, knew nothing about hunting hogs with dogs, that I had instructed our members to bring shotguns with buckshot only! He immediately ask that we leave our guns in the truck, that they did not use anything but a knife to kill the hogs. Once the dogs bayed the hog, they would run in and stab it with a knife! That's when I noticed each one of them was wearing at least two sheath knives. I immediately informed him that this ole grey headed man would not be taking part in tackling a wild hog with a knife, however, I was sure some of my younger members would. We determined who wanted to try their hand at it and he gave them a few instructions. When they began unloading their dogs, they were some of the biggest, meanest looking Bulldogs, Bulldog Crosses, I have ever seen. Each dog was equipped with a GPS tracking collar and wearing a Kelvar Vest for protection. We were warned that we should not attempt to catch the dogs for fear we would loose a hand in the process. No worry, they can catch them. They put two of these dogs in B.J., our Hunmaster's two section dog box, one to the side and they were cramped. This box will hold three hounds per side with room to move. We proceeded to the Snake Island area of the club and released the dogs, which unlike deer hounds, do not bark on trail, so, they track the dogs via GPS, following them on 4-wheelers and on foot. If you are not physically fit and run through the woods behind the dogs, you simply do not see or hear anything and it is impossible to keep up with what is happening. For old timer truck warriors it was kind of boring, however, for the young participants who got into the thick of things, it was fast, furious and exciting. We broke for lunch around 1:00 pm, and enjoyed Charcoaled Ribeye Steaks courtesy of "Jeremy", Club Chaplin who took time from the hunt to prepare the meal. After lunch, the Hog Hunters, accompanied by our younger members proceeded to another tract, this time in the river swamp, to finish out the day! I would like to thank the guys from Sumter, SC for coming all this way, providing the dogs (which by the way are valued at around $4,000.00 each) and putting on this hunt for us. A good time was had by all, even us Old F&#&'s that stayed at our trucks.