Hunting wild boar with a semi-auto rifle and thermal optics in the mountains of southern Spain

[landowner]

Hunting boar in Spain with the mrs this winter... My last kill of the season was through my trusty old XP50 thermal scope, on my favourite MSR-10 Hunter semi-auto rifle. After two days of arduous recon, from a hillside we finally found a suitable one down at the bottom of the valley. I set up 100m away from the boar, downwind, 14 degree angle downhill to target, and the hog had stopped to take a drink in the ice cold mountain stream -- everything was perfect... But we chose to gamble on moving in closer to a species that's highly mobile, as agile as a mountain goat, and can disappear like a ghost. The white noise of running water, the pitch black night and a strong headwind allowed us to reach a new vantage point just 65m from the animal. After a few minutes the beast presented broadside for a textbook neck shot, instant drop, immediate humane kill. (There were further rounds in the mag if needed, and one ready in the chamber less than 100 milliseconds after firing the shot.) Our chosen bullet has a proven track record from 50m to 300m for big game, providing acceptable expansion. Extraction was more of a challenge. We soon discovered that the boar was on an island surrounded by a deep quagmire. I struggled to find a safe path through the swamp, but after I'd failed from 3 separate routes the mrs just waded in, finding a safe path using red torchlight, deployed her drag strap to pull several kilos of meat up onto the bank, and commenced skinning and gralloching while I fetched the jeep.

Loadout:

• Rifle: Savage MSR-10 Hunter (semi-auto AR-10) chambered for 6.5 Creedmoor
• Riflescope: Pulsar Thermion 2 XP50 (on Tier One QD)
• Spotter: Axion 2 LRF XG35
• Ammo: Norma Bondstrike 143gr
• Sticks: Primos Trigger Stick Gen 3 tripod

Neck-shot down in a mountain stream:

Boars are more nomadic and unpredictable than deer... The elusive, wild, rugged "Jabalí de montaña" breed seen in these video clips inhabit a crazy mountainous landscape, living everyday life at altitudes exceeding 2,000 meters. (The highest mountain in Britain is Ben Nevis at 1,345 m, or compare with Snowdon at 1,085 m.) This boar variety is pure lean muscle but also highly intelligent. It strolls up steep slopes and cliff-faces *literally* like a mountain goat, and disappears into terrain or scrub like an ethereal phantom. They endure an arid climate that swings between extreme heat and cold, generally from -7°C to 33°C. While deer don't need to drink because they get enough water from their diet, boars do need to drink regularly -- another challenge of living in this high-desert environment. Seasonal streams are a good place to find their tracks -- distinctive circular hoof-prints. Their only reward for this harsh lifestyle is almonds, the main crop grown here and a boar's favourite food -- which elsewhere in the peninsula boar-hunters use as bait.

Spain is a fascinating country to hunt in. They have seasons for rabbits. Some autonomous regions have declared a wild boar emergency, allowing new opportunities for hunting with thermal optics.

Recon:

 

[tonyshooter]

Having never shot wild boar, which I am keen to do, I find myself wondering if you have to give a running animal some forward allowance rather like you would do with a shotgun. 

[London Best]

1 minute ago, tonyshooter said:

Having never shot wild boar, which I am keen to do, I find myself wondering if you have to give a running animal some forward allowance rather like you would do with a shotgun. 

Very little, due to the velocity of the bullet. 
Crossing shot, put the cross on the forehead.

[landowner]

23 hours ago, tonyshooter said:

Having never shot wild boar, which I am keen to do, I find myself wondering if you have to give a running animal some forward allowance rather like you would do with a shotgun. 

It's an interesting question, and driven boar shoots, called Monteria, are popular in Spain, with running targets. Wild boar "waits" (similar to high-seat strategy) or stalking on foot seems more common.

In theory:

In my case, the bullet was travelling at over 800m per second, and the boar was 50 meters away, so it took about 0.06 seconds for the bullet to reach the target. (Birdshot from a 12g shotgun is about half that velocity.)

If the boar was running sideways at 10 meters per second (36 km/h), it could cover 60 cm in that time. Hogs can run almost that fast!

In theory, for a running boar it may seem intuitive to lead the head slightly, aiming at an eye. Anecdotally, most people aim for the head, often the "cheek" area, and I've seen that produce an effective neck shot on a fast-moving hog. It's a difficult set of skills and techniques to master, in my opinion. You do need to do the math, to understand your optimal point-of-aim.

In practice:

For humane shot-placement, and confidence in point-of-aim, I'd avoid trying to shoot fast-moving target with a rifle. However, I should add that these slippery critters rarely stand still for as long as you want, except when drinking or feeding!

It's noteworthy that some people hunt boar with shotguns, .22 LR, and even 9mm. I wouldn't, although I do use those calibres for other applications.

