I have just returned from a fabulous weekend with Jean Bernard de Runz in Alsace, France.
ErikD, formerly of these forums, was also there and we enjoyed the last driven boar hunt of the season together.

The main characters:

[We are holding a bottle of NitroExpress' wine from the Barossa valley]

The first evening, I was dropped off at a promising high seat with a Sauer 202 in 300 winchester to wait for boar or roe. After battling with sleep for a couple hours, and with the light quickly fading I spotted a lone roe doe from the corner of my eye, crossing a lane. A quick shot behind the shoulder at 95m dropped her, only for her to spring up after 5-6 seconds and spring back into thick cover.

All daylight was gone by then and our searching with a flashlight failed to find any blood or hair. It was a long night to say the least.
Fortunately, a friend of JB's and his little teckel soon found the doe (only a few metres away from the road) early the next morning. I had made a classic mistake and had failed to mark the spot before descending from the high seat....the doe was standing a good 50 metres further up the lane. Whew!

The next morning we got up early and drove a short way to JB's hunting lease where all 50 of the invited guns wished us good morning over coffee and cake.

The first drive was quickly set up, with Erik and I being placed near each other (less danger to the respectable folk) and the beaters and dogs combed the large area thoroughly for approx. three hous. With 19 boar bagged and maybe 3x as many shots fired, it was a successful tactic. After a tense hour, a large sow and 7-8 younger boar tore past my stand and I was able to drop one going way (after missing with my first 'panic' shot). The adrenaline surge I get from shooting driven boar is really special and there was a jackhammer in my chest for quite a while after the action. The gun to my left also bagged two piggies from the same sounder.

Shortly after, a fox trotted calmly towards (the artist formerly known as) ErikD. Unfortunately, I could see he hadn't spotted the charlie yet and I was desperately trying to get his attention without alerting the fox. Suddenly, his Heym 8x57 JRS boomed and the fox was given a sudden migraine....

After a lunch break, we continued on to the next drive where many shots were fired, but less accurately, to raise the final tally to 29 boar, 3 roe and a fox. The game densities on this area were a testament to all the hard work and good management that goes on during the off season by the two part-time keepers.









A big meal after the drive capped off a great day of hunting. We laughed like hyaenas and tasted several (potent) local homebrews whilst comparing notes. It was good to be in a part of the world where, unlike here in London, hunting is still a popular hobby and every age group was involved and talking excitedly about what next season held in store...

Thanks again to JB for the hospitality and Erik too, for the good banter and many laughs. A good way to get rid of the January blues!

Cheers

Gabriel

Wonderful boar in that pict. What was the weight?

Great story and sounds like a great hunt.

Great result Mr B. Hope you enjoyed the driven pigs - it really does get the adrenaline going!

Rgds Ian

Thank you for the report.
Looks like you had a great time

Good to see ErikD around as well, have some contact with him on a local hunting/internet site.

boss.....

Waidmannsheil!

Sounds like the perfect weekend - regards & compliments to Jean; for an obviously well-planned & executed hunt that was apparently enjoyed by all (probably somewhat less by the Piggies, Roe & Fox)!

Thanks for posting your entertaining story and the photos to give us a real flavor of the hunt.

Hi
The boar wasn't weighed, but is not an old animal. I am guessing 65-75kgs.

The man on the pickup truck is JB's cousin Luc, who took a magnificent bongo in the CAR two years ago.

JB also managed to shoot two boar with two shots during the first drive, after having a picked a 'poor' stand for himself .

I regret not having been able to have StuC with us. I have arranged the hunt with Gabriel previously and each partner has a quota of hunters. Mine was full. Erik was invited by my bro in law. StuC will be my next guest, unfortunately next year, mid november probably.

Gabriel Boghossian and ErikD are perfect guys. We have had plenty of fun and laughs. Really a treat to have them during the weekend.
Moreover, they are both very good shots, one cartridge one animal.


Gabriel missed the second round in Paris.
Erik and I met BillC on his way to Cameroon. We have had nice time together, look at the African big game hunting thread Bill C abducted

A uniformed persons question, but what might the yellow sticker be on each boar?

Hunting tags or is it to be used when testing the animal?

Best regards Chris

Thank you for the excellent report of a fine hunt.

It is good to see ErikD's face again.

Charles, I obscured Erik's face to protect sensibilities!

Husqvarna, as the area has some carriers of swine fever, each boar must have blood and tissue samples taken and sent to a lab for analysis. Thus far, out of thousands of boar submitted only one 'carrier' has been identified in the region. The tests take roughly three days.

In addition, several thousand vaccines are buried along the French border with Germany for the boar to ingest whilst foraging.

This is how it was explained to me by JB anyway.

Nice report, damn it that bakkie is full of boars

Any trip with JB involved is guarenteed to be fun.

European driven hunts look fanatastic, good hunting, good social, great fun!

Excellent report. I also miss ErikD on these forums. Congratulations to all!

Chris,

You can perceive Jean Bernad's excellent Hunt Organization with these Yellow (numbered for every Pig) Baggies that ential a sample from each individual Swine's Diaphragm & Fore Leg to be tested for Trichinosis and Swine Fever.

This is accomplished for a number of reasons but primarily due to the meat being sold to Game Dealers.