Boars in Oz

[ArchieHood 3,692]

Well done Ned, you were due a good un.Sounds like your dogs are really working well.Do you reward them with anything after a good day? or just a hose down and a once over.

[Ned Makim 116]

No special rewards. They do get as much food as they want to eat and the ripped up dog (after treatment) gets to lie around anywhere they want while they start to mend but other than that, the reward is the pig and the pat on the head and a few 'good dogs' at the time.

Cheers.

[theferreter 311]

brilliant thread ned mate some nice dogs you have credit to you

[driller killer 33]

Hello Ned,

 

I remember must be 10yrs ago now i hitched and worked on farms up the east coast of oz and 1 of my lifts were off a couple blokes who had just been pig hunting, i had to sit in the back next to the dogs and catch of the day, only a little pig, but the dogs were impressive! didnt like me next to there cages either, made for a uneasy ride, but impressive hounds!

Brilliant thread!

Your a great writer, really draws you in, you should try and get something published, i think ya capable.

Keep up the good work and ya audieance up to date!

Cheers

Neil

Edited March 13, 2010 by driller killer

[alaunte 12]

Great thread Ned,loved reading through it.dog's look very impressive and the hunting look's great out there. A.T.B. Lyndon.

[Corky(amateur) 0]

Really does make for a truely incredible, hair grabbing read matey!!! Keep it coming!!!!

atb

Matt

[Ned Makim 116]

 

And here's Hannah on the job again. Paul was speaking to one of our cockies (landholders) who said he'd seen a bit of wallowing on one of the pig productive dams on the place. Paul lives and works on a property and this pig chasing spot is about 10 minutes down the road but only ever good at certain times of the year. Normally the pigs appear there later than this in the year following a permanent creek down out of the rough country looking for prickly pear (a type of introduced cactus) when it's in fruit. We've had an unusual season this year and the pear seems to be ripening earlier... Anyway, he went out for a look and Hannah and Molly just flew off the truck at the dam about 6pm and tore into the scrub on a pad that leads into some shit gorge country. About a minute later it was on and he got this thing. Good fighting boar that would stand still and seemed to psyche himself up and then go for it in a mad flurry for half a minute or so, then stand again for half a minute and go again. He reckons it was 60-odd but just looking at the pix I thought it might be high sixties (60kgs dressed) or better. Either way, good boar and home before dark. And the cockie thinks Paul's a genius pig catcher ha ha.

 

Hannah standing on the right and the finder bailer Molly lying down.

 

Since then he's been back to the spot and the dogs did a big big find around a couple of hills for a 40-odd sow and a little 10 plus squealer.

 

Cheers.

 

EDIT: The other reason I thought the pig might have had more weight in it than Paul initially thought was that Paul struggled to get it on the rack to dress. He can toss around a fair lump of a pig so it made me think it was better than his guess. He might have been just been having a bit of a netball day though too ha ha.

[Ned Makim 116]

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 had arranged to come out and meet me here for a night run so I wanted to have some idea where we might go.

 

 

 

He arrived just before dark to give us a chance to look at a few dams we thought the pigs might be on. No luck at all. Very quiet on all fronts until we were almost back to camp the first time when Hannah and Molly bolted off the truck to pull up two little ones in the shiny leaf. Barely dog food and lonely without their mother, the little boars might have made 10kgs...

 

 

We dropped them off near the camp and headed back out. This time though we struck a bit of trouble. A stick or something help tear a hole in an oil line and the entire oil contents of Paul's Rodeo was dumped on the ground. We almost couldn't be further from help, right up one corner of the 10,000 acres we were hunting and a long walk back. We both tend to be calm in these sorts of situations and just press on with finding the best solution so Paul got under the truck and found he could shorten the rubber oil line and reattached it with a clamp. So that was at least workable if we could get oil.

 

Then, thanks to the technology and the phone network up in the high stuff where we were, we were able to called SuperJen back at the camp. We knew where we were and gave her directions and she set off in my truck to find us. We started walking to meet her to possible get more pigs and save her some of the rocky, shit drive.

Fantasticially we all met up without a hitch (and without a pig either...). Then it was off to the cockies shed. We dropped Jen off and she started cooking for us for whenever we got back. We found some oil and set off back into the bush. Again, fantastically, we got the oil into Paul's truck, it held and we got back to camp and a heap of food and Milo Jen had ready for us.

All this took place between 9.15pm and 11.30pm.

 

Bad night in some ways but good to get out of it like we did.

 

Cheers.

[Ned Makim 116]

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 six reasonable pigs. Bobby was gaining on them as well. (Didn't even know he'd gone...) The it seemed to all go to shit. Pigs came back past me and the dogs seemed to have missed them. I checked the trackers and Bobby was through the fence and going in a beeline up a ridge. Barney was looking lost. Barney and I set off up the ridge through the scrub until a total of about a km out I could see Bobby (on the technology) was stopped and on something. I got to within 400 metres and Barney went.

Still no sound so I had my fingers crossed it was something decent. There hadn't been a big boar with the mob but Bobby has previously dumped the mob for a better scent and this time it looked like he had done it again. I heard Barney hit it and again bugger all sound. More scrub, more rocks and all of my almost 50 years felt and I got to them. A cracking good boar, Bobby buggered and standing off breathing hard and Barney getting dragged all over the place. Another run and I had my hands on him. A bloody beauty.

Bobby hasn't been out for over two months and was fat and unfit and without Barney I was no chance of getting this one. Barney was unfit too after a layoff from the blackberry boar a few weeks ago but he's got plenty of ticker the young Barney.

 

 

 

He would have gone low 70s (dressed) this bloke, maybe better but he was unweighed...

 

 

Cheers.

Edited April 3, 2010 by Ned Makim

[hollands hope 1,013]

As usual a good write-up Ned thanks for sharing ,you lads are having some great sport over there keep em coming!

[Ned Makim 116]

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.

[waidmann 105]

some nice pigs and hard work by the looks of it ned

some good footage and pics,

thanks for sharing bud.

 

michael

[ArchieHood 3,692]

Wonderful read Ned,we really appreciate the time and effort you put into your posts,cant always be easy after a hard day.First thing I look for on here is to see if you've posted.Thanks again

 

 

[Ned Makim 116]

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 dogs. A few stares but no jumps or anything so the stockproofing is going well. I'll go for a ridge walk later this afternoon to see what else I can see...

 

Roger and Gina out for the morning's education.

 

The country I'm in at a bit after dawn Easter Sunday 2010...Lots of highpoints with hidden valleys and grassy bits full of big rocks.. A few briar bushes and lots of scrub in the gullies. Enough pigs to keep you coming back but not easy.

 

 

And on the pig front, Paul sent me a text earlier to say he'd picked up three in the sorghum closer to home over night. He then emailed this pix into camp. He got a 40kg dressed, 45 and 59 with Hannah and Molly doing the main work but young dogs Suzie and BJ continuing their training. BJ in particular has come on dramatically in the past week or so. Nothing like seeing a few pigs top get them focussed.

 

 

Cheers.

Edited April 4, 2010 by Ned Makim

[brickie 76]

a great thread and brilliant pictures,they are some tidy dogs you have their ned , keep posting the stories and pictures please very enjoyable to read cheers