Sten Ch Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 (edited) I haven't logged in at Pigeon Watch after Christmas until now because of a lot of travelling and a fair amount of shooting. So I was immensely pleased, proud and honoured to see that my picture of Black Game had won last month's competition. Many thanks to all of you who voted my picture to such glory and honour! I enclose a picture I took last Friday during a driven wild boar hunt. Big fellow and still alive - I often substitute rifle or gun for my camera. Heard you have wild boar in Britain now. Congratulations, you really have som exciting sport to look forward to! Edited January 10, 2008 by Sten Ch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkield Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Sten, well done on the photo competiton The boar picture is another top quality photo, you obviously have a eye for a good picture, what equipment do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vegeta Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Very nice photgraph there Well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sten Ch Posted January 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Sten, well done on the photo competiton The boar picture is another top quality photo, you obviously have a eye for a good picture, what equipment do you use? Thank you. Taking action pictures is not so much eye as it is trial and error, persistance and readiness to seize the oppurtunity when it appears. Just like pigeon shooting... I have used Canon's EOS system since it came in 1989 and never regretted it. Best auto focus, best lenses. Use to buy their latest camera body as soon as I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poacher Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Your photo in the last competition was great but the one above is amazing, I've got a feeling you might win a few of these Well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tulkyuk Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 That is a cracking pic yet again You should enter this months comp again, as i think you may again win Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darebear Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 im gonna echo the above comments. that pic has WOW-factor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tikkamark Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Perfectly captured picture there That's one top notch camera you got that pic is crystal clear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CARBINE Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 thats one hell of a picture you could make that your living----well done and Im sure we all look forward to your next piccys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
migster Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Yes! another brilliant shot Sten, to get the picture that sharp on a moving boar is great work. Congrats again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markio Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Top picture! Well done. Love it, and congratulations on the win of last months photo comp (yes i did vote for you! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 the boar pic is amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurcherboy Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Nice pic And yes we do have wild boar mainly in southern England but difficult to locate and get harder to get permission to hunt LB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaggyRS6 Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Nice Pic. Ah LB, i must speak to you about another permission I have that has Wild Boar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sten Ch Posted January 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 (edited) Nice pic And yes we do have wild boar mainly in southern England but difficult to locate and get harder to get permission to hunt Yes, I have heard you have boar down south. Why are they hard to get permission to hunt? Are they heavily protected or is it the landowners who want to take it easy with them in order to let the population have a chance to grow? They might need som protection in the beginning, but they are extremely prolific, so if you don't want them your only chance to get rid of them is now. We had the same situation in Sweden. The wild boar was exterminated in the seventeenth century. In the late 1970'ies a few boar escaped from a fenced area and soon made up a thriving wild population. More boars were illegally let loose in other parts of the south, but begginingwise they were quite anonymous. I remember seeing the first tracks in a forest about 1985. I then thought that maybe one day we would have a population big enough to be hunted, but not in my life time. How wrong I was. Three years ago I attended a driven boar shoot in southermost Sweden. When the day was over we had killed 51 wild boar. I tell you guys; wild boars don't propagate, they proliferate! Let me give you an example. In 1972 we shot 40 000 moose here in Sweden. The same year we got new rules forcing the hunters to shoot more calfs and sparing more females. 10 years later, in 1982, we killed 174 700 moose! A moose normally (but not always) gives birth to two calves and she is two years old when she gives birth the first time. A wild boar can get up to eight young and they are only one year old when they have their first piglets. If the moose population could rise like that, just imagine the potential of the wild boar population!!! Well, you know how rabbits can multiple in very short time. Wild boars are not too far behind rabbits when it comes to ability to proliferate. You just wait and see... But they are clever and potentially dangerous (only when wounded and when the sow has small piglets) and not easy at all to hunt. Many are shot by night during feeding, but I prefer to shoot them driven. Thats hunting, guys, I promise! The big tusker in the picture came running out of the forest just 30 meters from me, snow spraying around him. Imagine yourself with a good rifle (at least .308W, .30-06 or .270W) and a good hard and tough bullet like the Rhino (a soft bullet doesn't penetrate well enough into a big male, they are heavyly armed with cartilage over the chest) hitting him with a perfect shot and watching him roll over like a 140 kilo rabbit in the snow... Edited January 10, 2008 by Sten Ch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
