The man’s by the sound
well dogs can suprise - we used to muster our 6 sheep on lifestyle block in Gisborne with a bloody dashund my girlfriend had - knew exactly what to do and the old girls did not argue with the agro little bugger - I am a fan though of line breeding for a purpose - my two good mates are top hunters and are both professionals -they are on 4-5th generation of indicator dogs that started as a cross between spaniel and border collie /heading dog - the two compliment each other - spaniel on their own can be a little head strong and roam out a bit to wide and headings dogs can fixate on wrong things and some can be shy ( thats not all bad ) some are not good in the cold rivers to - so the two together and then line breed the best and voila top indicators - only problem with them is that when hunting with them one tends to watch the bloody dog all the time lol
@Micky Duck When I was a young fella my mate had a finder/bailer called Snow. He used to go miles finding, which was a problem pre-tracking collars. But man, could that dog find and stop boars! It was amazing watching him bail. He would stand 10 metres away, and often more, but any time the boar tried to break he'd whip in and anchor him to the spot.
Often we'd be going to the bail and Snow would come up to meet us, often 25m away from the boar. But the boar would stay there bailed. After checking where we were he'd go back down and bail again. It all sounds counter intuitive; but I've never seen a dog get so many boars, and also not have them break on him. The only time you had trouble was if you had a young dog with no sense yet, rush in and spook the boars. But usually; the boar wasn't too rarked up and would just sit there until a lead pill interrupted his day. Snow would hold small pigs though. He was an amazing dog.
A mate of mine used to run plain eyed heading dogs and was a consistent boar "getter". Again, it stood off bailing and never spooked the boars. Often pigs that other hunters had been chasing for yonks. Mind you; I wouldn't mind a dollar for the amount of times that the "boar that everyone wanted to catch" was taken by a goat hunter sneaking along in the morning and was in the right place at the right time! Much to the chagrin of the local pig hunters!
Another mate tried using his sheepdogl a strong eyed heading dog as a finder/bailer. He was a great finder, if you could work out where he was! He wouldn't bark; just eye the bailed pig. Of course; that was before tracking collars, so was a bit of a mission finding him! Anyway; it was a fail. And he decided he was too good a sheepdog to risk anymore on pigs...
@bumblefoot a good friend,actually the fella with whome I was chasing pig with the other day(I no longer run pig dogs) has written a great bookonpighunting/dog training,Bill Westwood is his name,topbloke.
anyway Iread the book looooong before meeting Bill,one bit stuck in my mind and really clicked in my brain,has to do with what your saying...its like this,picture yourself sitting at the bar of your local pub,enjoying a quiet ale...some fired up short arse comes along and starts needling you,chucking insults etc..well youwould carry on drinking your beer,all be it warily,your mind thinking...if push comes to shove I can sort this prick out no trouble.....then his mate comes along...you get more nervous but stay put.....if third fella turns up and starts the heckling too...well you really worried now,you got 3 choices
#1 lay down and take a beating/wait and hopethey just go away.
#2 run like hell and hope to beat them to the door
#3 fight like your life depends on it,the dirtier the better,try to take them out before they get you.
a big ol boar has the same choices....probably why that fella with the foxy does so well
75/15/10 black powder matters
Cheers for responses going pig hunting now wish me luck
I was a pig hunter with dogs for more than 40 years, loved it, best adrenaline rush ever for me. I agree about how sometimes one dog can keep a good pig calm not feel the need to fight back, but always remember that not all boars are the same, you might run into one that has had a bad day and he can deal to any dog, especially an inexperienced dog is a few seconds, a pissed off boar should never be taken lightly.
Good luck and I hope you get the desired outcome
yes pissed of boars - will relate an experience I had a few years back - was culling goats back of Gisborne and on top of big bluff with grass bits of scrub remote rough etc big old boar came around face down below me about 100 yards way and we had a strange conversation for about 5 minutes - I would say ya big dumb old cunt - he would stop jump up and down and serious huffing noises let me know he pissed - I would say if ya dont piss off I will fucken shoot ya - boar jump up and down blow loudly huff and puff and stand ground - me you are going to cop it if you keep that up or words to that effect very closely watching the piggy - he was pissed -he stood his ground - did not know well I think he did not know what I was - this went on for 3-4 mins -know I should say I had a .222 and he was skinny so not intertested in shooting - in the end I stood up and yelled fuck of - a loud snort and more huffing and puffing he moved of along face - man that bugger made me think -I would not have liked to run into him in thick bush
Last edited by Barry the hunter; 01-06-2023 at 03:35 PM.
Ive seen big boar stand his ground and just dare us to challenge him...out in open,two of us with 6-8 stock dogs....classic pose big hairy fella just stood there then moved off... Dad told me to just wait n get ready to run if he came at us..weird sensation when you run into them like that.come up over brow of hill and end up face to face.guess them and feral cattle are nearest we have to bear encounters..and Im rather pleased about that.
75/15/10 black powder matters
you and I will have to watch telling these storys Mickey Duck these young bastards wont believe us but they dont have the years - me and an old mate Pat flew into a heli pad back of Ruakituri for a venison recovery trip - Dick Joqain( I think thats how ya spelled his name )flew us in with a Hughs 500 C -( sadly I think he died in heli crash South Africa) about an hour from the pad out to the east was a big sheep station - so we poached it as ya do - coming home second night with a deer on down big long bush ridge from the grass a boar followed me about 10 at night - I could hear him moving behind me about 50-70 yards back and every now and then he would huff and grind his teeth - just had an old red D cell torch - so nervously kept shining it back trying to pick some eyes up - no very thankful to hit camp - I will never trust boars in NZ back country
@Barry the hunter Good idea; I'm only down in Stratford.
There is some awesome footage in one of the Red Stag hunter series where they were chasing pigs down Central Otago from memory.
Some nice drone footage, then boar charged him in the tight. Head shot at point blank to put him down.
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