Boars in Oz

[lurchergrrl 1,441]

Fabulous read, really interesting. Picures are very good

 

Think if I saw one of those pigs I'd probably fall over in fright - who knew they were so massive!!

 

And btw, I have a 6 year old son and twin 4 year old girls who were ohhhhhing and aahhhhing over the stories and pictures you put on.

 

So, many thanks

[Ned Makim 116]

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.

[Bootsha 1,306]

You and your dogs deserve only positive feedback, you earn it at the coalface Ned, not at the keyboard.

If you only knew how envious( and I think I am right in saying this), ALL of us are of what you and your dogs do on a daily basis, you'd be astonished.

I have only just seen this thread and have read every post from page one to seventeen, SU-BLOODY-PERB mate. Rest assured, I shall be watching this topic from now on.

 

Keep up the good work, AND WORKING YOUR DOGS you lucky man

 

Regards

[Dave C 63]

Best read i have had in years Ned.

Excellent Pics and footage mate, dogs look well up for the job and the country is stunning mate.

Keep it up

 

ATB

Dave.

[mikeyboy 7]

cracking read again ned. your one lucky devil

 

atb mike

[Ned Makim 116]

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.

[Ned Makim 116]

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 one section of the crop. They looked serious but came up with nothing. A little further on Hannah went again. The technology showed she'd cut right through the crop and was working up near the main road. Still nothing. Then Molly went like a rocket off the tray and into the crop. The screen showed they had been through the same area a couple of times (only about 300 metres off the truck). Barney was going sick in the cage so he was let out to back up bailer Molly. Silence. Then Molly barked. Only the once, then a couple more and Molly and Barney were bouncing around in the crop like idiots. Hannah was heading back towards the commotion and we were certain of something. Then Molly barked again and it was on. Barney hit whatever Molly had barked at. Hannah circled them and then went in a straight line straight into another pig. Still no squealing so we knew we had two reasonable hogs. At that moment we spotted another trying to sneak through the crop to safety. We let Roger go and he ran straight past the squated pig within a metres or two and hit Hannah's pig. Still no squeal.

Paul grabbed Suzie on a lead and he and I headed into the crop toward where we'd last seen the squatter. As I bumbled along Paul said 'stand still'. I did. When I looked there was a fair lump of a pig squatted within a metre of me. He let Suzie go and the chase was on. Long story short, the pig was too good for the young dog, losing her in the crop as I headed for Hannah and Roger.

I came through the standing sorghum to finds Hannah and Roger lugged up to a respectable boar.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFKqbzn-Jhw

 

I was pretty quick on the trigger with the vid because it had teeth and there was still another non squealer out there with Barney on its ear. I rolled and stuck the boar and headed for Barney. He had a good lump of a sow and I got her on her back after Roger and Hannah arrived to lend a hand. Suzie turned up too so I knew Paul had missed his pig.

The dogs stepped off beautifully after the sticking and Paul arrived saying 'where's Roger?' I checked the screen and he was going. He left the crop, straightened up and went 1.2kms to grab another fat sow in a cave, a good bit smaller than the first. Too far and too small for us to bother carrying here out of the rough stuff but a big effort by the young dog, through a mob of sheep and up and over some real shit country.

Back to the crop and a few pix and dressing out the bigger pigs.

A top morning and the change in tactics worked.

The boar went 68 dressed and the sow was 66 and carrying heaps of fat.

 

Roger's big find. Little pig but a long way for the inexperienced dog. Happy with that.

 

 

The cave the little pig was in when we found Roger and her.

 

 

Paul, Hannah and the boar.

 

 

A short vid to go with the photo.

 

 

The better pigs on the truck.

 

[forest of dean redneck 11,622]

way to go ned & paul ,

sounds like rogers getting a taste for it.

 

i turned the sound up for the video and when the pig squealed the bulldog and terrier came flying over and nearly took the laptop out.

[ArchieHood 3,692]

Top class as usual Ned, change of tactics worked this time not always the case, but as our elite boys say "Who dares wins"

[mikeyboy 7]

just a question ned how fast can these pigs run then, sounds like there was some chasing

on some of thses trips

 

atb mike

[Ned Makim 116]

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 home. After we had got the second one in the crop, Roger let go and started to circle looking for a scent, he hit it and follow it up. So the pig he got wouldn't have been in sight. He was just following his nose on a hot scent. We call it 'running on'.

Cheers.

[Ned Makim 116]

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 all camped at a bowhunters clubhouse in the bush near a place called Orange. It was a seven hour drive for me but worth it to be given the chance to show the government we can be responsible members of society.

The Game Council has stickers and things calling the shooters and bowhunters camo conservationists. We are called conservation hunters because of our removal of feral pests from the environment. The whole things is a big step in hunter/society relations and a model for other places I think.

I'll try to get some video of the event and post it.

 

And as I said earlier, as soo as Paul sends me his pix, I'll get you a report on the weekend's catch.

 

Cheers.

[Ned Makim 116]

 

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.

[Dave C 63]

Well done on that training workshop Ned, will save some lads years of trial and era.

Sounds like the OZ government / Law has its priorities sorted right out, while ours doesn't have a clue

 

ATB

Dave.

[waidmann 105]

good job ned

we could do with some appreciation and positive publicity over here,it seems disney is the death of common sense in the general public(both england and germany).

 

the question asked above,how fast are pigs:

 

the wild boar(in europe "sus scrofa") can reach a maximum speed of 40km/h over short distances and is capable of covering over 40km in search of food ON NORMAL NIGHTS

they are very mobile,quick and adaptive to their enviroment(so called "culture followers") not to mention being VERY intelligent(compared to other animals,dogs and alot of the hunting fraternity ).

 

top thread and always the first i look to see

 

waidmann