Table of contents for January-February-March 2019 in Bacon Busters

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Karl Adams had to borrow dogs so he could compete in the 2018 Wei-pa pig hunt. A total of 40 teams with 105 hunters took part in the September event, the first since 2016. Highly respected around Cape York and beyond, Karl is also the coach of the Weipa Raiders, which competes in the Cape Cluster Rugby League Competition. “Leading into the Weipa Pig Hunt, I lost three dogs in a matter of three weeks. Two died to 1080 bait and another chased a pig and never returned. I suspect he overheated”, Karl mentioned. That is where family and friends came to his assistance. “For the pig hunt, I borrowed my Step-Dad's dogs and teamed up with another mate who also had two dogs. We were team 11, called ‘Peppa's…

DRY SWAMPS With the swamps almost totally dry, it’s getting harder to find the pigs at this time of year. You really have to get out there and do the hard yards! Stalking the swamps is something I love to do and shooting pigs just completes the stalk! Fitted out in camo, I try and disguise myself as best as possible and keep to the confines of the thick bush edges choked with lantana and when I scope the distant pigs or dingo’s on the turned-up plains, I put in the slow stalk and get into shooting distance! DINGO’S, STAGS & SLIPS It was a Saturday afternoon when I received a call from the property owner of where to go for a hunt. His main concern was the amount of…

Missed Him by that Much! The massive hit of adrenalin had certainly got my wirey old legs pumping as I jogged towards the incessant barking. A few minutes later, all that separated me from the bailing dogs and an extremely agitated, fired up boar was a small semi dry, high-sided channel. A couple of months before, it would have been a quick flowing creek. With the hard hitting, short-barreled coach-gun loaded with solids snug in my right hand, I felt quietly confident as I jumped down into the sandy creek bed. How quickly things can change, now looking up at the spirited standoff and the boars wedding tackle, I realised I'd put myself in a somewhat precarious position. The boar was big, mean and nasty (not to mention well-hung) and…

The sun was slowly rising, but the intense heat was already starting to be felt as we cruised the dirt tracks checking the handful of dams on the large station. I was up north only a few hours out of Darwin for 10days with a crew of fellas chasing pigs and buffalo. Out in front was my mate Phil who had stopped his Landcruiser in its tracks. Both his dogs were scenting the ground and running hard for the tall grass country bordering the dam wall. Cattle observed the two intruders as we launched out of the vehicle waiting for a bark or grunt. A distant yelp sent us on the way one kilometre into total wilderness. After a short, but sweaty run, the dogs had secured a nice boar…

The dogs jumped and took off and were running up and down a fence line then went through it. We drove up to the gate, around the hill and they ended up coming back at the Ute, so we kept poking along. My dog Axle (Boxer/Bull Arab X) jumped and was sniffing around, then took off across this paddock and was 400metres away. We started to drive after him and we could see him at the end of the spotlight zigzagging with his head down and moving along at some speed. There were holes everywhere, but we were still up it and Axle was still moving along. We weren’t making up any ground, when he stopped and only started moving around within a 10metre circle. We drove and stopped 40metres…

It was that time of the afternoon when knock-off was putting a smile on my face. My mate Coz and I were soon cruising home from a big day at work and a cold beer and shower was waiting. The past few days, amongst the dry heat, we were lucky to have had a few showers drop a couple of inches in the surrounding landscape. The local hogs certainly show themselves in this weather and a certain 60kg boar had been showing his face on a place I got access to a few months earlier. To our surprise, that boar just happened to be out nosing the ground as we were driving past. After a quick glass with the bino’s, we thought he might have been a bit bigger and…

On a spare weekend that came about during the footy season, Brayden, Dad and myself decided to team up with another local hunting family and their dogs for a weekend of boar smashing. The crew that we combined with was Ning and Boyd Horan along with his partner Holli, who are all keen hunters that catch some cracking pigs. We organised to meet them on Saturday morning as they had seen a good size track coming in on a pad near a creek that has freshwater springs along it. Ning Horan, the tour guide of Pelican tours (not a real operation) lead us up to where the pad was. The dogs had other ideas and couldn’t wait, jumping 100metres before it. Bash, our dog and Roy a Bull Arab of…

Biloela Boars COMPILED BY BEN ZAHNLEITER After alot of years away from pig hunting due to work and young family, my kids have recently shown some interest, so we have been out for a few hunts around Biloela in Central Queensland. The first pic is with my 11year old twin boys, Dean & Kurt with 100kg+ boar and young sow shot with the .270. The next pic of a black boar around 80kg is with my eldest daughter Libby and son Kurt. It was taken with my long deceased Grandfathers SMLE .303 after Lib spotted it coming out of a lantana camp, while we spotted from a ridge above the gully. Ragdoll Razorback COMPILED BY NICK GLEESON Boyd, Bill and I had been out all night. At 5 o’clock in…

