Hello everybody!
I just returned from a short visit for work (marking a logging unit), sweetened with some stalking and highseating at my friend Heinis place....
You may remember Heini through Andys write up about the swap hunt there (Dream Hunts ? Definately !!).
Last night was something extraordinary, which I really would like to share with you:
Heini asked me to "speed up" with working and marking trees, because he wanted to take the 1 hour drive to his ground a bit more East, which is mainly crop plus some thick forests, a few swampy areas and some little creeks crossing through.
Its a great and very productive roe habitat, but serves always a large number of boar also, plus occassionally fallow.
Heini hunts this ground very extensive, so a low pressure on the deer, but a strong cull on the damage causing boar....
I havent been there since 2009, so it was quite easy to decide to run with a can of spray paint through the forest and get the job done quick!
We got there, met a local hunting mate Adrian, who jumped on board to take a ride around with me to bring out some food for the all around boar, while Heini went to his local office to get some work done....
There was a bit of activity on all three feeding areas, also the fresh white snow may have scared the boar a bit and made them very cautious.
On my place for the night was a lonely, but very big track of a boar, mixed up with a lot of roe tracks, so I was kind of optimistic already
Afterwards Adrian and me seperated and moved onto two highseats to help Heini to get the roe cull done (end of season: end of January).
It was cold, minus 7, a strong Northeast wind, but not too bad for the last 1,5 hours of fading light...
On the way to my highseat, I bumped into three roe feeding on the crops, they took of and disappeared into a nearby little forest.
I settled in, relaxed and scanned the ground for some more activity.
A few minutes later a larger flock of pigeons get bumped from something in another forest about 150 meters away, seconds later two roebucks and a larger female yearling get pushed out of the same forest and fled across the field, much to quick for a safe shot...
But what noise, crushing brunches, have caused this trouble?
About 15 minutes later suddenly 4 fallow, 3 hinds and a calf stumble on the frozen field-There are the "troublemakers"!
Too bad, they are not on the menu today, the local fallow deer management group did the cull already, so nothing more on the list.
All the sudden a movement from the left, a roe doe and her fawn are crossing the nearby meadow, only 65 meters away....
Rifle out, safety off, a loud Bang and the fawn is down. A quick reload, a swing over to the right, a shout on the doe, another Bang and down she is!
Perfect, only 17:15, so enough time to be at the meeting point at 18:00, with 2 field dressed roe!
Back to the car, thank God the ground is deeply frozen, so a drive to the two carcasses, cleaned and loaded at 17:40, at 17:55 at the meeting point, the roe unloaded and hung up to cool down.
A warm Waidmannsheil from the other lads and ready for the next highseat...
A few from here may know, I truly enjoy and love stalking and as much I hate sitting on an highseat for longer than ..... minutes.... Heini informed us, to stay on the highseats as long as we will have one boar down, think about my passion....
According to that, I got a new, in my eyes very usefull toy for any highseat session in ugly, cold weather lasting longer than.... minutes..... : A portable highseat stove, powered by butan gas.
I know, I know, its girly style, but why should I freeze to death when there is a good chance of getting bored to death....?
I settled in on the highseat, got comfortable and connected the gas can with the stove, heard the gas flowing and pushed the starter... Nothing.... Still gas flowing, another push... Nothing....
OK, time for the final try, otherwise this toy is useless and will be send back next days!
PUSH...
Explosion!, burning hair on my hand, burning carpet on the highseat, burning tissue on the highseat board.... The burning gas is all over the floor and the highseat is shining like a candle.
It took me some very scary moments to extinguish the flames and kick out the hot and inside melting toy off the highseat.
The next 15 minutes I need to write a virtual letter to the stove company, to be honest, you dont want to hear my words and thoughts about it....and, to get my eyes used to the surrounding darkness again...
Then a roe appeared and started to feed on the laid out corn.
At 19:00 the roe disappeared into the forest again.
5 minutes later a huge black shadow is slowly coming in from the right, following the shadow from the treeline... A big boar!
