Last weekend, we conducted our second driven hunt in Alsace (France) for the fall and winter season. It was a lovely weekend, with clear blue skies and the sun streaming through the golden leaves of autumn. Great to spend a couple of days in the woods!

On Saturday afternoon, the drive produced a very respectable boar: 126 kg dressed weight. This is not impossibly heavy for Alsace, but definitely not something you find every day. In fact, if you shoot one of these in a hunting area every year, you'd have to count your blessings .



This is Alfons with his pig. Alfons was the first to get off a shot at the boar, but it is somewhat uncertain who actually killed it. Apparently, when the boar was finally booted out of its cover, the shooting turned into a bit of a free for all. Every man and his dog opened up, and eventually the job was done

All the while, I was on a stand further below, and did not see the piggy pictured above. I did manage to whack a yearling sow, though (sorry no picture).

After one of the barrages in the forest above, I heard something approaching. I caught a glimpse of what I estimated to be a yearling pig. It was coming along at a pretty unhurried pace - no immediate pressure, nobody was currently trying to kill it. When the pig went behind some trees, I used the opportunity to stand up and hugged my cover tree to get in position unnoticed. When I looked through my scope, I saw the pig had stopped at about 100 yds and was staring intently at me. This is quite common if you try to stay in cover behind a tree. They seem to notice something is not quite right, but the cover gives you a few seconds before they decide to bolt off in the opposite direction.

At that point in time, I knew I did not have much time, so a headshot it would have to be. A pig seen head-on does not really offer many shots other than straight between the eyes - no way to get round the head and into the shoulder, and the front chest is normally covered by the snout. Fortunately, I had my tree for a standing shot with a vertical rest - my favourite position from the rifle range. Bad news for piggy... The 200 grs S&B 8x64S factory load did its usual job, and the pig was down for the count. It thrashed around quite a bit (common on headshots), so I quickly reloaded and stayed on the target in my scope - not a recommended remedy for high bloodpressure, should you want to try this in the woods near you! Fortunately, the commotion was soon over as the pig expired.

Later, the dogs of the drive chanced upon my pig and a tug of war developed with a dachshound at either end of the carcass, growling at both the pig and each other... It was a show to behold, and there was not a whole lot else I could do, as I was not allowed to leave my stand until the horn signalled the drive was over.

My pig weighed 36 kg dressed, so I was pleased my initial impression of her as a yearling was pretty much spot on. She had previously been wounded in the hind leg by one of the shooters
above. I did not notice this when she approached, but all the more reason to finish the job.

- mike

Beautiful pig! What is 8x64s similar to? .30-06?

quote:

Originally posted by Buglemintoday:
What is 8x64s similar to? .30-06?

Yes, pretty close - or to the 8mm-06, a caliber that was pretty popular when returning GIs brought home a bunch of German K98s in 8x57IS. Because it was easier to get .30-06 cases, a lot of these guns were apparently rechambered to the 8mm-06.

Nice caliber the 8x64S. .30-06/180 grs ballistics with a 200 grs bullet with larger bullet diameter. Works a treat. I have to admit, though, that if the .30-06 was legal in France (no military calibers), that is what I'd use.

- mike

Good job, Mike! Thanks for the story. The boar in the photo is a great trophy and would make a fantastic mount........

Congratulations!

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:
The boar in the photo is a great trophy and would make a fantastic mount........

Aren't they just super expressive. I have to admit, that when I saw that pig I immediately started dreaming about a LARGE specimen on my wall...

It is not very common to mount pigs over here, only the tusks are put on a shield. But they actually make great mounts! We have a mounted boar in the restaurant of our shooting range, nothing fantastic, and the taxidermy has also seen better days. But I've always coveted that mount. Hmmmm, for a trip to Belarus or Turkey....

- mike

Mike -- they're not terribly expensive. I paid $400.00 for this mount a few years ago.