migster Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 A few years back some animal rights wa...s released a load of boars from a farm down south somewhere, since then the wild boar population has sored and every now and then the press reports of people and animals being attacked. So i think the problem has already started in the south of the country. You say that you shot with Archie Coats? Some time back i found one of his books on a flea market......... great read. Talking of cameras, i recently bought a Cannon EOS 1 film camera, and now saving up for the 300mm f2.8 for the wildlife photography. Nice to see that Sweden is getting some snow, no such luck over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurcherboy Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Not protected at all in any way, shape, or form mate. The farmers hate them as they plough fields up under cover of the night I went to NZ last year to have a go at them but with dogs to bail and then dispatch by knife. Sadly we never got what I would call a result but there is always the next visit They shoot them with a .22rf but they know they angle to get behind the body armour. LB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGalway Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 That's one fantastic photo I don't think we have them here in Ireland, pity, they're tasty I wouldn't be a game shooter but I'd love to try those fellas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sten Ch Posted January 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 (edited) A few years back some animal rights wa...s released a load of boars from a farm down south somewhere, since then the wild boar population has sored and every now and then the press reports of people and animals being attacked. So i think the problem has already started in the south of the country. You say that you shot with Archie Coats? Some time back i found one of his books on a flea market......... great read. Talking of cameras, i recently bought a Cannon EOS 1 film camera, and now saving up for the 300mm f2.8 for the wildlife photography. Nice to see that Sweden is getting some snow, no such luck over here. You say that people and animals have been attacked by wild boars in England. Well, we hear the same stories over here, but it always seem to be someone walking a dog to close to a sow with piglets (although the piglets may not bee seen at the occasion) or, of course, a wounded (by bullet or traffic accident) boar. They are really not dangerous animals otherwise and do never attack unless they are - or feel - provoked I know quite a few who have been attaced by wounded boars and sometimes there is a case of life threatening injuries, when the boar's tusks cut through big blood vessels. Sometimes they are very lucky and the boar just rips the trouser legs. It looks like the fabric was cut by a razor and the owner of such trousers are very proud of them and misses no opportunity to tell others that they are not ripped by brambles or barbed wire, but by the tusk of a charging wild boar. Last season a friend was beating at a driven wild boar shoot. His dogs put a big male at bay and he tried to get it going again so it would expose itself for the guns. But the boar didn't like that direction so instead he decided to have a go for better cover, which unfortunately was in the direction of my friend. Afterwards the latter told me that it started so fast, he had no time to step aside. The boar just run him down, turned and run over him again while he was lying on the ground, trying to get his rifle. Before the animal had a third go at him he fired and wounded the boar, which turned and took annother bullet before it dissapeared. My friend luckily did not get ripped up by the tusks, but broke a few ribs and was blue over half his body. We found the boar dead not far from the place and I took the enclosed picture of him on the spot where he fell. HÃs weight? Big fellow, 160 kilograms. Yes, I shot with Archie several time and he was an incredible character and wonderful man. I still exchange Christmas cards with his widow, Prue, of cooking book fame. I could write half a book about Archie. He was amazing; fighting with Montgomery (whom he did not like) against Rommel, getting wounded and doing crop protection by killing elephants and buffaloes in Sudan while recovering, attending the Jalta conference with Joe Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, staying in Germany after the war, becoming the first (?) professional pigeeon shooter because of lack of work after the war, developing the technique to decoy pigeons and shootion about 12 000 every year... His grand total was about 250 000 pigeons, according to what he told me a couple of years before he died. EOS 1 is a splendid camera and I use it as well, but the digital variant. Yes, the 300/2.8 is a marvellous lens. I use the 500/4 which is not as sharp as the 300, but i believe I need the extra focal length. Edited January 11, 2008 by Sten Ch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlander Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 With pics like these and the ones that have so far won the comps we Brits have got no chance. So far all the winners are from 'out of town'. Come on guys get snappin'! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vegeta Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 160 kilos They're not boar, they're monsters. I had no clue they weighed so much. Have never tasted one but would love to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkield Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 I can see a new rule being invented, last months competition winner, can't enter this month Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sten Ch Posted January 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 (edited) 160 kilos They're not boar, they're monsters. I had no clue they weighed so much. Have never tasted one but would love to Well 160 kilo is a big boar. A fully grown sow often weights a hundred kilo, but can be heavier. The boar also get bigger the further east and north you go. They are relative pigmies in France and Italy and you find the biggest in Bulgaria and Russia. The biggest male I have ever shot I killed in the Estonian Peoples Republic of the good old USSR. It was just before they gained their freedom. That big tusker was unlucky in encountering the bullet from my 8x57. He weighed nearly 250 kilograms, and that's REALLY big (se pictures below). But I have heard stories of 500 kilo boar in Russia and the biggest killed in Sweden was in the region of 300 kilo. Do you know the origin of the boars let loose in southern England? If they are French you should not worry too much, but if they are from eastern Europe maybe you should be careful if you drive on the roads down there in a small Japanese or Korean car... Edited January 11, 2008 by Sten Ch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cole890 Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 congratulations Sten with the photo comp some really interesting stories accompanied with pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
migster Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 (edited) Sten, ive posted the this photo(Daily Mail) before , but thought it may be of interest to you. This boar was shot in the south somewhere, and as you can see its quite a beast By the way, did you shoot the boar on the ground or from a high seat? Good write up and pics as usual. Edited January 11, 2008 by migster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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