This is a story about a boar I got a couple years ago.
It all started when my step dad Jimmy Holster and I were doing a trap line on the outskirts of the Waipoua Forrest. One day while we were checking the traps we came across a good boar mark, on further investigation we found out he had been camped up in big sunny fern basin and going by all the rooting he’d been in the area for quite some time. As we were flat out doing possums I couldn’t stop thinking about that mark. I knew in the back of my mind the next day I have off that’s where I’ll be heading with my pack.
Around a week later Jim was going to sell the fur and I wasn’t going with him I had my own plans. On arrival at the spot super keen as was my dogs I headed off into the big fern basin where Jim said that’s where he thought he was camped. After 2 hours of hunting around without any action I was wondering where this boar was. I had 2km of native to walk through to get to my pick up point. When I was about three quarters of the way up to the pickup spot, there in some mud was what I’d been looking for.. his mark. Dogs all out keen as my hopes started to rise. Looking at my gps I noticed the dogs had tracked off out to the left at about 300m all apart from my border collie Charm who was with me. As I’m standing there listening I could hear an animal trying to sneak out, then all of a sudden 40 m on the ridge in front of me there he stood dead still listening I was doing the same. I had a glance down at my gps to see where my dogs were and they were closing in. That’s when the boar decided he’d had enough of standing there and bolted. That’s when Charm decided it was her time to shine. I couldn’t believe it she had stopped him 50 m away from me and was bailing hard.
As I was heading to the bail with my 20 gauge the rest of the troops past me. I knew then I’d have no need for the gun. As I approached I could tell the pig was fresh and fighting fit as he was giving the 4 dogs a hard time towing and flinging them around. I could see my lockly cross dog was ripped bad on one whole side so I knew I had to get in there as quick as possible to help my mates out. As it moved in a circle with the dogs attached I jumped in and grabbed a back leg and held on tight! Pulled out my svord and side stuck him and to my relief he dropped seconds later with a good flow of blood coming out. He was a very nasty boar with not a bad set of hooks on him that he knew how to use. As I turned my attention to my dogs I could see my lockly cross boy was not in a good way and needed vet attention. I quickly gutted the pig opened it up as much as I could and then tried hoisting it up in a tree with my tie ropes as high as I could, and then made a b line to the pickup point while my dogs could still walk.
I noticed in that short time boy had already started to seize up. When I got out to the pickup point Jim was there waiting, as soon as he seen my dogs he said “we’re off to the vets, we’ll have to pack your pig out tomorrow “. The Ruawai vets done a great job stitching him up That later ended up costing me $600. Lucky we had a good run on the possums. The next day Jim and I went back first thing in the morning to pack the pig out. When we got it back home and hung it on the scales he weighed 147lb my biggest solo boar with my own pack by myself so far. Thanks Jim for carrying him out.
Summer Baker