Introducing myself

[Ned Makim]

Cook them in coals whole and pick the meat off is the traditional way but back legs and tail skinned and cooked is good too. White meat, consistency more like fish than anything.
Cheers.

[Ned Makim]

Just an update. Very hot here at the moment. So we've been boxing clever with the dogs, just hunting them on shorter runs and working back to water all the time. So far only picked up a few little ones doing pest control for a few blokes. Yesterday we got onto three little fellas and got all three after they broke from the grass when Mary jumped near a dam in a lucerne paddock bordered by long grass. Mary got her's, Roger grabbed one and Barney took the third. Very happy with the dogs for that.

Here's yesterday's pigs and Mary and I.


And here's a little sow from the other day. That's Roger, Mary and Barney from left to right. Mary is little for us but is a grade A working dog that can find like a machine and will smash the big blokes. Not ab out looks for me. All about field performance. And I love it when the younger dogs do their thing too.



Cheers.

[Mike]

Good pics Ned.

How well do those long haired dogs hold up to the heat?

[Ned Makim]

G'day Mike,
Very well. If you keep their coats in reasonable condition (a bit of brushing) there is a loft about the hair that provides insulation from direct sunlight. However, I'm not sure if that's the case with all hairy dogs because we know this family and select for endurance and heat tolerance etc.
I like the long haired dogs because the ones I've had have been very tough (die on the boar if required) and very biddable. So the hair is more of an indicator of potential nature of the dog rather than something in its own right, if that makes sense.
The long hair is also very good protection in scratchy, stick ridden scrub and blackbery bushes etc. Harder for the boar to open them up too. Note the difference in pig skin, cutting from the inside is easy, trying to run  a blade along the bristles and hoping to make a clean cut is hard...

I don't state all this stuff as fact just the facts of my own experience. Others might disagree but we could both be right...
Cheers.

[Ned Makim]

G'day everyone,
I'm not long back from a night out with mate Dave and I thouht I'd get the pix up before I fall asleep.

Dave invited me for a run more than 12 months ago and it has taken me this long to get my act together and go. And I'm bloody glad I did.
We hunted some crop, some stubble, tree lines and some daddy didn't marry mommy scrub from sunset yesterday until early in the AM before sun up for five pigs.
Three of them were sellers and two of the them were bloody rippers.

Dave told me of two boars that had beaten him before in two specific spots. He tried a slight change of tactics last night and bingo, he got both of the daddy didn't marry mommys.
It was a real good night and Wildy's dogs Soda and Max did a spot on job. I had Mary and the pup Roger with me and they looked stupid next to Dave's on the night. He was generous saying, 'different truck, strange dogs, strange country' but mine looked like rubbish compared to his. Soda and Max did everything right when it counted.
These dogs can find and will back themselves. They are quick, can clear ridiculous heights and have more than enough ticker to pull up good running, fighting boars. They were once described as 'marshmallows' by a bloke who hadn't seen them work. Well the marshmallows came through in every respect IMO. Good dogs, thinking hunter and he did most of the heavy work allowing me to keep my manicure intact.
Very grateful for the invite and a pleasure to see the big leggy dogs work. Very happy with the night.

So here are the pix.

Dave and the black boar. Same length as the second boar but much fatter. He dress 79 kgs (multiply by 2.2 to get pounds. I'm too tired...)

Dave, Soda and Max with the wheat stealing boar. Real good hooks. He dressed 798.8kgs.



Dave carrying out the 79.8kgs and this pix was taken when the pig had it's guts in so your guess is as good as mine as to what  Wildy had on his back...



Proud man.

[/list]

Soda.



Max.

[BigAinaBuilt]

Nice boars Ned! From what I've seen in your breedings and what your dogs can produce it says alot about Soda & max to have you speak highly of them.

[Ned Makim]

To me the concept of disrespecting anyone's working pig dog is like disrespecting an Australian frontline infantryman. Unacceptable for any reason. I give the respect for any dog finding and grabbing pigs and it's just a fact that these dogs were better than mine last night, no question. Not to acknowledge that would be what we all describe in Oz as being a weak c..t. So personally I am only doing the minimum by telling the truth. And they were better than mine on the night. They deserve the accolades.
Cheers.

[dabutcher]

To me the concept of disrespecting anyone's working pig dog is like disrespecting an Australian frontline infantryman. Unacceptable for any reason. I give the respect for any dog finding and grabbing pigs and it's just a fact that these dogs were better than mine last night, no question. Not to acknowledge that would be what we all describe in Oz as being a weak c..t. So personally I am only doing the minimum by telling the truth. And they were better than mine on the night. They deserve the accolades.
Cheers.

