Boar Hunt Prize Winner Tale by Todd Green
When I joined the club last August, little did I know it would result in a Wild Russian Boar Hunting Trip in March. Since I am much more of fisherman then a hunter, I was quite intrigued when I was told I won 2nd prize in the raffle this year. So on the way up to The Old Stone Fence Hunting Preserve this past this Thursday, my friend (who is an avid hunter) and I were wondering what it is like to hunt in a preserve. Would it be like shooting pigs in a barrel? How would the meat taste? It is dangerous?
The next day all of our questions were soon to be answered. We arrived at the lodge at 6pm Thursday night and found the lodge to be a very nice place. There were Huge Elk; Wild Boar; Fantastic Whitetail Deer; Fallow Deer mounts on every wall. There was Dish TV, a full kitchen and very comfortable beds with all the linens, pool table, bar and fireplace! You could not ask for a better setting. The two guys who had hunted that day took us outside to show us their two wild boars, fallow deer and buffalo, all loaded on a trailer for the drive home to Vermont.
We went to bed under a sky of stars that was just unbelievable. Then we met with guide/owner, Steve, the next morning at his home at 9am and he took us and 2 other hunters to the gated preserve about a mile away. We passed by 40 plus Buffalo and some European Stag Deer in a holding/feeding pen. Then we drove into the hunting area and parked at the lodge house. Not fancy but a place to keep warm.
It was actually a gorgeous morning...21 degrees but all sunshine and no wind. Then we turned our heads in time to see a dozen BIG wild boars go running by behind the lodge. We were anxious to chase them but then again, we wanted this hunt to last a while. So we split up...the other 2 guys were fallow deer hunting and armed with a muzzle loader and pistol. We had a 35 Marlin and a Browning 7mm Magnum. (Last year a guy hunted a wild boar with a spear for 3 hours but never got close enough to get one). It wasn't 10 minutes before we heard 2 shots and the other 2 guys had their fallow deer. A very quick hunt if you ask me.
We told our guide (Steve the owner) that we wanted our hunt to last a lot longer. Little did we know that 3 plus hours later we would be sweating as we still chased the boars and from running as they chased us almost as much. They are not shy or dumb and if you ask me, they are by far the most challenging hunt in the preserve. We could have shot a stag deer, fallow deer or Buffalo much quicker and easier but these pigs would have no part of us. They would bunch up and then you could not shoot for risk of hitting more than one. And then they would run full speed as you approached....a few times it was full speed at us and we had to run behind trees as they ran by snorting and mad with tusks a flying. Very exciting stuff!!
There was a bunch of 125-175lb Boars in the bunch but a few 200-250lbrs also. We were allowed to shoot a 200lbr each thanks to the raffle!! So we finally had them close again and on the run and my buddy took a shot and we thought maybe he hit one...there was blood but it looked old so we kept following the pack into a herd of buffalo so that was fun.....especially when the buffalo stomped and snorted so we gave them a clear berth and caught up with the pack on the other side. We got another clear shot and my friend hit one square and it ran for 30 yards before doing a total flip before going down...so I told my friend thanks for taking 2 shots already to mine zero shots and told him to hope the other boar wasn't dead or he was going to have to buy me boar...but I was kidding.
So as we were taking a few pictures of Bucky and his sow boar, Steve yelled for us to run into the woods quickly and get behind a tree. As we looked up 4 large boars were running straight toward us snorting pretty loud...they ran right by us and would have hurt us if we didn't see them first. Then we got a call on the walkie talkie that the other hunters and guide.....they had walked up on a very large sow holed up and hiding in a log jam on the other side of the preserve. So we quickly walked over there...as quick as you can in 2 feet of snow with ice underneath and hidden logs under the snow. When we got there we speculated that this was possibly the boar that was hit before but there was no blood trail. But we decided to go for it just in case.
Looking into the woodpile, all we could see where the ears. So since it was my turn, I was instructed to sneak up to the woodpile and climb up a log so I could get a good shot downward between the shoulder blades. Which I did...and I got within 15 feet and I was a tad nervous that the boar would bolt out and charge me. All the other guys were a good 40 feet away hiding behind trees. But to make a long story short....a quick shot did the job and after about 10 mins, we were able to pull out a huge 260lb sow boar. The butcher went to work that afternoon and I went home with 118lbs of pork roast, pork chops, pork steaks, fresh ham, spareribs, mild and sweet Italian sausage and breakfast sausage. My friend got 82lbs of meat. And the butcher fee was only $60 per boar.
Needless to say we had a great trip and a great party back at the lodge that night with the owner Steve and 13 of his friends. I asked Steve if he had any boar tusks for my son and he told me to stop by the next morning before we left and he gave me an entire bleached boar skull with very large tusks. This was a great souvenir for my son. We were tempted to have mounts made but we were pretty sure the wives would not allow them over the mantle! No doubt this should be a prize in next year’s raffle!!
