A Good Pig
My old mate pork-chop says if your catching every pig you get onto then you aren’t getting onto any ‘good pigs’!
Well earlier this winter I got onto a ‘good pig’, at the time I wondered if Lu and Udit weren’t chasing a deer, which we're getting over-run with around here, but then Lu would have come off as she doesn’t case deer for long. The pig didn’t bail for more than a few seconds, just a few barks from Lu and they were off with me left in the dust, then after leading me and the dogs in one direction for a km or so he would then double back past the spot we found him, I was assuming it was a him mainly because Boars tend to live by themselves after a certain age and tend to hang around one area, and every time we turned up in this area the same thing would happen, a couple of barks and he was off. The last time we got onto him it took me a week to find Lu and Udit, cold, skinny and hungry like the boss who had spent the last bloody week looking for them. To add to the mystic of this pig one of the neighbours had two of his pig dogs take off a couple of weeks ago in the area where the pig lived, with only one turning up after two weeks badly ripped up, the other never found presumed dead.
It had got to the point where I was avoiding the area where this pig lived, so this morning after a short boat ride we were hunting in a spot a few miles away for his lear. Yes Miles you young punks. It was overcast this morning with a light southerly forecast, but for now it was calm but cold. I had five bitches with me today Lu, Puk, Udit, and the 8 month old pups Kai and Gypsy, after landing in the dingy we started climbing up through the Mahoe, Manuka and patches of Darwin's barberry, I’d left my cap at home this morning and being folicly challenged I wasn’t happy pushing my hat-less nut through the prickly bush, especially the barberry , thinking it’s just going to be one of those days, you know the days, like when you arrive at you hunting area having forgotten your lucky knife or the bolt or ammo for your gun, and you’re thinking we may as well go home now. Anyway we kept climbing thinking the pig won’t really care if I’ve left my hat at home will he or she. Moving through the last of the re-gen now into the big native the dogs looking at me as much to say, “Oh so you forgot your hat Boss, Ha!Ha!” Plenty of deer sign about for you smart ass deer chasing mongrels, just try it sisters!
Nothing much else around it seemed, we soon were right into the big native, amongst the Rimu, Hinau, Tawa, Koiekoie, pukatea with Beach covering the big ridges, this is where I like to hunt pigs, mainly because I have soft hands brothers, yes like a good player of spin and hey I like walking upright, not on all fours, I'm no Chimp, although the Chimps may have wished they were here as I’d noticed a lot of fruit on the ground this winter, which I’m sure they would have cleaned up, but it looked like the pigs had beaten them to it judging by some of the pig shit full of pips I’d seem around lately.
I couldn’t decide whether to go left or right, those that know me would have said hard left, but a gust of wind from my right made the decision for me, I’d been in this area a lot so had worked out all the animal trails and the easy creek crossings, only trouble was we were now heading towards the area where that dam pig I was trying to avoid lived, yet we kept sidling into the cold southerly, checking out a couple of wallows along the way, after sidling for an hour or so we found ourselves way back in a large basin of virgin native, (know we won’t go there), the chain saws had never sung their sad song in here, big trees, some of the Rimu’s around 1500 years old I’m told, we were drifting down a sunny beach ridge when I noticed a Mahoe about as thick as my arm with some fresh mud on it, a large pig had been standing in the sun rubbing on it recently after wallowing nearby, “it couldn’t have been more than 24 hrs ago” I thought.
I then had this creepy feeling of being watched, Lu suddenly put her nose in the air and bound off with Kai and Gypsy, I had Udit the deer chasing skank on a lead and normally don’t let her go until Lu barks, but then Lu normally doesn’t bound off like this, something was up! I let Udit go, and called Puk the holder to heal, Gypsy soon returned while I waited watching the three dogs Lu, Udit and Kai on the tracking unit, they were doing a large circle up and around back the way we had come, crossing our trail about 400 m back then coming back down below us, I waited watching the unit, they were tracking something, but not a bark could be heard although the creeks were still noisy after the recent rain, after they passed down in front of us we started after them, before long they were 600m away around the face and starting to climb towards the area that dam boar had been living, I'm thinking “could this be him they were tracking”. We were now in a horrible part of the basin that gets hardly any sun, here the KieKie is thick, with large patches of supplejack and bluffly steep creeks, one I soon found myself trying to find my my way around, having to climb up a long way till I found a safe crossing. The dogs had now dropped off the tracker, just a ? mark right about where the pig I’d been trying to avoid normally lived, unfortunately for us this spot was about 900m away almost straight up, 30 minites later I was blowing a bit, still 300m to go to the spot they had fallen off the tracker, we keep climbing, they would be long gone I thought but if we were going to find them we had to start somewhere, another 100m and still nothing on the tracker when Puk put her head up and shot off.
I soon heard them and what a racket, they had a good bail going on a large flat area I new well, he had obviously decided to make a stand here and hopefully see the dogs off, but having got away from these dogs before they were having none of it today, Puk must have been latched on the front hock by now, I moved in slowly though not wanting to spook the pig, I could see him now a ginger and black boar walking around with the dogs all over him, he was blowing hard, exhausted, stumbling a bit so I took my chance when he fell over at one stage quickly kneeing on him, then in with the knife to finish him, the dogs flopping down panting around us, I quickly had a look at the dogs, Lu was the only one with any damage a deep hole in her shoulder, she would heal fine. Looking at the boar he had a great set of tusks but was in very poor condition and later only went 48Kg’s on the scales, but in good condition he should have weighted 60 or 70kg, I could hardly believe it, he was basically skin and bone when I skinned him out, lots of scars with a large hole in his back leg from fighting, but fighting with who???
