Young cull roebuck. Spiker still in velvet.

After shooting a wild boar on the spring rape filed there was no point going out there again. I decided to drive around to see what was grown where and find some new location with ideally both pigs and roe, but due to dry weather it was not easy to find any fresh tracks. After visiting many areas I quite like and had had some success before I finally got to the place where I got my biggest boar so far. It is a small 200-300 acres woodland surrounded by farmland. It is not great in winter with mainly roe, but in summer when the canopy closes wild boar often like to stay there. The wood is surrounded by mixed farmland with pastures and grass on one side and rye, wheat and maize on the other side. I decided to have a walk around and sit on one of the high seats at dusk.

Maize field

One side of the wood was bordering with a maize field. The maize was already quite high and not really attractive to pigs any more and the ground was hard and dried by the sun. However, there were a few wet muddy patches where I spotted tracks of three small wild boar. It looked like they were coming out of the wood, going through the maize field and feed somewhere out on the other fields and coming back to the wood at dawn. I had a walk around the wood and saw a nice sixpointer chasing a wee button buck. They ran my direction, but I was on the middle of the field with no cover available. I dropped on my knees and took rifle off my shoulder. Both bucks stopped and I tried to have a better look, but the sixpointer was not that stupid and ran away barking. The button buck did he same… Well, it was still early and I sat on one of the high seats.

After 15 minutes I could hear first sounds of the storm… and it was coming my way. I sat for 15 more minutes, but the storm was even closer, so I came down and went to the car. I was still 100m away when it started raining. I ran to the car, but still got wet…

The storm passed and it stopped raining quickly, good time for wild boar as they often enjoy feeding after the rain and come out early. However I could not see any movement on the edge of the wood.

Roebuck twins

I decided to give it a few more minutes when two spiker roebucks appeared. I was not really interested and paid little attention, but they looked like last years twins. One slightly bigger than the other, but both still in velvet. It was after 22:00 and I packed the rifle. I had the last look through binoculars, and there they were… Three same size wild boar going from the wood through the maize field to the high rye crop. They were where I was half an hour ago, but going fast across open space, no chance of a shot or catching up with them… well… that’s stalking…

Next day

I came back following evening. Again had a walk around and bumped on a few roe. It was getting last and no signs on pigs when I spotted the two roebucks I saw before. They were on the maize field and about 150m away from me. I stalked to the telegraph pole on the middle of the field and rested my back on the pole and put the rifle on sticks. It was a bit far, but the position was solid and with no pigs around I decided to take the smaller buck. He was following his bigger brother and when he paused broadside I squeezed the trigger. I did not see him drop, but only one animal ran away. I waited a few minutes and went there. He was further than I expected, but easy to spot. The bullet went just behind the shoulder. I dragged him to the track where I saw the boar heading last night and started the gralloch. I had my rifle ready lying on the grass when I was gralloching the buck, but no wild boar to be seen… When I finished I took binocular and scanned area near the wood… and there they were. Three wild boar were feeding this time near the wood’s edge, but it was getting a bit late and it would have been to late even if I got there quick, so I left them for another day.

Video

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