This moon season (wild boars)

Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Fernando

Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2010
Messages
158
This month moon season started last Friday and will last for 10 nights. At 9 PM two boars appeared where the corn was (we hide it below some stones), 60 meters away.

2edqivs.jpg
Female, 57 kg

nwlxle.gif

We were where the red arrow is (in the hill above the car) and you can see the pile of stones with the corn.
2hclzy1.gif

The road doesn’t have traffic at all (at night). Red line is bullet path.
ilet4y.gif

Where boars showed up (seen from the road, not from shooting spot)
2054k8m.jpg


Exit hole. The boar was sideways, pointing left. No run, this time (stayed on spot). Federal trophy tip, 180gr, 30.06 spr, benelli argo, varipoint 3-12x56T IR
309htdz.gif

Tuesday or Wednesday I will go see if I catch another ;)
 
Good work.....(and Pics).

What camera body (and lenses) do you use?

It is plain....you are either a professional photographer or an accomplished enthusiast.
 
Thanks! Just an photo-amateur, trust me. Body is a Canon 350D and used standard 18-55mm on those.

I’ve currently got 5 feeding spots and because I live 200km away last week I asked a local friend of mine to fill up the corn every day. The bastard has 2 feeding spots of his own so the whole week he only watched over his (didn’t treated mine, lol). So last Friday night I said to him: let’s go to your feeders! And we did. He bought a CZ battue lux last month but he didn’t bought the scope for it yet, so I get to shoot with my gun.

He fed the boars every single day last week but in the last morning (friday) the #sshole put some rags (old tissues) in the hoods above and around the feeder to scare the crows away. Well, friday night the boars entered the spot and started to eat the corn but seconds later smelled the tissues (surely had human odor) and run away for a few minutes. They then started to make loud noises (sniffing and roaring) to scare whatever or whoever was near the corn. Every time they approach the stones they stop and make noise, breaking bushes with the teeth. In one of those times I asked my friend if he wanted me to take the shot next time they show their face. He said yes (he was watching through binos). Seconds later the bigger one entered the feeding spot, pointed to left and I took the shot while he was sniffing around.

This weekend I fill all my feeders with corn before I left to Lisbon. I leave Lisbon again tomorrow, heading there. Recently I opened a new feeder in the middle of some pines, in a boar’s passage. They found the corn easily. To know how big the bastards were I sprayed some creolina (I think you call it creolin – disinfectant) in a pine: the boars scratched their body with mud against the pine until the wood show up, lol (they must have at least 50 or 60 kg, judging by the tallness of the mud mark).

This is the spot (pic). In the red circle is the corn and I will stay at botton-left of the picture, no more than 30 or 40 meters. If they don’t find me in the night and kick my #ss first I will pulverize one on them, lol

ok06ea.gif
 
Sounds like you could use some trail cams. Basspro has some sub-100 dollar versions that work decently. Maybe consider IR ones so the flash doesn't spook them? Beautiful country though. You're lucky.

b
 
Nop, no Bass Pro shops here. Only ebay. I regulary use ebay.co.uk (UK), ebay.de (Germany), ebay.es (Spain) and ebay.fr (France). I usually don’t use ebay.com (US) because of import taxes.

In 2009 I bought a laser boresight from ebay.com (US) and it didn’t stop at customs (no taxes paid), but this year I bought the wildview from US and paid the camera cost in taxes, lol (camera cost 75 dollars).

I think that guys in customs open the packages and if products seems to cost less than 50 (70 USD) euros they let it in without taxes; if it costs more than 50 euros we have to go to customs to pay taxes.

Importing from any other European Union country we don’t have to pay any taxes. US products usually appear on UK stores, but if we could buy stuff directly from you we would save lots of money (euro is stronger, and facilitates importing).

