Stalking or driven hunt for wild boar?

DanielStefan

Well-Known Member
The name of the forum is probably a good indicator of how most members will answer this question. However, I believe this is the kind of question that’s very difficult to answer for people from parts of the world where the culture of driven hunting is deeply rooted.


I live in Romania, where mountains and hills cover two-thirds of the territory. In these areas, the Sunday wild boar driven hunt is the hunt for most people and the most important social event of the week. This is how I started 23 years ago—I was only 14 when my father took me along because they needed an extra beater. For the next 10–12 years, this was the main type of hunting I practiced, aside from roe deer stalking.
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After a while—especially because I consider myself quite unlucky at driven hunts—I became more and more interested in wild boar stalking. The general perception among hunters here is that stalking wild boar is somehow “less of a hunt” than driven hunting, either because it’s less engaging than when animals are chased by dogs, or because it’s seen as... too easy. Some oppose it, arguing that it depletes areas of valuable trophies.

I started wild boar stalking in the autumn, when the animals begin causing serious damage to corn crops. A high seat wasn't always available, sometimes the wind would ruin a two-hour wait—and I quickly realized how engaging this type of hunting can be. I also find it much more interesting, because you get the chance to observe the animal’s natural behavior. It's not just about making a quick decision to shoot or not based on the animal's sex. Like in this picture, taken on a rainy day—I ended up shooting a small one for the pot because the males weren't big enough.
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Eventually, I began targeting old tuskers—and that’s when I truly realized... it’s not that easy! Especially if you rely only on natural light (moonlight counts as natural light, and in winter it's enough for a good x56 scope) and when thermal optics aren’t allowed.

Yes, shooting a random wild boar in winter (when the soil is frozen and food is scarce) over a corn bait isn’t challenging. You need patience and warm clothes. But an old male doesn’t survive that long by making himself an easy target.

I’ve seen them wait 45 minutes to make sure nothing moves near the high seat (and waiting in the cold was brutal).

I’ve seen them circle the area, trying to catch any unusual scent.

I once saw one come in with a younger companion, letting the younger one go out first and feed alone for 15 minutes before stepping into the open himself. "You go first! I'm not that hungry right now."

The most frustrating one was a male that always waited until I left. He would show up on camera 8–10 minutes after I was gone. I guess my positioning wasn’t good—he always knew I was there. For that one, I brought a companion with me. After two hours, I asked him to leave. Ten minutes later, the boar emerged confidently from the woods... and now he rests on my wall.

I’ve ended up with a nice collection of trophies—or memories, as I like to call them—a collection I hope will continue to grow. Until now, my personal best is this beast that weighed only 125 kg gutted but scored 135.5 CIC points.
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I still attend driven hunts—it remains a very important social event here. But my favorite way to hunt wild boar is stalking. Sadly, when I got married, I forgot to include a prenup clause stating that I might spend many consecutive nights chasing wild boar ghosts.
 
I guess I prefer driven hunt. It's the element of unexpected, you must do everything you can to stack the cards in your favor. Fine tune the exact place you're waiting, check the shooting lanes and other hunters, mentally prepare for shot execution and when not to shoot, take advantage of your gear and surrounding environment (use tree trunks to stabilize longer shots etc)... and then everything is flushed down the toilet and you're trying to patch together some kind of new plan / solution to the situation.

This is for mixed bag non-commercial hunt.

Stalking, that is mostly over fields in dusk and dark, trying to contain the damage boar do, I'd regard more as "grinding". But it's demanding and rewarding nonetheless.

You will check many areas, when you find boar you have to make a plan taking conditions into account and execute it. Boar do move around, and there's a lot of other wildlife that can spook the boar also. Even if you predict boar movement correctly, "waiting game" might be your best bet to get a reasonable shot. And if you connect, the work starts. Many times the extraction is not easy, fields are muddy and/or you must avoid them not to cause extra damage. You might have a friend around, but no hunting party to share the task. And finally you only get half a night's sleep if that...
 
