Bagging a wild boar
WINFIELD TWP — For a year and a half, Tim Schnur knew a wild boar was on his property.
He just never saw it.
Schnur, 48, and his wife Virginia own 74 acres near Cabot. Virginia Schnur completed hunting's Triple Crown last year.
Tim Schnur has been hunting for 36 years and habitually bags deer and turkey. He was once part of a successful moose hunt in Alaska.
But a boar?
"I've never heard of any boar running loose in Butler County," he said. "A guy who lives down the road from us told me he saw one about a year and a half ago.
"A couple weeks went by and we never saw any sign of it. I spent about 200 hours clearing out logs and never saw a thing. We figured it had moved on."
The Schnurs do a lot of hunting on their property and have set up field cameras to spot game. The boar unexpectedly showed up on camera one night, then appeared again on successive nights.
Schnur said that with a valid hunting license, wild boar can be hunted in Pennsylvania anytime.
"I couldn't believe the thing was around here all that time and we'd never seen it. I went out to a tree stand at dusk, stayed as still as possible and waited," he said. "I brought my .338 Magnum with me because that hog looked pretty big on camera.
"About 7:30 in the evening (Feb. 4), I heard something behind me. I thought it was a deer coming through, but I turned around and saw the boar.
"He was pretty wary. He'd walk 15 yards, stop, look around, walk another 15 yards, stop, look around. ... He sensed something was up," Schnur added.
Planning to wait until the boar had wandered past the tree stand before taking a shot, Schnur had to react as the animal quickly darted the other way.
"He just turned around and bolted," Schnur said. "I don't know if he heard me or what. He ran about 60 yards, stopped, and turned broadside to me. I shot, heard a grunt and he spun around and took off again."
Schnur climbed down from the stand and took off after his prey. He found it lying dead about 25 yards from where it was shot.
"Good thing, because those things can be mean. ... I couldn't believe how big it was," he said.
The boar weighed 378 pounds. Schnur had it slaughtered and now has an ample supply of sausage and bacon.
"This is one thing I never figured I'd be hunting down," Schnur said. "Never before, never again."
