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British wild boar hunting is only available for privileged few.
Simon Bar is one of them. He lives in Sussex and has Wild Boar on his ground, and if you
need proof check out the turf wars all over this pasture
and if you need more proof here are the trail cam shots from the wood next door.
Can you see the boar print in there quite clearly?
That's a pretty fresh track right there. Very fresh if you look you can see my prints
here that's very, very fresh and this is absolutely why we're here this
evening,
to try and stop them from doing this.
Crikey! The field is kind of covered in patches like this?
It is yes. This has been going on for some time. The farmers about to put lambs out here
and we need to make sure they've got some grass left to feed on.
So we're heading out tonight to see if I can get my first British Wild Boar.
Shooting them here sparks plenty of controversy,
firstly should you control them? And if so how do you do it night vision or under moonlight?
Then there's the issue of a season.
Some shooters impose their own; others are less choosy.
Simon has had plenty of practice debating the issues and getting to know the Sussex
pigs.
On this particular area I think we've got about probably two groups, one of four or
five animals and another one of about six animals and a couple of large boar as well
moving around
but they tend to be more transient.
So what's the main tactic really when it comes to controlling the numbers do you take the
older ones or do you prefer to take the smaller ones.
We would always try and manage the younger animals out of the population first.
For me it's about balancing the damage, the impact to the animals with my needs as a sportsman
and the needs of the landowners locally.
Are these the same sort of Wild Boar that you would find elsewhere in Europe?
They have been genetically tested by Defra as French Wild Boar
What is quite unusual about the population here is that we've got a high frequency of
leucism
and leucism is a pigmentation deficiency so they look almost albino.
I've seen it in boar in France, but maybe one in a hundred perhaps less than that.
in Sussex we've got perhaps the frequency of one in three.
I know that particular group we're going to be looking at this evening there is a group
of five leucistic boar which is very, very unusual
so the Sussex boar have got quite a quirk about them.
This shy intelligent beast deserves respect but many
including the British government hold its welfare and arm's length
bewilderingly they pretty much got the same rights as the Grey squirrel
Boar aren't classified as a game species they're halfway between an invasive non-native and
vermin. So they pretty much got the same rights as a Grey squirrel.
For something that you know body mass wise goes to larger than a red stag I think that's
definitely to look at that and to start giving them some protection. Proper protection
Time is marching on and if there's any chance of shooting a boar tonight we need to get
kitted up.
Simon can I run through quickly the kit and we're going to be using tonight then
Yes sure this is a Blaser R8 professional with the synthetic stock in a 3O8 calibre.
Excellent very ,very accurate very reliable it's got to the Blaser straight pull action
which is a very well German designed piece of kit
I'm using Trident moderator which has been designed in the UK and manufactured in the
UK
I have heard a lot about these are modular system.
Very, very good it's got and integrated nuzzle break as well so reduces recoil massively
very, very good piece of kit very light weight
and then for the optics I'm using a Pulsar Digisight NV550 they are not new onto the
market they have been available for a couple of years. It took night vision from say 2
1/2 grand for the image intensifiers down to 1000 pounds or thereabouts entry level
point
so really revolutionised the night vision market and I'm a big fan.
We make our way to hide we have a superb view of the lower field and the feed station.
Simon has been putting down wheat to concentrate the boar damage.
And put the boar in a safe shooting position.
So Simon it looks there is quite a lot of activity around here?
Huge amount of activity, everything that went down yesterday I can see some birds have been
here all the food that went down yesterday has
gone
which is a very, very good sign those rocks we tend to kick those over the food
they have been moved around from where they were last night. So a very good sign that
we've got a group feeding on here so let's hope they can come early.
So this is extremely exciting clearly Simon knows an awful lot about what he's talking
about and we can see there is plenty of activity here so of all the things I wanted to shoot
in the UK Wild Boar his right there at the top of the list
so we're going to go sit back in the ply and hopefully three or four hours and be able
see something, so very exciting.
