This Hunting Season

We haven't gotten out as much as I'd like, for various reasons. I've had a lot of work and other projects going on, and Baron got hurt as well. But, we have taken some boar.

For the sake of posterity I'm going to list what has happened so far this season.

We spent a few hours in the mountain one day with some visitors from Europe. A few days later my brother and I spent a few hours as well, and Baron caught a rabbit. That following weekend the weather was junk so I went with a friend of mine and shot a few ducks. The next day I went with the same buddy, a newbie hunter friend of his, and the high school son of a friend of mine (4 of us total). We got to the mountain around 11am, Baron and I went in from above while everyone else positioned on the escape routes. We were on boar in a few minutes, but though the other guns saw the boar, they didn't get any shots off.

Baron and I moved on, and he got on a herd. He was around 200 meters off, and I heard squealing as he grabbed a small boar. I ran to catch up, and got their just in time to watch a big boar charge him. He let go, and the herd ran downhill. We went after them slowly, and they seemed to have lost us. There's fields and a dirt track at the bottom of the mountain, then a stream with more mountain on the other side. We got to the road and as I chatted with an old farmer working the field (who had not noticed a herd of boar move within meters of him as they crossed the road), Baron moved into the stream. I realized something was up when he poked his head out to call me.

I followed him in, quietly, and saw him facing off with some boar. One charged forward, but no shot. Baron tried to grab him but was brushed off. After a little more cat and mouse in heavy brush, the boar moved off quickly. Baron was in hot pursuit, and I tried to follow, but no. I moved back to the road and went to cut them off. I got to a spot just in time to see a decent sized boar flying by with Baron in tow. I called him off, and we called it a morning.

In the afternoon one of the hunters walked with me. After around 20 minutes, Baron moved ahead quickly and grabbed a small boar. So, no ammo needed. It was just small enough to fit into my large backpack (it weighed 12kg) so I carried it while we moved forward. Baron got onto some more boar, but they moved quickly downhill to the left. My friend moved to cut them off, while I moved forward on the ridge. They crossed the stream and across the fields back into the mountain. I moved forward alone and across the ambush line the other hunter had set. I told them to stay put, and around 5 minutes later Baron picked up scent, moved into some bamboo, and grabbed another boar. This one was larger at @40kg.
I had enough time to attempt to get it on camera lol.

It was 2 in the afternoon, and a good time to head home. I had the newbie hunter and highschooler come to where I was, but there were absolutely no help carrying anything. It was faster to just carry everything myself. So, we got out of the mountain, 2 boar in tow, and then began the long process of butchering everything when I got home (along with walking all my dogs).

It was I think around a week later that Baron got injured near the house, so no more hunting for a bit other than the day that I took Goji and Akane out with my brother. There was another day that I grouped up with some other hunters for a group hunt at a dairy farm that asked for assistance to clear some problem boar off their property. As luck would have it the dogs chased the boar to my ambush and I popped off three shots. The boar rolled, and I flew downhill to grab it. Just as I reached out for the back leg, it took off. It didn't get far, as the dogs came a minute later, and found the boar laid up in underbrush around 20 meters away. It was a fun day, as it's a nice change of pace to hang out with a lot of hunters, and all the hard work of carrying and butchering gets spread out, but I was reminded that I prefer to solo hunt. It's much more challenging and rewarding (try splitting a boar between 15 people).

It took around 3 weeks for Baron to heal, but once the hole started closing, the healing process moved very quickly. Last week I took him out for a hunt, and he had so much crazy energy. He just drove off every boar we found by pushing them too hard, applying too much pressure. I got a few looks at some beautiful boar rumps. 2 days later we were out again for a few hours in the afternoon. We hunted a new mountain, and Baron was hunting much better. He was hunting close in, and being appropriately cautious. We ran into a couple deer early, then switched mountains to get on some boar just as it rolled around to 4pm. There's a nice spot that boar like to bed down in, and as we got to the edge of it Baron started tip toeing and looking back at me every few seconds. Sure enough a large herd was in there, and they started moving out quickly.

They moved downhill with Baron in tow, and I waited for a minute before deciding to follow. It can be a bad idea to go downhill after your dog too soon as if the boar run, you have less mobility than you would on the clearer high ground (and less visibility). I was happy I trusted Baron and followed since he had chased the whole herd into a ravine full of fallen bamboo. They were having trouble moving around, but I could hear them and see glimpses of them. I angled back and forth trying to get a shot, and Baron moved around a lot too, but it wasn't happening. The bamboo was too thick. At one point I crawled in and got to where I could hear the boar breathing. Baron was looking at the boar from my right, so I moved around to the left side to try to get a shot. I must have been within 3 meters of the boar, but the fallen bamboo was so thick I couldn't see it. Anyway, we played cat and mouse with the herd for an hour in there. Baron and I kept cutting them off when they tried to get out, but we couldn't get a shot, and Baron knew it was too dangerous to get stuck in there. He kept darting in and out.

Anyway, as it got dark we needed to get back to the car. Half the herd got out, Baron gave chase, I got stuck surrounded by boar who were much braver in the dark. There were three of them around me snorting, so I took to singing, which scared them away (I'm sure I don't sound that bad...). Baron came back, grabbed a straggler, and I carried it out. So we got a boar out of there...

We went out hunting again today and had a successful hunt, but I'll write about that later. I have a boar to butcher and it's getting late.


Comments

  1. True professionals! It's an interesting story.

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    Replies
    1. In Japan there is an old saying about hunting boar:
      First the dog, then legs, lastly gun.
      It's about the order of importance for successfully hunting boar. Without a good dog, nothing happens, and that's something I'm forever grateful to Baron and his breeder for.

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