Page 4 - Bristle Up Magzine

Troy & Shannon - 133kg WA Boar
ELUSIVE MONSTER
By Troy Schmidt
We were sitting at home on a Sunday afternoon
when my partner Shannon and I decided to load
the dogs up for a quick hunt at around 2 in the
afternoon. I had been told of a boar for a couple
of years that had been roaming the area. This
boar had touched up a few dogs in the past and
managed to avoid being caught. Some claiming
it was around 150kg mark. I had seen some
large tracks in the past and I knew the pig must
have some size about it but was bit skeptical on
it being 150kg. So today we were hoping to
come across the big fella and put the tale to rest.
About 5 minutes into the hunt I notice some tracks
on a pad. The pad is the same one the pig was
using last time I came through a couple of months
before. The tracks where big, that big I could fit
an ice coffee bottle in the track. But it was hard to
tell how fresh they were so we continued hunting.
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“We got within 150 metres and I could hear the roaring”
About half an hour had passed when the dogs got
keen and left the ute, but they weren’t in a real
rush. They worked the ground pretty hard and
before long were out at 1.2km so I decided to
drive a bit closer to close the gap a bit and start
making some ground on them. I got to about 600
from them when we pulled up to hear Hornet and
Ragnar barking in a thicket. They had something
pulled up but it broke and pushed out to about
900 metres further. Once we were confident they
finally had a good steady bail we started making
our way in. We got within 150 metres and I could
hear the roaring noise as he chased the dogs
around. I knew it was a big fella and I was hoping
it was that big fella we had been after. We got in
closer, and he was giving the dogs a toweling so
no amount of encouragement would get them to
grab him again. I snuck in behind him while the
dogs had him distracted and grabbed him by the
tail. Instantly I thought to myself, what have I gone
and done here! He pulled me around like a rag
doll through the thick tee tree, and after a minute
of struggling, I had to let him go. We never had
a knife or even rope to tie him up. We were also
decked out in shorts and thongs to make matters
worse. Things were just getting harder and harder,
and it seemed like an uphill battle. I remembered
that I had the 22 in the car from shooting the night
before, so I sent Shannon back to get it. I got in
a good spot and shot the big fella twice aiming
between the eyes. As this is a practice I don’t
normally use, and the dogs being terrified of guns
they backed right off, and my main dog ran all
the way back to the Ute, and the boar legged it. I
thought that was it. I went back to Ute loaded the
pups on and drove all the tracks in the area,
and about half an hour later they flew from the
Ute and hit him again. An almost identical thing
happens again me getting in there shooting it and
the dogs shitting themselves and losing the boar!
I was running out of options and three times this
happened, but on the 4th time I got into we’re
the pups had him, and when I shot, he looked
a little disorientated. So, I waited for him to turn
and rushed in to grab a leg. Finally, he was on
his side. Two and a half hours, 4 kilometers, sore
dogs and several shots and it was over, we had
him in the bag. We knew how big he was and
how hard it was going to be to get him out, so
I called a couple of friends to help us load it on
the Ute. We headed home to get some photos,
weigh him and to skin him as we wanted to get
him mounted. The first job was to pull him up on
the scales, and he weighed in at 133.90 kg.