The wild boar driven hunt is a collective hunt, deeply linked to the cultural tradition of some geographical areas and prevalent mainly in Italy and Eastern Europe.
It is quite an exciting hunt, which remains vivid in the memories of those who practice it. A hunter from Northern Italy describes his Hungarian hunt as:
“We were on Count T.B.’s estate, for a wild boar driven hunt. The numbed limbs and the face felt from the ten degrees below are the memory of that perfect day, spent together with a group of Italian hunters on the terraces of the area and in the cellars of the villa, where the sweetness of the Tokaj softens the cold and warms the limbs.
We hunters meet the hunting loaders and beaters on the lawn in front of the villa. The foreman, as per Hungarian practice, pleads those present explaining the terms of the hunting and invites everyone to the utmost caution. The allocation of the posts is preceded by a brief fanfare of horns“.
All wild boar driven hunt trips have rituals in common, whether they take place in Italy or abroad.
Warm clothing, since they are almost always held in winter, and a weapon suitable for more or less close shots with the right hunting scope for wild boar are the perfect outfit. Nor should we forget the right footwear, warm and soft.
During a hunt, dozens of wild boars or a single animal could parade in front of the hunter, sometimes in the no flying zone, where it is forbidden to shoot for safety reasons, sometimes very close, running or stopped only for a moment.
A good Steiner Ranger 1-6 X 24 mounted on a Horizon bolt action rifle in.300 Winchester Magnum caliber or in .30-06 Springfield caliber is ideal.
“Now a huge boar stops at 50 meters and almost seems to make fun of the beater,“ he goes on. “Now repeated shots are fired at distant places, while the pack rages and the shuffling in the woods makes you jump: these are the emotions of the wild boar driven hunt!
After two intense driven hunts, we turn the tables and new chances become possible. We spot a sow, two wild boars and a good boar.
Four or five striate wild boars are stationed in the meadow a short distance away, and we stand watching them in silence.
Some participants are luckier, others less, but the excitement of that wild boar driven hunt is alive in everyone”.
Relatively heavy ammunitions – from 150 to 180 grains – fired by suitable calibers are an excellent viaticum forwild boar: all 30 and 7 mm.
This applies both to hunting abroad and to our own hunting in the Apennines or the Alps, on free land or in private reserves.
Much changes if you want to hunt the suide for stalking or hunting from high seat.
On this occasion, being a more reasoned and precise shot, also a Horizon bolt action rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor and in .270 Winchester can be successfully used with balls not less than 130 grains; the scopes must be bright and with more magnification.
In some parts of the world, Tajikistan or Turkey, for example, where the size of wild boar is considerable – it can even exceed 300 kg – things get complicated and hunting methods can vary greatly.
In Turkey, they hunt mainly in stalking.
You go to the place of pasture and from there you follow the tracks, when you are not lucky enough to find the boar snuffling on the corn prepared for the purpose and, then, a bolt action in .300 Winchester Magnum with 180-grain ball will do the right job.
An excellent scope must allow a rapid acquisition of the target with a remarkable sharpness of image; the red point, with adjustable intensity, allows to limit the error to the minimum and to conduct an ethical wild board hunt.
This type of hunting can be carried out with semi-automatic slug shotguns or bolt action rifles. The bolt action Horizon is the choice of many hunters, especially where the use of semi-auto shotguns is not allowed for this hunting practice.
In the harshest climates, it can be convenient to use a bolt action with synthetic stock, which is well suited to all climates and guarantees the weapon a remarkable lightness and, consequently, greater ease in swinging.
In addition, the Cerakote coating present in the Elite line of Horizons, makes the treated metal parts – on the bolt action specifically are treated barrel and action – more resistant to atmospheric agents.
