Boar 'n' stag hunt healthy with young participants

Hunting party... Celebrating a successful weekend are (from left) Claire Leydon, of Palmerston North, Brian (Snow) Quinn, of Clyde, Logan Doake, of Rangiora, and Tim Bell, of Palmerston North, at the weigh-in for the fourth annual North Otago Boar 'n' Stag Muster Hunting Competition, in Oamaru on Sunday afternoon.

Younger hunters have it easy these days.

When Brian "Snow" Quinn (78), of Clyde, was coming up, hunters did not have all the tracking gear hunters have now.

"It's gotten a lot easier," he said with a smile at the weigh in for the fourth annual North Otago Boar 'n' Stag Muster behind the Loan and Merc in Oamaru's historic precinct yesterday.

Mr Quinn and John "Fatts" Fattorini (72), of Waimate, both recalled "looking for dogs for days" in their combined 129 years of hunting experience.

Now, dogs were never hard to find with technology used to track them.

But Mr Quinn and Mr Fattorini enjoyed the party-like atmosphere at the Waipiata Country Hotel on Saturday night, enjoyed the atmosphere at the weigh in yesterday, and enjoyed their weekend, in part because of all the young hunters who had taken part.

Mr Quinn and his group got two red deer and two "nice pigs".

"We've had a very good group," he said. They were "young and strong".

Organisers Steve Clark and Craig Gibb said with 466 entries, including 81 junior entries, the event had grown from last year.

Last year, there were only enough pigs to fill two racks. This year, as the weigh in drew to a close, pigs filled three racks "and there's still pigs lying on the ground", Mr Clark said.
He also was pleased the event had drawn a good amount of young hunters who were "better off going to the hills than hanging around town".

The weather had produced a "perfect weekend" for hunting.

Last year, roughly $20,000 was raised for North Otago Land Search and Rescue and Otago Community Hospice for its North Otago hospice house project.

This year, the funds raised would be split between North Otago and Omarama Land Search and Rescue.

Fundraising totals were not available yesterday.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz