Gus is now 15 months old and catching lots of pigs. On today’s hunt I had Gus, Bro and Rastus. All three dogs were wearing muzzles.
One of my neighbors had sent me a photo the night before of a good sized pig on their front lawn so this morning saw me riding the 4 wheeler up their driveway.
A couple of hundred meters short of their house a parked up and started walking. Not long into my stroll I noticed some pig prints on the track. The dogs knew something was around as they tracked along to where a cattle beast has recently been killed. From here Bro and Gus had split up and had a good look around. As Bro came back Gus was tracking through a really rough block of thinned out Douglas firs. Any hunter that has tried to get through trees like this will know it’s like a trap that take a long time to get through. Gus had traveled about 300 meters up the gully when the boar must have run out of options and broke cover through the open mature pines. At 600 meters Gus opened up with a good bail. At that first bark Bro and Rastus look off. Watching them on the GPS they took a while to get the last 50 meters to the creek. Once they were out into the pines I decided to make a dash 800 meters back to the bike. Knowing that where Gus has this boar bailed was close to a 4wd track. About 3km later on the bike I was gliding down hill with the motor off, approaching the bail. I parked up and walked in the last 50 meters. I wanted to get some footage so I was approaching the bail and I only got a few seconds before the boar spotted me and made a break for freedom.
Even though he had the advantage of down hill through some native he was not going to get away from the dogs. The boar made his final stand down in the creek. As I approached I could see all 3 dogs bailing into the braken but could not see the boar. As I stood up on the braken I parted the fern and put the gun right to the top of his head without him realizing I was there. He would not have even heard the bang. I was pleasantly surprised when I dragged him out of the creek and saw his tusks. Normally there are not too many good jaws in this area.
front to back, Rastus, Gus and Bro
A couple of photos then I gutted him ready for a carry. The face where the action had come down was about 200 meters of steep crap. Luckily a knew there was a track 100 meters below me then an easy carry out to the road.
Gus back home with our 103 lb boar