Driven hunting

This month is filled with driven hunts. Apart from our own driven hunt at our grounds i got invitations from my neighbouring hunting grounds. Two weeks ago i was not very lucky. I had a good stand at a freshly cut hill, unfortunately this spot was sort of a black hole of wild game. The surrounding guns all saw wild boar, red deer or roe deer. I just heard the shots. Apart from that a couple of inexperienced beaters almost literally "camped" in front of me for 1.5 hour. Making any probability for an animal slim. They talked a lot among themselves and i because they had a lot of humor and told loads of joke i laughed quite a lot. So still had a good time, although not with hunting. In total they shot 9 wild boar, 2 red deer, 5 roedeer, 1 raccoon and 3 foxes that day. For our region a very good bag.
Last weekend i was invited by another neighbour. In the morning i was placed at a spot where i could see several game tracks. I saw 2 roedoes but because they where quite far and running i did not get a shot out. It turned out that the moment we went into the woods to get to our pegs several groups of wild boar left the woodland and escaped. These wild boar are clever ! They can sense something is about and leave like lightning. That morning our group shot 1 wild boar in the end. At 13.00 we where put on different pegs surrounding a large woodland. I settled down but soon heard shots fired. I could hear animals running towards me. In total 8 roe came past me, unfortunately only the one roebuck stopped when i gave him a whistle. The bucks are out of season right now, so no shot fired. All the does and calfs just went flying and jumping past, a beautifull sight.
Then i heard quite a big animal approaching. It was moving to my left and broke cover 130 meters from my left next to another peg. She did not fire at the big (probably keiler) wild boar because she estimated the shot to be unsafe.Fair enough, everybody has to be happy and responsible about their own shots. If i was her i would have taken the shot because i considered it to be save, but again it is her decision and i respect that.
A while later i saw a uberlaufer crossing in front of me at the skyline. Did not fire because it was unsafe. Then i heard the beaters shouting that another boar came in my direction. A stripey piglet broke cover and raced across the path. I followed trhough and just when it would have disappeared between the trees i had a shot at it. It fell, got up again and took of into cover. I was sure i hit it well. Some german hunting terriers went after it and i could hear them grabbing the piglet. I called one of the dogmen and he went into cover and stabbed the piglet in the heart. I had shot it low on the shoulder, but still considering the circumstances not a bad shot. All these hours in the shooting cinema do pay off in the end.
At the end of the day we met at the sporting facilities in the small town and gutted all the animals. We then had ceremony of the handing over of the "bruch" (the small branches you put on youre hat), and some bugelmusic (trumpets, not sure how to translate that). Unfortunately i did not make many pictures so a late picture of the shot piglet is all i can show you. Hopefully i can show you some more pictures next week because this Saturday we have our own driven hunt. There are loads of wild boar about. The trick is to get them before the guns.
Ross and Duncan from this forum will be joining me on Thursday and i have good faith that if they are willing to put in the hours again, one of them will shoot a wild boar at one of our feeding stations as it is fed upon every night for the last 7 days.
 
Sounds like a lot of fun, well done on the boar. When you say Raccoon do you mean Raccoon Dog or an American Raccoon?
 
The raccoons you shoot are all descended from US Army mascots that they abandonned when they left their air base. Is that correct?

I envy you your sport, great fun. Atb~Tom
 
Nice one Ruud, looks like you have been busy , its a bit easy to get carried away isn't it I've had that many invites I could hunt all winter abroad I think :lol::lol: but I dont think the wife or the boss will be vey happy ;)

Speak soon

Good luck with Ross and golden B******Ks Duncan :D I bet he gets one this time
 
@ Tamus; The driven hunts are in Germany where i also have a permission. In the Netherlands there are only a few raccoons about. They come from Germany over the border or escaped from private parks.
Not sure where the racoons in Germany come from. They have been there for decades now and are on the increase.

@Wayne; yes this period is a bit silly with all the hunting. Apart from the driven hunts in december i will be going to David for my (hopefully) first CWD and Duncan & Ross for red deer in Scotland. It is a hard life :oops:. But i am enjoying every minute of it. :D
 
I did my German hunting license in 1999 and the information I got was that a German forester illegally imported some in the early 1930s and they seem to like Germany (must be the beer & bread).
Martin
 
Raccoon....that would make for an interesting discussion with the licensing department...."You want your rifle conditioned for WHAT...??":lol:

(But think of the groovy hat you could make if you connected!:cool:)
 
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