Idaho European Boar Hunt
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| Pig Skull |
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| Pig Tusks |
My
first post on my blog is going to be about a hunt I went on last spring
in Southeast Idaho near Twin Falls in a town called Shoshone. The hunt
was for a European Boar on a hunting ranch of 440 acres. I had gone on
this hunt one time before nearly 6 years ago, but this time I was lucky
to have my wife, my dad, my youngest brother, and 3 more of my relatives
tag along with me and participate on the hunt.
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| My First Pig 6 years ago |
We
arrived a day before our hunt so that we could get familiar with the
area and maybe size up a few pigs. We entered the gate and drove over
the first little hill just in time to see our first pig of our
adventure. It was a large European boar that weighed about 200 pounds
and he was fighting with another big boar down by the creek bed. The two
boars were grunting and squealing trying to get each other with their
tusks. When they noticed us, the bigger of the two looked at us for a
few moments, his mouth dripping with foamy slobber, then let out a loud
snort and turned and ran away. That set the tone for the trip and we
knew we were going to have a blast no matter what the outcome of our
adventure. This was all foreign to us Idahoans because we do not have
wild boars roaming free like they do down south, and it was even better
to be chasing them with our bow. After getting familiar with the ranch
we called it a night and decided to hit it early the next morning.
The
next morning we hopped on the 4 wheelers and took off the creek bed
where we saw the two boars fighting the night before. Sure enough the
two boars were back and fighting again. The only problem we had was the
80 yards of open country surrounding the two pigs, not to mention the 20
other pigs surrounding the two big boars. We attempted a stalk but
didn't even get close before the pigs spotted us and took off. We tried
to spot and stalk a few pigs but failed to get a clear shot or decided
to wait to find a bigger pig. My wife and I split off from the group and
spotted two great big sows that were about 250-300 pounds and had a
litter of piglets following them around. I was very tempted to take one
of these pigs because all I saw was a freezer full of bacon, ham, and
sausage walking past me. By the time I decided I wanted to shoot one of
these sows, I was trailing them in the sage brush from about 50 yards
away and the sage brush kept getting taller and taller until we lost
sight of them and had to go find another pig.
We
walked back down to the creek bed where we started and decided to take a
quick break. While we were sitting there we noticed the sage brush on
the top of the hill was moving and we could hear grunts coming our way.
We took cover the best we could and I got an arrow on my string. A few
pigs came down to the creek to get water in the middle of the day. The
pigs were okay in size but not what I was really after. We were about
ready to take off to another spot when a bigger pig stepped out into the
clearing. These pigs don't like sitting still so I sat patiently
waiting for a clear shot. When the pig I was after would present me with
a shot another pig would step in front of it or behind it. When I
finally got a shot, my pig was 40 yards away quartering away from me on a
slow walk. I took the shot and hit it a little further back than I
wanted. I didn't compensate for the pig walking away from me. Even with
the shot a little far back, my pig ran about 30 yards and then lied
down. Knowing from the first two pigs we saw fighting I knew I didn't
want to get to close to this pig but I also knew I should get another
arrow in it. We snuck up to it and finished it off with one last shot
through the vitals.
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| Me and my pig |
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| My little Brother with his 2 pigs |
My
little brother ended up taking a huge boar only a few yards away from
where I took my pig. My dad who had pretty much taken to role of guide
finally decided he would take the next shot he had on a pig no matter
what size it was. Luckily enough we had the camera out when he took his
pig so you can see his sweet shot on a moving target! Our party ended up
taking 5 pigs home that day and filled our freezers full. We had a
blast chasing these pigs around and will definitely be back to do it
again sometime... all we have to do now is save up for it and enjoy all
the great tasting pork. I would recommend this hunt to anyone who is in this area and can do it. The video below the picture may not be the best quality, but it was with a cell phone so please excuse the quality and I hope you enjoy it. The voice in the video is my little brother who was pretty excited on a sweet shot my dad put on this pig running full speed. It may be easier to view the video in youtube instead of on my blog.
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| Our Party With all of Our Pigs! |