That's the difference in Ozzies and Americans, Ned.  Here it's a "mine is better than yours" type piss'n match.  A lot of guys will down someone's dog or bad mouth a hunting style (even if they've never hunted that way or with that particular dog) just because they don't think it's possible or a dog will do it because theirs couldn't do it themselves.  I've really started enjoying hunting in the same style that you guys use over their.  I was really amazed at it's effectiveness here and the lack of injuries sustained by the dogs even after tangling with some BIG toothy boars.  We actually use ozzie style breastplates which supposedly offer less protection than the american style cutvest, but i've witnessed less injuries with "less protection" and only one dog handling the pig instead of 4 or however many some of these guys use. 

[Ned Makim]

I was in the US for a short time when I was 19 in 1979 and the Yanks I met could not have been  more generous. My father fought alongside some of you blokes in the New Guinea jungle in World War II and he said they were decent men. I know there are differences in culture for sure and some Aussies don't understand that. But there are plenty of clowns out here too.
Respectful competition is all good but it really is a sign of weakness to me if a man can't take a loss. The truth is the truth.
Cheers.

[dabutcher]

I was in the US for a short time when I was 19 in 1979 and the Yanks I met could not have been  more generous. My father fought alongside some of you blokes in the New Guinea jungle in World War II and he said they were decent men. I know there are differences in culture for sure and some Aussies don't understand that. But there are plenty of clowns out here too.
Respectful competition is all good but it really is a sign of weakness to me if a man can't take a loss. The truth is the truth.
Cheers.

that's not to say their aren't good guys here.  it's just the terds stand out more than the good ones is all. 

[Ned Makim]

Yeah, all over the world I've found the blokes who are the loudest have the least to say of any consequence. All the loudness putting down anyone's dogs comes from fear. It is defensive. They are afraid of being wrong and try to cover that by noise. No respect for that little boy stuff.
Idiots all over the world and top men too. Just a matter of picking through the crap, I reckon.
Cheers.

[lilmisshogdogger]

GOOD PICS AND HOGS NED!

[BIG BEN]

 Good lookin dogs Mr Ned

[Ned Makim]

Here's a link to a video of tying up a live scrub bull. I'd rather have the little TV screen thingo on this site. Any help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9nx26a7hUM

The bull has been chased by the bull catcher, the 4wd you can hear ticking over and see parked where it hit the bull. The bloke tying the back legs and doing the talking is Jason, an Aboriginal man who in this vid is catching for the money but also training some young blokes to keep them off the grog and the hooter (dope). The bigger bloke is Brett a mate of ours who wanted to have a go.

The bull is knocked over. In this case one Aboriginal boy has the tail but he is pretty casual about it because Brett is pulling the back legs back far enough to keep the bull off balance. Jason ties the back legs and then moves to the head, jams his foot on the bottom horn to limit head movement and then tells another yopung bloke where to stand and how to tie etc. Some of what Jason is saying is in the local Aboriginal language and some is in English. See if you can guess the English words...
Once the legs are strapped, that's it.

Some of the noise at the beginning is the chopper moving off to get more bulls and you can see the tying straps hanging off the roll bar of the bull catcher...

The Aboriginal guys are all guts when dealing with animals. They amused themselves by walking across the holding pens full of these things to provoke charges. They were showing one another how much ticker they had and how well they could move. The bulls are like lightning and they are definitely trying to kill you. One hooked my shirt through the rails and ripped it like a razor.

It's no bloody joke putting your hands on a live scrub bull.
Cheers.

[dabutcher]

that's crazy.....

[Caughtandhobbled]

Ned,

First of all welcome to the site, I truly enjoy your every post. It is very clear that you are an educated man with a true passion for hunting the wild boar. I had the pleasure of talking with a young man "Josh" that shares the same style of hunting as you. It was very clear after two minutes into our conversation that he loved his dogs and he knew more about catching hogs than I may ever know. I caught my first hog over thirty years ago, and I have a style that will not likely change. With that being said, it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks but I truly admire your style of hunting.

Just for fun I will tell on myself, "daddy's did not marry momma". Well I just caught on, they do not call me slow for no reason... Please keep the post coming. I really like the bull stories, I have caught plenty of wild bulls like JDT we use horses and not Jeeps, lol.

Brother you are welcome at my fire anytime. If you ever make it back to the states please look me up for some boar hunting, oh yes bring Dave I am too old to carry the hogs out like him. Take care Brother....

