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We have a 900 h concession some forty minutes drive from our home with a really great population of roe deer - probably pushing a couple of hundred animals. But with C19 still making the headlines and the everyday burden and drudge that it has placed on all of us everywhere, my wife and I decided we needed to get out and away but get away without the hassles of PCR testing and wearing masks for hours on airplanes and in airports and lines and queues and more testing before the return home and the sudden risk or quarantine regs changing whilst traveling. No, we decided would get away simple by car and ‘do’ something short, uncomplicated and local! Local in the sense of within Germany’s borders and not involving flying or crossing international borders.

So we booked a long weekend of roe buck hunting in the rut in Blumberg in the State of Brandenburg, close to the German Polish border, in what was once upon a time the German Democratic Republic - the GDR or DDR as it was then known!

About one third of Brandenburg is nature reserves, woodlands, lakes and wetlands and it has one of the lowest population densities in Germany. Far, far away from the maddening Covid crowd! And as for the hunting, it would all be high seats, arriving Thursday midday and hunting / sitting Thursday evening, Friday morning and again evening, Saturday the same and early Sunday morning and then a midday drive home. Six outings in all from different stands over different areas and targeting rutting roe buck. My dear wife named it “The holiday in a box!” as we would be sitting in high seats and stands for six to seven hours a day! As for the roe - there would be no restrictions on age or size. Any buck would be fair game. We would be driven from the estate lodge to our respective stands and picked-up at an agreed hour. For the hunting you are on your own in the stand and it’s your decision when and whether to take a shot or not. Yearling female roe deer and young ‘Uberlauferkeiler’ (young European boar) to 60 kg in dressed weight as well as red deer spikers to 30 cm antler length were also on the list of open game at no extra charge. Boars between 2 and 4 years old could also be shot at an extra of EUR 1.300,- and ‘Reife Keiler’ ie mature boars 5 years plus at EUR 1.550,-. Some mouflon rams would also be open by separate agreement with the owner.

We booked the hunt through ‘K&K Premiumjagd’ here in Germany at an all in cost of EUR 799/- plus EUR 50/- booking fee. It was very easily done - a couple of phone calls, a couple of emails, a one page written confirmation from K&K with a reference to their Ts&Cs, a bank transfer and we were good to go. We did not even have to sign anything. Refreshingly simple! My wife opted to go as an observer joining me in the high seats rather than sitting on her own. Observer fee was EUR 175,-.

I am mentioning the fees here specifically for the non German / European readers so that you may get a feel for the costs of hunting in Germany, plus this is a hunt with 6 outings, roe bucks, yearlings and pigs to 60 kgs all included! So basically if you shoot a couple of bucks and maybe a pig or two you are hugely “in the money” on this specific hunt! Real bang for the buck - pun intended!

The Blumberg Estate is part of a large tract of woodland and wetland closely bordering Poland. The Estate was then and is now, well know for quality hunting and boasts a large deer population - both red and roe - as well as wild boar and mouflon, although the latter has been heavily depleted by the wolf population that now inhabits Brandenburg and other northern and easterly German States. Some of the local hunters would tell us of sightings of 3 and 4 wolves on driven hunts and with wolves totally protected in Germany, there is nothing anyone can do against them to protect their game herds! A great shame really, as Blumberg had a magnificent mouflon herd with some monster heads, perhaps the best heads in Germany but that now seems to be in the past with wolves being protected and roaming freely. We would see how the roe numbers have fared.

Maybe a bit of a craps-shoot in that we might be unlucky and see nothing or hopefully Diana would smile on us and we would come home with a couple of bucks. Either way, hunting red summer bucks around the rut time is always exciting. Who knows if the rut is on proper, maybe we would be able to call the one or other buck in! Fun stuff!

When I suggested to my wife that we make the 700 km drive across Germany in my Landy 300 Tdi - seven or eight hours with a stop - she raised an eyebrow and suggested we not go in the Landy.

Which rifle or rifles - traveling by car I could take a couple, so I packed my Dan Fraser Steyr Mannlicher in 7x64 with an old 6x42 Zeiss glass shooting Hornady factory loads and also my Blaser R8 in .223 shooting 55g RWS factory loads - a great roe caliber and a great round!

As regards hotels 10 minutes on-line at ‘booking.com’ and we booked a nearby hotel, Hotel Andersen, inc breakfasts. Now this is worth a comment - with travel restrictions in place at the time of booking, hotels were closed to general vacation travelers. However, with hunting being one of the government approved activities in Covid times - being the need to combat African Swine Flu and protect crops and cereals from damage - hunters may book hotels under the category of ‘business travel’. Seems that there are always exceptions and ways round everything! We booked a double for three nights including breakfasts and at EUR 10,- extra per night for the dog! Simple.

The hunt date drew closer, we packed a couple of bags and zipped the rifles in soft gun bags and on the morning of 5 August loaded the car, programmed the sat-nav, tossed a coin to see who would drive the first leg and with me in the passenger seat, we set-off heading north east towards Brandenburg, Berlin and Blumberg.

As a side note, roe deer are Germany’s number one game animal with over 1.3million shot in 2020. The open season runs April to mid January and in some states May to mid January. The two peak times for hunting roe buck are the opening in April or May - traditionally 1 May - and then in August during the rut. Hopefully for us the weather would be good and the Blumberg rut would be on!

Early afternoon reaching the town of Helmstedt brought back memories - this was where the East German border began and where the walled and fenced transit road into West Berlin from West Germany started during the Cold War days! Both my wife and I travelled the transit road in the 1980s a number of times. Memories!






