Movies have been made and hundreds of articles are written every year in hunting magazines all over Europe. What else can I say about this wonderful creature, that have not been revealed? I guess in my 20 years of wild boars hunting I found some more info that have never been told but if not the case at least you will have an enjoyable reading.
Without any doubts wild boars driven hunt is one of the most attractive trips for hunters all over Europe and not only. Beginners or experienced all hunters make this trip at least once in lifetime. But dreaming on a perfect trip is not the same thing as making the right choose. Every year we receive more than 60-70 emails from hunters all over the world asking
a lot of pertinent questions. For this reason I consider this article a very important step before booking any wild boars driven hunt in Romania.

The first question that everybody ask is:
WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO DO THE TRIP?

In Romania, most of the drives begin at the end of October or first days of November until the last day of January.
My honest opinion is the time is not the most important fact in a successful trip. However there are some advantage and disadvantage for every month.

Let begin with November. Coincidence or not this is the time when we kill the highest numbers of males and biggest ones. Explanation is simple. Females just start the mating season and the males fallow them blindly. Another advantage is that animals are not so spooky considering first drives of the season.
Disadvantage: in November in Romania it is the rainy season. Also there are high chances to have crops not harvested near the hunting areas. This can make hunt even more difficult because boars can sleep in those crops.

December. I don’t know if it is only me, but December has a special charm. In this month the snow is present on the ground and wild boars are easy to be concentrated with food. Disadvantage: December is a “short” month, we start the hunt late and we finish early because of the sun light.

January: If possible try to book last 2 weeks or even last week. The days are longer, snow and temperature helps concentrate the boars.
Disadvantage: sometimes the snow is too high and temperature too low.

Another very frequent question is:
HOW MANY DRIVES PER DAY?

Well, I know that every hunter want action as much as possible but many drives is not equal with many boars. Especially here in Romania where deer killing is not allowed in the driven hunts and main target is the boar.
What we do here is concentrate boars in several blocks of forests before hunters arrival. Although it looks very easy, this process is very complicated and requires a lot of experience. I will not enter in technical details but we can not make 2 drives close to each other. Combine that with time to put hunters in their posts, take hunters from their posts and look for the wounded animals and you will see that most of the outfitters make 4 drives in November and January and sometimes even 3 in December(short days). Of course, the final number of the drives is depending the configuration of the hunted area but as a general rule 4 drives per day. That doesn’t mean that an outfitter who make 6 drives per day is better or worst that others but most likely the configuration of the hunted area demands that.

HOW MANY BEATERS AND DOGS?

15 to 20 beaters and 15 dogs should be enough. It is a big difference of monterias for example, where the hunt is made in fenced areas and Romania where our hunts are made in wild open areas. One inexperienced dog can fallow the pack of the boars for 3 or 4 kilometers up to the next drive where he will disturb the boars from that drive too.

HOW MANY HUNTERS PER GROUP?

