In late summer, the golden fields of the Maremma are constantly preyed upon by wild boars. More and more often I receive invitations to containment operations for the wild boar species. It is a very particular form of hunting, from stalking, evenings or even at night. When the opportunity arises, I gladly take part in these interventions. Tonight I am in the company of my friend Fabrizio. We are accompanied on the spot by the hunting guard responsible for the intervention.
Once on the spot we are told that we have to cover an area where the fodder is still being threshed. From here you can see a field of field beans behind us and a field of wheat to our left, which have been the object of an inappropriate interest from the wild boars in recent nights. There are two positions to control this field, one more on the right overlooking a land and a piece cultivated with field beans, and one more on the left, cultivated with wheat.
We try with a glance to weigh the exposure and the possible advantage of one of the two ambushes, but neither of them manages to break the chain of availability with which we rebound the priority to choose. In the end, Francesco [the hunting guard, ed] decides that it is necessary to throw a coin and thus casually establish our position. We toss the coin and, as a presage, I go to assign myself the position on the left, with a slice of corn in the view. I take advantage of the last rays of the sun to study the landmarks and telemetry distances. Anyone who knows me knows how much I much prefer to hunt during the day and with the light to enjoy the hunt and the animals but, tonight there is a very bright full moon, the freshly threshed field is a perfect background for the black bristles and, not from lastly, the desire to test a new digital aiming optic together configure an exciting mix of opportunities and expectations.
The residual light of the sun mixes with the glow of the moon, leaving a discreet visibility as the hours go by. Thanks to the bright lenses of the binoculars I see a roe deer and two hares, otherwise invisible, in the field and I enjoy their company, using their silhouettes to study the various functions of the aiming optics. A stain interrupts my gaze. The edge of the wood flows from right to left. I observe the animal and rangefinder the distance. It is a large and lonely wild boar at a distance of about 200 meters.
"Heads or tails?" I repeat in my mind, thinking that as for the choice of the positions, once again everything depends on which direction the boar will take: the field bean on the right where Fabrizio is or the cornfield on the left in front of me? I try to follow the animal with binoculars and then with digital optics, but it is not easy to adapt the eyes to these different types of "vision" and I have a hard time engaging it at every change. The higher magnifications make me lose sharpness and I go back to 11 magnifications which give me an acceptable vision. I wait for it to detach itself from the edge of the woods, following its slow pace but, when I'm just waiting for it to stop for a moment, I see them retrace their steps and plunge back into the darkness of the scrub. The regret for a missed shot is inevitable, I feel I have lost a good opportunity waiting to be able to make a cleaner shot.
Two minutes of struggling seem like hours, but while I'm about to resign myself to the idea, the wild boar reappears on the field, this time about ten meters ahead. In reality this time it is much closer, rangefinder the position at 156 meters. I report the magnifications to 11 as a good compromise between magnification and sharpness, I rig the rifle, I place the cross on the animal which… obviously positions itself at the tip. I wait calmly for it to be put on a postcard. Meanwhile the phone vibrates in my pocket but I have no intention of taking it to read the message. I know it will be Fabrizio who writes to me asking why I still don't shoot… My answer comes to him through the roar with which the 7 × 64 bullet leaves the rifle to go and nail the boar in place.
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