Second driven hunt for boar

[Holland&Holland]

I went for a driven hunt for wild boar, red deer and roe deer to the vulcan eifel, germany. A mate of mine arranged this and i never been here before. It is always difficult to have a decent/proper driven hunt. Make no mistake i am a hunter and not a shooter, but yesterday i felt i bit misled by the organisation of this particular hunt. This time the hunters rarely saw any animal and were just paying for the scenery. The drives where divided in a morning and afternoon drive. In the morning drive i was standing side by side with my father. Lovely scenery (again) but i thought the hunters where too close together for this stand (about 40 meters). We saw (we where the lucky ones) a group of wild boar which my dad shot two young ones out of the group. I myself saw them as well but was unable to shoot at them because there was all kind of twigs between me and the boars. The danger of hitting a twig and the bullet ending up somewhere else is too big a risk. The rest of the our group (10) didn't see anything. Result of the morning 4 boars, 2 foxes and a red deer (with a total 50 hunters, beaters and dog handlers not included!).

In the afternoon i and my dad stood on a high seats, on an even loverlier scenery, but no animals sighted. Now we where about 200 meters apart. Only 4 shots where fired that afternoon with 2 wild boar shot. So bit disapointing from a hunting aspect (you want to at least SEE an animal) but nevertheless had a good day in nature. Big part of the reason i think for not seeing a lot of game is because the beaters didn't go in the woods but stayed on the footpaths. Never heard that before. Been to quite a few of these driven hunts and the beaters always went through the woods together with the dogs.

Enclose couple pictures of my dad, the boars and the scenery . Notice the reason why we wear the orange safety vests !!

[Holland&Holland]

some more

[caeser]

Once again another great report, accompanied by good pictures. Very informative read.

[Poacher]

It must be a bit scary beating with rifles aiming in your general direction. Nice report as usual

[Suffolk shooter]

I say Ban H&H , I can't take anymore of the brilliant Pictures and stories and am so jealous of him for having the opportunity to do it

 

Seriously, once again you give a great account H&H, shame you didn't see much, but at least you'll know not to go there again, or was the reason the beaters stayed on the footpaths, because the shoot/hunt has maybe already reached its yearly cull quota. I seem to recall that you said in a previous post that you had to do annual counts to ascertain how many of each species you can shoot on the hunting license, much like the Deer Management programs over here.

 

SS

[nav54]

nice pics mate sounds like ya had a good time well done.

[Holland&Holland]

@ Suffolk shooter. Youre right about the cull quota, but that is in the Netherlands. On these driven hunt in Germany there is no quota. So it is all up to the gamekeepers of the state forestry to show you the game and give you opportunities. Unfortunately this time on this location it didn't work out. There are state forests where they like you to come to admire the scenery but they do not like you to shoot there game. They take youre money though . But still we had a good time because we saw game during the day and my dad did OK. But a lot of people (dutch and german) did not see wild game all day. They where pretty annoyed. Still can happen, it stays hunting, but yet again this was silly.

 

And for the jealousy: i am very jealous of the pictures of roe, muntjac, fox, crows and loads of pigeon. That is an oppurtunity i do not get to often. And i think with all hunters, you have to work hard and put effort in to it to get that far with any kind of opportunity, permission or invitation for a hunt / shoot. Took me 17 years to get to here. But i made this promise once before, if i get my own permission with wild boar in the Netherlands i will swap hunts with some of the regular members on this forum. So have nice dreams . Is not time yet .