How should I deal with a boar carcass after shooting?

Wild boar are very heavy boned, especially their skulls, so it takes a heavy bullet to stop them.

By Richard Prior

Monday, 23 January 2012

I am keen to shoot a wild boar, but I am unsure as to what preparations I should make, and how I should deal with the carcass.

Is it scalded in boiling water and the hair scraped off, as one does with a pig?

BOAR SHOOTING
Richard Prior
Firstly, you need to have wild boar on your Firearms Certificate, and the police will need to know where you intend to go boar shooting.

Make sure, too, that you have an adequate rifle. Boar are quite heavy-boned, especially their skulls, and you will need a heavy bullet to stop them effectively. It is best to consider a .308, a .30-06, or similar.

You may, of course, be able to use the estate rifle when you arrive at your hunting destination, but it is always better to use your own, familiar weapon.

Boar are primarily nocturnal, so a scope with a large lens and preferably one with an illuminated reticle will be a tremendous help.

If a sounder of boar emerges, it is very difficult to keep track of the one you want, as they restlessly move about.

A large boar is very heavy and extremely smelly, and unless you are determined to have a pair of tusks, an 18-month-old beast of, say, 40kg is easier to handle and much better eating.

The gralloch has to be done with care because, unlike with deer, the gall bladder, which lies by the liver, must be removed.

Preparation involves skinning, which is a tedious process, as the skin won’t peel but has to be cut away with a knife, which will require constant re-sharpening.

However, once accomplished, you will have some delicious meat.