Here in Texas, we aren’t too thrilled about our wild boar situation, but we have to admit that it has led to some excellent hunting! North Texas wild boar are a unique game hunting experience: techniques for tracking, approach, aiming, and takedown are all somewhat different from what you’re used to if deer, turkeys, and doves have represented the bulk of your hunting portfolio so far.
Today, we’re sharing our North Texas wild boar hunting tips! Read on to learn just how to bag one of these invasive animals for yourself in 2023.
Tracking Wild Boar
Like their domestic counterparts, wild boars love to eat! If you’re hunting with us here at 9 Bar Ranch, we’ll be able to scour our feeding stations for our targets. If you’re on your own in the wild north of here, keep an eye out for circling vultures. If the carrion is large enough, wild boar will gather around to join the vultures for a meal.
Essentially, when it comes to boars, the stinkier the food, the happier they are! Use this to your advantage anytime you’re tracking them.
How to Safely Approach Wild Boar
Wild boars are the fearless kings of their surroundings. Their intimidating size, impressively thick hides, and enormous tusks completely protect them from would-be predators. As a result, they aren’t too picky about their surroundings, and don’t stay on high alert like vulnerable deer and gazelle species.
Furthermore, boar are mostly blind. They rely on their noses (and to a lesser extent, their ears) to clue them in to their surroundings. If you stay downwind of them, take a stealthy approach, and mask your own scent for good measure, it’s unlikely that your presence will be detected by boars.
Where to Aim
When you’ve located a herd of boar, and have narrowed the gap between you and them, it’s time to take aim. Now, boar have incredibly tough skin. Their heads and shoulders serve as their armor. If you shoot them in the shoulder, their strong flesh and thick fat can close up behind the bullet, leaving not so much as a trail of blood as they flee.
Consider that they have delicious shoulder meat as well! Therefore, we recommend that you aim directly behind a boar’s ear. This spot will have the greatest impact on them while preserving their tastiest cuts of meat.
It Takes More Than One Shot
Once in a while, one perfect alignment of timing, aim, and the position of a boar’s head MAY result in a one-shot kill. Because this is unlikely to happen on your hunt, we recommend that all hunters prepare to deliver two or more shots as quickly as possible.
SHOOT UNTIL THE ANIMAL STOPS MOVING.
The Takeaway
These powerful animals are not easy to bring to their knees—but you can make it happen.
To book your wild boar hunt at 9 Bar Ranch, please contact us today!