Bennie

[Ned Makim]

Thanks very much Bennie.
I laughed when I saw the 'daddy marrying momma' stuff too. It must be programmed into the forum rules because I just wrote the actual word...and it was changed automatically. Laughed like a drain when I saw it. Bast... is not a swear word out here, just sort of used for emphasis but I appreciate there are cultural differences. Certainly don't want to offend, just talk to people about pigs and stuff. I'm lucky now because I'm seen as a bit of an old man in this game in Oz so the young blokes tend to step in and take things from me so I don't hurt myself.
I'm still reasonably fit but too stiff and sore in some places to be considered strong any more. The young men tend to be very respectful of old blokes who are still in the field and will take the weight from you. I make a fuss but don't put up too much of a fight ha ha.
Can't remember if it was in the post about Dave but that boar was more than 105kgs live and that's what's on his back. That's about 230lbs. Dave's not a big bloke but he is strong and I'm grateful for that. I only had to carry it about 20 or 30 metres after he knocked up (got tired). And I am aware that means something else over there.
Thanks for the invite. You might regret it though because SuperJen and I are contemplating a trip in the next 18 months...
Cheers.

[ktchemwcurs]

Ned, I can see right now that I was born in the wrong place. I wish I could do that stuff! Great pictures, videos, and marvalous stories. WELCOME and Keep em cuming!

[Ned Makim]

I'm just back from a night time run with local bloke Luke. Young family man, late twenties, with a couple of very handy dogs. And it's a case of one good boar in the chiller and a lesson from a better one.
We were hunting some of Luke's country in the hills on which the landholder has set up grain feeders for his cattle and sheep to put on a bit of extra weight for sale. The livestock love the feeders and so do the pigs. They have been travelling about 3kms to and from the their spot  in the steep, thick scrub to the feeders on some of the cleared hills. Nothing on first pass but as we moved a bit further into the the property we thought we spotted a boar on another ridge. We had the spotlight on him a long way away but it moved like a boar so we started to negotiate the slopes in the Landcruiser to get ourselves closer. Luke's dogs Saus (as in sausage...I don't know why, that's just his name), and Animal jumped and ran straight at some calves in the dark. Straight to the calves, straight past the calves and up into the steep stuff. Now a tool like the Garmin Astro GPS dog tracking system is not authorised for use in Australia so we wouldn't have gear like that...but if we did it would have told us the dogs were 356 metres aaway to the NNE and stopped on a pig. We drove as close as possible to where the dogs had the boar and it was a top fight. Fat from the stolen grain and full of enthusiasm, the boar open Animal up in a couple of places. Luke climbed to him and grabbed the boar's backleg just as the boar put on a big downhill surge. Luke was pulled off balance and ended up under the boar. He didn't muck about and pushed himself out to the side with the dogs stepping on him to keep control of the pig. Back on his feet he called to me to help him roll the boar in the rough terrain. I came in from the side and grabbed a front leg and tipped the boar while Luke held the back legs. I had never worked with Luke's dogs before but Luke is no idiot so I knew the dogs were hard. They held well while I was within a couple of inches of the pig's teeth. Rolled, the boar looked a lot bigger than I'd first thought. Luke stuck him and it was done.
My dog Bob arrived late on the scene and we took all the dogs to a dam for a drink where we dressed the boar for export and watered the dogs.
While Luke's dogs drank, Bob drifted off up the slope. Again if we had the technology you aren't allowed to have, it would have shown Bob reaching out to about 200 metres out and still going. I started to climb. My dog, my job. The right equipment would have shown Bob hit a pig at 952 metres from the dam, up in some steep thick stuff. It was a horrible climb for an old bloke. Very thick in places (I just pulled two splinters out of my eyebrow). Bob was on the pig and was still (an estimated) 419 metres away. I pressed on climbing with Bob still on the boar, closing the gap and counting down the metres until I got within 73 metres. The boar broke and was stopped again a little further on. And again out 1.2kms now from the dam all uphill and most of it thick and ugly going. I got the gap down to 16 metres and saw the boar's back end. Bob was attached to the front end and this was a proper big boar. I mean a genuinely big pig. The weather was hot too and Bob was suffering. The boar broke from Bob again and it was over, the black dog was exhausted, had taken a belting and couldn't foot the big fella. I felt I'd failed the dog because he'd done everything he had to and I was too old and slow to get there fast enough. Very hard to take. Bob was very hot so I sat with him for about five minutes before turning back to climb down to the truck and Luke who was unclear on where I was...
About 40 minutes later I walked out to meet him with the news that I'd failed. He was philosophical and we got Bob down to water and a cool down. At the dam there was a super fresh wallow and some cracking big footprints. The boar had been on the dam when we hit his smaller mate.
That was the scent Bob picked up.

Sometimes that's the way it goes. Boars fight back and sometimes they escape, sometimes they kill a dog and sometimes they rip up a hunter so things could have been a lot worse.

We picked up two more pigs for the night after that, one was too small for export and the other dressed 33kgs. The first boar dressed 73kgs.
The big one I miss made him look like a pup.

Luke and the 73 caught by Saus and Animal.



Luke dressing the boar.



The boar at the chiller. Dressed 73 kgs...the heart lungs, liver and kidneys are left attached for vet inspection in the processing plant.



Saus and Animal. Good working pig dogs.

[BigAinaBuilt]

Another great hunt Ned!