Hororata comp

The Hororata comp is run by the locals as one of their fundraisers. It is always well supported with a lot of families turning up on the day. It is the events on the day that get a lot of people having fun like the pig carrying comp and the possum throwing comp. A couple of years ago the media made a big fuss out of young children throwing dead possums.

This comp had overcome any negativity by have possum skins stuffed so that they are like soft toys and it was great to watch kids all lining up to get a turn at the possum throw, there were even kids as young as two years old having a go and the smile on their faces said it all, they were having a good time.

There was just under one hundred adults entered in the open hunting section with 31 boars and 16 stags weighed in. The best boar was weighed in by Tairi Mullen weighing in at 205 pounds and winning him a two ton shirt and cap from Ridgeline.  Another boar that was weighed in was missing part of his back leg which is just another reminder how hard these animals are.

A couple of things from the judging team. Read the entry form properly at this comp we had one lot of hunters turn up 15 minutes after the weigh in had cut off meaning that they could not weigh there animals in. Another group of hunters turned up with two Chamois hoping to weigh them in when there was no category for them, all that effort put in over the weekend hunting to find that you can’t get your animals weighed in because of your own mistake annoys people but they cannot blame anyone but themselves so read the rules properly.

Another thing that hunters need to do before bringing their animals in is to make sure that they have removed the arsehole. Pissals, throats and offal. During the last half hour of weigh in the scrutineers are working flat out removing all of these things out of the animals while we have sometimes up to ten vehicles waiting behind and not making sure their own animals are up to what the rules state, animals must have all offal removed.

One option that we judges do have is to send any animals not deemed to be clean back to the back of the line so that they have time to clean their own animals up. While our judges do not mind doing this job, when it gets busy these things can take time which makes that last half hour very busy.
Another thing that I like to see is any boar with a good jaw, put something in the mouth to keep it open so that it make the judges job easier to measure the tusks. At this comp I had one hunter come up to us wondering why we had cut the jaw out of his boar. One of the measurements is from the tip of one tusk to the tip of the other tusk which is impossible if the mouth is closed. On the up side for this hunter the jaw had been cut out for him.

Heaviest boar Tairi Mullen 205 pounds
2^nd      Matt Neal    198 pounds
3^rd      Taylor Cleland 193 pounds
4^th      Bryan Thomas 178 pounds
5^th      Mark Crossen   176 pounds

Best tusks Ben Millar  20 2/8

Average weight boar Andrew Cole 130 pounds
above average Ryan Nesbit  134 pounds
below average Brian Campbell  114 pounds

Heaviest stag Dean Encell 298 pounds
2^nd Jack Hill 283 pounds
3^rd  Jack Moody 212 pounds

Best antlers David Haymen

Junior section
Heavist boar James Reid 157 pounds
2^nd Cooper Holland 147 pounds
3^rd Jade Mckay  117 pounds

Heaviest stag Jade Mckay 197 pounds
2^nd Toby Panney 167 pounds
3^rd Harry Cookson 166 pounds

Heaviest Wallabies Tom Wakelin 30 pounds
2^nd Tom Brown 28 pounds
3^rd Simon Henriksen 25 pounds