France 2024/2025 Hunting Season

[Methos]

Bonjour ladies and gentlemen.

France's Hunting season has started a month ago but due to work and social obligations I wasn't able to partake in our first 3 driven hunts. By all accounts the first 3 were amazing. In the first one 12 boars were shot in less than an hour. Second and third delivered 8 and 7 boars each.

Saturday morning we were hunting an area called Le Cacalau, Provençal for snail. I were posted on the edge of an olive grove. Very dense in front of me but a lane of about 6 m between last olive tree and a excuse for a fence. When we got to our posts I were posted at the bottom of the small hill but I asked the organizers if I can deplace my post with 20m to be able to see both sides.



Things started very slow. We were on our posts for more than an hour before anything were chased up. I saw a boar at around 400m but obviously didn't shoot. It went to the other side and my friend shot at 3 times killing it. A while later I saw another boar of around 60kg at almost the same spot but it was coming down on our side. I had the cross on it, and when it stopped I was ready to shoot at around 230m. It is far in France but not where we hunt. I had the rifle on the tripod and as I were calculating my shot the guy next to me decided to hurry the pig up and started shooting at 300m.

I had the scope dialed up to 6 for the longer shot.


The boar was supposed to come our way and I were frantically looking for it, next moment I heard a noise to my left and a group off younger pigs of around 30kgs each ran out of the olive grove. I shouldered the 308 and the first one dropped just after the first olive tree. Let the second one pass as I reloaded and shot the 3rd one just as it got to the fence. Reloaded and gave a hurried shot at 5th one. Wounded it. The rest all disappeared into the impenetrable bush behind me.


À while later the dogs came by and chased up the one I wounded and I eventually killed it with a knife. I've never even shot a double and now a triple in my first hunt of the year. To say I'm stoked is a understatement! Last year I only shot 2 in 27 hunts and today 3. Thanks to all the trackers and dogs!





Cheers

[oafpatroll]

It was no less enjoyable reading it for a second time here. Thanks for sharing these accounts, reading them is almost like travel to as yet unexplored places for me.

[Treeman]

Bonjour ladies and gentlemen.

À while later the dogs came by and chased up the one I wounded and I eventually killed it with a knife. I've never even shot a double and now a triple in my first hunt of the year.
Cheers

*************************************
How do you tell a SA boy from the rest at a French hunt ?
uhhhhhhh ? the guy killing pigs with the knife is a good guess ?

[Againstthegrains]

Bonjour ladies and gentlemen.

À while later the dogs came by and chased up the one I wounded and I eventually killed it with a knife. I've never even shot a double and now a triple in my first hunt of the year.
Cheers

*************************************
How do you tell a SA boy from the rest at a French hunt ?
uhhhhhhh ? the guy killing pigs with the knife is a good guess ?

And if he's a Karoo farm boy, he's shooting them easy peasy at 500m 

[Methos]

