Roy's a Boar virgin and we're in France to pop his onion.
The boy Lupton has spent thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours up high seats across
Europe in search of pigs, but has never pulled the trigger.
However we're hoping France will sort him out using either a bow, and or, a rifle.
Vive Le France
The Domain de Tourtines estate is an hour south of Toulouse, 20 minutes from the medieval
fortress town of Carcassonne and very beautiful.
T he hunting lodge is open and welcoming with plenty to suggest we're in the right place.
Roy is the first bow hunter ever to try for a wild boar on these grounds and his kit is
creating a lot of interest.
I want to go a touch higher.
When you're drawing the bow back this will be on here, OK?
Keep your fingers behind the trigger.
Before heading out he needs to make sure the bow is still on.
Estate owner Patrick has a go, sort of, the 75 pound draw weight can be a bit of a challenge,
especially when you don't know what to expect.
Sorry!
With Roy happy we're off after young fallow or boar.
Now you might have noticed that Roy is not wearing his usual head gear.
As stealth is key he asked Jack Pyke if they will send him the closest camo equivalent
to his Stetson.
Now you see him now you don't.
The English Oak pattern fits in well with the background of the surrounding French woodland.
We spot deer but nothing anywhere near close enough for the bow.
We've been stalking that group of deer down and they were just in this little bit of wooded
valley here and we could see the animal broadside and he was only about 30 yards but it was
a decent male and that's not what we're after
After only a few minutes we get our first boar encounter and it's a massive....anti-climax...
the piglet just grunts it's way around us...meanwhile Roy is having a bow malfunction.
Where I've been stalking i put the release and pushed it in the mud and it wouldn't close...arghhh.
It's certainly gets the blood going.
Our first proper chance appears through the trees, it's a perfect cull animal...but the
shot's not right.
There was a lovely little group of pigs who came through there and stopped absolutely
superbly but they were just about 40 - 45 yards, again if that's the opportunity we're
going to have to shoot out to that range but the day is still young.
I now think I should have taken this shot.
Moving deeper into the forest we get a chance to see some of the bigger boys on the estate.
22 yards away, perfectly within bow range but not on the menu.
He had a glance at us then off he was away, that was beautiful.
It really is blood pumping stuff and if you've never realised just where the tusks start
and finish on these wonderful animals here's one we prepared earlier.
That's the exterior.
Back to the stalking and it's a real thrill being in boar country.
As much as we'd like a chance on one of these keilers Roy knows the limitations of his arrows.
They definitely do the job on young boar but these tanks could be too tough.
More about that later.
Time for some lunch and here's another good reason to travel to France for boar, the food,
it is delicious.
As the light fades Patrick suggests we release the hounds.
Traditionally at this time of year it's driven boar, In the spring the high seats come into
their own.
With Roy in position facing a vast expanse we're not feeling confident about our chances.
Sensibly he chooses the rifle for this one.
Here piggy piggy.
Browning has sent him the new Browning Maral rifle in .300 Win Mag.
Because we're doing driven boar in this particular part of the estate we've brought the bow just
in case.
If we get lucky and we get boar stopped within 30-35 yard range which is literally to that
oak tree in front of us that is 30 yards down there, so they say the chances of the pig
stopping in that range when the hounds are after them is probably going to be quite slim
so we have the rifle as well and if we get the opportunity of a reasonable pig at that
we will give it a go.
The dogs are working hard, and their cry bounces around the valley.
It's superb when they all give tongue like that, they're definitely on the trail of something
in there.
WOW!!!!
The First!
Good shooting.
Arghhh - and just like that - superb!
Roy makes a fantastic classic driven boar shot.
That was phenomenal because you could hear them all coming up you heard the baying and
they were coming up towards us and the all of a sudden I caught sight of it coming from
the left hand side straight across infront of us.
All the practice at Ulfborg paid off.
Ha ha - the spell of the wild boar is now broken, excellent right now I've got to do
it with the bow.
