Uhunt Mag Information

• Posted By : BRISTLE UP
• Posted On : Jul 08, 2019
• Views : 480
• Likes : 6
• Category : PIG DOGGING » STORIES
• Description : “There are pig pads up there everywhere leading from the mangoes”

Overview

• By Emily Huth
  
  After a busy Christmas, I was keen to use my time off work to relax and hopefully catch a few pigs to finish up 2018 on a high. So we set off on Friday afternoon my parents, my Dad’s friend Tony, my partner Bodie and I, headed out to our favorite camping spot not far from home at a mate’s place in Central Queensland. There are a few blocks were allowed to hunt in the same area, most of them being mango farms, so we were hoping to pick up a few good pigs for the weekend. Between myself and my parents, we have three older Bull Arab bitches, Rosie, Maggie and Suzie, two 8-month-old Dane x Mastiff brothers, Mal and Tango, and 4 of Maggie’s 6-month-old pups. Our main goal for the trip was to get a good-sized pig to get Maggie’s pups going, as they’d only seen one or two pigs previously and they were going well. Mal and Tango had big shoes to fill when they didn’t have the older dogs so the pups helping gave them some more confidence as well. Our first hunt for the trip didn’t go to plan at all. Just as the night was starting to look promising the girls had jumped a few times and were keen. Somehow in the excitement, we managed to drive straight into a stump hidden in the grass, ripping out the brake line in the ute. Luckily, our camp was just down the road, so we were able to navigate back without brakes, and spent the next day running in and out of town and rushing to get it fixed.
  
  
  
  The next afternoon, once we fixed the ute up, we decided to go for a quick lap before dinner, which with Dad it always ends up being a few hours. We had no luck again and we’re starting to get a bit concerned we weren’t going to get anything. The area had received a fair bit of rain recently, and we were worried that with so much food and water around for them and the copious amounts of mosquitos, the pigs had moved on. After returning to camp unsuccessful, we considered the possibility that perhaps our bad luck was because of Dad’s mate Tony, who had never come with us hunting before this trip. Sure enough, after dinner, Tony stayed back at camp with the younger pups, and the action began. Over the mountain from where we were camping, there is a large patch of mangoes where we’ve had quite a bit of luck previously. Two weeks earlier, Dad had caught a huge 130kg boar in the same patch. Nestled right up against a huge mountain, with ridiculously steep slopes and covered in thick lantana. I have attempted to climb to the top before, but it’s a good challenge especially when you’re trying to get to the dogs. There are pig pads up there everywhere leading from the mangoes, and if you don’t get the wind right when you’re trying to hunt it, the pigs just run straight up into the mountains, and the dogs can’t keep up.
  
  
  
  On this night, the wind was swirling around so rather than driving up to the mangoes and risk losing anything that was in there, we walked a wide arc around to give us the best chance. It wasn’t long before the dogs got a whiff, and they were gone. We could hear the dogs had a pig in the distance, the three older bitches and Mal and Tango had hold of a good-sized boar, and we were happy that we’d finally caught our first pig of the trip. We continued hunting, and after driving around for a few hours the high of catching the first boar was wearing off, and we were keen to catch another. It was after midnight at this point, and after hunting all the other blocks, we were starting to get pretty tired and decided to head back to camp. Mum and I fell asleep in the car, which Dad took advantage of and went straight past camp to another patch of mangoes only a few hundred meters away. He knew Mum, and I would whinge if we had of been awake because we just wanted to go to bed, but I’m so glad he decided to keep hunting. The sweet sound of something yelling ‘Pig!’ was enough to wake us both up. The dogs had jumped, and Bodie spotted a boar hidden under the mango trees, but he was the only one that could see it. Dad pulled up on the edge of the trees, and suddenly we saw a flash of black and the dogs following close behind, then a huge bang.
  
  
  
  The dogs had flushed the boar out, straight into the ute and into the bull bar, for its second incident of the trip. We didn’t realize there was any damage until later when we noticed the front number plate was completely crumpled and had been almost ripped in half by the boar. He didn’t make it too far across the flat before the girls and Mal and Tango had him covered. He was missing a tusk on one side, and we later found pieces of it where he ran into the car, which was a real shame because he would’ve had a good set of ivory otherwise. We were all happy to call it a night, we took the pig back so we could put him on Dad’s scales which I got him for Christmas. It was 2 am by the time we got to camp, so we got a bit of sleep before daylight. The next morning, we weighed both boars which we’d caught the night before. The first went 71kg, and the second boar was a bit bigger at 82kg. While we were weighing the second boar, I spotted something black at the dam in the background not too far away. We collared the dogs and decided to take the smaller pups with us as well. He ended up being about 60kg and barely had tusks, so we let Mal, Tango, and Maggie’s pups have a go, and they didn’t hesitate, going straight in and lugging up. The whole weekend was a great way to finish off 2018, even with a little bit of bad luck at the start.