Success at last

[Germhound 61]

Well I've been here in Dunedin New Zealand 12 months now , its taken me a while to get into things, me old dog dying , buying a house etc , but success is coming . Teamed up with another Brit a few months back, he arrived in Palmerston in Feb with his family and 5 Lurchers . We've managed to get a far bit of permission to hunt with the dogs , not all ideal to run the dogs on , but the we're learning. Hunting rabbits and hares with lurchers in steep sided gulley does'nt always lead to succes, usually worn out dogs , cut feet and thorns, and the odd rabbit and hare., but an enjoyable day out. The last month has been better the dogs have wised up and the catch rate has gone up. Not great but everyone is a one more .

 

 

We were taken to a spot by a farmer last wk that usually held a load of hares, the farmer wanted to see the dogs running on a hare. He also told us there may be a few piglets running about and if we get a chance to take them. Well we hunted all around a 50 acre + flat paddock surrounded snow grass , Zappa grabbed 1 hare, it didn't get far a few strides and he picked it up . As we were wandering back I turned round and spotted a load of pigs and piglets in the paddock . They spotted us as we got closer to them and away they went , Peter slipped his 3 dogs and they each grabbed a piglet , I ran with Zappa to try and cut in front of the rest , but much to fast for me , so I slipped Zappa , he picked up the scent and was away over the brow , and soon returned carrying a piglet . The farmer was surprised to see him retrieve a piglet of that size ,about 10lb. Well off went Zappa after the pigs again , with myself , farmer and his 2 collies in pursuit . Peter headed down to the bottom of the Gulley with his 3 dogs . Down one small Gulley an up another and there was Zappa heading towards us in pursuit of a good sized pig, the farmer and I joined pursuit , Zappa made a few attempts and attaching himself to the pig , I was shouting encouragement as was the young farmer , who was almost at the pig himself, I thought he was going to catch it .Zappa came off the pig and back to me and I sent him off again and he caught up with the pig hit it and tried to latch on , but unsuccessfully and came off again I thought the great lump would stop it no probs .

The Farmer kept chasing and excitedly shouting, I was left gasping for breath a bit back , haven't run that far /fast for yrs .Peter heard the commotion and seen what was happening and headed into the gully with his dogs and waited . The pig came crashing down towards him and he slipped his dogs , the small fawn dog 'Boy' hit the pig first and grabbed hold of an ear then Flynn the Larger Blue dog hit it and grabbed the other ear and Peter was able to stick the knife in the sow.We reckon she was a good 80Lbs.

We Gutted her and got her out of the gulley and headed back to the farmers truck. There was a few more piglets in the field , we let Petes young dog , Boo, have a run on his own , he caught one and retrieved it live to hand, then the other dogs cleaned up what was left. Apart from the 2 Pete caught alive , the farmer took these to rear up. Total was 11 piglets 1 sow and a hare, what a crazy 2 hrs that was.

 

 

The farmer was chuffed to beans with what we had caught. Pete and I were a bit unsure about taking the piglets , but our farmer wanted them gone and they made good eating .

 

 

3 days later the farmer had his regular pig hunters out and they took another 5 pigs from the area.

 

Boy pointing

 

Zappa Posing ;D

 

Pete and his dogs, Mantha below has just had pups.

 

Rabbits and rough ground to run on.

A bit of scenery

 

[chartpolski 22,904]

Excelent read !!

 

Cheers.

[earthpig 0]

Well done mate great article ,keep adding more when time comes

[bird 9,855]

Great read mate, i would love to go there . how are the dogs bred, some look GSDxs.?

[jimmy 76]

feck me your one lucky gut to have that hunting to do woyld love it only 6 no,s away

[Guest ROUGH COATED]

Good luck with the hunting :piggy: :piggy: :piggy: :piggy: Good read aswell.

[bullmastiff 615]

Cracking read and stunning photo's, Thank you for sharing them with us

[Germhound 61]

Cheers , its lambing time at the mo out here , so hunting with any dog around usually stops until late November ,Saturday was my first Sat not hunting for a few months, completely lost, had to do house and garden chores :sick:

Pete's dogs are a line he has had for around 15yrs and consist mainly of deerhound, collie, greyhound and Zappa is a 1/2 cross white German shepherd/greyhound and the white one is my GSD pup of 7 months. They cost us a few grand to get out here to say the least, but worth it.

We had a few hrs hunting wallabies a while back , now there's a deceptive animal, make a dog look like their standing still when they take off, apparently the best way for dog to take them is in their seat, they have a behaviour similar to rabbits as in they sit tight in their seat but explode out when flushed and they make runs through the bush. I've never seen Zappa so knackered and Pete had his blue dog out Flynn he was the same.

The dogs flushed one and it took them on a good run to a steep sided gully where it ran them about in and out of the hill bush which consists of mostly , madagara bush a low bush with large thorns , broom and gorse, Flynn lost site and Zappa stuck his nose down , we had a grandstand view looking down on him and the wallaby just infront of him , Zappa would catch sight or get closer on scent and put a spurt on as would the wallaby, he eventually lost it after a long chase at speed in a stream at he bottom of a gully. it was great to watch it all . By the time he came back up the hill he was barely managing one step at a time so it was on the lead for him. Flynn put one up on some ground that was a bit more open and he is by no means a slow dog we watched him and wallaby disappear into the distance , specks on the hill, back came Flynn , knackered, also its rough old ground for the dogs feet . Cant wait to get back to the area and get permission to hunt them on some more open tussuck ground, now the dogs are a bit more familiar with running out here.

Going to give the trout fishing a bit more of a bash this yr , season gets under way in Oct. In the meantime I've just started a course on bush hunting deer safely, 3 lectures a morning on a range using various caliber rifles, and then a weekend in a place called the Blue Mountains hunting fallow deer and if we're lucky enough to shoot one butchery lesson aswell.

This is the NZ stingy nettle by far the worst thing Ive come across out here ( apart from the hills and being unfit ! ), its a weird feeling when stung by it , I had a numb patch on my leg that hurt occasionally but felt like it was crawling, lucky it got me in the winter.

There is one recorded human death and various accounts of dogs and horses dieing from being stung from it, it grows thick and up to 2m high.

Zappa with his first hare run and caught

I was taken to a high ground spot by a Kiwi that wanted to see a lurcher run, as it was this was Zappa first ever hare ran by Zappa and the only one we seen that day, he put on a good show for the kiwi gent and friend.

The season is getting under way now for you back in UK, good luck , I still miss sunny Wales .

Sunrise from our deck over the Otago harbor

[spiderpig 39]

wish i was back there,,,lucky bugger..have you been to see them stupid albatrosses in dunedin?

[Stabs 3]

Wallabies are a bugger aren't they!

 

Good pics and nice to see some other lurchers down in the southern hemisphere.

[awen 29]

looks amazing,good luck too ya mate

[stevemac 433]

tricky buggers them wallabys a. looks like you are having a ball I love catching pigs with sighthounds and I think you will to when they get the hang of it. the country side over there is a bit different to the bowling greens you have to hunt on back home a.

good luck with the hunting look forward to seeing some more in future.

stevemac

 

just a tip on that nettle we carry an anti histamine in our packs in case we get a dog affected by it, slip a tab down its throat and this will this will fix them up pretty quick.

Edited September 13, 2009 by stevemac

[Guest reload]

Excellent cheers for posting........

[bullxryno 21]

good read mate nothing wrong with eating a piglet they taste better than big porkers!!!

[philipmurray 0]

nice pictures and looks like a lovely country........... ;)