Table of contents for April-May-June 2019 in Bacon Busters

G day All, Well the last month or two has been absolutely traumatic for so many Aussies. With droughts and floods throughout Queensland, it has really hurt so many people. It’d be the most talked about topic at work, together with the NSW drought and then fires down south. It’s unbelievable to see so much devastation across a country to the opposite extremes. I can only hope the Aussie government put our farmers and citizens first instead of spending more time on selling off our country and assets. If you know someone in a pickle, take the time and give em’ a hand! On the piggin’ front; I've caught a few in the mountains, but I've had to work for them and the dogs have done well. Their age is…

As usual, I stopped in at the homestead for a catch-up chat with my good friends and a hot brew. For some reason, the kitchen felt smaller than I remembered, then I saw it. Taking up more bench space than Donald Trump's ego, sat a new whizz-bang, all singing, all dancing coffee machine that looked like a cross between the Starship Enterprise and the Sydney Opera House. A few minutes later, after the massive machine had been jump-started, I enjoyed a salubrious caffeine fix and was ready for action. The icebox was iced up and full of drinks, the dogs pushed for the best spot in the dog-box, the hard-hitting coach-gun snug in the rifle rack and the .308 in the gun bag, but handy. I gave the Honda Pioneer's…

When I can, I get way out into the NW of NSW between Engonia and Hungerford. It’s here over the years that the country can be very barren or in flood, however the drought has taken its toll on this remote region over the past few years. The area is renowned for its quality tusky boars and my latest trip was evident to that. I shot these pigs on a property that I frequent. The pigs are about, but not in the usual numbers I have seen over the years. It’s good to support our pastoralists at every opportunity. Enjoy!…

I was privileged enough to be invited on a trip to Queensland last October with a group of mates. I was super keen as I’m from the Hunter Valley in NSW and had never crossed the border before. We headed off for our trip giving the missus a kiss goodbye and she said to have a good time. I replied “Of course I will, I’m going Piggin”! We did a long stint straight up with a 17hour drive and then pulled up stumps for the night. We finally arrived to the property on the second day and it was an eye opener for me. Soon we were plating the dogs up and loading them on the Ute for our first hunt. We were lucky enough to catch a few decent…

My older brother, old man and I decided to try our luck on some early rutting red deer on the past weekend. After waking early, we made our way to our hunting location. Things looked pretty positive while we drove to the area as we spotted through the grey morning light, a number of doe’s out and feeding along the way. The fellas would be starting to break mob soon and round these girls up, so the chances of coming across a frisky stag or two seemed high. The morning’s walk was somewhat of a slow one as we arrived at about the three quarter mark. The positivity that embellished us earlier that morning was somewhat dwindling as all we had seen were a couple of curious wallabies and one…

Strolling the grocery isles as a kid, my family would always have two trolleys; one for the groceries and one for the breakfast cereal. My brother and I would fill one with Weet-Bix as we went through it like toilet paper! Chopping up a banana, a punnet of strawberries and 1ltr of milk to go with it, I used to claim up to 40rectangles a day. Now I was a Weet-Bix kid, but as knowledge and diet changed as I got older, I kept to a strict nutritional array of foods, which made my performance peak in the gym. I loved my food and still do! You will find that dog’s peak too with a healthy daily intake of good foods. There really is not too much difference between humans…

HELP, MY DOG IS LAME! I am sure that most hunters would have been faced with a lame dog from time to time. Hunting is a very athletic endeavour requiring dogs to jump up and down from vehicles, sprint, cover rough terrain and finally catch or lug a fearsome pig. Injuries do happen and can be serious in some cases. This article will discuss some of the important things to keep in mind when faced with a lame dog and some of the common problems and how they are treated! The cause of lameness is most often due to a painful leg, muscle, tendon or joint. Although much less common in hunting bred dogs, injuries to the nerves or back can result in lameness as well. The first step when…

The .308 lunchtime wakeup call certainly got the solid lump of a brown boar out of bed in a hurry. As our fleeing quarry stepped it up a gear, Ryan jumped from the passenger seat of the Honda Pioneer 700 and flung open the dog-box door. Instantly, the excitable dogs hit the ground running and took up the chase. After denting or leaving one too many dog-box doors out bush, Ryan made sure everything was perfectly secure before returning to the side-by-side. Although bailed and outnumbered by the canine cavalry, the boars ‘take no prisoners’ attitude and tenacity was a quality that deserved utmost respect and admiration. 90kg of muscled resentment, a formidable powerhouse ready to inflict some carnage on the closest bailer! As usual, the dog closest to the…

North Queensland hunter Peter Burnett saw a ‘different side to life as a pig’, during his travels around Tasmania in December. Townsville based, Peter is a quietly spoken public servant and whenever he gets a spare weekend, he goes camping and pig hunting at a property about 90km from Charters Towers. Whenever time permits, Peter catches up with brothers Phillip (Townsville) and Mark (Brisbane) as well as brother in law Jerry (Brisbane) for several days and nights on the property. They love to ‘boil the billy’ and hunt pigs, which cause enormous damage. In December, Peter unexpectedly saw a sow with some baby pigs in Tasmania. “Here's the sow and her litter we saw on the road to Bay of Fires, North of St Helens and I got a pic,”…

