Hi all. I have a question that I need an answer to and I am hoping that some of you folks on here might be able to help me out. I am planning a boar hunt to Pennsylvania with my very dear friend who is 20 years my senior and has had some serious health issues but has been on the road to recovery and doing fantastically. I have heard horror stories about "canned hunts" that when you get there you go out and the guide tells you, "there, shoot that one," and the pig is standing twenty feet away staring at you wondering if you have feed for him/her. Are there any places (I live in Maine) in PA that the hunt is as real as real can be??? I am paying for the trip for us and I want him to have a damned good time as well as myself. I don't relish the thought of hunting in a petting zoo but it is the closest place to me that I can find that have boar and its still hours away. No time for TX or anything like that i don't think. HELP! I don't want to spend money and as the comodian Lewis Black said, "go to place that has turned a petting zoo into alshweitz (spelling,I know but I shoot better than I type I swear)."

Hmm. What about Hillside Game Ranch in Aurora Maine? I hunted there several years ago and had a pretty good time. I will be honest, any fenced in preserve is not like hunting in the wild. Generally speaking the larger the acreage the more hunt is in it especially if you use a handgun or other limited range weapon.

bigbore,
Are you serious? There is a ranch right here in Maine? Now how the hell did I miss that. What was the hunt like? I know that they have to be different than the real deal but do the animals at least run away from you??? Thanks for the response!

Jamesfromjersey has hunted on a preserve or two in Pa. ask him. I think alot of folks have the wrong impression of hunting preserves. I my experience on preserves the animals are far from tame. If yall are hog hunting, I doubt a Russian boar will let you scratch him behind his ears & feed him slop. It's all the dumb a** animal rights activists and PETA fools that speak of the evils of hunting preserves that give them a bad name. The size of the preserve does matter, but remember that most people that hunt deer, hunt them on less than 100 acres. Here in NC I kill my limit of deer every year with no problem on a couple hundred acres & the deer are on an unfenced property, but it's still pretty easy if you're smart and can shooot straight. Check and call the references for some of the places you are interested in. Where ever you go I bet you'll love it and be glad you went.

James is the man to ask obout boar hunting.

Lucien:

It was 2003 when I went hunting at Hillside Game Ranch. I wanted to hunt for wild boar but I did not have the time off to head to central Florida for a hunt. So I took a chance and hunted Hillside. I will be honest, I had a good time and there was some challenge in the hunt. I heard some stories that the owner of the place, Scott Beade, can be difficult to deal with but I never had a problem.

I shot a Russian boar and a red deer hind( doe) with my muzzleloading handgun. I will be honest. The hind sort of stood there. They have no fear of man. The boar was pushed by Scott's dog so it was a challenge in a way. Another thing is that I did help them out. Someone wounded a red deer hind and he used the dog to chase it. I was asked if it went by me that I needed to put it down. I was too slow with the gun as it ran past me within five feet and the dog on it's heels. It was taken later on but again a lot of fun.

Fanchise,

Thanks for the heads up and the encouragement! I really want to have a good time since this is the first non-deer hunting we have ever done. Killed many an animal but not these animals and I want a challenge if I can get one. Off to Alaska next year with a self guided hunt for caribou and black bear. God help me, I'm either brave or really stupid.

Bigbore, Thank you for the insight on Hillside. The guy seemed gruff on the phone but he's a Mainer and I am as well so we understood one another after a minute or so. Hopefully that's what you meant when you said others have had trouble with him. Where abouts in New England are you from, if you don't mind me asking that is?

What size boar did you take while you were there and congrats on the hunt by the way. I really want to maximze the fun for the dollar.

Here is a link with greater details and some pictures of what I did in Aurora Maine.

http://bigbore442001.blogspot.com/2009/04/black-powder-handgun-hunting.html

The Russian Boar was around 150 lbs or so. The Russian boar was a compact animal so it seemed that I got quite a bit of meat off of it. The doe I shot is not a whitetailed deer. It is a European Red deer. The animal looks huge but it is very spindly once you dress it out. I bet that deer didn't have any more meat than a whitetail of 140lbs or so.

If you don't mind I will send you a PM>

All preserves aren't created equally....but, that said, one of the toughest hunts I have ever been on was on a preserve that wasn't very big. The animals were under a lot of pressure and they spooked easily. If I have the time to take my time, I like a free ranging hunt, but frankly I don't that much time often so a preserve is a better option -- in some instances. I think the naysayers are often folks who have never hunted a preserve.

I've heard good things about Tioga hunting preserve in Tioga county Pa. It's just north of me here in Pa. I have not personally hunted there But I hear the are pretty good. I don't have their web site but I know they have one, you'll have to do a web search for them.

Randy, The Birddog.

Bigbore, PM-away. I am online and researching and... well, stuff!

nice write up big bore. Er, I will agree that the deer was, well, les than stellar. Got why ya did it but at least the bore part was fun and more like a real hunt! Looking into Alaska after the boar hunt. Any ideas???

I forgot, the boar looked quiet nice! baby hollering in the background and forgot to mention it!

hunting game ranches is a great way to get meat, i've hunted tough ones, and i've hunted easy ones. some great for the kiddos, some too tough with very very spooky animals. just had muledeer opened up this year for the first time since before i was born where we have our property here in texas. ran into one the other day, just looked at me and bounced off 50 yards, stopped to look back. i've never hunted a game ranch with animals that tame. no one would've had a problem if i kill that deer on my property if it was in season. just hunt to shoot something for meat or a challenge, both are valid. my kids elk hunts this year will be no more challenging than the hunting ranch hunts i've been on with outfitters knowing where all the animals will be.

Save yourself a lot of driving and take your pigs (or whatever else you'd like) right next door in VT. They have several thousand acres and you won't see a fence once you enter the place.
Wild Hill Preserve
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Charlie,
What the specs on your carbine there? Nice pig, by the way!

-240

That's a T/C (Encore) ProHunter with a 20" Katahdin bbl in 45-70. I like the gun but the pig hated it. One shot at about 100yds with a 325gr Flex-tip bullet and it was over.

That was the largest hog shot on that weekend but they don't have a scale so you can only guess what the weight was. I brought him home completely butchered and freezer wrapped. He was quite fatty but very good eating.

Several boar were killed while I was there. Other hunters killed a buffalo and a red stag. All kinds of critters roaming this huge place. Many animals naturally breed there.