Your dog found it Bro, you go stick it!
Hadn’t been having much luck chasing the Pig lately, my main dog Lu snapped her crucial ligament, add to that the place is getting over-run with stinking deer, who seem intent on eating all the ground cover and just about anything else they can get at. At the moment it being the roar we have stags hanging around the back door here stinking up the place, tempting the dogs to chase them, I don’t have all the answers but it seems this latest dog whistle from the Government called “Predator Free NZ” has got some of the population falling over themselves trying to eradicate possums, rats and stoats from Aotearoa, without any plan or thought for the management of the deer and pig populations or input from the tax payers that hunt these animals.
Enough of the politics and on with the hunting. Seeing as the nights were getting cooler, Me and my neighbour Pedro (Peter) had decided it was about time those boars started coming down from the tops closer to the sea, where it’s a little warmer.
Pedro's in his 80th year by the way and still hunting pigs. Pedro is and should be an inspiration to any of you pricks that are thinking of giving up this great game and also an advertisement for the idea to never give up and just keeping moving, if that means finding some unless young prick that always beats you to the pig and when he finally says “your dog found it Bro, you go stick it” then proceeds to walks all over you at the bail, and then shoot the pig from under you so be it, just shrug and think better to be out here watching some young punk make a fool of himself than watching the box.
Our last hunt three days ago hadn’t come to much, it was like someone had tipped the pigs off and everywhere we went the rooting was a day or so old, lots of sign though so the pigs had to be somewhere. So this morning we had a plan to hunt a spot in the big native, yes you gorse hugger's, native bush, we have a bit left down south here, where the pigs get fat on the supple jack and the birds sing.
Anyway I meet Pedro at 6.30 am, he had his new dog Sue, a 7 year old bitch he recently brought from up north somewhere and hadn’t had a pig with her yet (that was about to change) I had a 1 year old pup called Kai, out of Lu my main dog and good old Puk the 7 year old holder with me.
We set off into the native on a handy track one of our neighbours had cut, making for a dry beach ridge that sometimes holds a pig, and some nice tasty bracken in places, it was still dark in the bush as we climbed slowly up beside a creek, enjoying the smell of the big trees, a fan tail followed us feeding off the insects we disturbed as we moved through the bush.
We were letting Pedro’s Sue do the finding today as she’s deer and goat proof, after 10 minutes we started climbing the ridge from the valley floor, I said to Pedro this is a good place for a pig as I’d seen plenty of sign around this spot before, I was leading my two bitches who where now straining at their leads, Sue tore off up the hill, we didn’t have to wait long for her to start bailing, I let my two go and we set off, me saying to Pedro “your dog found it Bro, you go stick it”, we were getting close to the bail now, we hadn’t heard a sound from the pig, which was likely a boar, I could hear the pup Kai barking, but the other two where obviously trying to hold it, you could smell the sweet sickly boar now as we got closer, we were on him before we new it me breathing down Pete’s neck, Pedro was looking at lifting his rifle to get a shot in as I walked all over him (Passed him) saying I’ll grab it and stick it, around the tree I went, and back around the tree I came loading my gun, this jet black Boar was fresh and giving the holder Puk a hiding, running her into the tree, Sue on the other ear about to get the same treatment, I was dancing around now waiting till a clear shot presented itself, it couldn’t come soon enough because this boar was young, (he later weighed 125 lb on the hook) had a huge set of tusks on him and was getting stuck into the dogs, taking a special dislike to Puk, then while both dogs were hanging over the pigs nose (not the best place to be with the hooks this boy had on him) I got my clear shot, Bang! The bullet going thru the shoulder into the chest cavity, the .357 magnum bullet taking the wind out him, the dogs meanwhile harassing him as he staggered about, he then slumped down dead, the pup now getting extra brave and hoeing into his hide growling and snarling, what a set of tusks he had, smiles all around.
We now checked the dogs over, Pedro’s bitch Sue seemed fine and the Pup Kai was ok, but the holder Puk seemed a bit off, I checked her over but she seemed ok, but it was dark in the native still and I missed a couple of puncture wounds in her abdomen, which I later found when we got home, and so then I rang the vet saying I was bringing here into town, she had a bit of damage to her chest as well behind her front leg but I thought it was only bruising, amazingly with her being a holder and all, this was Puk’s first trip to the vet. Well after a 2.5 hr boat ride the Vet was checking her over and showed me how a tusk had punctured the chest cavity parting the ribs, but without puncturing the skin, (something to watch out for), she had a collapsed lung and probably wouldn’t have lived through the night if the Vet hadn’t operated. She’s was doing well today though, 24 hrs after the Op, and will be home in a couple of days for an extended layup.
Pedro bring home the bacon.
