Bacon galore

Went out hunting with 2 friends today. Found some monster tracks from a male that just came into the area the night before, most likely in search of females in heat. We took a few hours to stake out the area, then headed in. We took my 3 of my friend's dogs in as Haru's definitely not ready for a big boar yet.

Around 45 minutes in, one of the dogs found him laid up in a bamboo fortress. The other 2 dogs jumped in right away, and less than a minute from when the first dog found the boar, the dogs had him locked down. Since there were three of us, we headed down the ridge with me walking the center. We wanted to make sure this bad boy didn't get away, and decided to block his escape routes.

No worries there, the boar was comfortable fighting where he was (less than 10 meters from where he was sleeping), and it was all over in around 5 minutes. 2 shots fired (by my friend), with one hitting him in the vitals, and we moved in to finish him off.

An excellent good fast hunt that went exactly according to plan, no dogs hurt, and a 130kg+ (friend's scale broke recently, but 2 weeks ago they took a boar that weighed 132kg and this one was apparently much bigger) boar down. Getting the boar was the easy part. We spent 2 hours getting him down the mountain, and another 3 and a half butchering it. He was so big we had to get help to deal with the moving/butchering. He was a seriously fat pig, and seeing as all the pigs we've seen in the area recently are, it looks like there's plenty of good eating around. The local hunters that came to help were shocked at the size of this guy, apparently they don't see many this big around there. Judging by the footprints though, I think I've seen larger ones further south.

Now I've got a freezer and fridge full of meat, and am trying to think of all the different ways to cook it. Tried a few slices off the rump fried in salt and pepper, and it was really good. I thought being a male and that big the meat would be a bit tough, but it was pretty much the same texture as store bought pork but with a little bit more flavor.

Heading out again tomorrow after a smaller female who's tracks we also saw this morn.

Got some good training in for Haru and Baron today as well. A small pig was caught in a box trap nearby, and one of the local hunters told me about it. I took them in one at a time to see their reactions. Baron went charging right at him barking, got a little scared when the pig charged toward him, but picked right up again afterward. As usual I barked along with him :) Haru was a lot more cautious, and opted to stand safely behind me barking at the caged pig. Was excellent to see where they're both at, and I'm going to work to slowly get them where they need to be to hunt pigs as safely as possible. Took some video today, so when I get around to it I'll post again.

Here's some low quality pics off my mobile of the boar.