Boar Hunting
Welcome to our Boar Hunting section which contains details on traditional Boar Hunting on the mainland of Europe. Please read this section fully if you are unfamiliar with the sport of driven Boar shooting and we would especially like to draw your attention to our summarising comments at the bottom of this page - thank you.
Overview
We generally consider what we know as 'The Balkans' ie, Northern Serbia, Southern Hungary and Eastern Croatia as being the major driven boar destinations although Driven boar can be successfully organised in other countries across the mainland of Europe. Some of the Northern Serbian estates, however, where they organise driven wild boar hunting provide bigger daily bags with significantly higher number of high trophies than anywhere else in Eastern Europe. All the estates have well implemented shooting and safety regulations and a long tradition of hnting which goes back several hundred years. They also practise a unique system of wild boar management that leaves the strongest and the cleverest animals alive while the naive and the slow ones are actively involved in 'natural selection processes'.
We generally consider what we know as 'The Balkans' ie, Northern Serbia, Southern Hungary and Eastern Croatia as being the major driven boar destinations although Driven boar can be successfully organised in other countries across the mainland of Europe. Some of the Northern Serbian estates, however, where they organise driven wild boar hunting provide bigger daily bags with significantly higher number of high trophies than anywhere else in Eastern Europe. All the estates have well implemented shooting and safety regulations and a long tradition of hnting which goes back several hundred years. They also practise a unique system of wild boar management that leaves the strongest and the cleverest animals alive while the naive and the slow ones are actively involved in 'natural selection processes'.
Driven wild boar can be successfully organised in the hilly area of Southern Serbia and central Croatia or very old lowland woodland area of Eastern Croatia and Northern Serbia. Our best open and enclosed estates are located around the river Danube both in Eastern Croatia and Northern Serbia. These areas provide a comfortable climate and plenty of natural woods, rivers, marshes, canals and valleys that are necessary for good wild boar reproduction.
The cost of a driven day depends on an estimated bag, level of luxury, reputation of the chosen estate and demands. Packages are based on group experience, total bags etc and can be organised over 2-4 driven days. In some estates it is possible to organise a day where everyone pays for their own bags and trophy fees. In many other estates it is a common practice for a group to pay a fixed price per day and shoot as much as they can. Every single estate in Northern Serbia charges differently per day of shooting and this is influenced by average bags that were presented over the last few years.
Dedication of the team and respect for fellow hunters is a vital part of the shooting experience. Some people will shoot plenty and some people less in group packages. This is the reality of this sport. Every group will undoubtedly experience excitement and adrenaline that driven wild boar shooting creates.
Open Areas Driven Wild Boar Hunting
The best value package includes driven wild boar hunting organised in completely open areas where the outcome and daily bag is unpredictable, however the quality of the game and experience is superb. Predicting the bags in the open forests is difficult and any targets are based on the historical bags over the last 6 years. Shooting big bags in open areas is recommended only for teams that have been shooting driven wild boar together during the last few years and are able to recognise quality over quantity in this discipline of the sport. With 14-18 experienced guns in an average open area estate they could reasonabily expect to shoot 8 to 20 Boar / driven day. A very experienced team could achieve higher bags.
With less experienced guns it can be much less. Generally such teams average around 3 bullets per boar shot and this is the average used to calculate whether the organisers have provided the right level of sport independent of the bag at the end of the day. What matters is that the boar are presented and drives are well organised. The true sportsman knows that in open areas there is no chance to guarantee daily bags and that shooting must be organised for at least 3 days to give each Gun a fair share of the sport. Keepers try hard to present enough animals in open areas so that a bag is at least 10-15 boar although the quality of the shooting and weather conditions will play a part in the bag. True sportsmen, however, are able to recognise quality of shooting, organisation and that sporting bags are more or less expected to be 10 wild boar every 3-4 drives with min 30-40 bullets per day. Bags generally include a few highly valued tuskers at no extra charge in most estates.
Some of the more popular open estates in Croatia charge a symbolic 30% trophy price list for male wild boar over 3 years old to discourage groups that are picking only big Boar in open areas and constantly complain about small bags. This is important as there is traditionally no refund for poor shooting or smaller bags and in such instances the organisers will believe that if a group fired more than 45 bullets during the course of a day the sport has been provided - so best you practise before you go!
Driven Wild Boar in the best European open forests share the same ground with the some of the best Red Deer trophies in the world. Thus, many estates are not happy to disturb the red deer population for a day with a bag less that 15 Boar. In Northern Serbia in highly Boar populated areas it is likely that there will only be 2-3 long drives in the day with minimum of 16-20 guns on the peg. Each gun pays 50% of the trophy price list that applies to a stalking day. This is probably the cheapest way to get a big trophy and at the same time pay for your own shooting and not that of the whole team.
The number of Boar that you will shoot during your trip depends on your skill, your luck and your budget!
Highly Intensive Driven Wild Boar Hunting
For the teams that shoot a lot of driven game and expect a more guaranteed shooting experience there is always the option of shooting pre-captures Boar within an enclosed area. These areas can vary greatly in size and t hey contain the same challenging wild animals but this method allows the keepers to closely monitor the number of boar shoot and re-stock accordingly. Boar are trapped in open forests (massive units for feeding and caging) and released in enclosed areas that average 2500-8000 acres. During the season animals are hunted inside this area which can be mistaken for an open forest because of its size. Animals are regularly restocked during the weekends with fresh game captured in the wilderness. This provides a stable wild boar population in certain areas with animals that in wild areas can migrate up to 40km overnight. At the end of season all animals are let back to the large open forests for breeding.
This provides a completely different quality and volume of shooting. This Balkan method is not to be mistaken for many places in Europe that offer boar that spend all their lives in small enclosed areas not bigger than 500 acres. Generally Balkan enclosed estates offer an excellent boar hunting experience. A high quantity and quality of wild animals are presented in 4-5 drives during a course of day. Numerous highly valuable tuskers in daily bags can be shot at no extra charge.
It is generally recommended that groups consisting of a minimum of 12-14 people as driven boar are a very challenging quarry, and with fewer Guns ranges increase and there is a greater possibility of wounding animals. In general it is considered to be unethical if there are less than 12 people in the line and please be aware that even if the organisers accept smaller teams, in some estates you will still be charged for a minimum of 12 pegs!
You will be expected to bring your own rifle (.30.06, .308 or bigger) or a shotgun - Croatia only (1oz. rifled slugs). Whatever rifle you take with you, the calibre must be over 7mm - a legal minimum for wild boar. When you enter Croatia or Serbia you will need to declare your guns and pay a fee of around 15 Euros for the temporary import of a gun and as with much of Eastern Europe this can be a variable sum depending on who happens to be working that day, so be warned and prepared also for lengthy delays at immigration - we have heard reports of 6+ hour delays just to clear your rifles...
That said, the sport is amazing once you get there and is well worth the effort!
