On the 28th of May 2023 I was invited to attend the first ever North Canterbury Kids Pig Hunting Competition at the Loburn Domain. I decided to make a weekend of it with my mate Reece and his young fella, Oliver, taking them onto some private station country to try and get Oliver a pig to enter. We managed to get out on the Saturday and the first pig of the morning was a sow about 40kg that ended up slipping into the neighbouring property so the dogs were called off and it was left to carry on.
We continued on for through until midday and managed to spot a mob of pigs up high. Reece took his young pup Izzy in with an old dog but all they managed was a wee porker that was left in terrible eating condition after my dogs broke free from the box.
After some dinner and a cuppa we were all stuffed but trucked on in the night, trading dogs for big lights and longer barrels. Reece was lucky enough to get a haul of noisy kids with torches in his ute, whilst the host and I had a lovely time in our ute leading the way. We poked into a crop paddock and noticed lambs breaking out in a run so we heading around them to find a decent hog trotting its way through the crop toward the scrubby fence edge. I was on rifle duty and the pressure was on. I eyed up the scope and got the hog in my sights. All was going good and I took up the trigger to sack the hog… Deep exhale, squeeze and FLASHLIGHTS from kids behind me and BANG!. I missed and had to get back on target. A quick reload and I was back on. The pig was getting further but was only maybe 200m. I put a short lead on him and BANG!. I heard the thud! sound of projectile making contact with flesh and watched him slow down but not by much.
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At this point I thought “Fuck it all, I’ve missed again”. I reload and line up one more time whilst getting a friendly reminder that Im down to my last round. Now my mind is fully focussed on every excuse I can think of for why Ive lost our pig. Bloody right handed rifle, bloody kids, bloody scopes probably not zeroed… Anyways, I find the pig and get settled in. Its hard on the fence and looking for its hole to push through. Its now down to a rushed walk. I find its ear and put a slight lead on it.. Steady breathing, good trigger pressure, calm head and exhale BANG! Sacked it.
The kids by now are screaming their heads off with their war cries. I clear the rifle and we head over to check out our prize which turned out to be the smelliest jizzed up 48.5kg boar I have ever smelled, so bad that one kid almost lost her dinner there and then. Guts out, on the ute and we carry on. We managed to clean up a few small crop raiders and coons before we called it a night.
The next day I had a sleep in and made my way to Loburn for the prize giving. The locals did exceptionally well with organising their first ever competition and what set it apart from every other competition was that it was all about the kids. No adult weigh ins, no alcohol, no politics. It was just pure fun and enjoyment for the kids. They had lolly scrambles and bouncy castles and prizes for miles, I was really impressed. The sponsors involved were very generous and the kids were able to take some very cool prizes home including dirt bikes, trampolines, hunting boots, just to name a few. All in all it was a great competition and a good start to the pig hunting winter season.
| North Canterbury Kids Pig Hunting Competition 2023 | ||
| Section | ||
| King Hunter | Morton Family | |
| Queen Hunter | Jayda Cortia | |
| Biggest Pig | Aria Jones | 71.9kg |
| 2nd Biggest Pig | Eli Park-Stewart | 68.5kg |
| 3rd Biggest Pig | Flynn Travis | 67.5kg |
| Best Tusks | Paxton Andrews | |
| Average Pig | Brodie Blackler | 37.1kg |
| Biggest Deer | Ethan Clark | 130kg |
| 2nd Deer | Popper Brown | 128.4kg |
| 3rd Deer | Connor Nash | 118.1kg |
| Best Antlers | Charlie Watson | |
| Average Deer | Quin Brown | 70.7kg |
| Possums 1st | Kobe Blackler | 4.97kg |
| 2nd | Brodie Blackler | 4.78kg |
| 3rd | Oliver West | 4.77kg |
| Biggest Hare | Axel Jollie | 4.98kg |
| Biggest Rabbit | Helena Lane | 2.18kg |
| Biggest Rat | Noah Pemberton | 518g |
| Biggest Mouse | Finley Robinson | 23g |