Mates Wade Budd and David Youle with the boar who put up a fight.
Wade Budd and David Youle had heard “whispers from the guys” about a notorious and elusive Mangakino boar lurking around their favourite spot in the bush.
So, when they turned up for weigh in at Piopio Cosmopolitan Club’s annual hunting competition earlier this month with the mysterious boar, everyone knew the great mates had been in a fight.
And so too did their hunting dog Doug – he ended up spending the night at the vets after the tussle.
The club’s competition was held from May 9-11.
Derek Tahi’s 76.1kg boar won him first prize; the best tusks category was taken out by Hiki Nathan.
In the kids’ critters section, Max Cornelissen won first prize for the heaviest hare. Koby Houghton’s possum was the heaviest, as was Angus Cowin’s turkey. Bentley Jones won a first prize for ‘overall widest goat horns.’
The competition also saw hunters and fisherfolk bringing in red stags, fallow bucks, snapper, kahawai, mallard drakes, paradise pairs, peacocks and peahens.
Wade said the boar they caught had “ripped up” quite a few of the other guys’ packs of dogs.
“We knew he was in there. We hadn’t been to that spot for a while, maybe in a year and a half, and so we went back to see if he was around, and we found him. That was pretty cool,” Wade said.
The guys are both dairy farmers: great mates and neighbours of seven years. They’ve spent that time going hunting together as often as possible, pigs, stags, “everything.”
They’re going to keep going “once the dogs are off ACC – although they love it, 100 percent.”
Barry Stott and Waide Jones from the Cosmopolitan club said there had been 132 grown up entries into the competition, plus the kids.
“We’re happy” Stott said. “I can’t think of anything bigger we do here in Piopio, except maybe the Christmas parade.”
Jones said the club would make donations to the fire brigade at Hato Hone St John, as part of their support of the community through the event.
