Boars in Oz

[Ned Makim 116]

Bloody Paul has struck again. Her got a call from a cockie late yesterday to say there was a couple in his traps on one block so he took off after work to pick them up and forgot his camera. He got five in the traps. He had BJ and Suzie with him because it was only a service call and caught another five pigs in the open. Of the 10 he got he boxed eight 48, 46, 45, 43, 39, 36, 35 and a 25 kgs dressed. The biggest pigs wer caught by the young dogs and one of those (either the 39 or the 36 I can't recall) was a middle of the night naked in the dam pig. He said the dam was freezing and he was up to his waist in silt so it was a bloody battle getting the pig back out...

No pix because of the forgotten camera and he said his attempts to take phone pix were hopeless because it was just too black to see anything on the screen properly. He was a bit critical of the youngsters saying they weren't as clean on the catches as he would have liked but overall they showed further improvement on the nose and learned a few more things about getting through fences.

There's a few pigs in our country ATM.

He and I have a few runs planned for the weekend to make the most of the time off so we will see what that yields.

Cheers.

Edited June 10, 2010 by Ned Makim

[ArchieHood 3,692]

Should be a good weekend,the weather looks good here,Your out with the dogs and there's some football tournament on the TV.

[judge2010 196]

Should be a good weekend,the weather looks good here,Your out with the dogs and there's some football tournament on the TV.

 

 

love your advater pal.

[Ned Makim 116]

 

The weekend yielded a few more hogs but I did it tough...

First things first though. Paul got another five early in the weekend with another two reasonable boars and a few more holes in the hounds. He was back on the seasonal place (where the pigs come for the prickly pear for a couple of months a year...) The boars were 56 and 62 and both had useful tusks although niether were special. Hannah and her son BJ caught both boars. Hannah led with BJ following her rather than following the track himself so he will have a few goes on his own to bring him on a bit more. The three other pigs were all two smaller for the box and ended up as dog food.

 

Top pix: BJ and Hannah on the 56.

This photo: The 56.

The 56 and 62. (He's not missing a leg, it's just the way it's sitting on the rack...)

 

As for me, I headed out on Sunday before dawn for a look in the sorghum. Had a couple of decent jumps from the dogs but it looked like the hogs had been in the crop earlier in the morning or the night before. Gave the dogs a good run around after a couple of weeks lay off but didn't yield any pigs.

I headed for son James' place at lunch time to watch the UFC, then got picked up by Paul for another run.

This time we headed in the opposite direction down to his new spot (the place he got the 10 a week ago). This place has some rough hills lewt me tell you. We arrived at dark and couldn't get a jump from the dogs. We spent about two and a half hours walking (well stumbling) just using starlight to find out way around. We tried everything, the big walk, spotlighting, rapid approaches to a feelot, checked traps and found bugger all. We managed only one for the night, a 33 dressed sow found by Molly and grabbed by Roger.

I finally got home and to bed about 3am, ending 24 hours awake, looking for pigs and watching the fights.

Looks like I'll have to try harder if I'm going to get close to Paul's tally for the past month...

Cheers.

 

Paul dressing the little sow last night.

[Wild_and_Irish 11]

keep them coming

[ArchieHood 3,692]

You will do well to catch up with Paul, especially at your age LOL.Was thinking what would win the day experience or youth? Then watched Chuck "The Iceman" melt.No doubt you will give it a good go.Just remember who taught him.

[GET THEM OUT (.)(.) 39]

WOW ! i have just read his entire thread ! and not once got bored your pics and storys are the best i have ever read, your dogs are a true credit to you, you certainly know your stuff ned, i would deffo be intersted in a book about you and your pig hunting,

[Ned Makim 116]

Thanks for comments again fellas...

 

Had a property babysitting job at the weekend so, of course, it turned into a hunt. The cockie (farmer) is a bit sensitive about who and what and all that sort of stuff but he knows Paul and I so all good.Our mate Scotty was down too to pick up a dog so the cockie invited him to help feed the cat, the chooks, the farm dogs and the big domestic sow wandering around just outside the houseyard.

 

Scotty and I went down early to do the jobs and picked up a pig for our trouble. Paul arrived about 2am after a birthday party (not his) and we all went for a drive. He'd picked up two on the way up to the house and we got another three before about 5am. Bit of a rest until dawn and then it was out again for another. Nothing spectacular in any of the pigs but some professional work by Hannah, Molly and Bob at various times. BJ, Suzie and Roger all had a chew and did their thing and Gina was taken for her first major sheep test and passed with flying colours. There are 6000 sheep on the place, lots of coloured ones and lots of scrub so there was the potential for trouble. To her credit though Gina, a very energetic, ethusiastic young dog, ignored them. She even went with Bob on a looping find through the sheep without incident.

(We didn't have all these dogs hunting all the time, just swapped them around and left others in cages back at the homestead...)

 

We got seven for the effort. Of those four went to the box at 26, 32, 34 and 42 kgs. One other was too small, one too damaged and one dead too long for sale.

