BJ was in a different class.Was on goats in MT Bruce.BJ farmed across the road.Occasionally the dogs would end up hauling over there.Got to meet him to sort the pack out.A true gentleman (& wife)from a different era
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BJ was in a different class.Was on goats in MT Bruce.BJ farmed across the road.Occasionally the dogs would end up hauling over there.Got to meet him to sort the pack out.A true gentleman (& wife)from a different era
they were gentleman - got to know Ian Kirkpatrick alittle - asked him who was the scariest bugger he had encountered on the field ( one does tend to ask people like that dumb questions ) he said Bryan Williams coming down the paddock at full steam towards you was close to it
Many of us had a dog along and in the 60-70 decade mine was a ue heeler bitch named Kim. She was bred by Garth Coghill (also NZFS staff). Gafth used to pig hunt Kaingaro out lg a tiny old baby austin with a wheelbarros strapped to the back. His finder was a border collie bitch and his holder wS King, a very solid blue heeler me stud dog. King had almost zero tolefance of other dogs and would kill if allowed. He wluld just .ooch along till the collie bailed and then head for the bark. He never held by the ear, always on the front of the nose. Even once the pig was stuck he wouldnt release until repeated smacks on his snlut with the back of a knife fotced the issue. Eventually he attacked the collie one day and so damaged her front leg that she had to be put down.
Anyway, Ming was the sire of my Kim. Being jusg a young buck of 18 when I got her I didnt know a lot about training a hunting dog; just had her along whenever I hunted, which was a lot. She self taught and was utterly fearless. She wluld find and bail and after a bit of ear cutting, wluld hold on command. My favourite weapon when pig hunting with her ( one dog only) was a cut down fern hook slasher. This cluld be used as a stabbing tool but more often I would get to a side of the pig and whack them just behind the ears. It put them down quickly.
On deer she adapted her heeling genes and in flat areas I would find a clearing or monowai flat and send her out. Sometimes up to a couple of hours wait I would hear the thump thump or crackle of approaching deer. She had the knack of quietly pushing them right to my position. In the ureweras in steep terrain I would watch her winding then we would go down into the nearest creek and then I would send her. She would bring a deer down into the bottom and bail within esrshot of me. One time in back of Moanui she took off ahead and bailed two blue boars. When I caught up to her she was bailing and when one broke she would bit its nuts making it sit down, then heel the othet back and do the same. I shot one and stick the other. In all honesty, Kim easily doubled my success rate and a great all round dog. I rescued her from drowning once on a dirty crossing on a sharp bend in the tauranga river below which was a log jam. She got swept under the jam and it wad a near thing to get her out. I know others who had similar close attachments and close esp eith their dog. I will never forget Kim.
This old faded pic is of Kim with the two blue boars mentioned above. Was lucky to get this because my camera took a dunking a couple of weeks later and this wad one of the few negatives that survived.
Attachment 250635
@Woody There's something special about heelers. You have to have one to know, their loyalty and commitment is remarkable.
you mention Moanui Woody did you ever run into the rat pack meat hunting and possum trapping in there - Pat Braithwaite Jim Mitchell Dave Eccles ? real characters - when DOC started 1987 I was a Ranger in Waioeka gorge - I got the upper Waioeka as part of my area - but only Jim Mitchell was still trapping in there then based from Forks hut - Tawa hut was Braithwaite country - Kahanui hut there was a husband and wife trapping Lyn Thyne ? and I think her name was Marina
I had 2 Blue Heelers over my time. The first one named Mauve, the 2nd one named Mauve.
Yes, loyal little guys and good natured. One would heel my horse while I was getting on - I wondered why my horse was so jumpy until I sotted him doing it. Little bugger.
Mine never caught a pig but both were ok winding deer. The first one was a bugger for wanting to pluck the dead deer's hair.
I remember their lovely soft coats when they snuggled up in the tent.
They are white/cream as pups. Takes a while for the full colour to come through.
