Uhunt Mag Information

• Posted By : BRISTLE UP
• Posted On : Jul 09, 2019
• Views : 1520
• Likes : 1
• Category : PIG DOGGING » STORIES
• Description : “The boar had made it to a fallen down hollow log and backed himself in there for the fight.”

Overview

• By Luke Richardson
  
  My friend Matt and I headed off to a property we had only been to once before, about 3hrs from Toowoomba in Queensland. We missed a few pigs there on our first trip about five months before as the long grass was too difficult for our dogs. The dogs have really only hunted around the Charleville area where it’s a little more open, and long grass is nearly unheard of. They ended up adjusting to the country towards the end of our first hunt. We caught a few good boars so that gave us the confidence to go back as soon as our time off together would line up again as Matt still lives in Charleville and my wife and I have recently moved to Cambooya. Anyway, getting back to our recent trip we left Toowoomba and got to the property at about 4:30 that afternoon. We had our four dogs Franki 26-month-old Bull Arab X Wolfhound, Eddie 22-month-old Wolfhound X & Rex 12-month-old Bull Arab. On the way there we worked out our plan of attack would be to walk the creek for a few hours before heading to see the cocky and finding out where he has seen any pigs. We plated the dogs up and set off hoping to snag one or two before the sun went down. We walked for about 20 minutes on separate sides of the channels without seeing much sign at all.
  
  
  
  The grass started getting long and thick, and the pig sign was increasing with every little water hole we walked towards, and we knew this was roughly the area we had missed a few pigs last trip. We gave the dogs a drink to freshen them up as we knew the pigs wouldn’t be too far away. As we walked through chest high grass Matt was across the creek he yelled out to me, he had seen a good boar shoot up one of the grassy channels in front of us. I didn’t know exactly where the dogs were as they had poked off in the grass a minute or two before Matt had yelled out. I raced over to Matt to see if we could call the dogs over and get them on the scent. The dogs came running out and shot up the creek in the direction the pig had gone. We waited and watched on the trackers as the dogs ran around in the grass looking a few hundred meters away. All we could think of was our last trip how we missed a few in exactly the same way. After about 10 minutes all three dogs came back to us, absolutely buggered as they don’t get to hunt as often anymore and aren’t as fit as they could be. Disappointed with their efforts we walked them towards the creek channel that holds a few puddles to cool them off to help our chances of catching the next pig we saw.
  
  
  
  On our way over to the water, I spotted two pigs over the other side of the channel with the water in it. I stopped and pointed to them so Matt could see. My mind was racing, and I was in the middle of trying to come up with a quick plan to best help our chances of getting these pigs before they came across and hit the long grass in the channels. But they were onto us, and with the dogs still panting heavily we had no time to waste, and we started running towards them trying to cut them off before they made it to the long grass. At that stage we didn’t really know what we were dealing with all we knew was one of the pigs was quite a bit larger than the other one. Although our dogs weren’t in the best physical shape and were a little rusty from not hunting anywhere near as much as I’d like to, I knew that if I could get them a look at the pigs, they would more than likely grab the bigger fella. That’s just what happened, we shot up over the bank where the dogs had gone, they had singled the bigger boar out, and they were right up his arse as they shot back into the long grass. I was a bit worried as the dogs were already buggered and I was hoping they had the energy to pull him up. With what seemed like forever we finally heard the hit up and ran in to give the lads a hand,the boar had made it to a fallen down hollow log and backed himself in there for the fight.
  
  
  
  It was at this moment we got a good look at the boar and could see his actual size. He was a monster, and the dogs were holding him well, he was in a tricky spot, but I eventually saw an opportunity and crawled in the log to grab a leg. If the dogs had let go at that stage, I don’t know what damage the pig could have done to me or even how I would have gotten out of the position I was in, but there was no time for being cautious. With the job done we had a few high fives and let out a few coooeees. We couldn’t believe our luck; we raced down to get the dogs to water. As they were cooling down, we wondered how we were going to get the weight of this pig as we couldn’t get anywhere near him in the car and it was too far and too many steep channels to drag him out. We worked out that it was best to head back to the car and we would come back in the morning on foot again to try and weigh the boar, and it was our only option. We went and seen the cocky and told him the good news, he hadn’t been seeing many pigs around the place but showed us a few places we might snag one during the night. We only got the one boar that night, and we ended having a few hours camp in the car as we were waiting till 5 am to walk back down and weigh the pig and hopefully catch a few more along the way. We caught another good boar not far from where we had caught the monster the day before. We got a few photos and proceeded on to weigh the pig from yesterday. We both threw our wild guesses out on what we thought he might weigh but when we got him up he surprised us, he went 123.65 kilos live weight. 
  
  But being a little bit old school Matt and I only class a tonner to be dressed weight, and as we had caught quite a few in the past over 100-kilo live weight, neither of us had even been lucky enough to come across a pig that had dressed out over 100 kilos. So I had my fingers crossed as I gutted him, I was shocked when I open him up, and he was completely empty inside, and at that moment we realized our dream of catching the 100 kilos dressed pig had come true. He went 116.65 dressed, it was 13 years in the making for both of us, but it was a trip that we will never forget. We continued walking the creek for another hour or so after that and ended up getting a few more handy boars and a couple of big sows, with a total of 8 for our trip. The dogs did extremely well and are starting to adapt to the different country we now hunt which is a good feeling. I can’t wait till mine and Matt’s breaks line up again so we can go out and have another crack at a few pigs.