Adventure With A Purpose: Hog Hunting With Veterans Xtreme Adventures
ARCHER CITY (CBSDFW.COM) - My name is Craig Gibson and I produce the new outdoors adventure show on CBS 11 and TXA 21 called "DFW Outdoorsman." Each week, we take you on a trek into the great Texas backcountry, often within just a short truck ride from the Metroplex. In this case, we took our Chevy Silverado and Ag Power John Deere Gator to Archer City, about an hour and forty-five minutes northwest of Fort Worth.
There, we met the inspiring men of Veterans Xtreme Adventures, a non-profit organization serving our nation's wounded veterans through guided hunting and fishing trips. These expeditions are more than just fun getaways; they are also therapeutic to veterans struggling with both visible and hidden injuries. Dave Hillary, a retired U.S. Army veteran who was wounded in 2006, says Veterans Xtreme Adventures helped him heal, and now he serves as the organization's Regional Director and Land Coordinator.
"I'm able to connect with a lot of the veterans, too, because I've been through combat, been through the hard transition, been through a lot of the struggles, and now I'm on the other side of it," Hillary said.
The guys took the DFW Outdoorsman crew out "hog doggin'," a feral hog hunting technique where small "bayer" dogs track a group of wild pigs until they are able to corner a member of the herd. Using GPS gear in the dogs' collars, Matt Klentzman, Veterans Xtreme Adventures Executive Director, guided our hunting party to within a short distance of the quarry. There, two large "catch dogs," each a mix of Dogo Argentino and American Bulldog, raced ahead to pin the squealing sow to the ground while we all ran to catch up to them through prickly pear cactus. Calling off the two powerful dogs, Matt helped our own Executive Producer Elliott Moore literally hogtie the sow!
Don't worry about the blood, she was very much alive. The pig only suffered a few scratches, not much worse than the cuts and scrapes she inflicted on the two catcher dogs (they were fine, too BTW). The pigs captured in these hunts are either relocated, or processed, with the meat sold to overseas markets. This post truly does not do this intense Texas adventure justice. Tune in to "DFW Outdoorsman" in late October to see for yourself!
"DFW Outdoorsman" airs Saturdays at 5:30 am on CBS 11 and 10pm on TXA 21, and Sundays at 10am on TXA 21.
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