 

Norma Academy - driven hunt shooting techniques (I was using a Norma bullet as it happens):

 

Edited February 9 by landowner

[tonyshooter]

1 hour ago, landowner said:

It's an interesting question, and driven boar shoots, called Monteria, are popular in Spain, with running targets. Wild boar "waits" (similar to high-seat strategy) or stalking on foot seems more common.

In theory:

In my case, the bullet was travelling at over 800m per second, and the boar was 50 meters away, so it took about 0.06 seconds for the bullet to reach the target. (Birdshot from a 12g shotgun is about half that velocity.)

If the boar was running sideways at 10 meters per second (36 km/h), it could cover 60 cm in that time. Hogs can run almost that fast!

In theory, for a running boar it may seem intuitive to lead the head slightly, aiming at an eye. Anecdotally, most people aim for the head, often the "cheek" area, and I've seen that produce an effective neck shot on a fast-moving hog. It's a difficult set of skills and techniques to master, in my opinion. You do need to do the math, to understand your optimal point-of-aim.

In practice:

For humane shot-placement, and confidence in point-of-aim, I'd avoid trying to shoot fast-moving target with a rifle. However, I should add that these slippery critters rarely stand still for as long as you want, except when drinking or feeding!

It's noteworthy that some people hunt boar with shotguns, .22 LR, and even 9mm. I wouldn't, although I do use those calibres for other applications.

 

Norma Academy - driven hunt shooting techniques (I was using a Norma bullet as it happens):

 

This is greatly appreciated, thank you.

23 hours ago, London Best said:

Very little, due to the velocity of the bullet. 
Crossing shot, put the cross on the forehead.

Thank you. 

[Dougy]

On 09/02/2024 at 21:12, tonyshooter said:

This is greatly appreciated, thank you.

Thank you. 

Here is a clip from 7 years back, i miss the adrenalin rush, nothing has hit the spot anything like it. 

You can hear the dogs coming from id guess at around a mile or slightly less, there are time's you can actually smell the Boar and at about 1.50 in i can see the over growth start to move to my front left. Muzzle comes up and away we go. The last shot was a hit with a decent Boar just under bronze, that ran about 20 yards, all were front end heart lung shots, the last shot ran a few yards

 

[tonyshooter]

2 hours ago, Dougy said:

Here is a clip from 7 years back, i miss the adrenalin rush, nothing has hit the spot anything like it. 

You can hear the dogs coming from id guess at around a mile or slightly less, there are time's you can actually smell the Boar and at about 1.50 in i can see the over growth start to move to my front left. Muzzle comes up and away we go. The last shot was a hit with a decent Boar just under bronze, that ran about 20 yards, all were front end heart lung shots, the last shot ran a few yards

 

Incredible, thank you for posting this.

[landowner]

On 13/02/2024 at 19:25, Dougy said:

Here is a clip from 7 years back, i miss the adrenalin rush, nothing has hit the spot anything like it. 

You can hear the dogs coming from id guess at around a mile or slightly less, there are time's you can actually smell the Boar and at about 1.50 in i can see the over growth start to move to my front left. Muzzle comes up and away we go. The last shot was a hit with a decent Boar just under bronze, that ran about 20 yards, all were front end heart lung shots, the last shot ran a few yards

Wow, amazing video! The wife and I just watched this and felt the adrenaline!! Thanks for sharing. A semi-auto definitely comes in handy for these situations!

Where was that?

The day before my video above we got a strong smell of boar on the wind, and the spotter scope then confirmed 2 of them about 400 meters away, but we'd barely began heading in their direction before they'd disappeared up an insanely steep slope and into vast dense scrub.

 

[Dougy]

6 hours ago, landowner said:

Wow, amazing video! The wife and I just watched this and felt the adrenaline!! Thanks for sharing. A semi-auto definitely comes in handy for these situations!

Where was that?

The day before my video above we got a strong smell of boar on the wind, and the spotter scope then confirmed 2 of them about 400 meters away, but we'd barely began heading in their direction before they'd disappeared up an insanely steep slope and into vast dense scrub.

 

It was an old 30.06 Browning A bolt i paid £299 for it 2nd hand, the actions pretty well used and slicker than a minnows winky. 

It was in Croatia,  I shot one that was swimming across a dyke (canal size) i thought i would do the right thing for the picking up team and wait till it got up the bank, i shot it at the top and it rolled back into the water. 

 

Its a pity the group disbanded,  we had some good times. 

[old man]

On 13/02/2024 at 19:25, Dougy said:

Here is a clip from 7 years back, i miss the adrenalin rush, nothing has hit the spot anything like it. 

You can hear the dogs coming from id guess at around a mile or slightly less, there are time's you can actually smell the Boar and at about 1.50 in i can see the over growth start to move to my front left. Muzzle comes up and away we go. The last shot was a hit with a decent Boar just under bronze, that ran about 20 yards, all were front end heart lung shots, the last shot ran a few yards

 

Nice one Dougy.

[oowee]

Wow this is shooting.