Ned Makim
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Everything posted by Ned Makim
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Trial and lots of error mate. My father was into horsesand cattle but he wasn't great with dogs. I was kind of on my own in that regard, no criticism of my father, just different focus. I tried lots of things but after a while I went the way I'm going now... Cheers.
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Thanks for the replies fellas. This is a bit of the video shot at the training event. The pup was lent to me for the demo. It had never been on a lead nor been tied up. You can see how much it wants to do the right thing. It learned from being corrected at a distance on the long lead that the only place it never got corrected was right behind me. Whenever I move it moves by choice because it has accepted that I am the leader of its pack. Anyone can do this stuff and thousands of blokes here already do. It was just a good chance to show people getting into pig dogs the basics. I made
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This is Paul's best from the weekend. It's a boar that dressed 67kgs and was caught by BJ and Hannah. He also picked up another 54kg sow and a couple of little dog fooders. He was happy to get them but said the dog's struggled a bit in long grass which seemed to have heaps of scent from pigs crossing to get to a feedlot. Nothing to dramatic in the catches although this boar put a hole in Hannah despite only having inch long tusks. He's heading back to the same spot this weekend and if things work out I'll be with him and we'll see how we go... Cheers.
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Paul got onto a couple of decent pigs at the weekend so as soon as he emails me his pix, I'll post them and give you the run down on the hunt. In other news, I am just back from speaking at a State Government sponsored workshop for pig doggers. A government agency here The Game Council of NSW staged the event to help train younger or inexperienced hunters in how to use dogs to catch pigs. It was a great event. I did demos on basic dog control (using a long lead) and specific stuff on stock proofing (stopping your dogs looking to chase sheep etc). The event ran for a couple of days and we a
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Few knives I've made now for sale
Ned Makim replied to spike25blue's topic in Optics and Night Vision
Very nice mate. Especially like the third knife. Cheers. -
Thanks for the replies fellas. Re the speed of pigs...yeah, they can motor. The older hunters here say we caught all the slow stupid pigs a long time ago. They can put on a startling turn of pace. More than pure pace though is their knowledge of their own country and escape routes. The clever ones get moving as soon as they hear or see or smell anything wrong. So they are quick running and quick thinking. In Sunday's case, the pig Roger got would have been in the crop with the other two or three. When the dogs and us hit the pigs it would have escaped, gone through the fence and headed for
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Back from the trip to the sorghum before dawn this morning. We've done night runs for not much (with the exception of a good set of teeth a couple of weeks ago...) so Paul and I switched to dawn to see if that made a difference. Well, it did.... We did three blocks of sorghum for nothing but excitment jumps from the dogs. We had Barney and Roger of mine and Paul's Hannah, Molly and Susie. We didn't bother walking the firs three blocks in the hope of a handy find off the tray by one of the dogs loose. We hit the fourth block and the unclipped dogs, Hannah and Molly, jumped for a loop around on
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Thanks everyone...don't feel lucky ATM. It's 3.30am here and frosty. I'm up and drinking coffee to meet Paul out at his place at 4.30am for a dawn run up in the hills. He's caught a couple in the past week or so but nothing of any consequence, a 40kg (dressed) boar and a little dog fooder. And I haven't been out since I got thegood teeth. I hate getting out of a warm bed but once I get moving I get psyched. Just have to get my skirt off I suppose...ha ha. Anyway, I'll let you know what happens this morning. It'll be about seven or eight hours before I've got any news I imagine. Cheers.
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Thanks very much lurchergirl. You're not the only one to find a bad boar a daunting prospect. I take them very seriously indeed. I appreciate the feedback. Cheers.
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Well I don't now but I have and lots of blokes do. The one's used here will find and smash pigs but you have to pick your lines. Some lines are too soft but if the bloke producing them has been doing it for a while there are dogs that look very deerhoundy that will do everything my dogs do. My cousins used them for years. They were tough and incredibly fast. It's all about slection and breeding. You just use the ones that do the job. Some are definitely toughewr than others so you just follow that line. Cheers.
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Thanks fellas, Just an update on the book idea etc etc. I've started writing about my experiences in a life of boar chasing so that's very slowly taking shape. I'll worry about a publisher etc once I have something to show... I am also looking at developing a web based magazine with paid subscriptions which will be all about pigs, dogs, international hunting styles (predominantly with dogs), dog training etc. I've been approached by a few people suggesting it might have a future and I an very keen to get out of the 'real world' of work and concentrate on the life I love. I'll keep you all p
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Do you mean 13cm protruding from the jaw or 13cm once it was pulled out of the jaw? I'd nearly kill to get one with 13cm of tusk protruding...(just to clarify mine was 8.1cm protruding, there's more to come if I ever pull them out but I mostly leave any I keep still in the jaw...) Cheers.
