Spent the last 5 days at the bow lease and it was a trip to remember for sure. My 12 year old son has been hunting with a crossbow for the last three years (including this season). He has that thing down to a science. He is finally getting big enough that it is time to switch to a compound. He has really been wanting to shoot a hog (he has killed 8 deer with the crossbow.) We recently got his compound bow dialed in and he has been practicing. The wind was finally right for our hog stand this week so we made a plan to hunt it. In my opinion hogs are the perfect animal to cut your teeth on bow hunting. They are plentiful where found, the meat is good, and they are all shooters! We have had one pig in particular that comes in all the time. This thing lives at this feeder and it is rarely hunted. Well right at dark the target showed up. The wind was perfect and the pig was dead to rights at 10 yards on our throw corn. I felt like the shot was good, but in hindsight I think it was a liver shot.
So we tracked blood for about 125 yards and we started having trouble finding blood. I decided to back out and come back in the morning. Joseph (my son) was mad, he wanted to find his bow kill! Well the next day we loaded up our Blue Lacy Brandy, and took her out to help us find the hog. She is a Lacy through and through, but I think of her more as our pet than a tracking dog per SE. She is spoiled to say the least, she sleeps inside her kennel in my daughter's room. She is no spring chicken either, she is 9 years old and has tracked and found some deer over the years. I would estimate 25-30 total, maybe 5-- that were tough to find. Some tracks she seemed like she was disinterested. So in relative terms she has experience but has not tracked hundreds of deer like you might expect a 9 year old tracking dog to do. For the most part she is more of a pet than a tracker/working dog.
Brandy followed the blood trail easy enough just a little ways past where we lost the blood. I was using a long lead. I bought it after I saw it recommended by AtFullDraw here. This is the exact one.
She also had a bell on. I have a GPS tracker, but in the past I have used it off lead and did not like having the dog "out of reach". So the GPS was on my shelf in the garage at home.
Anyway, back to the story. Just after we got past where we lost blood the terrain start to dramatically change as it dropped off into a canyon. Due to the thick brush and trees I had let go of the long lead. As we approached the canyon there was movement of something that I can only assume it was the hog. Brandy's ears perked up and she gave chase. I started to follow, but my son was behind me so I decided I better stick with him and we would catch up later, Brandy would have to deal with the situation herself! Well it was quite eerie, because in a matter of moments, the sound of the bell was gone. It was utter silence. We followed in the direction that Brandy had headed, but there was no sign of her. This was 9:30AM. After looking and listening for a while we went back to the 4 wheeler to cover some more ground. We covered a significant area (this is a large/remote ranch). But there was no sign of Brandy or the hog. Finally around 12:30 I decided we should go back to camp and get some lunch. We returned with my friend and his grandson to search some more. This time back in the draw/canyon where we first lost her. No sign.
My friend and his grandson went back to camp so they could make their evening hunt. My son and I sat on the edge of the canyon and I glassed with my binoculars and we waited to see any sign of her. We moved to a couple of different positions and checked different areas where she might have been, and still nothing. Well by the time it was dark I was starting to give up hope of getting my dog back. When we got back to camp, I felt physically ill. My main worry was the lead she had attached to her body harness would get caught up in some brush and she would be trapped. That night was pretty restless. We are Catholic, so we prayed for the intercession of St Joseph and St Hubert (patron saint of hunters) for their help to get our dog back. I was feeling guilty knowing I had the solution to this problem sitting on a shelf in my garage at home! I left her kennel and some water at the original spot we got out (at the feeder) and put my covert camera on the kennel.
By the time the next day arrives I am convinced that she probably got hung up somewhere and is going to die if the hog hadn't got her already. Or maybe she had a heart attack! So we go back to the original place we started to track. I kept the 4-wheeler running. We hiked down in the canyon where we lost her to start looking. My son and I are talking in a normal voice and after 5 minutes I hear a bell. I start to move toward the bell and can hear it getting closer so I just call for her and there she is, with the cactus rope in tow moving freely in the brush.
Brandy proved to be as gritty as advertised! I just wish I would have had a GPS tracker on her, because I know my son would have loved to recover that pig.
Obvious lessons are.
