Dave and his son Michael came up for 2 nights to catch a pig. They arrived Friday afternoon, so it was decided we would go for an easy hunt before dark. We drove to a spot that I knew had some fresh pig rooting and let the dogs out. I had 2 dogs, Tig and Bro, while Dave had Kip, who was yet to catch a pig. The dogs did not track too far for a start, so we drove along the road a couple of hundred meters before the dogs got interested. It was Bro that put up the first bark with Tig joining in. They had an 82lb sow just above the road. As we were directly below them and they were holding, I gave my gun to Michael as I was expecting to stick this pig. When it came over the ten meter bank, it broke free from the dogs, and I was just not quite quick enough to grab it so down into the river that went. The water was just above my knees, but I quickly despatched or pig, dragged it back across the river, where I gutted it with Micheal watching on. Between the two of us, we dragged the pig back up to the road.
The next morning, I had planned to hunt opposite the house. A couple of days earlier, Tig had bailed a mob of 3 sows with 8, 40 pounders. On that day, I called the dogs off without killing any of them. On this hunt, the three of us were getting up the hill when Tig bailed in the same spot that he had bailed three days previously. Dave was struggling to keep up, so Michael and I headed to the bail. When we got to the spot where the bail was three days ago, I was explaining to Michael how the dogs had bailed these pigs right here. As we stepped over the log, heading to the bail all of a sudden, the bail was coming towards us and fast. I quickly said to Michael to get back past the gut we had passed as these pigs were coming right back to their safe place, where they had previously bailed. This all happened very quickly as a big lineup of pigs came chasing the dogs downhill towards us. As Michael went to jump over the falling down tree, he tripped and fell. I had to think very quickly as he was on the ground two meters in front of me with a falling tree between him and three angry sows and eight fourty pounders and the dogs trying to keep them away from us. As I raised the gun, I looked down at Michael as he was looking up at me, and I had no option but to shoot over him, hitting an 87lb sow between the eyes. Luckily, this scared the other pigs into taking off. I kept the dogs in as I didn’t need them wasting too much energy and time on these sows and young.
Dave and Michael were very happy with their hunt, and one I know, Michael won’t forget for a while.