Thought you guys might get a laugh out of this...
Found a hole in the weather sunday and monday so headed out for a quick look. Arrive sunday arvo and the temp is down a bit thanks to a breeze from the south so we decide to walk the main gully up into the hills. Hunting Rose, Holly, Blackie and Nibbles (6.5 months old). Walking along and we are in pig sign right from the camp. Bang its on. Dogs barking in two spots. I get to the first pig and its in a blackthorn bush and I can see one dog lugging. The pigs tail is hanging out and I grab it and drag a 30kg boar out with Blackie attached to his ear. Take a photo and stick the boar. It kicks down into the creek with Blackie firmly on the ear. Jog about 30-40m up to the next one and the three others have a sow about the same size under control. We have to go back and retrieve Blackie as she's still swinging on the dead pigs ear. We head off and after 300m or so realise she's not there and has gone back to scruff the dead one again. Zapper collar convinces her to join us.
Not long after its on again this time though with all the dogs bailing. Hmmm sounds like a good one. I get there and Rose is lugging a skinny boar with teeth big enough to remove her guts. I think about grabbing his tail but get into position and call Rose out of it. I shoot quickly and nearly stuff it up, but its enough to knock him out. A second shot behind the ear for good measure and hes dead.
Head back to the ute for a drive around and find two sows in the snowgrass. Dogs catch one at point blank and I shoot the other one. See what appears to be a very good boar from a distance and make a downwind approach all excited...he looks like a beauty. Rose is off hunting and won't listen so I grab Holly when she comes past and hold her collar and walk in on the boar. Our monster turns into a slab sided run-out little fella and holly and the pups catch and overwhelm him.
We head back to camp and cook a feed in very windy weather. I drink two beers (two cans per man per day perhaps) and wake up without a hangover which is kinda nice. Up early making coffee's and cooking a quick feed. Head off to some of the same country we did the night before and the dogs are off the truck and hunting around catch a spotty sow and let the other go off uphill as its goat country up there. We walk out down the gully and go through some good pig camps but they'd moved on? By this time its about 8.00am and getting warm.
I am feeling like a bad dad as my two boys are at home so I decide to drop my guests at camp and do a long climb up the hill to where there’s a good fallow buck dead in the fence. I saw him there about a year before and had promised the antlers to my six year old, Ben. So I have a drink and head off up this hill. Its a pull uphill for about 45 minutes. I get there wetter than Ellen D in an all girl pilates class. I get the pliers out of my pack and proceed to cut the head out of the fence (that was no good anyway). Rose is gone and the others have wandered off too. Uhh ohh...just as I finish the barking starts. Blackie chases one back past me but I foul things up and fire a shot at it which stops her chasing. We head down to the other dogs and I see a sow headed out of some thick stuff. The dogs chase her and end up way down the hill. They miss her in the end and she runs right through the middle of the camp, about 700-800m away. It takes me a while to gather up all the dogs, its hot I've had enough and I'm carrying a rotting deer head. I get to within 35m of the ute and Rose is bailing 250m back up the gully. Damm. Dump my stuff in the tray and turn around and trudge uphill. A sow walks almost into the end of the 357 barrell and a shot between the eyes drops her. I get up to the dogs and they have a little boar in a wombat hole. I call them off, head back to the truck, then camp and smash some bacon sangers....ROLL on Winter