Hi all.
We didn't hunt last weekend and yesterday was the first hunt since I shot my first tripple. A South African friend wanted to see what this hunting business was all about and I invited him to come along. He picked me up at 7 and we got to the club house at 7:30. We had a sandwich and coffee and the hunt organiser read out the security rules and the shooting rules. I was supposed to have a post in the far north west in the hunting area but then at the last moment I was moved to the far south east of the area. We were dropped off first and the other guys on posts were installed.
The area that we hunt in is immense. The guys in front of me were at least a kilometer away. The wind was blowing from the north east so I thought that if the dogs didn't chase up anything at the start of the hunt we were done for because they rarely come back down with the wind.
The dogs were released and it was on. Soon they picked up a scent and howls were heard everywhere and the sound of bells.
They passed us and nothing came out. We sat down again a d I told my friend that I don't think we're going to see anything. A while later just before 9:45 the dogs stated howling to my right. I was told before to survey 2 spots and ran to the spot where I could see around the bend and still cover my left hand side as well. Just as I got the my friend Dian called me back in a low whisper telling me he is hearing movement. Ran back to the spot I just left and saw the trees and bushes moving and heard the rocks rolling.
I saw glimpses of the boar but not enough to shoot. There was a small spot where there were no trees but still bushes of around 50cm high. Saw the boar approaching the clearing and stop. Then took off again at a run crossing the clearing. It was around 40m from me and I shouldered the rifle and shot. A bit to far back but broke the back. It squealed and I saw it was moving around and reloaded and shot again, low through the shoulder. At that stage the dogs were very close and I didn't want to fire again for fear of hitting them. Quickly grabbed my knife and ran down and stabbed the boar through the heart. An almost white grey female of around 80kg. Walked back up and my friend high fives me , I was very chuffed and thanked him for calling me back.
A while later a barrage of shots rang out to our right and after a while I heard some rocks rolling to our right. I walk over and see another boar running on the other side of the valley in front of me. It then disappears to my right. I get on the walkie talkie and tell the guy Tomy right that there is a boar on it's way to him.
We walk back to where our stuff is and suddenly a boar of around 60 kilos run out from the bushes around 60m from us, running towards us. I shoulder and shoot, aiming for the head. The boar falls but gets up and I reload the 308 bolt action. The pickup of the round isn't clear and it the round gets stuck in the just before the chamber. I try and quickly clear the round but struggle to and the boar is going to go into the young pine trees in front of us.
I eventually get a round chambered and shoot at the shoulder again. Then the boar is gone from our view and I grab my knife again and run down to try and get to it before the dogs. When I get there the sounds have stopped and I look if I can find it. Eventually I get to a game path and see a heavy blood trail. I go back up the hill because I'm not allowed to follow the trail during the hunt.
Get back up and I feel bad about not killing the boar immediately. 5 min later two trackers arrive and I tell them what happened. As we are talking the one yells out there it is around 250m away. It is running up the other side of the valley to our right. I pose the rifle in the tripod but I can't shoot because another guy on a post is behind the boar. The boar is running very slow and awkwardly. The dogs are not too far behind and I worry what is going to happen if they do catch up to the boar.

The boar then goes into a thicket of bushes and is lost from our view around 500m from us. A tracker is quickly dispatched that way and after and agonising half an hour the call comes of the walkie talkie that he has found the boar, dead.
I was very happy, not only for myself but also for Dian, I've had friends along before and saw absolutely nothing, it is quite a let down for me and them because I always talk of the hunts where I did shoot something, but never of the ones where you see jackshit.
After a while a tracker in the valley in front of us start yelling again and they call out over the radio that the dogs have lifted something and it heading my way. We look and listen everywhere and suddenly a fox makes it's appearance just where the second boar appeared but in the opposite direction. No time to shoot and I let the organisers know.
Just after that the announcement come that the hunt has ended and we head down to the bar to drag it back up. We grab the front legs and drag it through the buses and loose stones back up the mountain and eventually get there. Dian is a bit blown but we're happy with the day. We sit around waiting for them to pick is up and the call comes over the phone that we need to go drag out my second boar.
We get picked up and we first help dragging up another boar that was killed at the bottom of the valley. Then we need to go back down the valley for about a 100m and then back up to get to the boar. The vegetation is very dense and the valley is steep and we're sweating when we get to the other side. Attach a rope to the head of the 60kg boar and start dragging down hill. Get stuck a few times but manage to get down to the bottom and then the long hard haul back up starts. Other guy, Henri of 71 years eventually joins us and lends a hand since Dian is blown at this stage and I'm soaked in sweat.
Eventually get to around 30m from the top and they have sent down a bunch of ropes to attach to the boar and the drag it up with the 4x4 the rest of the way.
We get back to the club house and the first beer tasted like nectar going down. In total 4 boars were shot and we cleaned them and chopped them in half. I got to take home half of the big ons and will turn it into mince etc tomorrow.
All in all a awesome day!

[Treeman]

You on a roll ey ?
 We stayed home this weekend and I went through my stuff because I wanted to start using the .458 again. Cody saw the .458 bullets and he now just wants to use it.
Thing is, I found that I must have loaded it and forgotten, only 6 shot cases, rest loaded and ready.

I am really worried about the w/hog numbers this side, they like just gone, the drought just killed them in droves.