He's done it, all that practice with an air rifle and remote control car has paid off.
I really appreciate it.
Your first.
You've broken the myth of the boar for me.
Super I appreciate it.
We've done Poland, we've done Hungary, we've done Austria a few times and never had luck
and that is just superb to come to France and have that opportunity straight off is
absolutely wonderful and it was super as well with the dogs listening to the dogs giving
tongues like that coming up and working on the pig and then it just tucked through, absolutely
fantastic.
Pierre-Jean offers some incredible all-inclusive boar on a budget deal.
If you can get 10 guns together and get yourself to France, 20 boar of any size will be yours
for £1,000 per shooter - and they'll even supply the gun for free.
This is not the wild lands of the Baltic but brilliant if you want to encounter boar.
The area that we're in is it well known for good hunting?
Yes it is a very famous part in France for wild boar hunting and mainly driven hunts.
We have some good population of boar on the estate from young boar, medium sized boar
to big tuskers.
Yes we have a good population of boar.
And it was just beautiful this morning when we were stalking through and seeing the big
tuskers laid up in the woods.
Beautiful to see yeah,beautiful to see.
So the opportunity for wither driven boar or stalking boar here is very good.
We can do some combinations, driven during the day and have an evening stalking there
is no weight limit or stuff on this particular estate so you can have a bigger one or like
this one any size when driven.
OK And we'd like to have more bow hunters coming
here maybe this time of year is not clearly the best time because it is the winter which
is best for drive days but during the spring and summer because we can shoot all year round
so, yeah waiting during the evening and the morning and evening is the best time for proper
bow hunting.
We'll have to come back for that!
Back at the lodge Patrick is celebrating Roy's first boar with some pink bubbles, all booze
is included in the price too, but we need clear heads for tomorrow because Roy's been
told that, if he gets a chance at a tusker, he can take it.
The probability is that although we saw 2 or 3 and got up to them very well yesterday
when they were couched up we might not see one doing that today but we'll give it a try
and see what we can do and hopefully we might get there but it's going to be a bit of a
challenge we've got to leave for the airport in a couple of hours so we've really got to
get going lights just cracked open and we are seriously now on the eleventh hour baring
in mind we weren't even going to hunt this morning.
We are still persevering with the bow but we have the Browning just in case...
Roy has two chances, we get close to this one but he makes a sharp exit when he hears
the approach.
The second one comes to us, but from the wrong direction, and he is not waiting around for
us to get ourselves sorted out.
If nothing else it was a fantastic experience being face to face with a piggy at that range
especially a nice size one as well but I think we might be done.
We'll get back up the top and see what we can do.
The bow is proving just too hard at this time of year so Roy is handed the rifle and placed
in a high seat..We have time for one drive before we have to drive to the airport.
The dogs work the ground and then we spot a big pig.
What a pig - thank you very much.
Wonderful thank you.
Patrick thinks the big male is about 7 years old and will weigh in at about 110 kilos.
He really is magnificent.
You often hear how sharp and dangerous those tusks are, so Roy sees if a little pressure
on an acorn makes an impression.
So what we're going to do is to try and demonstrate just how sharp the tusks are as we've got
an acorn here we're just going to run it up along the side of the tooth there, that cuts
in quite well.
Our trip to southern France has been exceptional...
Wonderful hospitality, spacious clean accommodation, lots of game and great value.
Just show up in France we'll pick you up in the airport, have a very nice weekend with
a bag between 20-25 pigs all included meals, drinks, we'll take care of everything, nice
food, you've seen the food the accommodation which is nice also, drinks and of course all
the driven days.
Superb value you can't get better than that.
And obviously the added bonus of having the opportunity to get a big beasty like that
what more can you ask.
And again I can't thank the team enough for the hospitality we've been shown here it's
been absolutely superb.
If you fancy a boar-filled trip here on the Domain de Tourtines estate, contact Pierre-Jean
on the email address on the screen, plus all his contact details and prices are in this
films description.