Hello from Germany

[Nutria]

Hello all!

First I would like to apologize for my bad english.
I am from lower saxony close to the dutch border and the North See.

In my home area I hunt mainly roedeer, fox, hare, rabbit, phesant, pigeon and waterfowl.
My second hunter's home is in Brandenburg in east Germany. The game there is fallow deer, wild boar and roedeer.
My second passion is falconry. I hunt with a harris hawk on hare. And together with my ferrets on rabbit.
With my peregrine falcon I catch crows, but also pheasant and duck.

In winter i was trapping for muskrat and nutria, who are invasive species over here.

I am looking forward to nice conversations with people who share the same passions.

Greetings,
Dirk

 

[Hunting Wife]

Welcome! Your English seems more intelligible than a lot of what gets posted on here!

I did not realize people still hunted with ferrets. They are a neat little predator. That would be interesting to see.

 

[JCS]

Welcome. Post some pictures of your falcon and hawk hunts.

 

[JohnCushman]

Welcome! I was born in Heidelberg and spent time in Landstuhl after I was wounded in Iraq.

 

[Lefty315]

Hello all!

First I would like to apologize for my bad english.
I am from lower saxony close to the dutch border and the North See.

In my home area I hunt mainly roedeer, fox, hare, rabbit, phesant, pigeon and waterfowl.
My second hunter's home is in Brandenburg in east Germany. The game there is fallow deer, wild boar and roedeer.
My second passion is falconry. I hunt with a harris hawk on hare. And together with my ferrets on rabbit.
With my peregrine falcon I catch crows, but also pheasant and duck.

In winter i was trapping for muskrat and nutria, who are invasive species over here.

I am looking forward to nice conversations with people who share the same passions.

Greetings,
Dirk

Welcome. I spent a day salmon fishing with a guy last year who hunts with falcons. He had some very cool stories to tell about his birds. I was amazed at the speed they could dive.

 

[Nutria]

Thanks for your welcome!

I think once I have read that the hunt with ferrets is forbidden in the USA.
Because ferrets are not native. If you don´t handle them right and they don´t come back while hunting they get wild. Then they can make a seriously damage at small animals. Also in rare and protected species. I think that´s the reason.

There are 3 types of hunting with ferrets.
1. with gun: Let the ferret slip in the rabbit hole. Whenn the rabbit comes out, try to shoot it.
2. with nets: Let the ferret slip in the rabbit hole and block all outputs with nets. This is common in urban areas, where they make serious damage and it´s not allowed to shoot. For exmple in parks, gardens and graveyards.
3. with hawks: Let the ferret slip in the hole. And whenn the rabbit comes out, its up to the hawk to catch it. ;-) This we do also in urban areas like the net thing. But its mutch more fun to see the hawk do his job then dispatch a rabbit in the net.

Here are my 3:

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Welcome, hunting with ferrets sounds awesome! Please post some pictures, I'd love to see some.

Your english is great by the way.

 

[Nutria]

Welcome. Post some pictures of your falcon and hawk hunts.

Thanks for your welcome!

Last year end of october, whe had a international field meet of our falcory club (DFO). There were 180 members.Of which 72 active falconers with 10 golden eagles, 1 crowned eagle, 1 matial eagle, 15 peregrine falcons, 23 goshawks and 21 harris hawks. Our chapter was the host and we guided the guests to our hunting areas.
The total bag of 3 days hunting was: 1 roedeer, 27 brown hare, 54 rabbits, 4 pheasant and 32 crows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTOCt-P9neI

Some pictures of these days with falconry friends from germany, scottland and belgium, who tried to catch rabbits directly behind my garden.

 

[MooseCaboose]

how do you keep the hawks from capturing your ferrets?

 

[Nutria]

Welcome. Post some pictures of your falcon and hawk hunts.

Ok...

Some pic´s of my birds:
First catch at all for my peregrin in her first year. It´s an egyptian goose.

First crow for my peregrin. Also as a youngster.

My harris hawk.

Falconry on crows with some friends.

Harris and rabbit.

And my Prergrine with crow, this season.

