Hi guys another story for the archives, I wrote this story about my German boar hunt in Upstate NY. hope you enjoy it. Aim small hit small. RAMbo.
The Great German Boar Hunt
By Rick Mouleart
First, let me say that I live for big game hunting, so no matter what time of year it is, I'm ready to go hunting. On March 11, 2003, I headed to upstate New York for some great German boar hunting.
The first day at camp, my two friends Shawn and Max and I sharpened our shooting skills at the range behind our dwelling. It was very cold -- almost zero degrees. I tried out the .450 Marlin Guide gun, which was the Hornady Factory load. I took three shots for mark and noticed all of the shots were high and to the right. Before adjusting, I tried some of my reloads using the same bullet, a Hornady 350-grain Interlock on top of 50-grain H4198 using CCI Mag primers. I took three more shots, all in the bull. This was weird, but maybe the factory load had a problem with cold temperatures? I decided to use my reloads. After sighting in, we all relaxed and wondered how tomorrow’s hunting would be.
The next morning, we got up early to find our guide at our door. The guide, one of two, asked if we were ready to do some boar hunting. We all looked at him with a gleam and said, “You bet!” So, we headed out to the mountain range. The guide walked us halfway up the mountainside and split us up around 100 yards apart. He then said he would do a ridge push and hope there were some boars that would come down. He said if not, we would just keep trying different areas until we got them up and moving.
There I was at my stand, looking up a very steep hill and waiting for some good boar action when, suddenly, I heard a snort behind me. I turned around very slowly and noticed three German boars about 60 yards away scenting the air. They did not see me. The biggest one was very cautious about where it walked. It tried to always stay behind some brush or other cover. I brought my gun up to scope the biggest boar, and it was like the boar knew. All of the boars started moving away from me. I could see where the big boar was going so I put my scope in front of it, and said to myself, “When it appears in my scope, I will take an upper shoulder and lower neck shot.” And there it was! I took a half breath and squeezed. It went off perfectly. The boar dropped like a bad habit.
The next biggest boar looked up at me and snorted, showed its teeth and charged about 20 yards from me and stopped, chopping its jaws together. I had the rifle on it. One more step, and the boar would be toast. Then it circled a bit, went back to the dead boar, looked back at me with a snort and left. I waited about 30 minutes before going near the German boar since they are known to play possum. The boar was down for the count.
A moment later, I heard a noise and looked in its direction. There was a huge boar heading down the mountain right toward Shawn. Suddenly, I heard a shot from where Shawn was, and I heard Shawn talking. He got a boar also.
Now there was only Max left. About 20 minutes later, there was a gun shot where Max was and loud squealing. Max shot low on the boar and had to shoot again for the coup de grace.
We all got nice boars all over 250 pounds. The hunt was great and a good challenge, but this is not a hunt for the lighthearted. You need to be in shape to climb over those ridges and march around the woods in order to rouse the boars from their beds. I hope to do another boar hunt soon. If you ever want a great hunt, head up to Cold Brook Hunts in Holmer, N.Y., and have at it! Good luck and keep the wind to your face.
Rick A. Mouleart, New Hampshire
