Wild boar hunting in Hungary is some of the most productive in Europe. The country shot 150,600 wild boar in 2025, according to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, and most visiting hunters come for driven days, where beaters and dogs move boar through forest towards a line of standing guns. Boar can legally be hunted all year round in Hungary, including at night, but the big driven days are an autumn and winter affair, and on the state estates they are priced on the size of the day's bag and the length of each boar's tusks.
A UK hunter needs an organiser to arrange the Hungarian hunting permit and insurance, an invitation to show at the border, and a firearms transport certificate from Hungarian customs. This season it is also worth knowing where African swine fever has been found, because 2026 brought the first outbreaks in Hungarian farm pigs. At Field and Forest Hunting we arrange driven boar hunts in Hungary, and this guide explains how the hunting works, how it is priced, and what to check before you book.
Why Hungary produces such big boar days
The numbers explain the reputation. The statistics office counted a spring stock of 43,200 wild boar in February 2025, and hunters then shot 150,600 over the year, more than three times the spring count. In 2024 the figure was 118,200.
The state forestry estates make the scale clear. Gemenc, in the Danube floodplain forest of southern Hungary, states in its 2026 price list that its boar population allows hunts where 10 hunters can take 20 to 30 wild boar a day, and its main Gemenc hunting field, 20,094 hectares and 90% forest, has an annual harvest of 1,400 boar.
Open ground or a fenced enclosure
One question every visiting team should ask is whether the hunt takes place on open ground or inside a vadaskert. Hungary's hunting act, Act LV of 1996, defines a vadaskert as the fenced part of a hunting area used for keeping or breeding big game for hunting. Both are legal and both are part of Hungarian hunting, but they are different experiences. Open ground means wild boar moving through forest and farmland with the chance of a blank drive, while an enclosure holds its game behind a fence. A good organiser will tell you plainly which one you are booking so the day matches your expectations.
How driven boar hunts are priced in Hungary
Hungarian boar pricing confuses a lot of first timers, because a hunt is rarely a single fixed fee. Gemenc's 2026 list is a good example of how the state estates do it, and it is published in full.
- An organisation fee per hunter per day, set by the size of the day's bag. At Gemenc it is 350 euros when the bag is between 5 and 24 head of big game, and 450 euros when it reaches 25 or more.
- A fee for each tusker, set by tusk length. At Gemenc it runs from 400 euros for tusks of 12 to 13.95 centimetres up to 2,300 euros from 22 centimetres.
- A fee for other boar by gralloched weight, from 100 euros up to 19 kilograms to 370 euros over 50 kilograms.
- Package rates priced per hunter on the total bag. Two driven days for a team of 8 to 10, with a combined bag of 46 to 55 head, is listed at 2,900 euros per hunter, with accommodation, the permit and trophy judging charged on top.
Tusk length is the average of the outer curve of the two lower tusks, measured to the millimetre. Gemenc presents tusks of 16 centimetres and over for official trophy judging, and under Hungary's implementing decree, a boar trophy scoring 130 CIC points or more is referred to the national trophy board.
Our own Hungarian driven boar offer takes the other approach and fixes the cost before you travel. It runs over three nights half board with two driven days, includes 50 wild boar for the group with no trophy fee, and costs 4,500 euros per hunter for a team of ten. For a team that wants to know the bill in advance, a fixed package avoids the per tusk arithmetic of an estate price list. We explain the other costs that sit around a trip in our guide to how much a hunting trip costs.
Seasons, night hunting and what may be shot
Hungary's hunting seasons are set in the annexes to Decree 79/2004, and the season table lists wild boar as huntable all year. The same decree allows boar to be hunted at night, with an artificial light permitted to help the aim, and it defines a sow as a female boar of 50 kilograms gralloched weight or more. Individual estates still set their own rules for a driven day, and the hunt master's briefing on what may and may not be shot is the rule that counts on the peg.
Driven days themselves are organised in the autumn and winter. If you have never stood a driven day before, our account of what a driven wild boar day is like walks through the morning briefing, the drives and the laying out of the bag, and our guide to what a driven hunt is covers the format more generally. Our founder Paul takes part in between 40 and 50 driven hunts a year, and driven boar is one of the forms of hunting he cares about most.
Taking your rifle to Hungary
UK residents have not been able to use the European Firearms Pass since 1 January 2021, as the UK government's guidance explains, so the process happens at the border. According to the Hungarian customs authority, a hunter who is not resident in the EU must declare the rifle and ammunition at the EU border and needs a firearms licence and a document showing the purpose of the trip, such as the organiser's invitation. Customs then issue a firearms transport certificate for a fee of 4,050 forints, which cannot be paid by card, and the stay must be no longer than 90 days.
Check the calibre rules of the ground as well. Gemenc sets a minimum of 7.62 millimetres for a boar drive and 7 millimetres for other boar hunting, and other estates set their own. Its permit and insurance for a visiting hunter costs 140 euros for 30 days, which your organiser normally arranges as part of the booking.
African swine fever in Hungary in 2026
African swine fever does not affect people, as the European Commission makes clear, but it does affect boar hunting. Hungary has had the disease in wild boar since April 2018, when it was first found near Gyöngyös in Heves county, and 2026 brought its first cases in farm pigs. The first was confirmed on 3 June on a farm in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, and the second on 9 August at Lakócsa in Somogy county, where the virus had also been found in wild boar samples nearby, as 3tres3 reported, and a 3 kilometre protection zone and a 10 kilometre surveillance zone were set around the Somogy farm.
Somogy is one of Hungary's main hunting counties, so ask where your ground sits before you book. The rules also follow you home. The UK government's African swine fever guidance tells hunters returning from affected areas not to bring back trophies or carcass parts, and to clean and disinfect clothing, footwear and equipment before returning, and travellers cannot bring pork or venison into Great Britain from the EU for personal use. If the tusks matter to you, settle how the trophy will be handled before the first drive.
Hungary or Croatia for wild boar
The two neighbours suit different teams. Hungary offers the bigger bags and the organised estate system described above, which suits a team that wants a high volume driven weekend. Croatia, covered in our guide to Croatia wild boar hunting, offers driven boar in wilder country and pairs well with mouflon or chamois. If boar in other countries interests you, we also cover driven boar in Germany and wild boar hunting in Romania. Hungary is not only about boar either, and a September trip for red stags in the rut is the other reason most hunters visit.
Plan your wild boar hunt in Hungary
A Hungarian boar hunt rewards a little homework. Know whether the ground is open or fenced, understand how the bag and the tusks will be charged, sort the rifle paperwork for the border, and check the swine fever zones before you commit. Do that and Hungary delivers some of the busiest driven days in Europe. You can see more of the country on our Hungary page.
To book a team onto a driven boar weekend, contact Field and Forest Hunting and speak to us directly.