Well, the tusky boars keep coming! I’ve only just come back from a trip to The Top End and was fortunate enough to tackle a few good boars sporting good ivory. A couple of local stations outta Darwin was home to a few lone boars who we caught with the dogs early morning coming off dams and the others were camped along a few waterways in the middle of the day in the scorching heat. My next journey was into some very remote country in Arnhemland (See article in upcoming Sporting Shooter Magazine). It was here that the population wasn’t big at all, but assured by the Safari Operator that if you do see a boar, he’ll be old, tough and have ultra-thick tusks on display. Well, he was right!…

My father and I go hunting a few times a year usually through the winter months around the border country near Goondiwindi. On the first day of the trip, we set up a few baits around the property to see what animal prints are coming to them. The usual ferals being pigs, foxes and cats are the most common and our usual targets on these hunts. It was more so a test to see if it was worth a spotlight over the nights to come. If we find the baits to be taken, then we’ll put the chilly nights beanie’s on and get the light out. As many hunters know, the night hours brings everything out and feral animals are always moving about, whether it’s thick scrub to crops and…

His monstrous mud encrusted shoulders bunched, as the great boar took off from his lay on the waters edge. The bristles on his back stood up and those massive tusks flashed white in the early morning sunlight, as he took off for parts unknown. Unfortunately for him, the dogs were already hot on his scent and soon caught up as he crossed an open flat. Turning and parrying his tusks at the annoying dogs, he turned first one way and then another to try to dislodge them, but the faithful and tenacious hounds had his ear in their mouths and were not letting go. An old man ran out and tried to grab his tail to hold him, but his tail was missing. Nevertheless, it wasn’t long before the old…

Summer is one of the busiest times of the year to hunt. Scarce water concentrates pig populations around watercourses and dams, allowing better numbers for hunting. Summer brings its own set of veterinary problems for a hunter and being prepared for an emergency is important to avoid all issues! Some of the main problems encountered over summer are detailed here: GENERAL HEALTH ISSUES It is important to make sure that your dogs are all healthy and up to date with all vaccinations, worming and tick prevention before beginning to hunt. Parvo Virus is more common over the wet summer months and it is important to make sure this vaccination is up to date before visiting any public area or property. Any physical problems such as lameness, lumps and other issues…

Well that’s one question I hear a lot! Where can you hunt? Well in NSW, with the millions of acres of private property, one has to gain permission to access these grounds, which can be a hard task, but the DPI have provided access through many state forests for legal hunting through a licensing system. The ’R’ License, once obtained allows you to hunt with dogs, gun and bow throughout their list of state forests. The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Game Licensing Unit (GLU) regulates and administers safe, sustainable and ethical hunting in NSW. In accordance with the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002 and the Game and Feral Animal Control Regulation 2012. The DPI works towards outcomes including: that hunting is conducted safely and ethically to meet…

Luke Albury is no stranger to the sport of pighunting. He's weekly showing off his tribulations of a successful hunt. The hard yards of walking the NT temperatures is enough to put most people off, but young Luke knows that results come from putting in the time. It's nothing to walk up to twenty kilometres in a day through some unforgiving country and success is in the photos. While all these trophies are caught on land, he also puts in the time out in the saltwater catching an array of fish species from the Top End. Some classic photos amongst these and more coming by the week!…

John Kopasakis made the journey west to the heartland of the drought in the Nyngan area of NSW. Despite conditions being very dry and farmers stock not doing well, there wasn’t a crop in sight, only weeds. Surprisingly, the pigs were about and working the dams of a morning and afternoon brought good results as well as cleaning a few good boars up of a night. John’s sons Jono and Dano put their shooting skills to work and pulled in some hot numbers! Good shooting boys!…

Last week I picked up my rifle after I'd had it in the shop for a while. Although it had been bore-sighted, I thought I'd better take it out and properly sight it in with a target. I drove out to the station that I have permission to hunt on early Saturday mornings. Two shots at about one hundred metres said that the scope was pretty darn accurate already! So I packed up the rifle in a hard case, put away the magazine and ammo and headed for home. Less than one minute later, I came across this boar just standing there in broad daylight! Not something you see every day here in the Kimberley. I actually thought there wasn't a chance I'd get to shoot him, as everything was…

Up around the Burdekin region on the coast of Queensland, John Ma-las is busy working like the rest of us; but when the dogs are getting itchy (which is regularly), he loads them up with his sons Max and Jack and they hit the local sugar cane farms and surrounding thickets of wild scrubland for big boars. The young fellas love their hunting and with such a rich area of agriculture, the population of pigs is high, so putting in the time gets the hogs. Here’s just a few of the latest boars caught by the Malas boys of Ayr, Queensland!…

The dry season was at its peak. The red dirt crumpled as each boot touched the red soil. It was Sunday night and the old fella and I hadn’t spent valuable time together since December 2017. The Army has taught me many skills that I used to my advantage and wanted to pass on to my old fella just as he did for me when I was a junior firing ammunition like firecrackers. It was 4:30am on Friday morning when we woke up just before light. Our target was a property being a three hour round trip, not including the time having to allocate to calling into the shack and meeting up with the manager; not including the prepping of the big boys toys that our tax money brought us.…