Nice mount Whitworth!Sadly, $400 is not likely to cover a mounting job here in Europe.
- mike

Nice trophy !!!, Congratulations, thanks for sharing your trip !!!
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Nice Boar!

Makes me want to get out of this office and go hunting right now.....!!!

ScopeBite

quote:

Originally posted by ScopeBite:
Nice Boar!

Makes me want to get out of this office and go hunting right now.....!!!

ScopeBite

LOL!! I feel like that every day!!

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:

quote:

Originally posted by ScopeBite:
Nice Boar!

Makes me want to get out of this office and go hunting right now.....!!!

ScopeBite

LOL!! I feel like that every day!!

+1

mho:

Forgive me, but my German is basic:

Schönes Wildschwein! Meine frau ist österreichisch. Haben Sie Wildschwein in Österreich gejagt? Großer Sport!

Guillermo, nice tusks! Did you measure the length??

577NE, good German! No I never hunted pigs in Austria, only reds, roe and chamois. But I know pigs are "on the menu" in places like Niederöstereich and Burgenland.

- mike

quote:

Originally posted by mho:
Guillermo, nice tusks! Did you measure the length??

577NE, good German! No I never hunted pigs in Austria, only reds, roe and chamois. But I know pigs are "on the menu" in places like Niederöstereich and Burgenland.

- mike

Aprox 21 centimeters =8,5 inches

.... 3rd weekend of the season, and we were back into the swing of things.

Saturday sadly saw me miss what must be as close to a 100% chance as you are likely to get... I was on a stand on a field right on the edge of a brushy forest. While on stand, I had this feeling there might be a critter sneaking round just inside the impenetrable edge of the bush. There was just the odd, low "crax" from time to time. So when the boar finally broke cover about 30-40m from me, I was actually not surprised. In fact, I was even halfway ready and started my swing as I mounted the gun as soon as I saw him. Past the shooter line, I was on him in the scope and let off at what looked like a perfect 5-10" lead. Alas, inexplicably and embarrasingly I plain missed, and I still can't quite figure out why?? The follow up shots (now the pig was seriously going away) were messy and perhaps best left out of the story all together... Some of the other hunters in the line opened up as well, but we did not touch him... All I can say is that it looks like the piggie zig'ed while I was zag'ing....

Sunday went a bit better. On stand at the edge of a forest, I was sort of not expecting the world. We had hunted this small piece of forest on our first weekend, and the results had been (to say the least) modest... Yet, all of a sudden the usual pandimonium of the beaters running into pigs broke out. Loud cries of "pigs to the back" were heard, as was loud and onrushing breaking of undergrowth... Red hot pig alert! When they broke cover to my right I was half crouching and ready. I saw there were several pigs in the bunch, a bigger one - presumably the sow - leading her yearling piglets on. She saw me about the same time I saw them, and swerved across to my left. I let her pass, and swung with the first of the small ones. It took the 196 grs .323 cal bullet hard just behind the shoulder (I saw the impact). Surprisingly, it did not go down, so I was ready as they passed between myself and my hunting neighbour in the line, and left the forest for the open field. Now all hell broke loose from the line, and it is kind of hard to say who hit what pig... I know I connected a couple of times, but very likely the entire line claims that...

In the end we had all three small ones on the ground, but sadly also the sow getting away wounded. We later tracked her with a dog, and she was most likely wounded with a leg shot (blood brushed off on plants together with mud from her legs), and although we followed her 3-4 kms through 4 forests and over open ground, we never caught up to her. The sobering side of driven hunting, I'm afraid.

I wished our very own "mouse93" had been around with his Bavarian Bloodhound. In fact, I'm not sure how much I actually wanted to find that pig (I was the only one with a gun).... It would have been OK if *we* found the pig, but it might have gotten touchy if *it* found us... I looked at some of the places we came through, and I was not sure I was ready for a barnfight with a pig in those thickets... I have a feeling I might leave pig tracking to the professionals next...

- mike