Guys, I thought I would take a few minutes to write up a bit of a report on my recent Boar hunting trip to the Czech Rep. Thanks to a couple of you who PM’d me to ask how it went.

Three of us - Claret, Murlough and Liam, flew Easyjet from Belfast – Stanstead – Prague on Wednesday 4th Jan. Trip including booking of rifles was uneventful. Only comment I will make is that when the airlines say arrive two hours early, they mean it. You will need at least 90 minutes to get through all the crap, especially in Stanstead.

We stayed overnight in Prague and did the tourist thing. Picked up the hire car the next morning and drove to Brno, about 220km, to meet our hosts for the duration. We then followed our hosts a further 110km northeast, we finished up c.30km short of the Polish border. We were staying in a little village at the bottom of some mountains, the area was very pretty, but the houses generally looked pretty poor. Our accommodations for the first two nights were, well, lets say they were a bit Soviet. Basic would be complementary.

The agenda for the first two nights was to be sitting out in a Highseat. At this point I should mention the weather. It was cold. –3 to -5deg C during the day, getting down to -10 at night. There also had been a lot of snow, about 2 feet (600mm) on average. Apparently this was unusual as they do not expect snow until later in the winter. Our hosts were pretty concerned from the outset that the boar would not co-operate with us in this weather. We spent both Thursday and Friday nights, from 6.00pm until midnight in various highseats overlooking open areas in the woods which had been heavily fed with maize. None of us saw a boar. Though we saw large numbers of Roe, which were out of season, and on the Thursday night I watched four Moufflon for about 40 minutes. One of these was a fantastic trophy ram. Unfortunately also out of season or I would have put him up on my wall.

We were up at 5.00am on Saturday morning for a 2 hour drive southwest to the venue for a large driven day. Format here was about 30 shooters plus about 25 beaters. The majority of the shooters were paying guests, a party of 10 Austrians, another 8 or 9 Germans and ourselves. A few locals made the numbers up. After the morning ceremonials, we were driven by truck to our stands. However, the snow was so deep the boar were very difficult to shift. Also, the beaters did not seem to have very many dogs. This was the major weakness in my opinion. Most of the action on the Saturday seemed to go in the direction of the Austrians. They seemed to get a fair number of shots off. On the drive after lunch, a young kieler, about 25-30kgs broke from the trees directly in front of me. He crossed the line between Murlough and me. Murlough promptly settled his problems with a chest shot. Every was back at the lodge by 3.30pm for the post hunt speeches, gluwein, blowing of horns etc. The locals and the Germans were very friendly, any of them who spoke English made an effort to speak to us. There was a lot of admiring each others rifles and stuff like that. The Austrians spoke to no-one but each other, and the Germans didn’t look at them. Total bag for the day was 8 boar and 2 Sika does. Claret and Liam have still to fire a shot.

We stayed in a very nice hotel that night in Brno, the Hotel Mysylvnan on the outskirts of town. Pretty modern, spotlessly clean and the food and beer were great. I would recommend it to anyone who happens to be in the area.

On Sunday, we were to hunt with another group about 15kms north of Brno. Same sort of thing as the previous day, about 30 shooters and a similar number of beaters. Here there seemed to be more dogs, with a fair few leggy terriers in evidence. Things got off to a good start here, it was a beautiful sunny morning, though very cold. I had a good clear view of a hillside through open pine trees on the first drive. We could hear a lot of noise from the beaters and the dogs. I had 5 Roe pass in front of my position. After about 45 minutes a decent size boar broke cover about 120m to my front left, hunted hard by 4 terriers. He came toward a German guy on my left who was using a Merkel drilling. To my amazement the German missed the pig which then turned and ran right across my front about 40m out. I had to hold fire for a second or two till the boar got away from the dogs, I then swung through and fired dropping the boar instantly. I did not approach the pig until the end of the drive. When I turned him over I saw that my shot had entered the right ear and exited his left ear. This was of course exactly what I had intended to do to a boar at full steam 40m’s out. This boar weighed c45kgs. There were a flurry of other shots on the drive. After the drive I discovered that Liam had pulled of a great shot and dropped an 80kg boar at 95m through the trees. The day went on in this style until 3.00pm when we returned to a bar in the local village for food, drink and the ceremonials. Bag for this day was 7 boar, 2 red hinds and a Roe fawn pegged by a GSP. We stayed in the same hotel in Brno that night and travelled home the next day.

General comments.

