Big Game Hunting New Zealand Sep/Oct 2015 | Page 14

and less tiring to walk around.
I was with Grant Murdoch, his
neighbour Sean and son in law Dan,
who’d never stuck a pig before. We
took two utes, leaving one at the
bottom end of a steep sided valley
and drove the other through to where
the gorge opened out again. We then
climbed high and sidled back above
the steep faces above the river with
the wind in our face. As the sun hit,
the breeze also started to rise so our
direction and height was spot on to
get the dogs onto a bit of wind scent if
there were pigs below us in the rough
country.

6 month old pup L poses with her
first solo pig

native broadleaf where the pigs had gone. The
rest of the hunt could mostly be described as a
“dog hunt”, as they had trouble catching up and
even more trouble knowing when to turn back.
One by one they returned in order of oldest
to youngest, with the very young pup taking a
good hour to get back.

Q looking for pigs in jandel country.
It looks open but its not as easy as
you would think

“..it let out the usual
high pitch squeal”
The first block had been heavily
grazed but after crossing a fence
we hit the game rich area. We
spotted some red deer and plenty of
pig digging on the sunny spurs and
it wasn’t long before Grant noticed a
pig moving through the scrub down
below us. Perfect! The hunt was on
and the dogs and blokes were ready
for action.
The way the dogs were sniffing
the ground and running all over
the place it became obvious there
was more than one pig down here.
The pups went one way and the old
dog stuck with me, I was hoping to
get her straight onto the decent pig
that we’d seen, but the pups spoiled
it by hitting a small porker just over
from us. As they grabbed on to the pig
it let out the usual high pitch squeal
that woke up the entire district and
next thing pigs were running around
everywhere. Grant expertly head
shot a pig that popped out then he
raced around to deal with the Y