[Leonard D Neubache]

I'm keeping an eye on this product.

Air guns, other than very specialist units, are not going to be powerful enough. The big bore airguns tossing out 200 grain bullets are not exactly "run of the mill". Often they are the result of a market where traditional firearms are legislated out of existence but airguns are still allowed.

Here in Australia for example it's not difficult to get permission to own an airgun that fires twelve shots as fast as I can pull the trigger (small slugs mind you) but getting an equivalent conventional rifle is impossible for anyone other than a licensed collector or a farmer.

[Elster]

Let me clarify something.
I wildcamp most of the time but I come so much across the damn pigs so often that how I came upon the idea of hunting them was:
I thought first of finding deterrents then I figured I might as well turn a problem into an asset.

I am quite surprised at how ignorant people are about the proximity and the danger the bloody hogs can be. Of course in my case the risk in increased but so far the only people I ve found that are familiar with the problem are farmers and people living on "fringe areas".

[HonantheBarbarian]

Damn Gostro, whereabouts was this?

I look forward to hearing about more detailed stories about run ins with these fearsome creatures. Wild boars are on a different level.

[AboveAverageJoe]

(05-12-2016 12:47 PM)Anabasis to Desta Wrote:  

Probably not an option for you since you're in Europe but my Dad once got to hunt African Bush Pigs using trained baboons in South Africa. The baboons catch up to the bush pig, hop on it's back and ride it for like 20 minutes. Once the bush pig tires out, you can literally walk up to it and slit its throat.

Something similar to this ...

After watching this video of monkeys riding wild boars,
I know what I look like when I'm furiously, doggy-styling some American hog.

[Elster]

The most memorable encounters I ve always had in Northen Europe and Scandinavia.
In the French lower Pyrenees and the spanish Alpujarras I came across a few but they were noticeably smaller and more shy than the ones I ran into Germany and the scandic North. I was told that the big sized wild hogs are called "German wildboars(at least by the suedes!) and that they were very successful colonizers.

In Sweden I was about near Vaxjo (has anyone heard of a hippie commune called Saljeryd?) camping in an industrial forest about maybe a scarce 400m from a farm and country road. Around 3am we heard them and the pooch barked, the sounds stopped only to be resumed with an even larger chorus 15min later. I just bundled our stuff dragged my dog and with my girl we literally broke into the fenced porch garden of the house to sleep there.
We did leave some food stuff behind that later we found had been carnage in the night. I'm not a tracker but I would say from the number of tracks that it was a lot of the animals that had been involved.
The hippies told us the following day that we worried in vain and the beasties were harmless, they admitted to have never encountered one in the wild too . The local non dread locked actually working local Farmers *who have guns*on the other side told us we had been damn lucky.

I ve lived on and off in Germany for the last year, mostly in the Rhine area.
One time I was in a forest just beside the outer ring of Karlsruhe, let's say about 25m from the main road with plenty of car, bike and pedestrian traffic. In the morning while I'm un-deploying my tent my dog growls at what I thought was an unusually large and burly looking blackish great Dane about 60m from us.
Had a hard time holding my dog from growling, I slowly picked up the packed rucksack leaving the tent behind and moved towards the street. The hog decided the passage was safe and moved on-followed by an entire litter of Cubs!!!! (worst case scenario with boars I ve been told is standing between a mother and her cubs).
Just recently I stealth camped by a grill Hut in a lake in the countryside and observed a raiding party come to the grill area in the dead of night. Funnily enough it is a highly mantained and transited area surrounded by suburbia during the day, no one would think huge veal sized pigs are about...


So yeah I admit to nearky shitting my pants every time I realize they are in the vicinity but then again this is why I am Now so interested in taking up their hunt.
There are so many I wonder why there aren't more poachers about?

[IDrinkYourMilkShake]

^^^^ Many times you will be walking close a boar without nowing it. In daytime they are low-key and might hide under a spuce tree like ten meters away from you. Yes, never underestimate their capacity to do damage, the farmer was right, you guys where lucky. I have never hunted boar (just some deer, and moose) but what I know from from traditional non-fire arm boar hunting, spear is the way to go (like in one of the videos posted) preferably with dogs or in a group. Medieval paintings in castles shows that as well, and I assume you dont have any access to baboons so a powerful bow, from a slightly elevated position near where they usualy go, or attract them with some 'bait'.

Lastly, I just want to ask if you are ware of the strict hunting laws in Sweden? While you might get away with rapong and stabbing someone, poaching might give you years in prison. So if you gonna do this, try to be discrete.

[Elster]

Sorry for late reply, milkshake!

I am aware that I'm nearly every country in western mainland Europe and Scandinavia hunting g is zealously regulated.
But since I'm already moving in a gray area in terms of laws and in uncharted/ uninhabited territory when I camp is why the idea came up in the first place.
First I thought of defense, and since offense is the best defense my thoughts shifted to the idea of learning a new challenging craft.

