Techniques on Boar Hunting

Pre-hunt Planning

• Boars are territorial and tend to stay in a small area, rarely straying more than one or two miles from their nesting home. They live alone, but are usually in close proximity to other boars and socialize with one another on occasion.
  
  If you hunt the same territory multiple times, get a topographical map and mark the boar bedding areas you find. These beds will look a lot like beds made by deer and will be found under the cover of brush or thicket. They are made of matted grass or mud.
  
  Keep track of all boar signs, whether it's scat (droppings) or a mudbath area freshly used by boars. Mudbaths will have boar tracks in them and be filled with upturned mud and divots made by boars. If the mud is wet, it has probably been used recently.
  
  If you can figure out their roaming and hunting patterns, you can determine the best place to set up your hunting stand. If you are hunting in thick forest, bring Lanocaine or Solarcaine with you. These are good remedies for poison ivy and mosquito bites. Apply baking soda to your skin to help neutralize your smell and keep boars from becoming aware of you.
  
  

Firearm Selection and Use

• Choosing your gun depends on the distance from which you expect to hunt a boar, which is based on the local geography. Most often, boar hunting is done in forests and hunters use guns appropriate for close proximity. But if you are hunting in a clearing or open space, you will probably need a long-range weapon.
  
  If you aren't using a treestand or will spend much of your time on the ground, expecting to run into a boar at close range, you might choose a .30-caliber or .44-caliber Magnum. For long range, or if you will be hunting over a wide area, you will be better off with a bolt-action rifle. You can use a 12-gauge shotgun, but a boar's size is near the upper limit of a shotgun's capabilities, and from long range it could prove ineffective.
  
  Keep your gun at the ready when you are on the ground. Wild boars can be unpredictable and charge, and larger boars can easily kill a human with their tusks (this is why many hunters prefer treestands). When shooting the boar, aim for the body trunk directly behind where the front two legs join the body. Avoid aiming at the boar's face: There is plenty of extraneous flesh there, making a kill more difficult, and you can't mount a boar that's taken a headshot.