Waipori Pig

Yesterday morning - up at 5am, out the door by 5:05am, walking into the bush for my first ever solo hunt at 5:55am. The weather was very overcast. I don’t think it had been raining, but there was a significant amount of dew on foliage. Considering the weather over the few days previous it was perfect – comfortable in just shorts and a couple of tops, no jacket necessary. As I’m still very new to hunting I was wondering while walking in what behaviour the animals would be displaying – I figured the deer would be hunkered down somewhere as there was no sun to bask in, I didn’t really have an opinion on what the pigs would be doing.

The walk in was the easiest I’ve experienced so far. Even for my shocking level of fitness I was only stopping to take pictures or have a drink. My previous two hunts had been unsuccessful from the perspective of getting an animal on the ground, but enjoyable nonetheless. I was hoping this one would be a bit more productive in terms of filling the freezer.

I stuck purely to the track aside from crossing some private land. There were areas I saw off to the side of the track that I figured would be good to investigate further, but decided I would put the yards in first and if unsuccessful determine which were best to explore on the return journey. At points, I slowed right down – the track was good in terms of noise, with very few branches or other noisy materials. There appeared to be sign, more so pigs than deer, but I still find it hard to determine what is/is not pig rooting…

After about an hour and a half I was walking very slowly and heard a branch crack to my right. I stopped and looked into the bush off the track. I simultaneously took my rifle from my shoulder whilst thinking ‘holy shit, there’s a pig!!!’. It was very close, max 15 metres. I chambered a round, took my scope cover off and shouldered my rifle, all as quietly as I could. I didn’t quite have a shot, it was through a fair bit of foliage with branches and twigs all over.

The pig seemed to look directly at me, and afterwards began moving away from me, and further into the bush. It slinked out of sight and unfortunately at no point did I have a shot. I waited for probably about 10-15 seconds, adrenaline pumping hard (bear in mind this is my first solo hunt and the first time I have ever seen a wild pig!). During that time, I thought I would give it a slight head-start and then go in after it.

I’m not entirely sure what happened next – perhaps some of you more experienced hunters have a theory – I have two and can’t think of any others, so am thinking one is probably correct… Either the pig didn’t actually see me and was just going about its business foraging for food and appeared to look at me, or, the pig did see me, left, but then decided to come back for a look. I know pigs are fairly intelligent animals, but I would have thought if the pig had seen me it would have bolted… Thoughts?

Anyway, I couldn’t believe my luck as it came back into view. It came even closer than it was before, and whilst there was still a fair amount to shoot through, I was confident I could hit the target. I took it and the pig let out an almighty squeal. It seemed to rear up on its hind legs – not sure whether pigs are prone to doing that or it is just in my head. It then crashed forward through the bush towards me, ending up on the track literally a metre from my feet. It was still alive, and I could see the shot I had taken was definitely lethal, as it wasn’t going anywhere and I could hear a significant amount of gurgling in its throat, but I decided to put another one in it to avoid any unnecessary suffering. The second shot resulted in the pig’s immediate death.

This was a bit of a strange one for me. I’ve never hunted pigs with dogs and am not sure I could ‘stick’ one, so I’ve never really considered too much being up close and personal to the animal whilst in its last seconds of life. I always figured I’d hunt 99% deer and shots would mainly be taken from a distance, and therefore I’d never be present to see the animal actually die. I guess it is one more step in my hunting exploration. The experience overall was pretty intense, and I was a little melancholy yesterday when I got home, but I feel quite a bit better today. Whilst still having to take a life, I see shooting a wild pig that has up to the point of being shot had a pretty sweet life – no predators (aside from man) to deal with, wander around all day looking for food…as much more favourable to buying pre-packed pork from a pig that in all probability has had a fairly hideous life.

Field dressing the pig was a mission – I’ve done it once before on a deer and it was hard work. The carry out was full on too – I feeling it today, pretty sore!

Anyway, all in the freezer now – I’m thinking some kind of spit roast done on the BBQ for Christmas Day – can’t wait!

Some pictures below – the two of the up close denser bush are where I first saw the pig and finally shot through.

well done:thumbsup: look's like a nice eating pig

@Matt-j I'd say your first assumption is correct.
It didn't see you.
Nice write up.
Now you just need a deer for starters for you Christmas dinner :thumbsup:

Well Done your on the board now it will only get easier as time goes by and you put into practice what you learn each time you are out hunting.

Nice one . Cool colour

Awesome description of your first pig hunt; I like the way you describe your emotions and the up close encounter.

I love a bit of wild pork slowly roasted in an oven bag with apple, red onion and kumara. I usually cook it at a low temperature for up to eight hours; beautiful!

Enjoy the experience and the pork.

:-)

Thanks @craigc - appreciate it. And that sounds good - I may well have to give it a go!

Good shooting Matt, I've seen some good sized pigs a little further up the road around Mahinerangi