Hunting boar in Spain with the mrs over the winter… My last kill of the season was with my trusty old XP50 thermal rifle-scope on to my favourite MSR-10 Hunter semi-auto rifle. After two days of arduous recon, from a hillside we finally found a suitable one down at the bottom of the valley. I set up 100m away from the boar, downwind, 14 degree angle downhill to target, and the hog had stopped to take a drink in the ice cold mountain stream. The wife was monitoring and range-finding on an XG35 thermal spotting scope. Everything was perfect… But we chose to gamble on moving in closer to a species that’s highly mobile, as agile as a mountain goat, and can disappear like a ghost. The white noise of running water, the pitch black night and a strong headwind allowed us to reach a new vantage point just 65m from the animal.
Neck-shot in a mountain stream:
After a few minutes the beast presented broadside for a textbook neck shot, instant drop, immediate humane kill. (There were further rounds in the mag if needed, and one ready in the chamber less than 100 milliseconds after firing the shot.) Our chosen bullet has a proven track record from 50m to 300m for big game, providing acceptable expansion. Extraction was more of a challenge. We soon discovered that the boar was on an island surrounded by a deep quagmire. I struggled to find a safe path through the swamp, but after I’d failed from 3 separate routes the mrs just waded in, finding a safe path using red torchlight, deployed her drag strap to pull several kilos of meat up onto the bank, and commenced skinning and gralloching while I fetched the jeep.
Loadout:
- Rifle: Savage MSR-10 Hunter (semi-auto AR-10) chambered for 6.5 Creedmoor
- Riflescope: Pulsar Thermion 2 XP50 Pro (on Tier One QD mount)
- Spotter: Axion 2 LRF XG35
- Ammo: Norma Bondstrike Extreme 143gr
- Sticks: Primos Trigger Stick Gen 3 tripod
- Gun bag: Bergara padded gun bag (SKU A04935)
Boars are more nomadic and unpredictable than deer… The elusive, wild, rugged “Jabalí de montaña” breed seen in these video clips inhabit a crazy mountainous landscape, living everyday life at altitudes exceeding 2,000 meters. (The highest mountain in Britain is Ben Nevis at 1,345 m, or compare with Snowdon at 1,085 m.) This boar variety is pure lean muscle but also highly intelligent. It strolls up steep slopes and cliff-faces literally like a mountain goat, and disappears into terrain or scrub like an ethereal phantom. They endure an arid climate that swings between extreme heat and cold, generally from -7°C to 33°C. While deer don’t need to drink because they get enough water from their diet, boars do need to drink regularly — another challenge of living in this high-desert environment. Seasonal streams are a good place to find their tracks — distinctive circular hoof-prints. Their only reward for this harsh lifestyle is almonds, the main crop grown here and a boar’s favourite food — which elsewhere in the peninsula boar-hunters use as bait.
Spain is a fascinating country to hunt in. They have seasons for rabbits. Some autonomous regions have declared a wild boar emergency, allowing new opportunities for hunting with thermal optics.
Recon:
