WBF XI is Franz-Albrecht’s 9th season of WBF. He met Poul Erik Madsen, director and founder of the original series on a driven boar day in Germany in 2008, where they made plans and started filming in 2009. From Bavaria, Germany, Wild Boar Fever star Franz-Albrecht’s family have been involved forestry and agriculture for many years and he is continuing in this tradition, including the management of the wildlife. He has been involved in hunting for as long as he can remember inspired by his father, who as a lifelong mentor, still shares the passion for hunting today. Franz-Albrecht enjoys all forms of hunting from stalking to calling but loves driven hunting which started for him when he accompanied his father aged 5 – he has been hooked ever since. His advice to new hunters of the discipline is to find a good mentor and teacher. Watching this season will be a good start point as it offers some excellent instruction and techniques.
Originally from the south of France, but now living in Epinal, a small city close to the mountains, Les Vosges, in the north east of the country. Feliew is the director of a local hunting federation, a role he’s been carrying out for the past 12 years.
Many will need no introduction to this three-time Wild Boar Fever star as he’s somewhat of a European social media icon. Out with the Wild Boar Fever series, Feliew films many of his own hunting adventures which are shown on his YouTube page. Between all his social media accounts Feliew has approximately 150K followers, not forgetting his two new hunting series’ for MyOutdoorTV, ‘Hunting with Feliew: Trips’ and ‘Hunting with Feliew: Driven Hunts’.
His passion for the sport was ignited at an early age, following in his father’s footsteps, on vineyard hunting trips – a traditional sport where he’s from. Feliew is a firm believer that hunting is our heritage and runs in our blood, saying: “It calls your instincts, moves your senses and encourages our nature as a predator”.
The passionate, beret-wearing Frenchman’s hunting adventures are typically made up of vermin control during the spring months, roebuck stalking, fox control and wild boar bow hunting during the summer, before wildfowling, driven bird and boar hunting over the winter months.
Discussing Wild Boar Fever, Feliew says he always enjoys each season more that the last and is forever amazed by the incredible show of beasts, but what makes each season great is the team of guns, who he now regards as family.
From the Taunus area in Germany, Wild Boar Fever XI star Frederic Hanner is the UK CEO of Blaser Group Limited, the UK distributor of German brands Sauer, Mauser, Blaser and Minox. First introduced to hunting around the age of eight-years old by local hunters, who started him out beating and helping with the management of local hunting areas, Frederic has always had a passion for the outdoors and later progressed in the sport by obtaining his German hunting licence at the age of 16.
Typically, each season Frederic enjoys stalking, bird and small-game shooting by shotgun and of course driven boar, which he says is a definite favourite! Adding: “I love the whole dynamics of the day and of course when you are in the action - whether as a beater with loads of boar around you in the thicket or the excitement of being a gun and having the boar approach your stand.”
No newcomer to the Wild Boar Fever scene, after watching the show throughout his teenage years, Frederic first starred in Wild Boar Fever 8 after winning a place through the Wild Boar Fever Academy in 2015 and is now a star hunter, having four consecutive seasons under his belt. When asked about experience of filming WBF XI, he says: “ It was exciting as always, as you never know what will happen and how you will perform. I think having such an experienced team really helped and everyone was much calmer and more focused than the years before. The hunts themselves were absolutely spectacular this season, as I definitely was very lucky with my stands and shot some absolutely huge boar.”
From Nebraska, United States, Wild Boar Fever XI star Neil Davies is a former U.S. Marine and the global marketing director for Hornady. Neil was first introduced to hunting around the age of 14-years old, when he was staying with family friends in Canada. With hunting having skipped a generation in his family, once Neil got the bug for it, it was one to stay and became a major part of his life.
When asked what inspired him to take up hunting, Neil says: “I can’t really tell you – it just resonated with me, and still does. Like everyone I enjoy being outdoors and communing with nature. I have come to relish the challenge that hunting provides. It’s man vs wild, and the eternal competition that’s a part of it, but ultimately, it’s just something that is a part of the psyche for some and I suppose it helps identify us at some point.”
Primarily a hunter of small and medium-sized game, such as turkey, whitetail deer, varmint, ducks and geese found around home, Neil also enjoys hunting all over the States and internationally, but local hunting remains his passion. Neil was first introduced to driven boar hunting in Germany many years ago and fell in love with the sport, which he says is tough to beat!
Now starring in his second season of Wild Boar Fever, Neil says that “It’s a rare privilege that I don’t take lightly. There are many unique aspects to the driven hunt that we don’t do here in the US and it’s incumbent upon me to live up to the standards set forth by my hosts. Making snap decisions about sex and age of running animals, as well as executing shots on running game are all things I don’t do very often. I would be a liar if I said it was easy, because it’s most definitely not.”
From Ystand in the south of Sweden, Wild Boar Fever XI star Alexander Nordin is the regional sales director for Swedish optics brand, Aimpoint. Alexander’s interest in hunting first started during a safari trip to South Africa with his father and grandfather 15-years ago. During that safari, Alexander shot his very first animal and this sparked his interest so much so that upon returning to Sweden he signed up to a class to sit his Swedish hunting exam.
What he enjoys about the sport is being able to spend time with his family, doing what they love the most and learning new skills they honed during their lifetime of hunting. Typically, during the spring and summer months, you’ll find Alexander controlling the fox and wild boar numbers close to home and later in the summer hunting mature roebucks. Once the driven hunting season opens in October, most of Alexander’s spare time is spent hunting boar, as well as some small-game shooting for pheasant, ducks, hares and doves.
Alexander’s first driven hunt didn’t happen until he was 18-years old, as you can’t own a rifle in Sweden before this age, and although he didn’t shoot anything on his first outing, he was still buzzing to be in a stand on his own for the very first time. He added that the most exciting thing about driven hunting is that: “You just never know what will happen. You always have to be very alert and ready to make a quick decision.”
For Alexander, starring in Wild Boar Fever have meant he has completed a trilogy of appearances and each time is always amazed by the incredible hunting grounds, the amount of game the beaters and Professional Hunter’s present.