pig hunting proceedings
2007-05-31 von Liam Hoggett-Schnebeck
Thursday afternoon
Thursday afternoon saw me heading off to a mates farm for a afternoon hunt. We had a cuppa at his place and went out the back of the farm. There was a bit of rooting but the dogs were not to keen. So we drove out a little further were the rooting looked fresher.
The dogs were keener now so we let the pup of the lead. The pup took off with two dogs and between the three dogs they were holding 2 little 40lb’s or so. The pup and another dog had one well held and the other dog had another pig well and I had to kill the one that the pup and other dog had because the pig was to injured to be let go.
So that was my pups first kill and I was happy, the other little sow was well enough to be released so I did let her go. After that the pup took off with the same two dogs and I was happy that they were working together, but this time the pup couldnt keep up with the other two dogs and got lost.Then we heard one of the dogs bailing up the gully so we let the holder go.
Now all the 5 dogs had arrived and it was squeling, we saw it was a boar so killed it. We did our thing(gutting the boar), but still no pup. So we took turns carrying the pig back to the truck were we could leave the pig and dogs and try to track my pup.
The pups tracking collar was useless so this made finding him rather difficult. We had been looking for 4 hours and it was like 10:00pm so we drove back to the house, put the other dogs in the kennel, have another cuppa and a bit to eat and then go back out looking for my pup.
We were back out at the spot at about 11:00pm. We looked around the whole area with no luck so at about 4:00 in the morning we went back to the house for a quick sleep and set off again at daylight. The alarm rang and off we went in search of my pup. We drove out the back, got out of the car and saw him curled up asleep on the ridge. We whistled him back and man he was happy to see me.
I am really happy with my pup because it is working with my 2 main dogs and he has now had his first kill, so overall it was a good hunt.
Went for a quick look lastnight before the Super-14 kickoff
We took the bike down the back of a farm were pines border bush, once we entered the pines we noticed there was reasonably fresh pig marks so we parked up the bike let the dogs out and started walking and hoping the pig would still be around. There was rooting on both sides of the track and the dogs were running around keen.
10 minutes later one of the dogs opened up bailing so I let the pup of the lead and off it went towards the action. All dogs were bailing so we thought it was a good boar but when we got close, two of them started holding and we estimated it would be around 80lb. We pulled it out and I got to stick my first pig so i was happy.
When examining the dogs i noticed that the pup had a rip that needed stitches. It was only about a 5 minute carry two the track were we could ride the bike down too.
When we weighed it it went 95lb and little tusks but still managed to rip my pup.
At the hunting spot
When we got to the hunting spot we let the dogs out and straight away they all took off down a ridge. We were thinking they were chasing a bloody deer or rabbit because we did not get the two pups on the leash and they started the chase.
We were waiting there for about 5-10 minutes and 2 of the 5 dogs were back, but then 1 of them took off and we heard her pull up a good pig from the sound of her bail we waited for a second dog to get there and then sneaked in.
We came to the bail to see the 2 dogs and another 1 that came to this pig, bailing good. My dad got to shoot his first bailed boar to so he’s happy. Not much of a carry for me so that was good.
None of the dogs got ripped and the boar weighed 135lb.
Bye
Liam