That said, I will be careful and hopefully at one point I'll be able to tell stories of lessons learnt. And if a hog does me, the mead in Walhalla better be good!

I finally found a local dealer in Germany for the Cold Steel Boar spear, so after some busking I will soon be practicing I hope
,

[Malone]

You know that professional hunters with armed buddies and hunting dogs are killed wild boar hunting, right?

[Phoenix]

^ Sounds like a fair match then

[Elster]

Bump

Had another run in last night,fortunately it seemed blinking my head lamp worked in scaring it off.
Researching on it I find that their numbers have been steadily raising since the mid 90's as a result of the captian planet politics that started getting foot since that time.


From AZ animal index entry on boars

Quote:

Although their numbers in the wild have dropped rapidly in much of their natural range, in other areas including mainland Europe, Poland and Pakistan, there have actually been significant population rises and the exact reasons are not really known. It is thought to be due to a variety of things including the decline of their main predators, their increased protection, and the more regulated hunting of them in their native regions.

And from the same article because consistency is fubar

Quote:

Population numbers are suffering on the whole however, mainly due to hunting and loss of habitat. In a number of areas though, there have actually been rapid inclines in Wild Boar populations, possibly due to the loss of many of their main predators such as Wolves and Tigers.

This is hilarious! Im finding out how this is not only athreat to hikers and idiotic adventure hobos(wink wink) who camp outside of towns but to normal citizens even in suburban areas.

I think I would rather explain a dead pig than being tramped while I'm sleeping...

[IDrinkYourMilkShake]

El_Gastro, yeah im just saying since I got the impression that you seemed to have a conection with that farmer, just in case he dont know what you are planing and if he founds out he could possibly rat you out. I dont know how near you are to any town/village, but watch out since a lot of people like to go out in the woods for recreation, mushroom/berry-picking and so on, so they dont walk into you while you are butchering up a newly killed boar, wearing a spear and a bow, covered in blood.

Yeah, they have really becomed a pest in some areas, and the officila hunting regulations says that now you can hunt them all year around if im not misstaken?

Anyway, once again, good luck! Be careful both for ppl and boars.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

Fighting a boar in melee combat seems like a great way to get killed. At least use a crossbow or bow first (not an air rifle unless it fires grenades LOL) and engage at close range only when you have no other choice.

Contrary to popular belief about wild game hunting throughout history, most wild animals (boars included) were actually caught through use of traps and only collected and/or slaughtered later from a position of safety. The image of a courageous hunter engaging an enraged boar with his knife or spear while expertly dodging tusks might be a very iconic fantasy, but it is still mostly a fantasy.

The same applies even to large animals that are thought of as harmless, such as deer or elk. There's a reason why half of Bambi is spent dodging carefully concealed traps instead of spears.

[Elster]

@ HCEel:

I hear you on that one.

When I stinted as a goat Shepard a large poitvine (I think this was the name of the race) buck butted me into and almost mauled me. He nearly gored our boss who was also a bit of a newbie( and a total idiot since it took him several episodes to realize that the thing was dangerous ) and that's a relatively tame animal.

Also why I'm very wary now of wild camping in thick forests here in the north bow.

Anyway update:
I've actually started seriously researching on the subject, reading studies on Boar behavioural patterns mostly and of course on hunting as well.
But I am starting to get really interested in the subject!

[Anabasis to Desta]

Men under-estimate animal strength for the same reason women under-estimate male strength. Lack of exposure.

The average girl watches Hollywood movies, has never been hit by a man and arrogantly believes she can beat up a man if she wants to. Men can be worse. Had a conversation with a one of my frat bros years ago who told me he could defend himself against an Alaskan Husky barehanded with no weapons because "I'm 200 pounds of muscle man!".

I know someone back home who ended up in the hospital & almost lost an eye after being attacked by a wild mongoose - which barely weighs 10 lbs.
Humans are incredibly weak. Paper-thin skin, along with lack of claws, horns or sharp teeth.

[H1N1]

^ On the above, if you are ever attacked (seriously) by a dog, and some significant injury is a given, try to feed it your non-dominant forearm. If you then lift it to your chest, and place your dominant forearm at the base of the animals neck, crushing it against your chest, you will have the leverage to push back with the forearm in its mouth and snap its neck. This is a very effective method of dealing with dogs that are trying to do you a real injury.

[Elster]

^^^^
And this is why I love you RVF bastards who are p to badly made of flesh and bone but appear to Mr mostly as text.

I will definitely take the dog defense tip on mental notebook
I do not flully agree that we are so weak, we are indeed pretty under-leveled compared to most everything else but then again so. Is greater the challenge.
It's probably why we evolved to "pwn" everything else through metal, fire, gun powder and nukes until the sjws and environmentalists spoilt the party.