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G'day Waidmann, Now the dust has settled I finally measured the tusks. The best of the pair was 81mm out of the jaw (3 and one eighth inches). Where I hunt is all rocky so something that long and sharp is rare. You're right, they get broken or worn off and end up shorter but thicker as the pig ages. And I agree, anything with teeth is exciting to me, I've caught way more dangerous boars with lesser ivory... It's all about the experience and adrenaline at the time rather than the ego later. Cheers and thanks for the continued support. I hope you blokes are getting something of the flavour of
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And just had an email from son Paul. We'd met up at about 4am the other day when he dropped of the quad after a night time run. He had caught five and boxed two with a third a bit too marked for the trade. Anyway he said he thought he might have a good shot of Hannah and her daughter Suzie on the best pig of the night. The email had this photo in it. I reckon it's a cracker. That's Suzie on the left (about 13 or 14 months) and Hannah on the right getting lifted. Cheers.
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Good work by the pup. Always encouraging when the youngsters hook in... And no there's no season for pigs over here. They are decalred vermin so it's open season all the time...although our winter is best for numbers because they pigs tend to be forced out of the thick country by the lack of feed and it's easier on the dogs (not too hot). Well, back to the pigs and I have a bit better news to report... SuperJen and I took a few days off to test out our brand spanking new camper trailer and get all the dogs out of town. We spent two surprisingly cold nights out but I scored a top bo
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G'day, Been a while between posts. I'm off tomorrow for a few days camped so I hope to have a pig or two to talk about during that break...but in other news... Stan, Barney's brother has been killed in the hills outside Scone, NSW. Had a call tonight from ScottR who was working him for me to say the young dog had collapsed after catching a pig and died. He was punctured under the front leg and had a pen hole type poke back along the ribs. He was on a big sow when Scott got to him but he doesn't know what ripped him. It is the third dog to be killed on the same ridge. Scott said the sow was a
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There are thousands of blokes over here who hunt pigs with dogs and knives. And mate it is great. There are a few pix of boars on my thread in the boar and pig hunting section on the this forum. But please if you blokes are considering putting a dog on a proper big boar, give your dog some protection. The dog is a big chance to get cut up without it. A hard dog will still hold them but he or she will get unzipped on a bad boar. Cheers.
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Stopping and holding boars is not a matter of size or weight in dogs, it's a function of heart and technique. We use dogs down to 25kgs and they'll swing off whatever boar sticks its head up. There are a lot of myths about boars. They are tough and can kill dogs, no doubt but one or two dogs can do the lot, find them, stop them and hold them until you can stick them. They might not hold them absolutely still but the man on foot is required to do a little as well. If you have faith in your dogs and they are prepared to die on the pig rather than let you get hit, you just have to keep going forw
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I'm back from the sorghum without a pig. Looks like they've switched back to night time feeding by the look of the tracks. I'll have another go this weekend. In the meantime have a look at this things. My mate Brett, the bloke who's in the bull tying video and a few pix earlier in the thread, picked up this thing last night. I really happy for him. It's a top boar and the dogs did a huge job... This is the story in Brett's words... Went for a run last night and had some luck Bucks and Wolfie left the ute and were working along the creek edge and looking fairly keen and then I heard th
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Thanks for the responses. No, no bulldogs involved. The crosses in our dogs are listed a few times in the thread. Hope to get up into the sorghum crop again tomorrow evening if all goes well. So we'll see if I end up with anything worthwhile to post... Cheers.
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On all our trackers we used shrink wrap initially and then either firehose or harness leather held in place with a hose clamp. Along the aerial we use lighter more flexible leather held in place with zip ties. Works well so far but not pretty. Some blokes in Oz are making covers out of PVC, some out of aluminium and others out of seatbelt. Get on Ozziedoggers if you want to check them out. Of course DC 30s aren't legal to use in Oz so I wouldn't be using one...must just look a bit like one... Cheers.
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That cartoon....that's how I feel trying to get the pigs onto the truck... Anyway I'm back in the saddle after the break for drinks in the camp yesterday afternoon... Went for a look at dawn but found nothing pigwise. Good run for other reasons though. Where I am now there are thousands of dorper sheep and lots of them are black headed, black and white or black. They look very piggy in the long grass so I spent the morning quadding Roger and Gina around all the sheep. So much easier teaching a young dog things when you can communicate with them more closely. I love quads for educating
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Thanks mate. There's a lot of effort, money, frustration, breakdowns and injuries go into it but you get one decent boar and dogs do their thing and you feel like a king. The posts on here don't give any indication how much time is spent on this game (around here anyway) but the adrenalin when you hity a genuine fighting boar is the best drug I've tried... Cheers.
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So after that night time adventure I went to sleep and Paul took off for another block to do on his way home. Got a message from him this morning to say he'd picked up another four...a good 60-odd sow with plenty of fight, a 35kg odd boar and two little dog fooders. And the truck made it home safely. I got the message while I was up in the hills again myself. This time it was my truck playing up...snapped the handbrake cable somehow...but that wasn't the only news. Coming into a grass paddock, Barney jumped and as I crested a ridge I could see he was zooming in on a mob of about si
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The Easter holiday effort has paid off one way or another already... I'm out in the bush with the laptop and 3G connection hoping to find a few pigs on a place that usually yields a few a bit later than this each year. Well there's not a million pigs but there are a few around and plenty of other stories as well. First up, the pigs. I went for a scout around on the quad yesterday and found some decent working but no hogs. did find some camels though...(they were brought here some time ago for weed control and now just run semi-wild...strange sight in the mountains...) Anyway, Paul h
