Another night - Another Pig, though this time, food for the Hawks

[PhilH 189]

I was out again last night. It had been raining hard and the ground was treacherous in places plus the water courses were all up. Over a small valley about 650 meters away, I spotted four pigs feeding on a hillside at the edge of some thick bush. The wind was not entirely in my favour but I could account for that. Yep, I thought, definitely worth a crack Nigel....so off I went. Had to take a detour of about 1.5 km in order to stay down wind of them and in the end the closest I could get was 230 metres. I couldn't get any closer without crossing a usually small stream, now rather swollen by the recent rain. Unfortunately the only culvert was about 1 km upwind of them. It was this or nothing. So, in no hurry, I took my camp chair and tripod out of a quiver that Sharon had made for me which allows me to sling it across my back when out hunting. I set up and got comfortable. They were closer to the bush than I wanted. The danger being, if I hit one, and it ran, that would be the first place it would choose to go. So I watched them for about 15 minutes as they were edging further into the paddock away from the bushline chasing after the fat worms that had come to the surface in the rain.

They were now about 30 meters downhill from the bushline and started to move further away from me. I decided that this was going to be the best chance I was going to get. I lined up a sow at 237 meters, aimed for center shoulder and leisurely took the shot. A good resounding body "Thwack" echoed back to me across the valley as the bullet impacted her right on target. She tumbled but then got up and hobbling on three legs, she ran. Injured, you would have thought she would have gone down hill.....but no, not this girl, she ran up hill. At this stage I'm struggling to chamber another round and get a good bead on her. She won. She got to the bushline first.....not a good result. I continued tracking her through the thermal scope getting glimpses of her as she burrowed deeper into the gorse and bracken. About 15 meters in she collapsed. Nothing to do now but watch, and so I did. I watched her for the best part of 20 minutes while the heat signal off her slowly turned from bright red to white. In all that time there was absolutely no movement from her....she was dead.

I spent the next 5 minutes memorising where she was in the bush and planning a route in. From experience, looking at the lay of the land at a distance in a thermal can bear little resemblance when viewed close up by torch light. I noted some prominent bushes, left my tripod and chair where they were so I could use them as a reference point, and headed off. It took me about 35 minutes to travel up stream to the culvert and then slog my way across a sodden slippery hillside. I found the piece of bush that I was looking for and tried to struggle in against fierce gorse and bracken. The ground was such a bog I was going knee deep in mud in places and came close to losing a boot on more than a few occasions. Sense prevailed after about 10 minutes....what was I doing? I was risking a popped knee or worse in this hostile hazardous environment to find a pig that I already knew was dead, plus the rain was now driving in squally sheets. There was little likelihood of me retrieving the beast and dragging her a couple of kilometers in this weather anyway and Lord knows we didn't need the meat. But I was close, probably within 5 metres of her, but the bush in this weather and the pitch black dark, was impenetrable. How did I know I was that close? I could smell her. There was that strong smell of death. "Oh yes....and what does death smell like", you might well ask? Can't describe it, but once you have experienced it, as many more experienced hunters than I will attest to, you will always know it. In my limited experience I have always found that pigs truly reek of it when they expire.

Anyway, long story short, I gave up and spent another hour and some trudging back to the vehicle and off home. I returned this afternoon better equipped in clothing and a machete to get through the bush, and there she was, exactly where I knew she would be.

And there she will remain, untouched, an offering to the hawks, though I may return in a couple of months or more and retrieve the head for an artist friend who has started using bleached animal skulls in her artwork. My only consolation is that it is another sow off the paddocks, thusly removing future litters that would just add to the burgeoning pest problem. Tomorrow night's weather is promising to be better....we shall venture out again.

Cheers
Phil

[keepdiggin 9,561]

Do you ever use dogs mate?

[FLATTOP 4,448]

Great write up Phil up against the weather to say the least.