The boar tried to avoid any movement onto the snow covered, white field and cruised around the food for the next 20 minutes.
Time enough to get some more judgement about it done:
Something like 70 kilos, obviously alone, body shape like a Keiler, not a sow, behaving very cautious. 75 meters away.
Finally he stepped out of the treeline and started to feed on the corn, 72 meters now.
The light is ok, but not too good, for me the first time ever I am happy to have an illuminated reticle on my 2-12x50 Zeiss. (No artificial light or NV allowed in Germany)
Another look through the binos, yes its broadside now...
A change back to the rifle, reticle placed behind the shoulder, another BANG from my 9.3x62, blind from the muzzle fire and a boar moving about 10 meters over the open field, before heading back into the forest, crushing brunches, then silence....
About 10 minutes later I got down to check the shot site. There is the lonely track, but no blood, hair, no nothing, not even the bullet strike to find..
I called Heini, to bring my car, a bright torch, and if necessary Alba for some tracking...
He arrived and somehow we found ourselves following the huge track into the forest, at least Heini carrying his rifle...
Still no signs, no blood, just the track...
We get into some swampy ground, the boar sunk in deeply, still nothing...
We were about 60 meters away from the shot site when we reached the reed fields, next to the creek.
In the light of the torches there is blood all over, very high on the reed!
OK, its hit, but where?
I explained the following Heini where the blood is visuable, but he spotted the dead boar already, only 3 more meters away!!
A very warm and happy Waidmannsheil and Waidmannsdank, some hogging a very good friend and a closer inspection of the beast.
Its big, a Keiler, about 2 years old, in good conditions and thankfully not smelly at all.
Now we had all the time, took loads of pictures, cleaned the boar, dragged him out and loaded him on the already organized trailer and headed back home...
On the ride we stopped on a gas station, changed seats, then it was me, celebrating some beers and enjoying Heini, driving me back!
It was a great day, some extraordinary lucky hunting and another great time with my hunting friend Heini!
I just returned from a short visit for work (marking a logging unit), sweetened with some stalking and highseating at my friend Heinis place....
You may remember Heini through Andys write up about the swap hunt there (Dream Hunts ? Definately !!).
Last night was something extraordinary, which I really would like to share with you:
Heini asked me to "speed up" with working and marking trees, because he wanted to take the 1 hour drive to his ground a bit more East, which is mainly crop plus some thick forests, a few swampy areas and some little creeks crossing through.
Its a great and very productive roe habitat, but serves always a large number of boar also, plus occassionally fallow.
Heini hunts this ground very extensive, so a low pressure on the deer, but a strong cull on the damage causing boar....
I havent been there since 2009, so it was quite easy to decide to run with a can of spray paint through the forest and get the job done quick!
We got there, met a local hunting mate Adrian, who jumped on board to take a ride around with me to bring out some food for the all around boar, while Heini went to his local office to get some work done....
There was a bit of activity on all three feeding areas, also the fresh white snow may have scared the boar a bit and made them very cautious.
On my place for the night was a lonely, but very big track of a boar, mixed up with a lot of roe tracks, so I was kind of optimistic already
Afterwards Adrian and me seperated and moved onto two highseats to help Heini to get the roe cull done (end of season: end of January).
It was cold, minus 7, a strong Northeast wind, but not too bad for the last 1,5 hours of fading light...
On the way to my highseat, I bumped into three roe feeding on the crops, they took of and disappeared into a nearby little forest.
I settled in, relaxed and scanned the ground for some more activity.
A few minutes later a larger flock of pigeons get bumped from something in another forest about 150 meters away, seconds later two roebucks and a larger female yearling get pushed out of the same forest and fled across the field, much to quick for a safe shot...
But what noise, crushing brunches, have caused this trouble?
About 15 minutes later suddenly 4 fallow, 3 hinds and a calf stumble on the frozen field-There are the "troublemakers"!
Too bad, they are not on the menu today, the local fallow deer management group did the cull already, so nothing more on the list.
