Just went out on my first boar shoot in the forest of dean with @ELMER FUDD (Barry) this weekend. Felt I'd be remiss not to share the story with everyone!
Met Barry at the cabins where we got to know each other over a cup of tea and discussed the local area and the evening's plan. Having never shot boar before, I was lapping up as much knowledge as possible (their behaviour, stalking strategy, other quarry in the area, etc.). I was loaned the estate rifle with a nifty ATN thermal (also a new experience for me). We headed up to the stand - a rather new-looking wooden tower overlooking a field, enclosed by the woodland on every side, sloping down towards us. Barry and I settled down for the the next few hours and have to say, he's absolutely cracking company - so many hilarious stories I was really struggling to keep the suppressed laughter down for fear of scaring off all the wildlife in Gloucestershire.
About 11:30 pm we start to hear noises in the woods to our right about 50m-70m away. I'm sitting on Barry's left so with great difficulty (creaky wooden cabin/my inability to not clunk the moderator all over the place), I bring the rifle round to bear and take a look. There they are - black blobs mooching about in the hedges. They're clearly a lot less noise conscious than deer: a lot of shuffling, twigs snapping and the odd grunt here and there. Slowly, a couple of the blobs emerge from the hedge and they start ambling towards a grain feeder in the middle of the field. More appear and now I can clearly see that the 6-8 blobs have the classic pigs' snout and ears with short legs. Barry's eagerly whispering to me to take a shot but I'm in the most awkward position: leaning over Barry, half standing in the confined space with my head looking into the scope at 90 degrees! I daren't change position because I know the cabin is creaky as hell. My legs are starting to tremble (from excitement and the exhaustion of holding the ridiculous position). Despite this, I manage to settle myself, pick one of the medium-sized looking blobs (have now idea how big they are really) in the middle of the crowd and let off a shot, aiming for the base of the ear (as I've been instructed to do).
Bang - blob goes down. The others all run left right and centre and the blob is on its side wriggling away, but surprisingly there's no squealing at all. We settle down, pat on the back and wait for 10 mins until the animal definitely looks dead. We then climb down and we're checking the horizon for the others. Apparently they're prone to dishing out some revenge on the bastard that took one of their own. That massively adds to the excitement.
We slowly walk over - looks like the pig is actually a lot smaller than I thought, only a weaner ~20 kg, but wait what's this - there's two of them!? Both headshot!!! I actually checked myself - I'd only fired once right? Barry's standing there with a bemused look on his face: "Well I've seen two deer hit with one round before, but never two boar and not both in the head!" What amazing luck but of course, my next thought was had I taken a poor shot? The image in the scope was burned in my mind - clear outline of the pig I was going for, down to the ears flapping. To be fair the other was smaller and must've been holding close to the one I was aiming for.
Well, sh*t happens I guess, sometimes for the better...
Nick
Met Barry at the cabins where we got to know each other over a cup of tea and discussed the local area and the evening's plan. Having never shot boar before, I was lapping up as much knowledge as possible (their behaviour, stalking strategy, other quarry in the area, etc.). I was loaned the estate rifle with a nifty ATN thermal (also a new experience for me). We headed up to the stand - a rather new-looking wooden tower overlooking a field, enclosed by the woodland on every side, sloping down towards us. Barry and I settled down for the the next few hours and have to say, he's absolutely cracking company - so many hilarious stories I was really struggling to keep the suppressed laughter down for fear of scaring off all the wildlife in Gloucestershire.
About 11:30 pm we start to hear noises in the woods to our right about 50m-70m away. I'm sitting on Barry's left so with great difficulty (creaky wooden cabin/my inability to not clunk the moderator all over the place), I bring the rifle round to bear and take a look. There they are - black blobs mooching about in the hedges. They're clearly a lot less noise conscious than deer: a lot of shuffling, twigs snapping and the odd grunt here and there. Slowly, a couple of the blobs emerge from the hedge and they start ambling towards a grain feeder in the middle of the field. More appear and now I can clearly see that the 6-8 blobs have the classic pigs' snout and ears with short legs. Barry's eagerly whispering to me to take a shot but I'm in the most awkward position: leaning over Barry, half standing in the confined space with my head looking into the scope at 90 degrees! I daren't change position because I know the cabin is creaky as hell. My legs are starting to tremble (from excitement and the exhaustion of holding the ridiculous position). Despite this, I manage to settle myself, pick one of the medium-sized looking blobs (have now idea how big they are really) in the middle of the crowd and let off a shot, aiming for the base of the ear (as I've been instructed to do).
Bang - blob goes down. The others all run left right and centre and the blob is on its side wriggling away, but surprisingly there's no squealing at all. We settle down, pat on the back and wait for 10 mins until the animal definitely looks dead. We then climb down and we're checking the horizon for the others. Apparently they're prone to dishing out some revenge on the bastard that took one of their own. That massively adds to the excitement.
We slowly walk over - looks like the pig is actually a lot smaller than I thought, only a weaner ~20 kg, but wait what's this - there's two of them!? Both headshot!!! I actually checked myself - I'd only fired once right? Barry's standing there with a bemused look on his face: "Well I've seen two deer hit with one round before, but never two boar and not both in the head!" What amazing luck but of course, my next thought was had I taken a poor shot? The image in the scope was burned in my mind - clear outline of the pig I was going for, down to the ears flapping. To be fair the other was smaller and must've been holding close to the one I was aiming for.
Well, sh*t happens I guess, sometimes for the better...
Nick