With an hour left before the sun goes down we get in to the temporary hide and talk through
the game plan
We're using the Lapua Mega 150 grain 308 absolutely superb round for boar shooting and they're
not overly the fast there is not a massive amount of meat damage but there is enough
of a punch there with a 30 calibre bullet to do the job so that's fantastic
So whereabouts are we shooting?
We won't be engaging them until they get to the feed station there is not a safe backstop
until about 80 yards away, the way the ground rolls away from this hide so we will be shooting
them when they get to the feed station only.
OK, cool.
Simon is hopeful we'll get something, especially having photographed two groups of pigs just
a few days ago.
With a bit of a wait on our hands we talk through another hot potato, to night sight
or not to night sight?
I actually personally believe I have a responsibility as a hunter to dispatch the animal as humanely
and as efficiently as I can do, and guessing where to put the bullet with a day scope at
night I think is slightly irresponsible. So the hunt is exactly the same, the sport
is exactly the same and anybody who tells me that it's not as romantic I think is being
reckless and they shouldn't be using night vision.
The other thing is if you're shooting under moonlight it limits you to about four days
a month, with night vision if you've got management objective like we've got tonight you can come
out whenever you want to and you can deal with the problem if it arises. So I think
it has massive applications, if you want to do something romantic go and shoot a stag
My wife wouldn't consider this to be very romantic but...
You're in for a good night Ian.
We hear pigs but we don't see them and it looks like I'm going to have to hand the baton
over to Simon.
No success last night, so very hopeful with different weather conditions today they might
come.
Day three in the big brother hide...
We tried four nights out, weathers changed this evening.
Hunting these animals is not easy and it takes another three outings before Simon finally
strikes leucistic gold.
There are five boar in the field, they've just come out from the woodland. Four days
of waiting has paid off.
They're all about the same size and this is the group I've seen before.
These are all leucistic, it's impossible to tell whether they're male or female.
They're not old enough to see any difference, there are no tusks visible and no pizzle visible.
They're roughly the same size, there's one that looks a little bit bigger
absolutely amazing to see them though. Incredible creatures, they've already started to damage
the field since they've come out.
I don't have a safe shot when they're next to the woodland edge, I'm going to have to
wait for them to come into the middle of the field.
They're very bunched together, I don't think I'm going to be able to shoot them where they
are.
OK, one of them seems to be splitting away from the rest of them. I can't tell if it's
male or female, they all look the same size.
I'm going to have to take the one that presents the safest shot and is away from the other
animals.
It's slightly cautering, I'm going to have to go through the shoulder.
The boar is hit and it runs. Simon searches with the Pulsar and picks it up about 80 yards
to the left.
The heart and lung shot is good and it's done its job. He's taken a young female, Simon
would've preferred a male but they were all of a similar size and he needed to make a
dent in this particular group.
She's in good condition, and he grallochs her before heading for the chiller.
Also ensuring to take a sample of diaphragm to be sent for analysis for a nasty parasitic
nematode called trichonella.
At the chiller we have a chance to take a proper look at this amazing truly wild, Wild
Boar.
If it were a farmyard pig, a domestic pig it would have a curly tail, you would see
spotting on the fur on the bristles.
The head shape is different, the top of the ears curl over, and you know this is absolutely
as wild as they get.
So yeah, a beautiful animal, I quite like them in this colour, I think they're quite
unique looking.
Now I've given it a bit of a clean off you can see the colour, obviously they're covered
in mud a lot of the time where they have been wallowing but this has been cleaned off a
little bit and you can really see its blonde. It's a blonde pig.
It's taken a lot of work but Simon and the farmer are very happy.
Of course I like shooting them for sport, its good fun. I like the meat massively, but
you know when you hear farmers saying you know, I just want everything off the ground,
I want to wipe them out, it's upsetting really.
But it's the same, there's always a conflict with wildlife and agriculture and it's just
managing that and just being responsible and doing it in such a way that everything has
a good balance and has a chance to live and also has a chance to grow. So that's obviously
the issue with farmers.
British Wild Boar are back in the UK, and the more we're sensible about managing them
the more chance that it won't just be the privileged few who get to enjoy their own
dose of boar fever.