I hope everyone is getting through the 2021 roar safely and with some good animals taken home. If you haven’t already, now is the time to get the dogs fit for winter. The Canterbury weather is a bit hit and miss for day hunting lately and even on some nights but recently the cold has been sticking around a bit longer so the hunting is starting to pick up.
Now that my son Frank is starting to run around a lot more with tons of energy I have been trying to include family time in with my hunting time. Frank and my wife Claire, have asked to come out on the hill with me this year so my goal is to show them what hunting is all about. Claire has hunted with me twice almost 10 years ago but those ended up being glorified dog walking missions which suited her fine as she was vegetarian at that time.
The first hunt we did was through the pines in Mangakino where i cut my teeth with my first pig dog, Sash. We walked for a couple of hours until Claire asked to go home out of boredom. Just as she said that, ole Sash grabbed a pig and she begged me to call him off so I did and stomped home unimpressed with her.
The second hunt was when we had moved to Canterbury and decided to check out the high country too see what was around. No pigs were seen but I was able to spot my first Chamois up on some screed way off in the distance. Claire got to see one of my young dogs, Scruffy, try catch a coon and from then on she had an appreciation for how much the dogs love hunting as before that, she thought me and other pig hunters forced our dogs to hunt. I on the other had lost my shit about the dog chasing coons and stomped back home. Again.
Fast forward to 2021 where Claire, Frank and I have done a handful of hunts together. No animals on the ground but we have still been successful in my eyes. Both Claire and frank have been learning about hunting skill, hard yakka, spotting animals and they even got to see a pig run up to them before being stopped and bailed by our up and comer, Stella.
Our first hunt was actual Franks idea, he asked to go hunting for pigs and as luck had it, his uncle Hillbilly (Hylton) called about seeing some pig sign not far from home, so that evening the HOB family loaded up all the gear needed for a short evening mission and met up with Hillbilly. We did what a seasoned hunter would call a quick look up a face, which consisted of an hour walk up a beach forest face to the tussock tops, a quick scout around and back down to the ute just on dark. Nothing was seen other than the sign that Hillbilly talked about, which was about a week old but Claire and Frank kept a good attitude the whole way and kept quiet when it was time to be quiet, which is a huge thing for a 2 year old to do and Claire was just too gassed to say a word anyways haha.
The next hunt was at Claires request. I had been so busy with working on the Hooked On Boars Magazine (go to our shop page to order yours now) and my new business venture, Nz Outdoor Guides (check out the website www.nzoutdoorguides.co.nz and like/share on social media) that she could see I was itching to get on the hill but also hadn’t been spending much time with her and Frank, so she asked if I could take them for a hunt with the dogs in some easy country for the day and then we could go for a trip to Fairly to get a pie. Well… you can see why I married her haha.
I planned a hunt, on a property that had an easy walk, nice views and plenty of pig numbers not too far from the pie shop. I told her that it was going to be a 4.30am start and she was OK with that, as long as I had everything ready to go. The next morning my alarm went off and I tip toed around the house getting dogs sorted and the truck heater warmed up for them when they rolled out of their fart sacks. I got them in the ute and by the time the sun had touched the tops, we were all collared up and walking.
We got to the first glassing area after about 20 minutes and watched about 6 wallabies moving in the tussock and I gave Claire a lesson on how wallabies are over populated in the Canterbury region and that we had an obligation to do pest control on them after hunting for pigs. The day was getting on, so Claire started heading back towards the truck while Jill tracked away up that same face away from the wallaby and put up a bail. I had Frank with me, so I rushed him back to Claire because there was a bit of rubbish and ground between Jill and us. As I made my way towards Jill with Stella by my side, Jill seemed to have lost her pig and Stella decided to dart into the scrub, bump a young pig about 10 metres away and bail it. The pig broke out onto the track and ran straight up to Claire and Frank then dropped off a bank where Stella stopped it again and put up settled bail. At first Claire asked me to stop her but then I told her to listen to how calm Stella was on the pig and that she will only bite the pig to stop it before bailing with low pressure on the pig. Claire listened and then smiled when she realised that I wasn’t bullshitting her and that he dog was actually just barking at the pig.
I let it go on for about a minute to give Stella some time and then called her back. She was straight back to our side to receive huge praise and smiles from Claire and Frank. I swear I saw pride in Claires eyes when praising a dog that she loathed due to her high energy at home. She had just witnessed her dog do something that undid everything she had thought pig dogs do. She even had that cheek to tell me that Stella was only so obedient because of all the time she spends with her. We decided to get off the hill and go get that pie and on the way down Claire commented that she likes watching the dogs do their job and how happy they look doing it. As a hunter I was pretty proud that I was able to change the attitude of a once vegetarian animal activist who harassed me with her money buckets and animal abuse posters when we met. She knows that I don’t put up with animal cruelty and that there’s a place for hunting. I hope to have her and Frank on the hill more often because she brings packed lunches and I get to show them places that I go to not only hunt but also to get away from the world to reset my mental batteries.
Lastly, this past week I took a bit of R&R with Frank and we decided to test out his fishing rod and the project bike him and I have been working on lately at the creek by home. We were able to land a lot of yellow belly eels and see some trout jumping for flies. Frank shat his undies on his first eel so after a quick cuddle he decided to have another crack at them as long as I unhooked them and put them back in the water. He treated to shoot one eel which looked at him funny I guess but he did have a great time and now pesters me each day to take him hunting or to go fishing. As a husband and dad I couldn’t ask for any more and I hope these types of family days continue until I’m too dusty to get up the hill.
Cheers
Harry @ HOBs