Hello from Germany

[Nutria]

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

Hi Richard,

Especially with you in the UK, the falconry and the work with ferrets is widespread. I envy you a bit about that. ;-)
I think it is because you simply have more good habitats for rabbits and therefore also a much higher population.
Here in Germany the population suffers from diseases such as myxxomatosis and RHD(2).

The tracking of wounded animals is an absolute must in my eyes. It is a shame not to do this and let an woudet animal suffer. Here it is obligatory that each hunting area has a usable dog for the tracking.
Also it´s not allowed to hunt waterfowl or other birds without a usable dog.
In our hunting club we use mostly german wirehaired pointers and shorthaired pointers. But also "Kleine Münsterländer", weimeraner and retriever.

Greetings,
Dirk

 

[Gerald Martin]

Welcome Nutria! You definitely increased the quality of the message board today with those pictures! Thanks for sharing and please post many more.

 

[Nutria]

Because of the asking a few pictures of our game and how we hunt.

In my home area we hunt mainly small game by driven hunt. Similar to the "rough shooting" as it also done in the UK.

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Is that the fender of a john deere I spy? I can't recall what town the tractors and choppers are made in. I do remember that the choppers have to be transported by barge down a river to port.

Is it common to have a mixed bag when small game hunting? I see rabbits, pheasants, and ducks, but I can't figure out the others. Will you bag multiple species on the same drive, or will you know what you are getting in a particular area?

If you haven't figured it out, there is a lot of intrigue for Germany because so many Americans are of German ancestry. That is especially true for us in the "Valley" of Virginia.

 

[MJE2083]

Welcome! Very interesting posts. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Nutria]

You´re right. It is a john deere!

Yes a mixed bag is common at this hunting. You never know what the day brings. The rabbits you see, are European Brown Hares. Our rabbits are smaler and grey coloured. Then pheasants, a mallard, some woodcocks, and a magpie.
At this hunts we shoot also fox, partrige, pigeons, ect.
On a typical day we hunt various areas. Fields, forest, grasland with hedges, at ponds and creeks, ect. So we can expect different species.

I know that you have some more species of rabbits/hares then we have. We have only 2.
On this picture you can see the difference between them. In the first line are brown hares. The other are our rabbits.

 

[Southwind]

Wonderful photos, it seems we all have issues that we contend with to preserve what we love. Again Welcome!

 

[fishing4sanity]

Welcome Nutria, I've enjoyed your introduction and photos very much. I find it very interesting to see and hear of hunting in other countries, I hope you'll continue sharing with the forum for a very long time to come.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Is that the fender of a john deere I spy? I can't recall what town the tractors and choppers are made in. I do remember that the choppers have to be transported by barge down a river to port.

Is it common to have a mixed bag when small game hunting? I see rabbits, pheasants, and ducks, but I can't figure out the others. Will you bag multiple species on the same drive, or will you know what you are getting in a particular area?

If you haven't figured it out, there is a lot of intrigue for Germany because so many Americans are of German ancestry. That is especially true for us in the "Valley" of Virginia.

True this^^^ but I suspect that falconry from the "Valley" would tend to look like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ZY3oTNsLE

We've had a group of falconers bring their red-tailed hawks out to hunt my parents' farm quite a few times. Unfortunately, never while I was visiting. It would have been a lot of fun to watch.

 

[SFC B]

Nutria,
Another welcome!! My family emigrated to the US from Lower Saxony (Beedenbostel) in 1840!! I recently spent 6 months working for our department of defense as a civilian in Sembach ( I lived in Kaiserslautern) and would salivate at all of the roedeer in the fields surrounding the base. Given the length of your hunting license course work I was not able to hunt. I suspect there are quite a few of us that have spent time in Germany as military men (my European service was in Italy) and government civilians. Like the others I have loved your posts so far and look forward to more. I often dream of a Red Deer hunt in Southern Bavaria/Tirol, having spent a lot of time in the Garmisch area. Have you seen the Blaser R8 Professional Success ad that depicts a hunt in the Tirol? Gorgeous.

Tschuss,
Hr Born

 

[Foxtrot1]

Welcome, great pictures. I hope you enjoy the community here.

 

[Nutria]

Nutria,
Another welcome!! My family emigrated to the US from Lower Saxony (Beedenbostel) in 1840!! I recently spent 6 months working for our department of defense as a civilian in Sembach ( I lived in Kaiserslautern) and would salivate at all of the roedeer in the fields surrounding the base. Given the length of your hunting license course work I was not able to hunt. I suspect there are quite a few of us that have spent time in Germany as military men (my European service was in Italy) and government civilians. Like the others I have loved your posts so far and look forward to more. I often dream of a Red Deer hunt in Southern Bavaria/Tirol, having spent a lot of time in the Garmisch area. Have you seen the Blaser R8 Professional Success ad that depicts a hunt in the Tirol? Gorgeous.