As you get older, the birthdays seem to come around quicker and once you’ve received your Seniors Card, it’s just a downhill slippery slope to a dreaded white coat and lawn bowls. So with the vehicle packed, the dogs in the dogbox, my two sons; and for an added bonus, my cousin Tim from the ‘Land of the Forked Tongue’ Canberra, we headed off. We could hear my bailing dogs going ballistic as we sprinted through the high grass that hugged the edges of the swampland. With Matt’s lugger in total control of the situation, all my dogs could do was make a lot of racket and they succeeded. This afternoon, we’d have the local volunteer fire brigade handy just in case my ignited sixty-three candles couldn’t be contained!…

We decided to do an early morning run around the edge of the corn fields. Just on first light we left the camp to drive ten minutes to corn fields, minutes latter the dogs got excited and jumped off the Ute and were immediately onto a good little boar. We then continued down to the fields and this is when the fun started. The cutters had just started harvesting what was left of this corn field, as the cutter made its way along the pigs made a mad dash for the other fields and scrub near by. We followed behind the harvester and as the pigs came out, we would let the dogs out in pairs. By 9 am we had 11 Pigs, although there were no big pigs it…

CLINT MAGRO GIVES A SHORT PIECE ON HOUSING YOUR DOGS SECURELY! As pighunters, we all live in different situations throughout this Great South Land, whether it is suburbia, semi-rural or remote; and one things for certain! We all need somewhere to house our dogs. Now some of you might just have the one hound or the ultimate pair, but I know many hunters who have up to ten dogs on their farms and small acreages. You’d sure love dogs having that many, however there’s nothing stressful enough as losing a dog at home as the fencing was inadequate, he’s got off the chain/slipped a collar or whatever other reason. Building a dog pen keeps your dogs safe and secure when you are not there. There’s nothing worse than that dreading…

The 2018 dry season was not as productive as usual up where we hunt in Cape York, due to some late rain in the wet season. The water was more abundant than usual, which resulted in pigs being more spread out and less concentrated on the creeks. The bonus was the pigs that we came across on this particular hunt were above average weight for this time of year up in Cape York. Today I had my good mate Jack with me from Weipa Sports Fishing. He had managed to snag a couple of days off after working a 30 something day stint putting clients on Barra (the poor bloke). Jack had his quad, but didn't have a chance to bring his hounds as he had been too flat out…

Righto, dogs with long hair; love em’ or hate em’! They have been a popular breed over the years in the piggin’ circles and have gained a lot of respect and talent in hunters breeds. I’ve heard it all, “bloody hairy dogs are soft”, blah blah, blah. Well I was never an avid fan of the hairy’s when I started hunting with dogs and that was due to not having a lot of exposure and seeing them in action. There came a time when I was heading west religiously and the only breeds I was seeing throughout NSW western towns were hairy running type dogs. Some pin-headed and other heavier set big-boned hounds with Mastiff type heads. They were impressive to say the least and after seeing them run down…

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On a recent hunt, Dad and I had a very welcome visitor. We have caught a few pigs with this person in the cane and other places, but nothing to get too excited about. After a bit of discussion, we decided that we were going to head to a place where Dad worked years ago. The weekend had come around and our good mate had just arrived back from his Australian Kangaroos tour. It was Jordan Mclean from the North Queensland Cowboys. It was Saturday morning and he travelled down to our place and arrived at 4am. He had his two ‘meant to be’ bailers collared up, Scooter and Bull and we had our four hounds on the back. Dad has spoken highly about this place a few times, so…

There is so much going on with the devastating effect that the North Queensland floods have done. I’ll leave that till next issue as I’m keeping busy atm. I had set out to be another day at the swamp and it was around midday when I had been walking for around 10minutes when across the swamp 400metres away, I could see a small mob of pigs feeding. As I approached the swamp, the birds took off alerting the pigs & I watched the mob enter the thick lantana. I got to within 100metres off the swamp when three pigs came back out of the lantana. I waited for a few minutes, but only three came to the water and with a nicely placed shot, down went one pig and the…

Juanita NICKNAME: Wini LIVES: Normanton, Qld JOB: Jockey LOVES: Tattoos, brumbies, exercising, catching a good pig, my kids & gelato! HATES: Snakes & Fakes. FAVOURITE DRINK: oconut water is so sweet & hydrating! BIGGEST BOAR: 96kg HOBBIES: Horseriding, piggin’, jogging & listening to sweet beats. IDEAL DATE: 5-star, 3-course meal at a beautiful waterhole, swimming & watching the sun go down... OR Las Vegas. $1MILLION: Get more tats, set my kids up, go on a holiday, get more tats, buy a block down south & get some more tats!…

Two weeks ago, I lost my old workhorse Bruce to a kidney disease and that only left me with Dallas, my leggy Warrego male and Taryu, my Stag X. Taryu is only 8months old, so things were looking grim to say the least. My workmates asked nearly everyday how Bruce was going and sadly the day came when I said he’s gone. Now Ive only got one adult and a pup and as most of you know, the bigger hairy breeds generally take a bit longer to come together! About a week after my mate Muddy said that he and his Missus Simone had a pup, they seemed happy to part with it if I was keen! Its breeding is well known in Katherine and surrounds, but wasn’t a breed…