Near eadt enf of Ruas track
the guy who ran the Tiniroto pub and chiller was a cunning publican - we would leave Gisborne friday night and hunt Te Urewera Nat Park behind Papuni station up the Ruakituri and then sell at Tiniroto on way home sunday - he would pay half cheque and half cash - of course one had to stay for a beer - by about 9 oclock cash was gone - he would offer to cash the cheque and supply a bed for the night - did not usually have a choice - way to drunk to drive home - did not care great days - back to work monday after driving back early in morning -
Ha ha . Yep; typical. I tgink I got Hautapu wrong, may be hangaroa, was ba k of waipa station.
Me and Ron Twyman shot a lot of goats ba k of his dads station just shy of ruakituri bush. We used pack horses to get them down to homestead and Rons dad would truck them down to wairoa to sell. About 50 each weekend. All was fine until one monday Ron gets a ring in napier woolstore from his daf. Theyre not buying now, so Ive dumped them in the bottom paddock. You two young buggerd better come up next weekend and start digging! Blimey, diggin that hole by hand took us all next weekend. Stinkin bloody things. Gave up goat shooting after that episode.
those Matawai bush rats - not the sorts to invite home to mum for a beer - mate rang the boys are down the Masonic - now the Masonic had been Gisbornes flashiest pub - long closed but then was beautiful carpets wood paneling really nice - went in and in the back bar were the Matawai meat hunters and trappers - the carpet had so much beer spilled onto it one squelched walking up to the bar - one of them was taking a leak into the ash tray at foot of bar - they had had a feed of raw paua on one of the tables and the shells and guts were still on it with paua juice running down onto the floor - Jim was in fine shape roaring out " give me a fight ya weatbix bastards"- two security came in and he put his arms around them and said now ya not going to kick us out of our pub are ya - then had a scrap with Daktari knocking over tables - yes don't take that lot home ( Daktari was sadly drowned in the Motu on a raft pig hunting trip ) top helicopter shooter
Wild buggers. I wrnt in that pub once only in around 1967. It was rough. There was a hooker stripped naked standing on one of the tables pissed to the gills touting for business ! Tokoroa Timberlands was interesting at times. A neighbour of mine who I hunted with occIsionally eventually got banned for repeatedly riding his horse into the bar :)
When I got married I had to promise to stay away from pubs and fights. I obeyed and still married to my girl after 55 years , so far.
the roughest had to be the old Murupara pub one kept ones back to the wall and no eye ball no one
I stayed clear of that pub, only ised the bottle store.
Those times they were all entertaining , the DB @ Turangi could light up on occasions , the Spa in Taupo with 1/2 rounds around the walls to stop the damage , even the old lake Hotel in the middle of town , walking in there on a Friday evening was always a bit un nerving for a little honky teenager lol
This is what it's all about.Barry's post #133 re Ngati Porou
country Paua huas and DB vomit on the axeminster has got the running with the Judges so far.I'm challenging a yarn about investing your venny cheque at the local from the wild wild west coast.Plenty of tin pot one horse towns with 4 pubs on the coast just down the road from a Mairs chiller.You got your ears on @doinit ?? Yarn can contain Series 1 or Il Landys,C/saws,working girls,3 naught 3's,lead acid batteries........
Chief sensor @dannyb can keep it tidy with no reference to black guns, Credmores,Twiddly knobs and buttons on fu wish scopes.
Thankyou Barry for making my day .For my money the best post on this forum in the few years I've been on here.So well written,we can all visualise and smell the scene.Havnt laughed so hard for a long time.Tears rolling down me cheeks.Gold.
Attachment 250660Someone once told me rules are made to be broken.Lake Sumner RHA so no hunting for filthy lucre.South Branch Hurunui with Bushy Stream opposite on the T.R. Eskhead Stn.Murupara Moonbeam velvety long before thermal gear was thought of.Nothing like Barry's East Coast monsters,but my best.Three hour haul chased by the blue bottles back to the wagon.200 lb & 3oz with a cracker 4kg A grade carried by the cameraman off to the Loburn chiller.Hang them over nite to drain then stumble down the valley floor but sure as shit still get plenty of blood down your date
Yi not alone yi know and I know you aint gunna be happy until we are wading around knee deep in blood n guts eh.