Here (Sweden) boar hunting is an all year job. Driven hunts only late fall and the rest of time a never ending stalking story. Thermals are ok here so most often one is out on one's own. Been to driven hunts when say 30 shots could be heard in one beat but end result only 3 boar down. Driven hunts are a great social events with a people from all over but not necessary top shooters.
Anyway, stalking wild boar is a demanding and rewarding thing and takes a lot of experience and skill, apart from knowing hunting borders etc. I say the most important factor is the wind. Learn the wind and you may get close enough shots.
 
One of the most annoying thing is when you hear the dogs from a long distance and they are closer and closer. You then hear broken branches and the earth trembling. Your heart is beating like crazy, safety is off, rifle prepared and....just before having the chance to aim, some dog is getting right between you and the animal or is pushing the boar to your neighbor. The neighbor is usually someone that is a notorious poor shooter but...not this time 😅
 
I think a bit of both, as they are both very different.

I haven’t stalked boar, but I would love to try. The challenge of finding and getting in close to big hairy and potentially grumpy animals is kind of appealing. I love stalking deer, but doesn’t have the additional spice of potentially coming second if it all goes wrong.

But stalking is by necessity a solitary activity. You can perhaps share it with one or two others or a favourite hound, but its you, your wits and your quarry.

A Boar drive is by contrast very communal affair. It’s an opportunity to be with good friends and to make new ones. I have been on board drives on the continent, but in the UK our shooting is mostly for birds with shoots being everything from a few friends getting together with some dogs and working to find phaesants, duck, partridges, grouse etc inna walked up manner, to big driven days where teams of beaters push game over a line of guns.

The results are very much a team effort. There is the need to be still and quiet, with the anticipation and hope that some animal or bird decides your direction than towards somebody else. There is not really skill involved in getting close - you are usually in a fixed position drawn by lot or dictated by your host. You just need keep still and quiet.

Then its down to your skill with the gun, choosing the target and executing a clean kill.

At the end of the hunt its comparing experiences with your fellow hunters whilst you collect up shot game, follow up any wounded, get it to the larder appropriately processed before having drinks and a big dinner. How, and how much of all of the above you actually do is often down ti choice and size of your wallet. On a “posh” shoot one’s labrador make an excellent retrieve and you will look at the game cart and say “well done” to the keeper before joining the other guns for dinner, whilst on a more modest shoot every one mucks in. The few continental driven boar hunts I have been on have been much more of a communal / team effort where everyone does the hard work of getting the shot game processed and into the larder. Then everyone parties together.

I am not sure what is better. I hope to have many more experiences of both to help me decide.
 
For about 5-7 years I was obsessed with hunting a big wild boar male. I had the chance at one drive to shot a "mini tank" but I was very disappointed to see that it was a female. Skinned, without the head and organs it weighted 205 kg!!!
It is quite common to hunt very large males during driven hunts in Romania but I had no luck. Here is one example of great tusker shot by someone completely not interested by his size.
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My luck was completely reversed while stalking or waiting in a high-seat. Here is the result of a great summer weekend (plus a few weeks of research in the field and preparation)
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The second male was very old, with almost no teeth left. However, his trophy was not that thick, compared with the younger boar.

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Cool thread, and good idea mounting the empty casing of the hunt along with the tusks :)

Here in Denmark the tradition between driven and stand hunting and stalking (or pursch hunting) as we call it, is mixed really. However for boar hunting we have to go to our neighbours of Sweden or Germany. There it's my impression that the hunting of boars is primarily driven or stand based, but maybe one of our swedish or german members will see this thread, and add more definite knowledge to the subject.

Personally i am also more attracted by Pursch hunting than stand hunting, but as heym said there can be something special about the collectivity and tradition of a good driven hunt, i think :)
 
Cool thread, and good idea mounting the empty casing of the hunt along with the tusks :)

Here in Denmark the tradition between driven and stand hunting and stalking (or pursch hunting) as we call it, is mixed really. However for boar hunting we have to go to our neighbours of Sweden or Germany. There it's my impression that the hunting of boars is primarily driven or stand based, but maybe one of our swedish or german members will see this thread, and add more definite knowledge to the subject.

