After the loss of pretty much my whole team of dogs, pigs were few and far between compared to the consistency of the the last two teams. Turned out big Brin the sporting bully had been cooked at some stage of her life and any more than 5 minutes holding a pig reduced her too a heap on the ground gasping for breath. Funnily enough this little bit of information hadn’t been passed onto me. The first couple I caught with her we’re close enough that it hadn’t showed up, after starting to find her own pigs at good distance it was apparent her life as a pig dog was over. She’s now a much loved pet of a lady in town.
Back to two dogs, Zipper that I’d been running for a few years the last of the line of dogs that I’d been breeding for a while, and young Fatty, kelpie/whippet cross huntaway/wire haired pointer just starting to find. Both these two were pretty much all bail and needed a lot of work. Unfortunately my job, boom spraying weeds in a large almond orchard also required a lot of work and I was pretty much only getting wet days off, even so we managed to get a pig or two, young Fatty showing some potential as an upcoming finder.
The first decent boar they managed between them I almost buggered up myself. There’d been a few pigs coming into the almonds from the bush hills I hunt above the orchard and with the 2 dogs and my newly acquired little 44 magnum I headed out through a heavily grassed paddock, waist high stuff, towards a small dam just inside the bush edge. I was watching Fatty closely as he was looking for a way through a netting fence into the next grass block and looking very keen. I hadn’t had him very long at this stage and he’d been pretty keen to chase a few roos when I first got him. He’s a very clever little dog so it wasn’t hard to sort that out but when I saw a dozen or so roos heading across the next paddock I didn’t give him the credit he deserved and yelled at him to come back which he did tail wagging and looking back over his shoulder which seemed a wee bit strange.
Carrying on I cut through a stand of bush and didn’t notice he’d disappeared again until he barked out in that next paddock, just over 300 metres out. Only 3 or 4 barks then nothing, enough to get Zipper on her way. A couple of yaps from fatty which he does occasionally when hard up the pigs backside then silence then another few barks from both dogs followed by a solid bail. Zipper while not right up there as a finder is very hard on the back end and once at the bail will hit any pig hard that tries to walk or run. Turns out Fatty has the same back end bite. A solid bail allowed me a luxury I never had with the harder dogs, a casual stroll up to the bush edge to find them bailing in the little dam I was originally heading for. Poking my head over the dam bank I was pretty pleased with what I was seeing, a solid young boar sitting with his nuts under the water and the two dogs standing at his back end bailing. A little bit of video footage something else I never did with the harder dogs a well placed shot as it turned out and we had a decent little boar. First up I thought my shot had been a clean miss as the pig jumped up and spun to face the dogs then instantly dropped dead, turned out the bullet had gone clean through his heart, dead on his feet. Pretty happy with my two little bailers just need the time to put the work into them.
To this end I decided that at my age I really didn’t need to be working 12 hour shifts every day it didn’t rain all year round, very little time for the grandkids, very little time for hunting and who knows what’s round the corner, how much longer will I be able to walk around the hills. After harvest I gave my notice and finished at Easter. At the moment having a decent break mainly hunting. While not quite ready to retire my next job will be one with a better work, life(hunting) balance.Living in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area as i do, there is an abundance of work in fact there is a real labour shortage so not to hard to find work even for an old fella. With the extra hunting time at the moment the young dogs have really stepped up getting a few decent boars, they can only get better.
John Witham