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Opening season wild boar


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Last tuesday it was the opening of the wild boar season here in the Netherlands. With our hunting club (about 15.000 hectares) we have to shoot around 1000 wild boar. :good: So we had a good start tuesday evening, in total we had 45. One of them was shot by my dad. It was his first ever !

In the Netherlands we hunt the wild boar at feeding area's in forest and woodland where we put some mais and corn to attract them. This method is the most efficient at hand, apart from stalking. Stalking wild boar is very difficult as they have good hearing and sense of smell. Driven hunts are not allowed.

Me and my dad took our position at a feeding area at 18.30. It is a incline between two "hills". Depending on the wind direction you either sit on the west or east "hill". Being higher up gives you a good view and shooting position and also it is good for the scent. Because it was the opening of the season a lot off hunters who have permission go out, including the neighbouring permissionholders. At around 20.00 we heard the first shot from the neighbours quite far away. At 20.30 another one closer by. 10 minutes later i could hear a boar approaching from behind us. It came up the hill and stopped 4 meters behind us. I already had turned my back and was staring at a 1-1,5 year old male wild boar. Shootable, but unfortunately me dad had his back still towards the boar. Patiently we waited. If the wind is good and you do not move the boar will not notice you. Luckily that was the case, but the boar was not to sure about the two figures in front of the bush and trotted off. I signalled my dad to quickly stand up in case we could see it turn round. That was not the case and we heard it walk off. But always good to have these nice experiences, been eye to eye with many boars, including big male ones of a 100 kilo ;) . 10 minutes after that a 2 - 3 year old male boar with small tuskers entered the feeding area. I signalled my dad this one was to young to shoot. After 5 minutes of feeding on the mais i threw a pineapple at it so it ran off. That is important because when a dominant male is at the feeding area the younger ones or females will not come. And that is our priority in the beginning of the season. The male ones you can get later one in the year.

Again 10 minutes later we could hear wild boar breaking through the woodland. Four 1- 2 year old wild boar started feeding on the mais. My dad picked out a young female after we checked with the binoculairs if she had "full" tits (in case she has piglets). Also there where no piglets around. So this young female had no offspring and is perfect for culling. my dad shot the wild boar with his 7 x 64, dropped on the spot. I congratulated him with the shot and his first wild boar :hmm: .

 

Then we dragged it out of the wood and removed the guts. From the beginning of this year (EU regulations) all the meat from hunted animals has to be judged by a qualified person on "wildhygiene" due to possible abnormalities and deseases like thrichine etc... I did a course and following exam two months ago with good result so i am qualified to inspect and judge shot animals. After i inspected the animalsorgans like lung, kidney, heart, liver etc.. and inspection of the body for abnormalites i had to fill in the required forms and sign it. Then i tagged the animal with a individual lead tag (proof of the permission to shoot it), and another tag for the hygienic matter. Part of the breastmuscle, wrapped in a plastic bag and tagged as well, goes to a laboratry to test it for thrichine.

 

Then we finally drank a few beers to celebrate the result :lol: .

 

Pictures are a bit dark, sorry. :good:

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Edited by Holland&Holland
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@ Harv like the comment about the bino..... got some nice other thoughts with that. :good:

 

I can get people a visitor's permit for foreign hunters, but the main "problem" is that the permission is not my own. I do gamekeeperwork for a syndicate and am the secretary of the main dutch hunting club. As a return favour i get invited to participate in the hunting and shooting. Sometimes i can invite relatives or mates but this is sporadic.

If i become a full member in a syndicate or have my own permission i will consider to swap hunts and experiences with other hunters who have the same respect of wild game and joy in hunting. But as said unfortunately this is not the case yet. :good:

Will keep the forum posted if the occassion arises.

 

By the way, commercial hunting is almost not existent in our country. I myself have never heard you can shoot wild boar commercially in the Netherlands (also with pigeon, geese etc..) If you want to shoot boar commercially you will have to go to Germany, Poland or other eastern european countries.

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Great photos and writeup H&H- thanks! Really got the atmosphere there, the suspense when you were watching them was obvious.

 

We need a hero to import some boar to Ireland John. Has happened with quite a few species in recent years, roe and muntjac being examples. Did you know there are now woodpeckers in the north (just a few). It is possible they got heavily blown off course, probably the same heavy onshore winds that brought us the deer species :good:

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Excellent write up Ruud :good: and congratulations to you and your father on his first wild boar.

 

I daresay coming face to face with a 100kg+ wild boar sets the old nerves jangling HA HA!! I am sure we would all like to hear about some of the face to face (or should that be face to snout) encounters you have had.

 

Rgds

 

Adrian

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