Well earlier this winter I got onto a ‘good pig’, at the time I wondered if Lu and Udit weren’t chasing a deer, which we're getting over-run with around here, but then Lu would have come off as she doesn’t case deer for long. The pig didn’t bail for more than a few seconds, just a few barks from Lu and they were off with me left in the dust, then after leading me and the dogs in one direction for a km or so he would then double back past the spot we found him, I was assuming it was a him mainly because Boars tend to live by themselves after a certain age and tend to hang around one area, and every time we turned up in this area the same thing would happen, a couple of barks and he was off. The last time we got onto him it took me a week to find Lu and Udit, cold, skinny and hungry like the boss who had spent the last bloody week looking for them. To add to the mystic of this pig one of the neighbours had two of his pig dogs take off a couple of weeks ago in the area where the pig lived, with only one turning up after two weeks badly ripped up, the other never found presumed dead.
It had got to the point where I was avoiding the area where this pig lived, so this morning after a short boat ride we were hunting in a spot a few miles away for his lear. Yes Miles you young punks. It was overcast this morning with a light southerly forecast, but for now it was calm but cold. I had five bitches with me today Lu, Puk, Udit, and the 8 month old pups Kai and Gypsy, after landing in the dingy we started climbing up through the Mahoe, Manuka and patches of Darwin's barberry, I’d left my cap at home this morning and being folicly challenged I wasn’t happy pushing my hat-less nut through the prickly bush, especially the barberry , thinking it’s just going to be one of those days, you know the days, like when you arrive at you hunting area having forgotten your lucky knife or the bolt or ammo for your gun, and you’re thinking we may as well go home now. Anyway we kept climbing thinking the pig won’t really care if I’ve left my hat at home will he or she. Moving through the last of the re-gen now into the big native the dogs looking at me as much to say, “Oh so you forgot your hat Boss, Ha!Ha!” Plenty of deer sign about for you smart ass deer chasing mongrels, just try it sisters!
Nothing much else around it seemed, we soon were right into the big native, amongst the Rimu, Hinau, Tawa, Koiekoie, pukatea with Beach covering the big ridges, this is where I like to hunt pigs, mainly because I have soft hands brothers, yes like a good player of spin and hey I like walking upright, not on all fours, I'm no Chimp, although the Chimps may have wished they were here as I’d noticed a lot of fruit on the ground this winter, which I’m sure they would have cleaned up, but it looked like the pigs had beaten them to it judging by some of the pig shit full of pips I’d seem around lately.
I couldn’t decide whether to go left or right, those that know me would have said hard left, but a gust of wind from my right made the decision for me, I’d been in this area a lot so had worked out all the animal trails and the easy creek crossings, only trouble was we were now heading towards the area where that dam pig I was trying to avoid lived, yet we kept sidling into the cold southerly, checking out a couple of wallows along the way, after sidling for an hour or so we found ourselves way back in a large basin of virgin native, (know we won’t go there), the chain saws had never sung their sad song in here, big trees, some of the Rimu’s around 1500 years old I’m told, we were drifting down a sunny beach ridge when I noticed a Mahoe about as thick as my arm with some fresh mud on it, a large pig had been standing in the sun rubbing on it recently after wallowing nearby, “it couldn’t have been more than 24 hrs ago” I thought.
I then had this creepy feeling of being watched, Lu suddenly put her nose in the air and bound off with Kai and Gypsy, I had Udit the deer chasing skank on a lead and normally don’t let her go until Lu barks, but then Lu normally doesn’t bound off like this, something was up! I let Udit go, and called Puk the holder to heal, Gypsy soon returned while I waited watching the three dogs Lu, Udit and Kai on the tracking unit, they were doing a large circle up and around back the way we had come, crossing our trail about 400 m back then coming back down below us, I waited watching the unit, they were tracking something, but not a bark could be heard although the creeks were still noisy after the recent rain, after they passed down in front of us we started after them, before long they were 600m away around the face and starting to climb towards the area that dam boar had been living, I'm thinking “could this be him they were tracking”. We were now in a horrible part of the basin that gets hardly any sun, here the KieKie is thick, with large patches of supplejack and bluffly steep creeks, one I soon found myself trying to find my my way around, having to climb up a long way till I found a safe crossing. The dogs had now dropped off the tracker, just a ? mark right about where the pig I’d been trying to avoid normally lived, unfortunately for us this spot was about 900m away almost straight up, 30 minites later I was blowing a bit, still 300m to go to the spot they had fallen off the tracker, we keep climbing, they would be long gone I thought but if we were going to find them we had to start somewhere, another 100m and still nothing on the tracker when Puk put her head up and shot off.
I soon heard them and what a racket, they had a good bail going on a large flat area I new well, he had obviously decided to make a stand here and hopefully see the dogs off, but having got away from these dogs before they were having none of it today, Puk must have been latched on the front hock by now, I moved in slowly though not wanting to spook the pig, I could see him now a ginger and black boar walking around with the dogs all over him, he was blowing hard, exhausted, stumbling a bit so I took my chance when he fell over at one stage quickly kneeing on him, then in with the knife to finish him, the dogs flopping down panting around us, I quickly had a look at the dogs, Lu was the only one with any damage a deep hole in her shoulder, she would heal fine. Looking at the boar he had a great set of tusks but was in very poor condition and later only went 48Kg’s on the scales, but in good condition he should have weighted 60 or 70kg, I could hardly believe it, he was basically skin and bone when I skinned him out, lots of scars with a large hole in his back leg from fighting, but fighting with who???
