As Dad and I loaded up our three Stag/Wolfhound crosses, we said our goodbye’s to Mum and little Sis and headed over to our friends joint. After a quick chat, we loaded up their gear and dogs and hit the road at about 8pm. We pulled over and rolled out the swags at 3am and got some sleep on the side of the road before hitting the road again. By 10am the next morning, we were in North Western NSW and chatting to the farmer. We checked out a few swamps, but no pigs were encountered. The farmer took us to a tree line in the middle of nowhere and said “Start walking boys”.
Well Dad and I trudged off with Rip (Jay’s Bull Arab), Nugget and Blade. After walking for twenty minutes, I headed back to the car when suddenly I heard a deep loud grunt. I raced off and on arrival could not see any dogs on one side of the boar. He was so tall that the dogs were all on the other side lugging hard. We quickly gave him the 6inch blade and started to see the full size of him as he quickly dropped.
We drove up about a kilometre and started walking again when the dogs hit up in some thick lignum. As I walked in, I hopped down and looked up a tunnel to see another boar on the escape. As I chased him, I yelled “Boar, Boar”. Dad grabbed my young bitch and she came to me. I encouraged her to chase the pig and as soon as she smelt pork, she was off like a bullet. She caught up to him and I saw that the boar stood over her by about nine inches. As soon as they hit the scrub, I heard her hit up and then a yelp sounded out. Dad grabbed Nugget off the other boar and ran with him across the massive paddock. She soon heard the bail and charged to the attraction. It was a solid bail and went for five minutes. I heard grunts when Nugget hit the scrub. We finished the boar off, took a few photos and then had a few hours sleep.
After being unsuccessful, we tried another property a few days later and we had a few really good Ute finds from Rip and my old girl Chipp (who is 12 years old). The dogs bailed off hard and took no interest in the creek. We drove off slowly to the second one and the dogs were everywhere. Nugget and Rip dropped down into a depression and hit up in the creek. As I started to run hard across the flat, I could not hear anything. Dad drove up slowly and I walked in and saw two dogs and a big boar going hell for leather.
While the boys had their cameras out, I was wondering where the other dogs were. They came in and backed up Nugget and Rip. I was wrapped with a find like that, especially on the last day! The dogs had done some massive runs through the Agora Bur and were holding pigs for fifteen minutes. The last boar ended up weighing 80kg dressed on the scales and only had about two inches of ivory on either side.
We travelled back to camp and took some last photos after catching a few more on the way, which ranged between 55kg-65kg.
It was a great trip with us finishing up with about thirty pigs. All of them went over the 50kg mark and some great finds and catches were had from our dogs. I hope to go on many more trips with my Dad as this one was one to remember.
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