 

[JCS]

Awesome

 

[Nutria]

how do you keep the hawks from capturing your ferrets?

The Hawk has a free view on the ferrets house and know them as hunting partners.
In the first year, the hawk starts hunting only from the fist of the falconer. And only when the rabbit comes out the hole without the ferret in view. Later, with more experience, the hawk ignores the ferrets. Then he knows, they are part of the team.

 

[Southwind]

Welcome. The Germans have a very strong hunting tradition and community and are great at uniting in support of hunting issues so I am pleased to have you aboard. I have been to Germany a few times but never hunted there, I have hunted Romania and have a hunt planned in Hungary and hopefully will hunt your country some day as well.

Again welcome and always feel free to share.

 

[bobbydean]

Nutria,

Your initial post is one of the more interesting in years.

Hunting with ferrets and falcons; I love it.

Post often and plentiful.

Thank you for posting!

 

[VAspeedgoat]

What rifles do you have and what seem to be the most popular? I've grown to like the look of bavarian styled stocks on cz and sako rifles but have often wondered if they are actually popular or a marketing gimmick.

 

[blackdawg]

That is outstanding, did not dream that ferrets and birds of prey could work together as a hunting team. I would put observing the international meeting of the falconry club in action as a bucket list/ to do trip!

 

[devon deer]

A great introduction Dirk, your English is better then my German!

I have never hunted with birds of prey look like it is a very exciting pastime.
I have hunted with ferrets in the past, we kind of regarded it as a poor mans sport, but those who haven't tried it don't know what they are missing do they?
We used nets, and should a rabbit get through we were the backup with shotguns, damn i haven't done that for years, i must do it again!

I hunt Red, Fallow and Roe deer in England.

And Elk/deer in Montana when i can afford it.

My good friend tracks deer with Bavarian Mountain Hounds should the worst happen, apparently that has a great following in Germany, he has set up a tracking group in the UK.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Kiwi]

Wow, great Falconry photos. Thanks for posting.

 

[Nutria]

Welcome. The Germans have a very strong hunting tradition and community and are great at uniting in support of hunting issues so I am pleased to have you aboard. I have been to Germany a few times but never hunted there, I have hunted Romania and have a hunt planned in Hungary and hopefully will hunt your country some day as well.

Again welcome and always feel free to share.
View attachment 68835

Thank´s for your welcome!
It´s true that we have many old and beautiful traditions in the hunt.
But in the last few years the group of "new" hunters became bigger and bigger. In their opinion, any tradition that makes no sense today should be abolished.

We have a lot of other problems with hunting in germany.

The rapidly increasing numbers of wolves who immigrated a few years ago. According to our right they enjoy the highest protection status. They cause damage, especially in sheep, but also game.
For example, the european mufflon was now eradicated in some regions by wolves.

Many politicians want to cut our gun rights. For example, they wanted to ban semi-automatic weapons. But they have not succeeded.

You see, whe have a lot of problems over here. And i think we have often the same problems in europe and USA.

 

[Nutria]

What rifles do you have and what seem to be the most popular? I've grown to like the look of bavarian styled stocks on cz and sako rifles but have often wondered if they are actually popular or a marketing gimmick.

The most popular rifle brands over here are Blaser, Sauer and Mauser. But also Sako, Tikka, Remington, Winchester, Howa and others.
In my early days as a hunter my first rifle was a Mauser 98 in 7x64. Later i used a "Bockbüchsflinte". Sorry, but i don´t know what it is in english. It´s a over and under wiht a shogun barrel above and a rifle barrel below. It is in 12/70 and .30-06. To this came then a "Tikka" double rifle caliber 9,3x74R for driven hunt on boar and deer.
At the moment my favorit ist bolt-action rifle in .308win. It´s a "KRICO". An old german company, which no longer produces. For Fox and other small game i use a KRICO in .22 Hornet.
The shotguns i use are a Merkel over and under and an old spanish 16 gauge side by side.
For crow an waterfowl a Baikal MP-153.

The bavarian style stocks are nice looking. But you can see them very rarely in the hunt. I think it's a stylistic question. In practice they are not so great. Especially in caliber with heavy recoil.