Tschuss,
Hr Born

Thanks for your welcome,

Blaser is a brand that divides the hunters in 2 groups. You can love them or hate them.
For sure, tey are good. But in my opinion balser makes much too much advertising. That makes the weapons too expensive.If something is really good it does not need much advertising.

The hunting license course can be done faster now. There are hunting schools which offer 2 weeks courses. This is hard. But for people with hunting skills who know the basics this is a good alternative.

Yes, the roedeer is the most common deer over here. There is actually no area in which there is no roedeer. From North See to the Alps.
Here are some pictures of my bucks from the last years. Roedeer and fallowdeer.

Greetings,
Dirk

Poor 2 year old Roebuck from my backyard


That´s a better one


Very old buck of a friend


Not a monster but a buck


3 year old fallow with poor trophy disposition


Successful stalk in the rut


Really good one of a friend

 

[SFC B]

Wonderful pics!! Those fallow bucks are really cool. The Blasers are way out of my price range over here (the R8 PS I looked at was over $6k) and I have never had the opportunity to shoot one. That video has wonderful photography though I currently shoot a Savage in 30-06 and have just built a rifle for my daughter using the Howa 1500 short action. Maybe someday I will get back and be able to hunt in Germany. I do have a couple of questions....how is the meat from animals distributed? Do you have to pay the landowner for the meat? What about the heads of the bucks?

 

[devon deer]

Dirk that Fallow buck is an absolute stunner!
I have never seen one like that where i hunt.

I do have a confession though, i do have Blaser R8 Professional in 30-06.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Reata]

Welcome! Best post I have seen in a long time!

 

[SFC B]

Richard,
So the truth comes out

LB

Dirk that Fallow buck is an absolute stunner!
I have never seen one like that where i hunt.

I do have a confession though, i do have Blaser R8 Professional in 30-06.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Nutria]

Wonderful pics!! Those fallow bucks are really cool. The Blasers are way out of my price range over here (the R8 PS I looked at was over $6k) and I have never had the opportunity to shoot one. That video has wonderful photography though I currently shoot a Savage in 30-06 and have just built a rifle for my daughter using the Howa 1500 short action. Maybe someday I will get back and be able to hunt in Germany. I do have a couple of questions....how is the meat from animals distributed? Do you have to pay the landowner for the meat? What about the heads of the bucks?

Uuhhh... 6k...?
Then are they much more expensive than here.
I think I recently saw one at a dealer for 3.300 euro.

About your questions. Our hunting system is completely different from yours.
You have a license sytem. We have a "Reviersytem". Sorry but i dont know how to translate Reviersytem in englisch.
In the princip it works so:

The right to hunt is connected with the ownership of land.

If a landowner has an area of at least 75 ha in one pice he has the right of a "Eigenjagd". This means that he can hunt on his area. If he does not want or can not hunt himself, somebody can rent the right to hunt on his land.

If a land owner has less than 75 ha, he is automatically a member of a cooperative. This cooperative rent her hunting rights also. This area must be at least 250 ha and can be rentet by a single hunter or a group of hunters like a hunting club or so.

The contract of a hunting usually runs over 9 years if there was only small game and roedeer in this area. Or over 12 years if there are additionally fallowdeer, reddeer, mufflon ore other big game is in the area (exept wildboar).

The department of hunting then determine to the hunter how much deer they at least have to shoot and how much they can shoot maximum.

If a hunter has rented such a hunting area he ownes the meet and the trophy... the whole animal who he has shot.
But he also has the duty to pay damages that the game makes at the crop of the farmers.

So it works over here in Germany. Only roughly explained. All the details would lead us to far. Then I would still write tomorrow morning.

I hope I could help with this.

 

[Danvet]

Excellent post. Could you comment on the significance of the evergreen limbs laying in the square around all the rabbits and birds in the one photo?

 

[HeliM_NP]

Welcome Dirk! Awesome hunting techniques! Very interesting! Also, thanks for sharing the great pictures! Looking forward to seeing what else you have to share on the forum!

 

[Nutria]

Hello Danvet,

the "Strecke legen" is an old tradition.
After a driven hunt we present the game in this special way.
The boss of the hunt holds a speech and thanks the hunters, the beaters and the dog people for the good hunt.
Then he announces what was shot.
The game lies always on the right side.
If we hunt big game by driven hunt, in the first line we present red deer. Next line fallow deer. Then hogs, roe deer, fox, ect.
If we hunt small game, are the first line fox. Then brown hare, rabbit, pheasant, ducks, pigeons, ect.

Sometimes the ground is complete covered wiht green to prevent that the gutted game gets dirty. The branches around the "Strecke" prevents the people from entering the room of the game. This was made only at big events. If we hunt only with a few friends for hare and pheasant we do the "Strecke legen" to. But the branches are not necessary then.