I've been busy today renailing the bullers,new bitta bike tube on the 4x Loopy but slightly pissed I can't find the Green River...guess it'll show...could be lying in the Landies spear eh.
Shit my back n shoulders are aching looking at that..nice. I recall a coupla mates and my self once packed in three twelve volt acid batteries...one each pluss gear,bloody stupid fi sure but hey we put down a few each night with the big bright thingy,,nuts we were.
Attachment 250663The hurt locker.Here we go again but no offsider to Carry the head and the gatt.kinda needed 3 hands to carry everything on steeper country.As I say no thermal and no suppressors,so tended to use quiet cals- trebly or .223.Now adays with cans go big and knock yourself out
Attachment 250664Suns well up so must have slept in after a long nite stooging round the flats with the light.These would have been drained but badly struck
This is the best thread I've read on here in a long time, keep it up please gentlemen
A stag that nearly turned the tables.
As mentioned, my blue heeler Kim was adept at bring deer down to me in creeks. In this instance my mate Ross and me and Kim were hunting up a beautiful little tributary which had lovely close cropped little clearings dotted with mature trees, almost park like. We called the place christmas creek. The stream itself had cut down in most places about 3-6 feet and created a channel about 4-6 ft wide. The water seldom reached more than mid calf depth. One could sneak up the bed and peep over the edges to check out the more open areas. The valley floor was only about 20-50 yards wide and bordered by mature bush. Deet loved this sunny place.
Anyway, on this day we were sneaking up the creek, Ross a few yards ahead, me and Kim following. Ross was not a confident shot but a good keen mate. Both of us had open sights 303s. After a few hundred yards Kim started winding and wanted to get up the side but I kept her in hoping to get Ross a shot. Kim eventually did the cunning kuri trick and dropped back and disappeared before I noticed. I moved up stream a bit to warn Ross to have a squiz over the sides of the banks. Then he moved on, approaching a blind bend 20 yards ahead. We got around the bend and there 50 yards of straight in the next reach. Suddenly a stag came belting full tilt down the creek bed and no room to pass. I yelked at Ross Shoot Shoot. He yelked back I,'ll hit the dog! I yelled DROP; which he did. I shot the stag through the lower neck and it wrnt down headfirst into the shingle creek bed. The brow tines dug in and it somersalted landing on its back in the gap between Ross and me. Kim must have grabbed the rear hock just ad I shot and she went clear over Ross then stag then me, several feet in the air. Cripes, all three of us sat down by that stag and had a smoke and a brew after that. We were a bit luckier than the stag fortunately. Memorable, we still talk of it.
Attachment 250666@Woody my pack would work long necks too.Set an ambush two days running ,with ching ching both days on good stags.Ol mate in the valley floor with radios in the truck ready to head for the chiller.Me and pack doing the high beat.Both days the kuris hauled two seperate stags 1000ft off the main Rimutaka Range into the Oronga valley floor.Stick em and roll them into the wagon.Day 2
That reminded me of some hunts on Lochiver where I had some mates. The station had several isolated patches of bush clad gully heads. One would go up top with a dog and a couple of us stationed at bottom end in scrub. Usually took about half an hour before sika would come down into the scrub. Mostly snap shots and the deer went to the rangitaik pub chiller and us into the pub for the night drinking most of the proceeds. Great weekends :)
Attachment 250667Day 1.Heavy Podocarp forest with thick as supplejack guts in the damp spots.Gave the dogs the edge in the head long rush to the valley floor.Funnily both animals ended up in the valley floor within 800 yards of each other.A memorial coupla days but wasn't always like that.Just fluked it
And finally.Did the Blue Merle thing in my pack too.He didn't set the world on fire.Close finder/ ear holder but needed back up.Took a lot of hits and went off his stroke early @ age 3.Someone did me a favour.Came home from work one day @ age 4 and some low life scum had flogged him off the chain.Dont know how they did that cause that breed is fiercely loyal one man dogs and he take the arm off a dog thiefAttachment 250668
Attachment 250672Ace was his name.Tattooed on left ear.But he,d be long gone to the happy hunting ground.If it's brown it's down
He has a big smile on his furry face :)
His vice was cyclists.Just couldn't help himself coming in for a quick heal.Think it was the pedaling motion that always got the better of him.And those deviant Aussie eyes
Well here's another one.
