had a mongrel of a day last week...some old fart kept sending me photos of his days hunting while a man was trying to do a honest days work
first photo was a wally
2nd was a pig as was the third
dont get me wrong I was stoked for my old mate but jeepers creepers batman it was plurry hard to keep my mind on the job.
after work spoke to old mate and was shocked to hear the pork stayed on the hill due to distance from wagon....hmmmmmm time to hatch a stoaty plan
Friday night saw me busy on phone trying to get another mate to come for walk with me to try retrieve said pork....... after third fella said he was feeling knackered and couldnt make it I was feeling a bit like the little red hen.....
so Saturday morning we drove around to me old mates whare with the laptop so he could show me where the pigs were stowed (gutted and propped open in cool weather)
it took no time to get the info needed and with weather looking worse by the minute the good wifey was sent off home with laptop(couldnt leave it in wagon for some lowlife to half hitch)and away the dog and I drove.
parked the wagon at road end and let the dog out and off we went up up up and up some more..
the weather wasnt very flash at all light drizzly rain with some heavier patches,the good news was it kept the body temp down so thermals and raincoat was order of the day.
finally broke out into semi open and saw/shot first wallaby of the day. kept the dog in behind me and carried on up some more...did I mention how wet and cold it was???
got up to first wee gully and looked across seeing 2 more wallys,missed first but dropped next one and the next and the next
the day was looking up big time ,a normal half day up there might see me shoot 2 or three but this was plurry awesome,the hardest part was keeping scope clearish,trying to see through wet stuff was like looking through goldfish bowl.
the dog was quite happy to stay behind me and the action was great for steadying to shot. git to the snow tussock and man was it wet...... starting to feel as cold as a frogs tit we carried on up and over the top,the wind was adding to cold so it was good to get down off ridge,shooting another couple of wallys as we went.
managed to get down to approx area where first pig should be and shot 3 good sized wallys with consecutave shots really quickly man was I enjoying myself,the dog didnt know where to look as the dopey ozzie overstayers were all over the show trying to stay out of the wet tussock. got down into area where first pig shouldve been and asked dog to have a look around......
now I knew we were pushing poohs uphill after all the rain that she could smell my mates scent (he does shower SOMETIMES ) but hoped she would pick up pork and lead me to it....well it sort of worked,she kept finding wallys Id shot and I eyeballed the pig before she found it,managed to get her in right direction then praised her once she was on the pig looking confused but happy.
dropped my pack and set off to find 2nd one which shouldve been just along a bit close to big cabbage tree....moved to nearest spur and saw cabbage trees all over the show kept looking for 15 or so minutes but again dog found wally I had shot...just had to laugh.
went back and boned out the pig taking the 4 quarters and both sets of steaks,back and eye fillet. poked them into large plastic bag and into pack......the 50ish lb pig was more like 90lb so pack felt weighty,the weather wasnt looking flash and time was getting on...another look around in wider cast this time didnt find 2nd pig so decision was made to start trudging back up up up onto main ridge again,lots of breather stops later main top of side ridge only to spot big wally sitting in open on next one over...sit down ,take pack off,out with plastic bag containing loo paper,clean off scope,get rest over pack frame,another clean kill bringing total for day to 13 kills from 17 rounds fired...man that made a man feel great
lots more trudging up found us back on main ridge,much more plodding down found us at gorseline,mate the raincoat was great when pushing through that wet prickly shite,I even put my hoodie up over my cap to keep it off my face and just kept pushing ( why couldnt those plurry whingeing poms just build fences like normal folk???)
then the interesting part came..remember all that up up up??? well now the time had come for down down down,but this time the wet muddy track was going to be a bit more of a challenge,to say the decent was "interesting" would be an understatement but managed to only tip arse over kite 4 times and 3 of those were in last 500 yards to wagon,the body was a tad puckerooed by that stage and we beat the darkness by no more than 10minutes..... it was a pity we hadnt managed to find 2nd pig but if we had it might have been a night out in less than ideal conditions as no way would you want to attempt that track in the dark...
got home and chucked pack on scales...20 kgs so about 18kgs of pork.
moral of story..... mark your left behind animals position with something visible and dont be afraid to get out looking for wally in the rain

Great story mate, and great shooting on those wobblies. The dawg knew her job mate...find the critters you dropped, and she did that well.

Shame about the other grunter mate, but these things happen. Maybe a small quantity of fluoro plastic tape in the pack is a good idea. Another option is to mark the position on a GPS as a waypoint or similar...or if you are conversant with military maps and know how to use the grid system, mark the position with a eight figure grid reference.

the only photo taken due to crappy wet weather

www.fishnhunt.co.nz/fo...1500209617

this is round two in same place as the above,first time Ive met the young fella and his son but from what Ive seen will be more than happy to take them out again.