Boar in the UK

[fse10]

Would a RF in the head have enougth penitration to kill one?

They head shoot wild hogs in the usa with 17hmr & they seem to drop on the spot have a look on youtube.

[rascal_2005]

I still dont think i would trust it!

[fortune]

 

Hi guys

 

Been watching alot of stuff lately about boar in europe and the US and it got me to thinking.

 

I have only wver seen one and that was a fleeting glimps locally and thats it. I know we have them local in sussex but they are bloody good hiders.

 

So a couple of questions:

 

1) have you ever seen one Yes, Many.

2) have you ever hunted them Yes. Very elusive, Vary alert . and unless they didn't churn up the fields ect you wouldn't know that they were around generally. The more you think you know the less you really know

3) what do they taste like (iv had farmed boar meat.but never wild) Young animals are very nice not like supermarket pork more a cross between lamb and beef a bit like venison. To me anyway. Plod / feo will only consider 270 and bigger on application but it is all about shot placement.

 

Thanks guys

 

John

 

Rascal in reply to your pm I refer you to my previous answers from post #9. This talk about using small calibers is just stupid as is shooting them in the head. The brain area of a pig is very small and not like a deer. There is a high possibility of seriously wounding the beast or shooting the jaw off just as there is with deer. I know of one person that shot a small one with a 22 hornet. The animal dropped on the track and the guy went off to the farm to get a loader to cart the beast back to the farm with. When he got back piggy was gone, never to be seen again along with a stonking headache and a wound. Firstly to get a condition you have to prove that you have boar and that they are doing agricultural damage that can’t be stopped by other methods. Next the plod / feo wont consider anything smaller than 270 or bigger so you have to have access to a fair sized bit of ground. A friend asked for a small number of Breneke slug in case he came across piggy whilst out on patrol. This was dismissed out of hand as unnecessary. You don’t have to shoot stuff just because you can and want to try it out. If you want to taste it go and buy a piece. It’s a lot more efficient. And if anyone does shoot one and it is down get over pronto and cut its throat. Don’t assume that it is dead. They are very fast and potentially very dangerous but they are cleverer than nearly any other animal and you probably wont even know that they are around let alone seeing one.

[Lloyd90]

Rascal in reply to your pm I refer you to my previous answers from post #9. This talk about using small calibers is just stupid as is shooting them in the head. The brain area of a pig is very small and not like a deer. There is a high possibility of seriously wounding the beast or shooting the jaw off just as there is with deer. I know of one person that shot a small one with a 22 hornet. The animal dropped on the track and the guy went off to the farm to get a loader to cart the beast back to the farm with. When he got back piggy was gone, never to be seen again along with a stonking headache and a wound. Firstly to get a condition you have to prove that you have boar and that they are doing agricultural damage that cant be stopped by other methods. Next the plod / feo wont consider anything smaller than 270 or bigger so you have to have access to a fair sized bit of ground. A friend asked for a small number of Breneke slug in case he came across piggy whilst out on patrol. This was dismissed out of hand as unnecessary. You dont have to shoot stuff just because you can and want to try it out. If you want to taste it go and buy a piece. Its a lot more efficient. And if anyone does shoot one and it is down get over pronto and cut its throat. Dont assume that it is dead. They are very fast and potentially very dangerous but they are cleverer than nearly any other animal and you probably wont even know that they are around let alone seeing one.

Much rather give it a follow up shot to the head than try to cut its throat, wouldn't want to be hand to hand combat with those tusks!!

[scotslad]

Can mind 1 nite in OZ the lad handed me the knife to get out and 'stick' it while his dogs were 'lugging' it. No danger i was getting out the cab, regret it now thou but there a bit smaller over there compared to here. But in NZ and OZ a lot of boar are just 'stuck' with a knife

 

When u skin them u don't realise just how think their hide is.

 

Not just the calibre but also bullet choice u want something a bit slower to open/mushroom and definately not really the ideal use for BT bullets

In the old days they killed them with spears and arrows so even a rf should have moe energy, but how many do they wound to get that 1 kill shot they show u.

 

Once in this coutry went sneaking into a wood after a wounded/dead boar it didn't get far and was stone dead but definately gets ur heart beating

[pontbeck]

[quote name="pontbeck" post="3139057" timestamp="

Wrong thread

Edited September 26, 2016 by pontbeck

[fortune]

Much rather give it a follow up shot to the head than try to cut its throat, wouldn't want to be hand to hand combat with those tusks!!