Personally i am also more attracted by Pursch hunting than stand hunting, but as heym said there can be something special about the collectivity and tradition of a good driven hunt, i think :)
I' m a partner in my mates hunting ground. There are just the two of us who run things. We have boar, roe deer, fallow and a few muflon. We also release quite a lot of ducks. The duck syndicate has 5 paying members who can bring a guest on shoot days. My mate and I invited guest each for roe buck opening day and once we have shot the allotted number we leave the roe alone. Boar, we could shoot 24/7/365 if we wanted too but we tend to only shoot one for the freezer and save them for the village hunt.. The village hunt is all the other land owners, members and guests. This happens about 5 times a season and are good social events.
The village hunt has it own hunting leader.
We also have a mornings driven boar hunt on my mates ground and his FILs ground.
 
I' m a partner in my mates hunting ground. There are just the two of us who run things. We have boar, roe deer, fallow and a few muflon. We also release quite a lot of ducks. The duck syndicate has 5 paying members who can bring a guest on shoot days. My mate and I invited guest each for roe buck opening day and once we have shot the allotted number we leave the roe alone. Boar, we could shoot 24/7/365 if we wanted too but we tend to only shoot one for the freezer and save them for the village hunt.. The village hunt is all the other land owners, members and guests. This happens about 5 times a season and are good social events.
The village hunt has it own hunting leader.
We also have a mornings driven boar hunt on my mates ground and his FILs ground.
Hello @Jagare , and wow, that sounds like a pretty nice hunting ground set up you and your mate have! So when you and your mate hunt boars, how do you typically do it then? :)
And how do the muflon act in the swedish fauna? In italy they can live both in the the fairly high mountains up north, but also at much closer to sea level, further down (in toscana), so two quite different types of nature.
 
Hello @Jagare , and wow, that sounds like a pretty nice hunting ground set up you and your mate have! So when you and your mate hunt boars, how do you typically do it then? :)
And how do the muflon act in the swedish fauna? In italy they can live both in the the fairly high mountains up north, but also at much closer to sea level, further down (in toscana), so two quite different types of nature.
It's a great shoot. We are into the third year of the duck shoot, and so far, it's worked well, and it's improving every year. There are plans in the future to create another wetland area and that hopefully will expand the duck shooting. A hunting room is being built so we can have, after jakt. We think that feeding and watering our very good retrieving team and guests is an important social part of hunting.
Boar are shot from hunting stands driven by a team of dog handlers and their hounds.
The muflon generally keep to one part of the hunting ground, where there is quite a lot of mature beech trees and water meadows. Normally, we leave them in peace. A mate of mine from England shot a reasonable ram last year as he always gives us a good time when we hunt with him in England.
 
It's a great shoot. We are into the third year of the duck shoot, and so far, it's worked well, and it's improving every year. There are plans in the future to create another wetland area and that hopefully will expand the duck shooting. A hunting room is being built so we can have, after jakt. We think that feeding and watering our very good retrieving team and guests is an important social part of hunting.
Boar are shot from hunting stands driven by a team of dog handlers and their hounds.
The muflon generally keep to one part of the hunting ground, where there is quite a lot of mature beech trees and water meadows. Normally, we leave them in peace. A mate of mine from England shot a reasonable ram last year as he always gives us a good time when we hunt with him in England.
Sounds like you guys have a good thing going there! :cool: And yeah, in flatlands i am not sure muflon presents a super challenging form of hunting, but this said, those old males can have some visually quite impressive heads, so i can understand the attraction for your english friend :) In the mountains they'll climb a good bit, so it can be good hunting going for them.🏔️🏕️
 
Driven hunts for boars is great when there is snow. Finding the boars is easier, the visibility is great with a white background and there is also something poetic about the red drops in the snow...
IMO, it could be also nice without it but something is missing.
 