All the cockies animals were looked after, illegal hunters were kept at bay, a few pests bit the dust and all dogs behaved themselves.

 

Paul on the job racking up a couple of night time pigs.

 

 

Rack filling up in the morning....

 

 

Molly and BJ...

 

 

Cheers.

[GET THEM OUT (.)(.) 39]

another good story ned,

 

any info on the traps you use ? please keep them coming,

[Ned Makim 116]

I'll get some pix of them for you but they are a fairly basic steel mesh box about three metres long by 1.5 x 1.5. The door in is hinged at the top and is offset at an angle of about 20 or 30 degrees from the vertical. The trap is baited with grain or whatever and the door tied open so the pigs free feed for a while. Once the pigs are feeding regularly the door is unhooked and propped open with a stick. Next time the pigs go in they bump the stick and the door shuts. Other pigs can still push in through the door but it is only a one way deal. The offset angle allows the gate weight to keep it shut and the gate frame fits inside an angle iron frame so the pigs can't nose it open.

Pix will help but that's the idea. There are heaps of variation in trapping pigs but that works for us.

Cheers.

[chris strilciw 1]

what a bloody good read that is ned took me 2 hours to read the lot i will be keeping on top of this, and your dogs are top noch mate, great pics great videos spot on

 

chris

[staffs riffraff 1,068]

awesome read ned just been through the whole 20 pages the best blog iv read thats for sure and about the book mate you certainly had my imagination going with how you tell it i could picture myself with you hunting. how about taking a young 28 year old as a working guest for bed and board for a month to say a couple of years if i pay for the flight LOL (not joking)

[staffs riffraff 1,068]

you must have pigs as much as we have rats you must be putting a dent in the population the rate you and family-friends are going at them or is it true that theres more wild pigs than humans in oz have you niticed in any areas that get hunted regularly get completely rid of the population and if so does the area ever recover does it take a long time if so or would the few remaining clever fuckers that are left move on to greener pastures and fresh groups come in from surrounding areas due to over population soz for all the questions im captivated by it and youu seem an expert

[Ned Makim 116]

Thanks again fellas. Just back from a visit to see a mate who manages 16,000 acres of mountain country. Had a good run on the pigs so I'll post pix and a report as soon as the camera battery recharges.

 

I'll answer your questions too, just having a coffee and a bit of a rest. I've done a hamstring trying to run up a gully to get the best boar of the trip so I'm lying around a bit ATM.

 

Cheers.

[Ned Makim 116]

Got away for a run on some new country for about 24 hours from Friday afternoon until just on dark on Saturday. Beautiful country...high steep ridges running down to oats etc on creek flats. And pigs... Probably saw 50 but managed to knock over 14 before the rain on Saturday made the mountain tracks too dangerous to attempt. Not a lot of rain but easy to get into a sideways slide down into some ugly gullies.

ScottR had invited me to one of his spots and I couldn't be more grateful. Top run, very comfortable camp and plenty of pigs if you had the legs to get to them. I didn't. I did a hamstring on Saturday morning so spent the rest of the day hopping about and complaining...

 

Gina had a blinder. She'd been held back while I had worked on other dogs for the past few months and hadn't been given her head to show what she could do. But this weekend she was allowed to have a go and she improved with every pig. Caught three of her own including a decent little boar when she did a run on after being in on the catch of the best boar of the trip. The weekend before she'd gone through a heap of sheep and lambs without a drama and this week it was roos, cows and calves. Her nose seems to be sharper than Mary's and Bob's or she was just more energetic about it but she left the truck first numerous times and found probably five or six of the 14 without doubt. Maybe more but too close to call. Not saying she's a world beater, just that she stepped up and took the opportunity much better than I expected.

 

The pigs ranged from slips to between 40 and 50 dressed but the boars had big teeth for smaller animals and were happy to punch on. A really enjoyable quick trip in good company. Saw pigs, caught pigs, had a few laughs and nothing (except the hamstring) went wrong. Added bonus of seeing an inexperienced dog come on too...

 

Best boar of the run. Better than 40 but not 50kgs in my guesstimate but surprisingly good teeth and like to fight. That's Roger and Gina. We think Guna was first onto this bloke and she ran on after the catch to nail another one (the one in the next pix). We came back to take this pix because it was all on once we stuck this bloke with Gina and Roger both running on and splitting up. Roger worked hard up on one ridge but came up with nothing while Gina scored the extra boar.

 

 

ScottR with Gina's bonus boar. Not a monster but some teeth and a very good find by the little bitch.

 

 

Our fifth pig of the trip, just after dark on Friday. We'd had little pigs up to this point and happy with them but this made things look a whole lot better. Bob and Gina got this one.

 

 

A Saturday morning boar. He was high up this bloke and again it was Bob and Gina on the job. Little teeth but another good hard little boar.

 

 

A little sow to show some of the colour in the pigs. This pix and the next were attempts to show the slopes we were on but they didn't do achieve the objective all that well. That's Mary with me and Gina in the background.

 

 

Another little sow on the side of a ridge.

 

 

Cheers.

Edited June 27, 2010 by Ned Makim