As you probably already know requires of most of the romanian outfitters are for minimum 10 hunters. We go even further and recommend minimum 15 hunters.
On a first look everybody will say, of course, more hunters equal more money with the same number of boars killed. Isn’t it? From our previous experience in the last 10 years since we start organizing driven hunt for foreign hunters, we realize that on average the average number of killed boars and fire shots PER HUNTER is higher on bigger groups.
Obviously, a highest number of hunters will surround a larger area but what really makes the difference is the density of the hunters in the hunters line. In a group of 10 guns, hunters will have around 100 meters to the next neighbour.
Best case scenario, let say the pack of the boars will cross the line just in the middle, making 50 meters to each hunter. Both hunters will shot at boars at around 55 meters considering the angle of shooting. Running targets, shooting through the trees, not impossible, but still difficult. If the boars will cross the line at 30 meters to one hunter will be more than 70 meters almost impossible for the second hunter considering again speed and trees.
For a group of minimum 15 hunters things will be different. This time the distance between guns will be around 60 meters. At this distance the shot are more easy for both if the boars will pass the shooting line but what is more interesting is that very often boars runs parallel with the line of the hunters offering shooting opportunity for 4 or even more hunters before they decide to cross the line.
WHAT WE CAN SHOT IN DRIVEN HUNT?
Unfortunately in Romania the deer are not allowed to be killed in the driven hunt. I personally agree with that and that reflects in the quality of our stags and bucks, but this is another story and you can read more about this subject in our blog.
So, what else you can shot?
In the past it was possible to shot wolves and even bears but when I wrote the article March 2018 the bear and wolf hunt was still suspended. Our government promise us a big reopen for bear hunt, at least, in the fall of 2018. We will see…
One more thing, we have some areas where along with the boars you will have the chances to see bears. There we warn hunters to be very careful and identify the animal before pushing the trigger.
Back to our drives, we can shot red foxes. Main problem is the foxes will be always the first animals that appear in front of the hunters at the beginning of the drives. Shooting a fox will reduce your chances for boars at that drive.
Another animal that we can shot in our drives is the golden jackal.Bigger than fox but smaller than wolf, this animal can be an interesting trophy on your wall back home. We can find them mostly in the South of Romania.
RECOMMENDATION FOR RIFLES, CALIBERS AND OPTIC DEVICES.
Bolt action or semi-automatic rifle, what should I bring? This is the most common question that we received.
Semi-automatic rifle was specially designed for this type of hunt. Theoretically this rifle will give you more chances to kill a boar
Unfortunately, most of the hunters who use semi-automatic rifle fire all 3 shots in less than half of second. When did they have time to aim? The answer is simple, they didn’t aim. All they did, was to point the rifle toward the animals and they fire hoping they will kill something. The result is most of the time zero. On the other hand, using a bolt action rifle will not guarantee an accurate shot or you don’t have to bring a semi-automatic. Most of the modern shooting range have programs for wild boars driven hunt. Go and burn 100 bullets in 3 or 4 sessions and I guarantee that your results at the end of the hunt will exceed your expectation. Don’t have a shooting range in your neighborhood? Find a friend, a truck, some old tires and a small slope. Ask your friend to push the tires one by one from the top of the hill but make sure the slope is remote and shooting will be 100% safe. After all tires have been push collect them and repeat the procedure but now you will be the one who is pushing the tires and your friend will be the hunter. I know it sound complicated but is not. It it is more fun than using a shooting range.
Regarding caliber everything over 7 mm should do the work. Placement of the bullet is much more important than size of it.
So called military calibers like 308 and 30.06 are allowed for hunting in Romania but ask your outfitters before if he allows you with those caliber in the driven hunts.
As optic devices you have 2 options: scope or aimpoint.
Aiming points are usually better for close distance and in some of our hunting areas I recommend them but not everybody like them. Make sure you try one before buy one. For scopes you will need one with power from 1 to 6 and Objective diameter as small as you can find, 24mm being perfect.

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Good write up again Any pictures ?

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Yes, good write up RH. In general, most European countries have quite similar drive hunts, i.e., hunters gather, get the lowdown on what's going on and what's on the menu, what is allowed, not allowed, ensure a bullet catch, start/end times, etc, then placed on stand.

I always used BOTH a Docter Optic Red Dot and a scope. You don't know ahead of time what view you will have on the different stands. Sometimes a view of 15 feet is a long shot, the next stand you could view 200 meters or more. Depending on stand, I could put either optic on or switch around. I used several rifles over the years, but settled on the Blaser R93 bolt most times.

Once on stand, it is often feast or famine. You can be placed and not see a thing, and your neighbors on both sides shoot 3 or more boar each, such is the luck of the draw. I was fortunate to spend enough years enjoying drive hunts to have plenty of famine, sometimes a bit of action, but also enjoyed a few feasts

If RHOutfitters does not mind, I can put some pics up, but I don't want to disrupt his hard work putting all that info together here if not wanted.

Dom, I think forums are for sharing experience and opinion. How can I disagree if you want to share some of your experience? Please do it!

Thanks RH, I agree it helps to share. Some different views from various drive hunts in Germany.

Nothing better than sitting in a tower in a clearing and you look up and a few deer or boar are coming towards you

I would love to do such driven hunts.

I never get tired of watching youtube clips of such European hunts.

The only issue I have is the high cost of wild bore hunts in some areas. They charge per animal an size of tusks when the pigs are a vermin and most European countries are having a tough time controlling numbers.

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I would love to do such driven hunts.

I never get tired of watching youtube clips of such European hunts.

The only issue I have is the high cost of wild bore hunts in some areas. They charge per animal an size of tusks when the pigs are a vermin and most European countries are having a tough time controlling numbers.

Theres lots of fixed price hunts also

What is the most affordable such hunt? Is it possible to pay for one person and join a group hunt?

I am just curious and wanting the info. No real plan to do such a hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by Hunt Inter:

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I would love to do such driven hunts.

I never get tired of watching youtube clips of such European hunts.

The only issue I have is the high cost of wild bore hunts in some areas. They charge per animal an size of tusks when the pigs are a vermin and most European countries are having a tough time controlling numbers.