In Estonia (there's no boar to talk about, where I hunt in Finland) it's moose hunt from 1st Oct to 15th Dec. Usually the hunt will end sooner (either cull done to the planned figure, or decided the numbers are not there). Other game is also shot depending on area etc. Drives with beaters and usually some dogs also.

But after that it's mainly wild boar, and yes usually there are at least some snow. You wake up early/earlish, drive around the hunting grounds looking for slots, come back for breakfast and change of gear, head to the hunting cabin. Leader of the hunt makes quick plan based on how much people present (attendance is lower since no beaters), where slots were found, other info from previous hunts and years etc. Drives are with dogs and few dog handlers.

Pegs are placed, dogs are let loose, intense radio communication... and the drive is empty! Turns out somebody has either missed or misinterpreted the slots in some place around the drive. Leader swears aloud, promises all kinds of torture and mishaps for the careless hunters who cannot read the slots. Swears that from now on he will check all the slots himself...

Plan B is called upon. Usually already in the morning there's a plan which drives will be tried, and depending on how the drives play out the plan is updated. Pegs are manned, dogs unleashed, another roll of dice... yeah it's great!
 
Here (in Sweden) we also have large hunts. A date is set and a large area get together and many different hunting teams participate. But most often these hunts are not very sucessful due to the large number of hunters and also many cars in the area. But these hunts are very social and therefore positive events.
Now that there are plenty of boar in this country (cull 100-130.000/yr) most boar are shot at feeders and also many by one or two hunters roaming around with thermals which are allowed here.
A lot of shooting is around fields which boar visit when full dark. Sort of deer stalking but in darkness. This type of boar hunting is very demanding as one needs to know the lands i.e. borders, shooting directions etc.
I'd say this night stalking is close to the ulitmate form of hunting. One misstake (wind) and the night is blown. I take guests sometimes and they are thrilled many days and nights afterwards also when not having had a boar felled. Kind of scary to move in darkness with large boar around ..
 
Large boar are one thing, in Estonia we have so many bears in our hunting area that it's not uncommon to dodge them while stalking for field boar. One time last autumn there were two bears between us and boar. One went left to right another the other direction. It was like waiting in traffic lights to get to the sounder. We had few guys from CZ over and I was stalking those boar with one of them.

(not that anything else would happen, but other animals would chase also the boar away if they got scared by us; few times though bear have been trying to get boar carcass we've left in the field to get trailer or check another field)
 
I find nothing scary about boars. Yes, they can cause bad injuries sometimes but they will not charge you if you are just stalking and moving around.
The bears could be a serious problem, especially during driven hunts. Our dogs will harass the bears and they could charge you if they see you too late and think that there is no other escape.

I also have a few "interesting" experiences with bears while stalking. I was really close to pull the trigger but they backed down on time. Perhaps that is why I like to stalk with my 9.3x62 ...
 
Here (in Sweden) we also have large hunts. A date is set and a large area get together and many different hunting teams participate. But most often these hunts are not very sucessful due to the large number of hunters and also many cars in the area. But these hunts are very social and therefore positive events.
Now that there are plenty of boar in this country (cull 100-130.000/yr) most boar are shot at feeders and also many by one or two hunters roaming around with thermals which are allowed here.
A lot of shooting is around fields which boar visit when full dark. Sort of deer stalking but in darkness. This type of boar hunting is very demanding as one needs to know the lands i.e. borders, shooting directions etc.
I'd say this night stalking is close to the ulitmate form of hunting. One misstake (wind) and the night is blown. I take guests sometimes and they are thrilled many days and nights afterwards also when not having had a boar felled. Kind of scary to move in darkness with large boar around ..
Night stalking boar! That does indeed sound interesting and likely stimulating. :) - do you typically use thermal sights for this type of hunting then, or do you have portable lamps or similar ?
 
Both thermal spotter and a thermal scope. You scan the fields and move torwards boar with head wind. Lrf in scope/binos is a big advantage.
 
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