Oink no more

Several weeks ago I was doing a tidy up in my workshop which happens three or four times a year; I try to keep things super-neat but over time standards drop. I was going through a few boxes and came across some items I'd all but forgotten I had. It was one of those boxes where things that seemed important at the time of acquiring them, but then became less important, tend to get put. I think, in a hundred years from now, should someone have found it they would have thought it was a really cool find, but to me, it was the same old stuff.

Medals from the old days, a few shooting trophies, a notebook or two, a bundle of letters from twenty five years ago, some photos, an old Swiss Army knife, some certificates and awards, a few matchbox cars and various other things were in there...including a set of tusks from a feral razorback pig. Yep, you read that right.

Feral pigs are a terrible problem here. They're an introduced species and they cause huge damage to the environment which is why it's open season on them and the Government work to eradicate them with baiting and shooting activities.

Some States of Australia have incentives for their destruction, a bounty paid in money if snouts and tails are turned in, it's about $10 per pig. Of course, no feral pig is going to willingly hand over it's tail or snout so shooters, professional and amateur, shoot pigs and it goes from there. They're dangerous creatures and many a hunter has been gored by one, so hunting them takes skill, focus and some nerve, especially at night and when on foot.

I used to go pig shooting a lot although in my State there's none except int he very far north of it so I'd travel some 1,700 kilometres into northern New South Wales, head due north of the little town called Bourke and head north from there and shoot around that vast area and also over the Queensland border. We'd go for a week or more of hunting, four wheel driving and camping.

It was on my very first trip when I shot my first boar, a big ugly bugger of about 120 kilograms in weight.

A couple of mates and I had staked out a small billabong (water hole) and were waiting, in complete darkness, for something to come in. We'd seen signs of the pigs coming in for water there so shot a kangaroo and pegged it out as bait.

It's amazing how far these things will come for water. Government agencies have tracked them moving up to 60 kilometres one way for a drink and then back to where they came from, in a single night! They move almost silently too, and that's where the danger comes in, they're there before you know it. Things get more lively when they have little ones too as they become aggressively protective, that's when they get very dangerous.

I'd thought I heard something out in the darkness. I was on foot a few metres from the truck. My mate, standing in the back of a pickup truck, had the spotlight. He didn't use it though, he wasn't sure he heard anything and didn't want to use the light unnecessarily so there I was knowing something was there but not able to see it. I was positive though, so risked some noise and hissed as loudly as I dared at him to turn the fucken light on ya bastard!

He did, and there it was at only 30 metres away heading right at me. It turned to it's left when the light came on and kept moving but I fired, catching it just behind the right shoulder blade and it was down.

I was in my early twenties at the time and, even then, wasn't a trophy hunter however my mate insisted I take the tusks as a memento and so I did; a photo was also taken. Back at camp I boiled them for hours and hours on end to get the marrow out and clean them up, then used some steel wool on them and they came up pretty good. That's the set of tusks I found a couple weeks ago in that box. I don't really know why I still have them, I don't know why I kept most of that stuff in the box actually, but I did.

Finding those tusks the other day gave me a thought; it's been a while since I've hunted pigs and I figured I'd see if I could put a trip together so made a few phone calls. I've got three others interested and that's plenty. I'm not sure when it'll happen, but certainly in the winter when temperatures in the outback are almost bearable, I'd say July I guess, but the planning has begun already.

I'll be honest and say I'm more interested in the camping trip, nights around the fire with good mates and the challenge the outback brings than the actual shooting although when it comes to pigs I'm happy to do the job as I know the damage they cause. They're challenging to hunt too, one doesn't just walk up to it and pop it, but I've got the skills to make a few of them oink no more.