Theres lots of fixed price hunts also

Nakihunter,
the fix price for a good hunt can range from 1500 euro per hunter to 2500 euro per hunter for 3 hunting days, 4 night full board accommodation with no limit on the wild boars and no extra charge for big trophies. For exceptional hunts you have to pay more. I think you can find cheaper hunt, but as an outfitter I doubt the results in such areas.
As single hunter is not impossible to join a group, but is not easy, especially because of the safety reasons. Most groups are made between friends and hunt every year in the same format, not necessary in the same area, same outfitter or same country.
You have to do such a hunt in some point of your life. is full of adrenaline and you will never regret a good driven hunt.

Thank you sir. Great information. Definitely worth considering if I have 3500 Euros to spare. May cost more like 5000 euros if I include a trip to visit family in UK etc.

quote:

Originally posted by RHOutfitters:
Nakihunter,
the fix price for a good hunt can range from 1500 euro per hunter to 2500 euro per hunter for 3 hunting days, 4 night full board accommodation with no limit on the wild boars and no extra charge for big trophies. For exceptional hunts you have to pay more. I think you can find cheaper hunt, but as an outfitter I doubt the results in such areas.
As single hunter is not impossible to join a group, but is not easy, especially because of the safety reasons. Most groups are made between friends and hunt every year in the same format, not necessary in the same area, same outfitter or same country.
You have to do such a hunt in some point of your life. is full of adrenaline and you will never regret a good driven hunt.

I posted some take-aways from my most recent (winter) driven boar season in France on another forum, but hope they might be of interest to some people here:

I shot my last driven day of the season in February: in the last 5 years I have been invited as effectively a “half-gun” on a driven boar (technically "grand gibier"; big game) shoot near the Loire, about 2 hours south of Paris.

We typically shoot 20-24 guns, 3 drives, and the typical bag is 20+ animals. Mainly boar, but a handful of roe and red deer. The bag/tag limits on reds (sex, number of points etc) are so strict that I seldom take the risk of potting one!

My main take-aways come from these years, and perhaps 50+ individuals drives, plus talking to my colleagues, and watching neighbouring guns. I hope they might be of help for anyone going on a driven shoot in Europe for the first time:

1) Ranges in forest are seldom long, certainly in this part of France: if you have a scope (see below), I would zero for 50m and be done with it. My longest shots have all been well under 100m (across fields), and most have been closer to 30m.

2) Don’t get hung up by calibre: boar are big targets, and seem to fall/wound relatively easily (especially compared to most of the deer we have in the UK). We shot last season with almost everything upwards from .270W through 7mm (x57, x64, WSM, WinMag) to 8mm and 9.3mm, and all seem to work OK; we had very few runners. I normally borrow my friend’s 9.3mm x 74R, but would feel perfectly well-equipped with the .308 Tikka T3 in use in the UK. I would just prefer 180gr bullets.

3) There really is (IMHO) no need for a scope in a typical driven boar shoot: ranges are laughably short (and the target is BIG!). Both my friend and I shoot un-scoped double rifles (Chapuis and FN Browning) to no disadvantage. Last year on our shoot un-scoped guns consistently achieved twice the average of the overall bag. I have learned far more by practising with a shotgun on a clay range than any amount of time on a rifle range.

4) Learn to shoot with both eyes open, and then practice (see above). You need to keep an awareness of terrain, cover, the other animals and (heaven forbid) other guns (and their dogs) in the drive. A scope may narrow your field of vision unless you consistently keep both eyes open. If I ever start shooting with a scope, it will only be a red dot, not anything magnified.

5) Learn to be still (and then practice!). We shoot from "miradors": wooden platforms/pulpits raised about 4ft above the "allee" (the wide gap between each forest block). Unless you are lucky enough to have a tree directly in front of you, you are extremely visible to the animals being driven out of the chasse and, if they see you, they will move along the inside edge until they find what they think is a gap between guns. It is absolutely fascinating when you can watch boar watching you, and working out where to run. It is well known that almost all our quarry animals’ eyes are super-sensitive to movement, and so I make a point of holding my rifle vertical straight in front of me, butt resting on the rail of the mirador. I stand very still, and just move my head very slowly from side to side, to scan the wood. When I see or hear an animal, I stop moving altogether, and only move the rifle into my shoulder and start turning once the animal is within 5 metres of the allee, and so in effect committed to cross it. Sounds obsessive (and is remarkably tiring), but I got more than twice the number of shots of any other gun on our last day (and many other days).

6) Unlike driven birds, boar, in particular, often come out of the wood well after the beaters and their dogs have passed you. So don’t drop your alert state until the final horn. And don’t start fidgeting!

I hope this might be of interest for anyone planning a trip next autumn/winter. It’s a particularly addictive branch of our sport.