1) Use a GPS with your dog. Not only will it help keep track of him/her but it might also help you recover the animal. (For all I know she ran the hog to death, but we had no way of locating it.)
2) If you are using a lead, get the one listed above. It actually works!
On a side note. After shooting the pig it is amazing that deer are actually showing up at this feeder. It has not been hunted all season, the hogs ruled there. Shoot one and then the deer come in. Go figure!
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So we tracked blood for about 125 yards and we started having trouble finding blood. I decided to back out and come back in the morning. Joseph (my son) was mad, he wanted to find his bow kill! Well the next day we loaded up our Blue Lacy Brandy, and took her out to help us find the hog. She is a Lacy through and through, but I think of her more as our pet than a tracking dog per SE. She is spoiled to say the least, she sleeps inside her kennel in my daughter's room. She is no spring chicken either, she is 9 years old and has tracked and found some deer over the years. I would estimate 25-30 total, maybe 5-- that were tough to find. Some tracks she seemed like she was disinterested. So in relative terms she has experience but has not tracked hundreds of deer like you might expect a 9 year old tracking dog to do. For the most part she is more of a pet than a tracker/working dog.
Brandy followed the blood trail easy enough just a little ways past where we lost the blood. I was using a long lead. I bought it after I saw it recommended by AtFullDraw here. This is the exact one.
She also had a bell on. I have a GPS tracker, but in the past I have used it off lead and did not like having the dog "out of reach". So the GPS was on my shelf in the garage at home.
Anyway, back to the story. Just after we got past where we lost blood the terrain start to dramatically change as it dropped off into a canyon. Due to the thick brush and trees I had let go of the long lead. As we approached the canyon there was movement of something that I can only assume it was the hog. Brandy's ears perked up and she gave chase. I started to follow, but my son was behind me so I decided I better stick with him and we would catch up later, Brandy would have to deal with the situation herself! Well it was quite eerie, because in a matter of moments, the sound of the bell was gone. It was utter silence. We followed in the direction that Brandy had headed, but there was no sign of her. This was 9:30AM. After looking and listening for a while we went back to the 4 wheeler to cover some more ground. We covered a significant area (this is a large/remote ranch). But there was no sign of Brandy or the hog. Finally around 12:30 I decided we should go back to camp and get some lunch. We returned with my friend and his grandson to search some more. This time back in the draw/canyon where we first lost her. No sign.
My friend and his grandson went back to camp so they could make their evening hunt. My son and I sat on the edge of the canyon and I glassed with my binoculars and we waited to see any sign of her. We moved to a couple of different positions and checked different areas where she might have been, and still nothing. Well by the time it was dark I was starting to give up hope of getting my dog back. When we got back to camp, I felt physically ill. My main worry was the lead she had attached to her body harness would get caught up in some brush and she would be trapped. That night was pretty restless. We are Catholic, so we prayed for the intercession of St Joseph and St Hubert (patron saint of hunters) for their help to get our dog back. I was feeling guilty knowing I had the solution to this problem sitting on a shelf in my garage at home! I left her kennel and some water at the original spot we got out (at the feeder) and put my covert camera on the kennel.
By the time the next day arrives I am convinced that she probably got hung up somewhere and is going to die if the hog hadn't got her already. Or maybe she had a heart attack! So we go back to the original place we started to track. I kept the 4-wheeler running. We hiked down in the canyon where we lost her to start looking. My son and I are talking in a normal voice and after 5 minutes I hear a bell. I start to move toward the bell and can hear it getting closer so I just call for her and there she is, with the cactus rope in tow moving freely in the brush.
Brandy proved to be as gritty as advertised! I just wish I would have had a GPS tracker on her, because I know my son would have loved to recover that pig.
Obvious lessons are.
1) Use a GPS with your dog. Not only will it help keep track of him/her but it might also help you recover the animal. (For all I know she ran the hog to death, but we had no way of locating it.)
2) If you are using a lead, get the one listed above. It actually works!
On a side note. After shooting the pig it is amazing that deer are actually showing up at this feeder. It has not been hunted all season, the hogs ruled there. Shoot one and then the deer come in. Go figure!
Attached Files
. Your boy is growing up fast.
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