Hello from Berlin

Good morning everyone,

Im 29, based in Berlin, have my hunting license since about two and a half years and hunt on parts of a nature Reserve in the South of Brandenburg, mainly consisting of pine forest, sheep pastures and marshland.
We mostly hunt Roe, Boar and the occasional small game (Rabbit, Pheasant, Pigeon and Nutria in our case) and of course endless Badgers, Red foxes and Raccoons. There used to be fallow deer, but afaik the last known calf that daringly crossed the border from state forest lands 3 years ago sadly was shot on sight by our neigbouring landholder. Plenty of Geese and Ducks as well but those are completely protected for some green reason I am not able to understand.

As is practice in this area its mostly ambush hunting, I have been advised by my landlord to keep my stalking activities to a minimum but this year we have at least two Roebucks that,beeing to close to a main road, can only be taken stalking in my opinion.
Also a small dream of mine is to hunt Muntjac or CWD in the UK one day, therefore I'm trying to learn a bit more about deerstalking, which brings me here.

I use the followings Guns/ calibres:
- suppressed Tikka T3x Hunter in .308 as the bread and butter gun for everything from Raccoon to Boar
- CZ Brno ZBK 110 in .222 for foxing and other predators
- CZ Brno 500 combination gun in .30-06 and 12/70 as the one for all on days that I'm just out for nothing special (will be substituted by an classical Drilling with an additional .22 wmr one day)
- Beretta 686 Silver pigeon in 12/76
- Toz 17 in .22 for trapped coons and nutria
- CZ P10-C

Greetings,

Welcome to the site.

BC.

welcome, plenty of us here go to germany to hunt!

You will not regret coming to the UK for Reeve’s Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer. Given you shoot a T3 it is probably easiest to just use an estate gun and fly into Stansted from Berlin on RyanAir for about €30. An hour’s drive northwest and you are in prime CWD territory.

Welcome to the site! I gained my hunting permit in Berlin in 1988 when I was stationed there in the military. I have many fond memories of that amazing city and it's people.

Waidmanns Heil and welcome to the site, lots of people from abroad lust after hunting CWD, I suppose I am lucky to have ground to stalk on which has so many! The hunting culture in Germany is excellent, I've been on driven boar 3 times on the Bavaria/Spessart border, I look forward to going back again this October for the opening day.

Hey man I had no idea you have nutria, tell us more?

suburban bushwacker said:

Hey man I had no idea you have nutria, tell us more?

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Well what I've heard is that until 1989/90 they where kept in masses in fur farms in east germany for their pelts that (just like most harvested venison in that time) where sold to the west. The Conditions for them must have been pretty hard, as they where kept outside all year round and fed with all sorts of fish remains and agricultural waste.
Someone once described it as similar to a Boot camp for Nutria which apparently is why they are so resilient nowadays even though our (few) harsher winters are still hard for them. When the wall came down and there was no demand for their pelts anymore they where either eaten or just set free and thanks to their "training" did suprisingly well.
There are several increasing populations in former east germany, lower saxony and north rhine-westphalia. In some places people are feeding them in parks next to the ducks but they dig their tunnels through embankments and dams which is why we keep them to a minimum on our grounds, also sadly for them they are delicious. Like a slightly gamier hare or rabbit.
Of course some of the older neighbouring hunters wont shoot them either because they deem them worthless of the 3,50-5,00 € for a bullet or think the shot will scare the boar away, so there will always be some.

Our hunting grounds entire northern border is a lakeside, and while we where not sure if there even was a population, one day there was something that didn't look like a raccoon at all in one of the traps near the shore. I thought it was a beaver hiding its tail at first and was about to let it go until it hissed at me and showed me those characteristic pearly yellows. My landlords mother in law prepared it as a roast the following sunday and confirmed that it tasted way better than those cage raised, rubbish-fed ones she ate 35 years ago
But they do still suffer during winters. When the lake freezes and they cant get back into their dens to keep warm, their flippers and tails freeze solid and start to rott when it gets warmer. Many of the caught ones have injuries that originate from that.
I shot a big male last fall and breaking it down, I could snap the tail off like a dry branch.

Krtek said:

they deem them worthless of the 3,50-5,00 € for a bullet o

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Is that because of what the hunter is carrying at the time or is there a mandated calibre for shooting them?

suburban bushwacker said:

Is that because of what the hunter is carrying at the time or is there a mandated calibre for shooting them?

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Yes, mostly because of what they are carrying. A lot of 30-06, 8x57 or 9,3x62 that have to be lead free to shoot hoofed game therefore are a bit pricier.
Technically, if you are a good shot a High velocity .22 lr to the head is enough, I personally do prefer 3 mm shot from a 12/70. works very well up to about 30-35 metres and spares the dogs from having to put up with a ****ed of specimen while retrieving.

Welcome from Meath i attended your Game fair in Dortmund every year love the atmosphere at the Jag & Hund.

Long drag said:

Welcome from Meath i attended your Game fair in Dortmund every year love the atmosphere at the Jag & Hund.

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Thank you, I was there for the second time this year as well, It gets a bit loud for my taste around the Veltins stand
But if we happen to be there around the same time next year, first beers at the Bierhaus DUB-Krug are on me!

Good morning and welcome aboard. I used to live in Berlin, so your post brought back a few memories. Your patch in Brandenburg sounds like an interesting bit of ground, and it’s great to have you here sharing your experience.

Krtek said:

Well what I've heard is that until 1989/90 they where kept in masses in fur farms in east germany for their pelts that (just like most harvested venison in that time) where sold to the west. The Conditions for them must have been pretty hard, as they where kept outside all year round and fed with all sorts of fish remains and agricultural waste.
Someone once described it as similar to a Boot camp for Nutria which apparently is why they are so resilient nowadays even though our (few) harsher winters are still hard for them. When the wall came down and there was no demand for their pelts anymore they were either eaten or just set free and thanks to their "training" did suprisingly well.

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“boot camp for nutria”