City hunting
The family decided we should take the 5 hour drive to Berlin as they wanted to see a bit of the city. Now that I am not a city person myself, I myself planned to visit an old German hunting friend who lives a little north of Berlin.
Uwe, as he is called, could state that he had been approved to hunt wild boar in the city of Berlin. Of course, it sounded great and I persuaded him to take me on a trip the following evening.
We met at the agreed place at 20.30, where Uwe was waiting with his pick-up car. First we had to take a look at the equipment. He had a thermal hand spotter, and a 4 legged shooting stick. The rifle was a Sauer 100 caliber .222 Rem. with a 2.5-10x56 Classic on the back and a Jaki silencer on the muzzle.
Hunting in the city of Berlin is subject to very special rules, which means, among other things, that the only ammo allowed is: Caliber .222 Rem with "rassante" (rapidly expanding) projectiles that minimize the risk of penetration. In connection with minimizing the risk of penetration, there is a deviation from normal practice and it is allowed that old-fashioned projectiles containing lead may be used. The general caliber requirements for hunting wild boar had also been disregarded. Before the hunt begins, the local police must be notified and shots fired must also be immediately reported to the same police station. Hunting is often carried out in response to citizens' complaints about wild boars, that is to say hunting is usually only done where people feel bothered by them. Uwe had shot 93 wild boars in 2023, and of those there had been 1 wounding, which luckily was found and killed the same evening.
Then it was off to the first "customer", who was supposed to be a very approachable keiler at one of Berlin's northern cemeteries. According to people's explanations, it had to come to the same area every single evening between 10 and 11, where it was often a cause of uneasiness to dog walkers.
The car was parked, the rifle slung over the shoulder, the shooting stick in hand and so we walked up towards the cemetery. We met a middle-aged lady who came straight towards us with a small dog on a leash, she didn't seem to notice that we were hunters and went on unchallenged. Inside the cemetery we started with the thermal spotter, and immediately caught sight of a large animal lying under some bushes, just like a cat was hunting less than 25 meters from us. Further inside were also several heat sources, but you couldn't immediately see where they were. Uwe explained that it could just as well be people enjoying themselves as animals. Another big problem here in the city was all the man-made heat sources that occur, for example vents from the subway.
In this case, however, there was no doubt that the large animal Ca. 60 meters in front of us was a wild boar. Because the ground raised a little behind the animal, there was a good bullet trap and the shooting stick was set up. We stood for 15-20 minutes and I must admit it felt like much longer before the animal got up. Uwe gave me the thermal spotter and now stood with the rifle ready to fire. Although there was next to no moon on this cold March evening in 2024, there was still plenty of light here in the city to use optics. Now I could follow the whole thing through the thermal spotter, and could therefore see how the boar cautiously moved out of the bushes. It had only just come free when Uwe sent his 55 grain Norma Tipstike bullet into a high shoulder shot. The animal went down as if struck by lightning, and in the spotter I could observe it just kicked 2 times with its hind legs inside, then lay 100% still.
The police were immediately called, who were told that 1 shot had been fired and the animal appeared to be lying down. After that, it was off to look at and secure the animal, which turned out to be a fine keiler. After we had now ensured that it was dead, it had to go away as soon as possible, and the car was picked up in a hurry. Just as we came out of the cemetery we bumped into the lady with the dogs from earlier. This time she had definitely heard the shot and on her face it looked like she noticed the rifle. Uwe introduced himself as a city hunter and we had just shot a keiler, which she must have heard. The lady brightened up and explained that she had complained about that keiler, and she soon no longer dared to walk past the cemetery. She had only gone this way tonight because she had heard a strange bang and thought it was children with fireworks in the cemetery.
The car was parked illegally for a few minutes while we picked up and loaded the pig. Afterwards, it had to be cleaned up, and any blood and other traces from the dead animal had to be removed with a bucket of water. Fortunately, such a small 222er does not make much of a hole, so it went quickly. I now had to go back to the hotel with the family again, but the trip to Berlin was still a good experience for a country person because of this hunt.
That morning I got an SMS from Uwe, the keiler weighed 102kg, and later that night he got 2 more pigs of 29 and 33kg.