 

The problem with that is that even if you give it another one you might not actually hit the brain area and kill it. the second could just get lodged in the bone area and cause an even bigger wound. As stated the meat / fat area is blooming thick and it is all about shot placement. They definatly dont like that cold steel around their throat.

[UKPoacher]

Most of the guys in my neck of the woods use solid slugs in semi-autos that are fitted with an open sight. Some have large calibre rifles, but with the driven shooting 12g carries the day. If you saw the size of the heads of the mounted ones in some of the Loire châteaus you wouldn't want to be fannying around with a small calibre weapon.

[rascal_2005]

I had read that the brain shot is not the best of idears, and miss witha 308 and hit the jaw, that thing is not going to have the best time i supose.

 

I saw a video of digweed shooting them and he said that he shoots them in the head or neck?

 

The cutting the neck would be a bit terrifying i bet but it woul help with bleeding out also.

 

I plan on hunting one eventually so hearing how others do and dont do is a good insight.

[Richard.Hosgood]

There's a number down this neck of the woods not far from Exeter, the land owner has its own game keeper who takes the odd few when he can and it gets sold from the farm shop. I've seen them when walking the dogs but they are quick to dissapear when they catch whiff of you.

[Dougy]

All the ones I have shot bar 1 have been 150 grain SSTs they don't move too far from the shot either.

[Beardo]

i've not seen the boar, but seen the mess they made of a friends farm down in Kent near Tenterden.

 

i really wouldn't fancy shooting them with anything small - i saw a pig get shot twice with a 45-70 and then twice with a .308 before it dropped, first three shots weren't great, but even so.

[digger]

I've seen signs on the land I shoot over near there Nick. Its in Goudhurst so not far as the crow flies. It seems the land they churn up is good for woodcock as we see more in the areas boar have been rummaging in.

[Archie-fox]

Would you say the population is growing or are they slowly being shot and there numbers getting smaller?

[UKPoacher]

I've seen signs on the land I shoot over near there Nick. Its in Goudhurst so not far as the crow flies. It seems the land they churn up is good for woodcock as we see more in the areas boar have been rummaging in.

Around this time of year they tend to churn up the grass verges alongside lanes in their search for acorns. Usually looks like the verges have been ploughed. One of my mole trapping customers had them in her garden and they 'rotivated' a quarter of an acre of grass. Must have been looking for worms.

 

The nearest I got to them in the flesh was when fishing one evening and I heard a sound that sounded just like my mate Bill wading on a trout river. I knew that Bill was in Barnsley so it couldn't have been him. When the noise subsided I sneaked over to have a look from a distance and it was obvious that either Bill had popped over here or a family of wild boar had been wallowing in the water's edge. Another time there was a hunt on a river bank. I was on the opposite side and thought it safe until I heard something crashing through the undergrowth followed by several vocal hounds. Fortunately it carried on the other bank. They often swim rivers when being hunted. I opened the back doors of the van just in case.

Edited September 27, 2016 by UKPoacher

[Walker570]

Looking at 19 sets of tusks on my study wall at this moment and they are the only ones I bothered to set up. I shot a lot of wild boar in Texas, which are crossbreeds, some still have the razor back features of the very early introductions to the US, some are pure domestic but with wild traits, some areas have almost pure European wild boar genes. It was a shoot on sight situation on the ranches in Texas other than The Nail, 100 miles or so west of Fort Worth, which managed their wild pigs and in the main only shot the very large trophy males on the 16,000 acres. I have shot a couple in Poland and a dozen or so in Slovenia, the last one was a Silver Medal pig and when I tried to help pull it onto the carrier it felt like it was nailed to the ground. Gutted on the hook it weighed 198 kilos. Annoy one, particularly a sow with babies and they will definitely come over and give you a good sucking. Fantastic animal. To be humane and do the job properly then a 6.5 and above. 6.5 or 257 is the legal minimum for adult boar in Slovenia but 6mm is acceptable for the piglets. Personally I use either a 375JDJ or my 8x57JRS double with Barnes TTSX bullets. Had one large boar last December hit twice through the boiler room with the 8x57, it was dead on it's feet but did not realise it and was still trying to attack a dog, so I gave it a third. They are tough critters for sure.

 

They are superb eating. Smoked wild boar loin, roasted on the barbecue is to die for.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Walker570