But, speaking of bass and importing… some decades ago some guy brought a north america fish specie to Portugal and dropped it in to a river. The fish was very aggressive and attacked all our native species, lol. We call it “Achigã”, but it is, in fact, your black bass. Luckly for us some guys in finland make some pretty good lures called Rapala, lololol.

j7dtad.gif
 
wlyus4.gif

Last night, after some nights waiting in vain in the woods for the pigs, I grab my gun and headed for the forest again to settle scores with a badger that was eating the corn of one of my boar’s feeder. As I intended to come back early (badgers usually strike between 8 PM and 10 PM) I carried my rifle without the magazine and took only one cheap bullet (prvi partizan) with me.

At 9.45 PM, with no sign of the badger, I noticed that a large black shadow showed up in the horizon, heading for a pile of rocks near a pine. Below those rocks I kept some corn hidden. When the shadow stopped I grab my binos and saw what it was: a single boar. He was 90 meters away, in a valley in front of me. With no trophy tip bullet around, I send the 30.06 Prvi 180 gr down hill.

The pig was pointing right and bullet hit him in the lungs, slightly from behind and above. As all the legs were spared, the usual run took place, lol. 20 or 30 meters ahead, he dropped dead.

Entering hole:

awugdj.gif

Exit hole:

107q1ap.gif

k2b95k.gif
(my father playing around with the knifes and the head, lool)

The rocks, the corn and the pine:
55jjn9.gif


Around 80kg, male, with no big tusks
29li9as.gif
 
80kg = 176,3 lbs. We don’t use lbs here in Portugal (I think the British are the only guys here in europe that use that lbs measure).

The boar is European (Portugal is the western European country).

Here is a pic of another boar caught last night by a friend of mine, also with a 30.06 (browning bolt action). Smaller and younger than mine but surely with softer meat, lol

3uhhh.gif
 
The male boar that I kill last night (got home in our tractor – my father in the pic):

25flyjp.gif



The female boar that I killed the other Friday, and that opened this thread (got home in the trunk of my car lol):

2rrudlz.gif
 
Nice Work!

Glad to see its not only MCgunner working alone in Tx to thin the hog population down. :D

Are their populations over there growing to the nuisance level? Is it only in Portugal?
 
Quote: “Are their populations over there growing to the nuisance level? Is it only in Portugal?”


Wild boar’s population is growing here in Portugal and in other European countries (like Spain). We are a small country, with no more than 11 million people (probably what you have in just one city). The number of hunters is decreasing very rapidly because young people have other interest rather than hunting. We do not have a tradition of guns (very few people shoot guns for competition) and guns are heavily controlled.

Few years ago we had 300.000 hunters. That number decreased to less than half a couple years ago. Last year the state sold about 80.000 hunting permits (or so we were told). Many hunters are old guys, and every year lots of them quit hunting.

To add to that, young people are concentrating themselves in the cities, leaving the interior of the country empty. Most interior villages are empty or have very few and very old habitants.

So yes, wild boars population is increasing and spreading fast to all areas. Many culture fields are now forests or abandoned, so every species that are adaptative and highly reproductive are spreading. Boars are in the top of the pyramid here, with no natural predators. We practically have no wolfs, we have no bears or mountain lions. All we have are old hunters with shotguns (few rifles), and not many want to hunt boars, lol.

We had no tradition in big game some years ago. We hunted mainly rabbits, partridges, pigeons and other small species. Now we have boars and deer in almost every part of the country.

Boars feed on everything, from land worms to grapes, from corn to apples, mushrooms or grass. And they breed like rats. In some regions they are pests and real enemies of farmers (mainly cereal/grain). They are usually bad news for people that have any kind of cultures outside their backyards. In many regions boars can be hunted all year around, with no bagging limit.
 
Boars feed on everything, from land worms to grapes, from corn to apples, mushrooms or grass. And they breed like rats. In some regions they are pests and real enemies of farmers (mainly cereal/grain). They are usually bad news for people that have any kind of cultures outside their backyards. In many regions boars can be hunted all year around, with no bagging limit.
Click to expand...

Sounds like Texas!!!
 
Yap, Texas but with a lot less cowboys and guns, lol. And no mexicans.

All for the better, I think. All is quiet around here ;)

2me27nd.gif
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top