MARY had her first local run for me in a long time this morning. She's been working with Paul to fill the gap left by the death of one of his mainstays, Kevin but recently came back to me.
Mary is an accidental dog, the product of an unplanned brother sister mating involving Tiger and Paul's Hannah.
She's only a little dog, maybe 26kgs but is an enthusiastic finder and will grab whatever boar she finds. Mary had a great run during our recent northern trip and did all the work again today.
Jen and I headed off at 5am for a block south of here that often produces decent boars. We had Mary, the pup Gina and fat Bob. Bob has been on the gravy train staying with friends of ours while I was away. He's overweight and unfit so I knew Mary would have to carry the weight of the hunt.
True to form it was Mary who jumped first. We'd been hunting for a few hours when the little grey dog dived off the driver's side of the tray and went like a bullet across a gully and up the other side. Bob went too and so did we.
Mary is an accidental dog, the product of an unplanned brother sister mating involving Tiger and Paul's Hannah.
She's only a little dog, maybe 26kgs but is an enthusiastic finder and will grab whatever boar she finds. Mary had a great run during our recent northern trip and did all the work again today.
Jen and I headed off at 5am for a block south of here that often produces decent boars. We had Mary, the pup Gina and fat Bob. Bob has been on the gravy train staying with friends of ours while I was away. He's overweight and unfit so I knew Mary would have to carry the weight of the hunt.
True to form it was Mary who jumped first. We'd been hunting for a few hours when the little grey dog dived off the driver's side of the tray and went like a bullet across a gully and up the other side. Bob went too and so did we.
I knew the track crossed the gully and would cut Mary's present line further up the hill so we drove as quickly as you can in steep county and hit Mary and Bob's path where they rejoined the main track. They had followed the main track and I thought they might now just be running on spec. We pressed on quickly anyway and I was proved wrong. The dogs had been on a scent that had follwed the maion track and we saw Bob on a little sow up ahead. I stopped and grabbed the big dog and the pig and said to Jen, Mary must be up ahead. Jen said she was, she could see Mary on the ridge with a little boar. We drove straight to her and Gina was released to give her cousin a hand.
Mary has plenty of guts but I wanted Gina to gain more experience while helping keep Mary out of any trouble.
Only a little boar but plenty of drive in him so it was a reasonable return to the local hunting.
It was also a good workout for the truck which had undergone a number of repairs and modifications since the return from the bulls for boars hunt. My springs were shot and had to be replaced, the frame had cracked and had to be rewelded, the rails carrying the tray were also cracked and had to be replated and reinforced.
I also had a dual battery system installed as well as a 45 litre ARB fridge.
Add that to the new turbo-charger, all new shocks, new radiator, new head gasket, new manifold bolts and new brake and clutch master cylinders (and more) done before the northern trip and the old truck is back in full hunting kit.
It's not a pretty vehicle and it's tortured in the bush but whatever bends or breaks is replaced with a better version of the same thing so you can hunt in rough country with confidence.
And with the fridge installed, it is luxury plus as the warmer weather approaches.
