I had Keith Huckle come up from Dunedin with his one year old foxterrier, Striker.
Keith had booked in for 24 hours to see how Striker would go on pigs.
It didn’t take long to see the similarities between us, when I was young I trained in hand to hand combat which Keith now trains at with my instructor Geoff Todd.
Keith also has two sons like I have two sons, he is in the Dunedin Search and rescue team while I am in the South Canterbury Search and rescue team and we both share a passion for pig hunting.
Wee Striker enjoyed barking at the pigs in the pig block.
Next morning I took Keith and Striker out for a hunt. I took two of my dogs Bro and Gus. When we were getting ready and I was putting Muzzles on my two dogs Keith said, I thought you only used Muzzles in Your training block. I wounder how many other people think this.
On our hunt Bro put up the first bail of a 65lb pig which Gus was quick to join the bail while Striker followed us down through the blackberry. At the pig Striker enjoyed having a bark. Too much dog pressure and the pig tried to break but even wearing muzzles this pig could not get away so Keith jumped in and stuck this pig.
After a quick gutting job Keith carried this pig down to the road.
At this stage the motorbike was a km away up the top of the hill so we started walking up hill until Gus tracked off back down hill to put up a nice bail. Bro was off at the first bark and easily beat us there. Striker got to have a bark at this pig in the blackberry to. As I was closing in on the action the pig done a charge before backing up again right beside me so I could put the gun to this pigs head and pull the trigger. This pig was gutted and dragged down to the track before our big walk up hill.
The bigger pig weighed 116lb and was put in my chiller while the smaller pig I skinned and boned out for Keith to take home. Keith did comment on how nice it was to see a pig with no bruising.
Meeting guys like Keith makes me realize how lucky I am to be able to do the work I do.
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