From: "Jonathan M. Spencer" <jms@salvage.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.hunting
Subject: Re: Boar and Knives
Date: 19 Aug 1998 22:12:10 -0400

In article <6rb6nf$bp9@xring.cs.umd.edu>, Manny <roglun@fidnet.com>
writes
#I have never heard of such madness.  A boar will hurt you if your are
#stupid enough to give it the chance.

And therein, some would say, lies the 'sport' - the animal has a good
chance of surviving.

In Europe, a special form of spear that is has a blade shaped like a
feather was (and still is) used.  The spear is known in German as a
saufeder (sow feather).  It has a cross member at the base of hte blade
to prevent over penetration and the pig coming up the spear at you.

I know of a Jaeger in the Hartz mountains (Germany) who takes around 20
wildschwein each winter by pursuing them with a pack of Jack Russels.
The pig is chased for up to 10km before it turns 'at bay' (not
'cornered', but simply decides to turn and fight it out).  With the Jack
Russells darting about and some hanging on to the pig, the saufeder is
driven home.  He uses Jack Russells because of their agility, they are
fast too quick for the pig to connect with them.  I can fully understand
why large dogs such as pit bulls get injured, they are just too big and
slow (and dumb I suspect :).

--Jonathan Spencer

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