Uhunt Mag Information

• Posted By : BRISTLE UP
• Posted On : May 02, 2019
• Views : 1805
• Category : PIG DOGGING » STORIES
• Description : "The dogs had a good whiff of them, and the chase was on. With dogs and pigs going everywhere, after catching and running on we ended up catching 6 out of the mob."

Overview

• It was the June long weekend. Winter was certainly here, with temperatures bloody cold on the New England ranges. A few mates and I headed to a property about 3 and a half hours drive from home. Josh and I went early as we wanted to get there before dark as the other mates didn’t finish work till 5 pm. As soon as Josh and I arrived, we saw the farmer and he said that there had been plenty of pigs getting around, which is always good to hear. We didn’t bother waiting, we threw the swags and gear off the ute, collared the dogs and headed for the hills. We had 3 dogs with us, Roxy - Arab/Ridgeback, Xena - Bully/Stag/Dane/Pointer, and Misty - Stag/Wolf/Mastiff. With the dogs working hard and a few false jumps it wasn’t long before 2 pigs were on the tally board. 
  
  By this time, my other mates were due to arrive so we met them at the front gate and showed them the way to the shearer’s quarters. Either way the boys being keen as or pissed at us for not waiting for them they still wanted to get amongst a few. We poked around in the hilux for a while with things a little quiet, so we headed to a spot with some old Lucerne still about, that has a creek on the edge. We didn’t even reach the gate before the dogs flew off the ute, with Roxy and Rusty pushing out, then bang both dogs bailing hard, it wasn’t long before all the dogs were on the scene and had the boar lugged up on the edge of a dam. After that, it was back to camp for a feed and a kip. At lunchtime we went for a walk in some steep, thick country hoping to bust one camped up, Xena the warrior princess caught a good sow, which moved the tally to 4. 
  
  The day went on, and some storm clouds rolled in which didn’t look good at all, we missed the eye and just got a nice shower. We were just collaring the dogs before heading out for an afternoon hunt when Josh notices a pig on the front oats crop about a km from camp. We split up with Josh and me going the high side because we knew the pig would run for the hills, and Wayne and Cody coming from below out of a little creek. By the time we got through all the fences and in place, there were five pigs in the mob, anyway, we walked down toward them. The dogs had a good whiff of them, and the chase was on. With dogs and pigs going everywhere, after catching and running on we ended up catching 6 out of the mob. As we were dealing with the mob, the storm rolled back around, and yep it pissed down, and we were absolutely drenched and no chance of heading back out because the roads were just way too sticky to drive on. It stopped raining later that night, and we hoped to sneak another hunt in before heading home, lucky for us the farmer said go for it, just stay on the tracks and don’t go off the main road.
  
  

  We followed the main track as far as we could go just before a nice oats crop where the farmer had seen two big pigs a few days prior. We started walking the western edge of the crop, heading for the nearest hill to walk up, no pigs on the crop. We started heading back to the ute in an open cultivated paddock, and there was more rain coming. About 700m from the ute I noticed Xena working the oats where we had seen a fox and thought she was just sniffing the fox’s scent. I didn’t take much notice of her, then all of a sudden noise came from her direction and the other dogs were there straight away. 
  As I was running over there and jumped the fence another pig ran through and out into the open, heading for the hills. Cody, my little brother, was just behind me, we both seen the pig, I looked at him, he looked at me, and he knew his job. Keep running after the pig till a dog catches up. By the time Wayne got the dogs off and through the fence we could see Cody way off in the distance still going hard after this pig, it was quite funny. Anyway, we put the dogs on the scent and off they went in the right direction, and eventually they caught up to Cody and the pig up in the hill with Wayne going up to lend a hand. The dogs finally got the boar 2.8km from where the chase started. A top finish to a top weekend with a total of 13 pigs accounted for.     

  By Ryan Cameron