Simply Boar-some

The atmospheric oak forests of France offered an ideal backdrop for Jamie Tusting to try a masterclass in boar hunting

- Jamie Tusting

The bracken in front of me rustled and my heart rate soared; a little roebuck trotted out, hopped over the ditch and crossed the road behind me. I knew that deer were off the cards today, but I tracked it with the Sauer .30-06, tracing its path with the little red dot of the Aimpoint scope. It reached the woodland on the other side, cautiously looked around and disappeared into the undergrowth.

As my heart rate gently came back down, a 70kg wild boar erupted from the thicket, flew over the ditch and charged towards the far side of the road. I raised the rifle, paused until it was safe to shoot, squeezed the trigger, and the boar tumbled.

The road to shooting my first boar had started a few weeks before that, however, with an invitation to travel to Sologne in north-central France at the end of September for the world premiere of Wild Boar Fever X. I quickly cleared the diary and booked a flight — what an opportunity. As we approached an estate just outside the village of Yvoy-le-Marron we travelled through ancient oak and sweet chestnut forests, the dense understorey providing incredible habitat for all manner of species, from roe, red and fallow deer to wild boar.

The sweeping limestone tracks gently wove their way between the huge trunks and bracken until a clearing opened ahead of us and the lodge came into view, huge heads of the gold medal stags shot over the centuries adorning the gable end. An excited group of hunters from all over Europe had gathered and I felt the buzz as soon as I got out of the car.

Having never shot a moving target with a rifle, I was delighted when I was offered a chance to practise on the range. A polystyrene boar trundled back and forth about 50yd away and at that range and speed it wasn’t hard to put eight out of 10 shots on target.