All the sudden a movement from the left, a roe doe and her fawn are crossing the nearby meadow, only 65 meters away....
Rifle out, safety off, a loud Bang and the fawn is down. A quick reload, a swing over to the right, a shout on the doe, another Bang and down she is!
Perfect, only 17:15, so enough time to be at the meeting point at 18:00, with 2 field dressed roe!
Back to the car, thank God the ground is deeply frozen, so a drive to the two carcasses, cleaned and loaded at 17:40, at 17:55 at the meeting point, the roe unloaded and hung up to cool down.
A warm Waidmannsheil from the other lads and ready for the next highseat...
A few from here may know, I truly enjoy and love stalking and as much I hate sitting on an highseat for longer than ..... minutes.... Heini informed us, to stay on the highseats as long as we will have one boar down, think about my passion....
According to that, I got a new, in my eyes very usefull toy for any highseat session in ugly, cold weather lasting longer than.... minutes..... : A portable highseat stove, powered by butan gas.
I know, I know, its girly style, but why should I freeze to death when there is a good chance of getting bored to death....?
I settled in on the highseat, got comfortable and connected the gas can with the stove, heard the gas flowing and pushed the starter... Nothing.... Still gas flowing, another push... Nothing....
OK, time for the final try, otherwise this toy is useless and will be send back next days!
PUSH...
Explosion!, burning hair on my hand, burning carpet on the highseat, burning tissue on the highseat board.... The burning gas is all over the floor and the highseat is shining like a candle.
It took me some very scary moments to extinguish the flames and kick out the hot and inside melting toy off the highseat.
The next 15 minutes I need to write a virtual letter to the stove company, to be honest, you dont want to hear my words and thoughts about it....and, to get my eyes used to the surrounding darkness again...
Then a roe appeared and started to feed on the laid out corn.
At 19:00 the roe disappeared into the forest again.
5 minutes later a huge black shadow is slowly coming in from the right, following the shadow from the treeline... A big boar!
The boar tried to avoid any movement onto the snow covered, white field and cruised around the food for the next 20 minutes.
Time enough to get some more judgement about it done:
Something like 70 kilos, obviously alone, body shape like a Keiler, not a sow, behaving very cautious. 75 meters away.
Finally he stepped out of the treeline and started to feed on the corn, 72 meters now.
The light is ok, but not too good, for me the first time ever I am happy to have an illuminated reticle on my 2-12x50 Zeiss. (No artificial light or NV allowed in Germany)
Another look through the binos, yes its broadside now...
A change back to the rifle, reticle placed behind the shoulder, another BANG from my 9.3x62, blind from the muzzle fire and a boar moving about 10 meters over the open field, before heading back into the forest, crushing brunches, then silence....
About 10 minutes later I got down to check the shot site. There is the lonely track, but no blood, hair, no nothing, not even the bullet strike to find..
I called Heini, to bring my car, a bright torch, and if necessary Alba for some tracking...
He arrived and somehow we found ourselves following the huge track into the forest, at least Heini carrying his rifle...
Still no signs, no blood, just the track...
We get into some swampy ground, the boar sunk in deeply, still nothing...
We were about 60 meters away from the shot site when we reached the reed fields, next to the creek.
In the light of the torches there is blood all over, very high on the reed!
OK, its hit, but where?
I explained the following Heini where the blood is visuable, but he spotted the dead boar already, only 3 more meters away!!
A very warm and happy Waidmannsheil and Waidmannsdank, some hogging a very good friend and a closer inspection of the beast.
Its big, a Keiler, about 2 years old, in good conditions and thankfully not smelly at all.
Now we had all the time, took loads of pictures, cleaned the boar, dragged him out and loaded him on the already organized trailer and headed back home...
On the ride we stopped on a gas station, changed seats, then it was me, celebrating some beers and enjoying Heini, driving me back!
It was a great day, some extraordinary lucky hunting and another great time with my hunting friend Heini!
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