The family decided we should take the 5 hour drive to Berlin as they wanted to see a bit of the city. Now that I am not a city person myself, I myself planned to visit an old German hunting friend who lives a little north of Berlin.
Uwe, as he is called, could state that he had been approved to hunt wild boar in the city of Berlin. Of course, it sounded great and I persuaded him to take me on a trip the following evening.
We met at the agreed place at 20.30, where Uwe was waiting with his pick-up car. First we had to take a look at the equipment. He had a thermal hand spotter, and a 4 legged shooting stick. The rifle was a Sauer 100 caliber .222 Rem. with a 2.5-10x56 Classic on the back and a Jaki silencer on the muzzle.
Hunting in the city of Berlin is subject to very special rules, which means, among other things, that the only ammo allowed is: Caliber .222 Rem with "rassante" (rapidly expanding) projectiles that minimize the risk of penetration. In connection with minimizing the risk of penetration, there is a deviation from normal practice and it is allowed that old-fashioned projectiles containing lead may be used. The general caliber requirements for hunting wild boar had also been disregarded. Before the hunt begins, the local police must be notified and shots fired must also be immediately reported to the same police station. Hunting is often carried out in response to citizens' complaints about wild boars, that is to say hunting is usually only done where people feel bothered by them. Uwe had shot 93 wild boars in 2023, and of those there had been 1 wounding, which luckily was found and killed the same evening.
Then it was off to the first "customer", who was supposed to be a very approachable keiler at one of Berlin's northern cemeteries. According to people's explanations, it had to come to the same area every single evening between 10 and 11, where it was often a cause of uneasiness to dog walkers.
The car was parked, the rifle slung over the shoulder, the shooting stick in hand and so we walked up towards the cemetery. We met a middle-aged lady who came straight towards us with a small dog on a leash, she didn't seem to notice that we were hunters and went on unchallenged. Inside the cemetery we started with the thermal spotter, and immediately caught sight of a large animal lying under some bushes, just like a cat was hunting less than 25 meters from us. Further inside were also several heat sources, but you couldn't immediately see where they were. Uwe explained that it could just as well be people enjoying themselves as animals. Another big problem here in the city was all the man-made heat sources that occur, for example vents from the subway.
In this case, however, there was no doubt that the large animal Ca. 60 meters in front of us was a wild boar. Because the ground raised a little behind the animal, there was a good bullet trap and the shooting stick was set up. We stood for 15-20 minutes and I must admit it felt like much longer before the animal got up. Uwe gave me the thermal spotter and now stood with the rifle ready to fire. Although there was next to no moon on this cold March evening in 2024, there was still plenty of light here in the city to use optics. Now I could follow the whole thing through the thermal spotter, and could therefore see how the boar cautiously moved out of the bushes. It had only just come free when Uwe sent his 55 grain Norma Tipstike bullet into a high shoulder shot. The animal went down as if struck by lightning, and in the spotter I could observe it just kicked 2 times with its hind legs inside, then lay 100% still.
The police were immediately called, who were told that 1 shot had been fired and the animal appeared to be lying down. After that, it was off to look at and secure the animal, which turned out to be a fine keiler. After we had now ensured that it was dead, it had to go away as soon as possible, and the car was picked up in a hurry. Just as we came out of the cemetery we bumped into the lady with the dogs from earlier. This time she had definitely heard the shot and on her face it looked like she noticed the rifle. Uwe introduced himself as a city hunter and we had just shot a keiler, which she must have heard. The lady brightened up and explained that she had complained about that keiler, and she soon no longer dared to walk past the cemetery. She had only gone this way tonight because she had heard a strange bang and thought it was children with fireworks in the cemetery.
The car was parked illegally for a few minutes while we picked up and loaded the pig. Afterwards, it had to be cleaned up, and any blood and other traces from the dead animal had to be removed with a bucket of water. Fortunately, such a small 222er does not make much of a hole, so it went quickly. I now had to go back to the hotel with the family again, but the trip to Berlin was still a good experience for a country person because of this hunt.
That morning I got an SMS from Uwe, the keiler weighed 102kg, and later that night he got 2 more pigs of 29 and 33kg.