1. The snow really hampered the whole trip. The boar would not co-operate for either the high seat or the drives. I also believe a lack of decent dogs was an issue.
2. These people were really not into running commercial shoots. What seemed to be the plan was that these local hunt clubs rented out large tracts of forest, 3-4000 acres. They then got together to run a few trips for paying shooters to help pay their bills. This was both good and bad.
3. Your boots are not up to it. Good leather / Goretex stalking boots, Meindl etc are not warm enough. The locals all wear pac style boots, rubber foot with either a leather or cordura leg. These boots have about a 10mm thick felt liner. You need this at the very least.
4. The Jaki Jagt suit worked very well. Though you do put up a sweat walking between drives.
5. The S&B 3-12x50 ILL was fantastic. I watched roe for hours though this with excellent clarity, even though it was cloudy at times. Went the moon appeared it was like daylight. Without the illuminated crosshairs, I would have struggled to take a shot if one presented.
6. I don’t like sitting in a high seat for hours. Not my style of hunting at all.
7. I enjoyed the driven days very much. I particularly like the social aspect of it, and the respect the game is shown at the end. We have all been stalking were a fine beast was thrown in the back of the pickup without a second look or a chance for a photo.
8. Would I do it again? Definitely, but for driven days only. No high seats. I would also go to a purely commercial operation to see how that compared. I would also go much earlier in the season. The consensus among the locals was that November was the best month, game is easier to move and deer can be shot on drives.

Hope this is useful for anyone thinking of making the trip. Sorry for the lack of photo’s, but I am digitally challenged. All my photos are on 35mm.

Brian,

Good (objective) write-up on your CZ Driven Wild Boar experinece!

Sorry, the Boar didn't cooperate, better luck next time!

Claret, thanks a lot for the report. What you have described, pretty much sounds like a standard driven hunt experience. Some people get lucky, and some don't. It sounds like you personally had good luck.

You are quite right about the importance of dogs (preferably terriers) in getting the game, and in particular the pigs, to move. It is also very likely the deep snow hampered you. Pigs don't really do too well in snow, and in particular if fresh snow has just fallen, they (and much other game) tend to hole up for a few days. With the snow settled, and the animals hungry after a few days of fast, conditions become ideal. Not only for sitting in the night, but also for spotting the game on the driven hunts.

If you are looking for another operation next year, and you want something perhaps a bit more geared towards "professionalism" in driven hunts, your choice may well narrow down to some of the State Forest areas. They tend to be a bit more expensive, but they have an awful lot of experience in driven hunts. Even so, there is never a guarantee for success, and conditions can make even a good hunt go to pieces.

- mike

Unfriendly Austrians? Say it isn't so!

Expertly through the ears!

Where's the photos?

Great job, as always.

Sorry Seth, haven't joined digital age yet. Photo's are on film only.

Wish I could claim the shot but I was swinging through intending to hit him in the neck / shoulder area, but I must have over estimated his speed. Previous to this the only moving target I have ever shot with a rifle was rabbit with a .22.

Don't worry CD, less meat lost
Curious that you had not lucky during hight seat sessions. In Romania the biggest trophy boars are hunted by high seat during the night when full moon. Do youo know if they feed boars near high seats?

Long hours on high seats are difficult to bear when a) no game is in sight and b) you get cold.

When a) and b) are solved, you mention the importance of good boots, it can get really exciting, especially when you get a big boar approaching in the moon light.

Steve, they were feeding in front of the highseats quite heavily with barley and maize, both for the boars, and in special feeders for the deer, which the pigs couldn't get at. The guide told us that the boar do not move out to feed for the first few days after snow, but once the snow was lying a few days, they have to move out. Most of the snow fell the day before we arrived.

Duk, you are right, when you see a shadow moving from the woods into a clearing at night, the blood starts to pump as you bring the rifle up to have a look through the scope. After several hours I was starting to get pissed off looking at Roe. I must have seen 30 the first night.

I am sure I would feel differently if I got to shoot a decent boar from a seat.

I've been on about 3 driven boar hunt so far here in Czech and so far have shot only 3 hare. The snow was deep, we hunted in sterile pine forest and it was COLD!!! One of the other hunters manager to wound a boar, but I don't know if they ever retrieved it. I looked at the blood and it was of the dark gut shot color.

Man did we see deer though... On one day alone I had over 20 through out the day come within 10 m of where I was standing! I was using a double SxS 12 ga and could have had one with each barrel. Still, I think we would have done better hunting if we had stayed out of the pine old forest where there is little food for the game.

All in all it was very fun and we had a great evening getting pissed on good Czech beer and eating great food served by sexy Czech girls. I'm looking forward to next weekend when we go out and freeze our arse again in search of wild boar.

I remember from my childhood, Czechs have sexy women. Next time bring: ......, x56scope, truffles, and hunt from the "tower".

I have to say the food and the beer were great. Served up by some pretty fit Czech birds was a bonus3