" A couple of risky moves by a tyro".
I was based in the big K when I was 18 and still a learner hunter. One of my work mates was from rangipo where is dad was a prison officer. We always talked hunting at smokos and he reckoned he had heard there were plenty of deer up the whitkau area. He invited me for a weekend at rangipo so Kim, then about 9 months old and a few possums and pigs under her belt and my old three o headed down on a friday night. Garry had no rifle and was 17 and his younger bro 15 was to tag along. Garrys dad decided to take us down a hydro trCk and drip us off at the pillars of hercules. WOW! There was an ancient no'8 wire swing bridge slung over the gorge. Many of the boards were missing and the rest looked pretty iffy. Big drop to the tongariro below. It was like the darn bridge from the temple of doom! I tried sending Kim across ahead of me but she rwfused so I put her in my 'mule and gingerly went over placing my feet only on the outside wires and avoiding getting any sway on. The other two then followed one at a time.
We wandered around the unfamiliar bush on the east side. ( i had no map but later figured the area to be the waipa tributary catchment. As the day wore on with no game sighted we either had to backtrack to the pillars horror or drop down close to the tongariro and find a place to cross. Voting for the latter we came down onto large flattish benches with the river visible below in places. We were unaeare that years prior a bunch of cattle had escaped the prison farm, crossed the river and gone wild. Suddenly there wad a bellow and first one then another charged us through the open bush. I saw no chouce but to shoot them both as headshots when at about 15 yards. Sbot! whst now? Well, rather than waste it we cut off three hind quarters, one each but man were they heavy! By now it was late afternoon so we scuttled along until we could see a long straight river reach below so dropped down to check it out. The river was wide and deep but not rapids. I tried sending Kim acrosd but aftef a few yards she baulked and swum back having been taken downstream several yards. I felt I had no choice but to give it a go as the reach extended about 100 yards below before a bend. Steep shingle banks then bush both sides. I strapped my rifle to my pack then tied a cord to the dog holding in in one hand and held a leg over my shoulder with the other. By now Garry wad not looking happy and the 15 yr old was crying. I told them to wait to see how I fared getting across. Started in having to angle downstream in order to stay upright. The weight of the lef kept by boots firmly planted on the bottom rocks. The water got progressively deeper till about 20 yards from the other side the bottom dropped away and then over my head. I was still upright with that leg holding me down to I held my breath, let the dog go and in the clear water jogged along the bottom fully submerged for several seconds. The bottom started shelving up quit steeply as I jogged along but I could keep my balance and running out of breath I dropped the leg and bobbed up to swim the ladt few yards to the bank and hauled myself out. Kim was there and we were about 50 yards downstream from our opposite side starting point. Garry and his young bro sripped off and waded and swam across. We had a fair climb up through the bush till be hit a boundary fence and swede paddock so we had a relieved munch on some nice swedes and headed west across the prison farm. We ended up opposite the village a bit after dark so we had walked a bunch of miles north from the pillars before recrossing. Tas, the local ranger gave me a bit of a lecture next day and said the last bod to try crossing there three years ago had drowned.
Learn by your experiences in those days and what the limits are ay.
( As a footnote, it turned out those wild cattle were the source of bovine TB infecting the possums through the waipa and adjoining catchments and as a result the area suffered the green rain for several years on.)
Over the years I've taken several dunkings in river crossings even when using a pole of rifle as a prop but a lot more careful than I was on that one as a tyro. Be careful out there :)
There used to be a fair few good pigs over there at one stage , just a bit dodgy getting to them and out gain
Was a couple of keen dudes from Turangi that used to chance it with good success but also knew when to leg with dogs in tow to get out real quick
That experience was over 60 years ago now.
A qn for the mods.Is it possible to 'like' a post more than just the once?Ive reread Barry's post more than 1/2 dozen times and just completely loose it every time.Laughing til it hurts.John Tahuri RIP.