We came off the Autobahn near Magdeberg for a quick lunch and then pushed on to Schwedt, near Blumberg, where we would be staying and where we checked in and quickly changed before driving to the meeting point at the Blumberg Estate.





The party had assembled when we arrived and were all welcomed with a glass of champagne and snacks before Herr van der Oesten, the owner, formally welcomed everyone, a total of 8 hunting guests, and recited the rules and regs for the hunt - roe bucks (any size head), yearling does, European boar to 60 kg, NO MATURE SOWS at all, red deer spikers and for the two guests that contacted him earlier a mouflon ram each if they had the chance.









At 18:00 we were then assigned to our guides who would drive us to our high seats (or boxes as my wife again reminded me) and the hunt would begin!

Box No. 1







Thursday evening we sat in a high seat / Kanzel overlooking a large clearing with forest left and right and behind us. A young dachs crossed the clearing just before dusk but otherwise we did not see anything. Three or four shots rang out in the woods around us throughout the evening! Some lucky hunters were on the money! At the agreed time of 21:30 we pack up and made our way back to the meeting point where we were collected and driven the short 10 minutes back to the lodge.

Three roe deer had been shot. All clean shots and all “called in”, so the rut was was very much still on!

We enjoyed a BBQ provided by Blumberg and beers and wines with the other guests and hosts and a rep from K&K that was present the whole time and taking pictures for the agent. And at 23:00 we called it a night and drove the 23 kms to the hotel for some well needed sleep!

Sleep came quick and ended just as quick when the alarm sounded at 03:00 a.m.. A routine that would be the same for the next three nights. Only a few hours sleep and back to the lodge - this time on my own as my wife opted to sleep in on the morning hunts! Clever!

The guns assembled and at 04:15 we were again driven to our stands. Mine was a hight tower in a woodland ride overlooking a salt lick to my front and thick woodland left and right. My ‘box’ for the next three and a half hours!

Box No. 2







The sun broke at 05:00 a.m. and the woods came alive. I tried calling but could not spot any deer. Two shots broke elsewhere in the woods! And then a third!

I continuously glassed the woods and the ride searching for a roe buck, when suddenly looking to me left a young buck was standing in the thick brambles and looked straight up at me! He had caught my movement. I ducked below the Kanzel wall and pick up my .223, cocking the mechanism as I sighted over the side and on to the young buck’s chest. He still stood looking up at me. At the shot he buckled and dashed to the left, away into the thick cover and after a moment the woods were silent again.

On strict instructions not to leave your stand until 08:00, I waited out the half hour glassing the woods and wondering how far the young buck had gone. At the safe hour, I climbed down from the Kanzel and fought my way through the thick, waist high brambles and undergrowth to where the buck had stood. I looked around and found blood! Good blood and an easy trail which I followed for some 15 meters through the thick vegetation to find the buck laying under a bush, shot shoulder to shoulder. My first Blumberg roe buck! With my rifle and pack shouldered, I dragged the buck up the cut back to the forest track and waited some 20 minutes for the assistants to come and pick me up. As an aside - here the mosquitoes and horse flies were so thick and biting that I broke off some twigs to use as a fly switch and keep the bugs off! We would buy insect repellant later that day.











Back at the lodge, mine was one of 4 bucks shot that morning. The hunt PH checked and gralloched all the game himself before tagging the deer and weighing them and hanging them in the cold room. Seven bucks from two sittings and one was mine!

It was then back for breakfast with my wife, a walk around the historic town and along the banks of the River Oder separating Germany and Poland and then a couple hours of well needed sleep, before pulling back on the hunting clothes and a solid dose of insect spray and back to Blumberg!

We had a great high seat that evening - again overlooking a clearing and beyond that fields and behind us thick spruce woods and woodland to the right.

Box No. 3













A young fox crossed the clearing, which excited our Springer bitch, who was with us in the evenings. And then we heard what we thought was a large sounder of pigs coming through the woods behind us. We were wrong. It was a small group of red stags - four or five in total - with two very large stags in the group. They stood behind us, some twenty meters in the woods, for over 15 minutes, shaking bushes with their antlers and snorting! They had partly caught our wind. Exciting stuff! Then they moved off and silence settled agin. It was broken by a buck that barked in the trees opposite us and another hunter in the woods squeaking and calling in the hope of pulling in a roe buck. A young roe doe crossed our clearing in and out of the bush but never stopping long enough for a shot.

At 21:30 it was unload the rifle, pack up and back to the lodge for a report and BBQ and beers and wines again. The same as the night before. Another three or four bucks were being gralloched and one of the hunters had seen pigs but not long enough to get a shot in.

Saturday morning saw me alone at a ground stand with a wide clearing in front of me. Three foxes crossed in the dark woods behind me - I love my thermal night vision! Then a couple of playful red squirrels.

Box No. 4










The sun broke at 05:00 and I tried calling on and off at intervals.





Suddenly a wolf crossed the clearing from left to right some 25 meters from my stand. Dark grey, almost black! Amazing! My first wolf sighting in Germany! As mentioned, wolves are totally protected in Germany and you would loose your hunting license and face prosecution if you were caught shooting one!

I guessed that with the wolf around the roe deer would not show but I guessed wrong! And squeaking on the back of my hand at a fox that was trotting along the path towards me, suddenly a big roe buck appeared in the clearing before me and proceeded to stop and beat up a small bush with his large head some 30 meters from me.

Rifle cocked, shouldered and red dot on the bucks shoulder, I watched through the scope as he ceased his attack on the small shrub and as he slowly walked clear of the bush I barked him. He immediately stopped and looked over in my direction and the shot broke to his shoulder! The roe buck hardly reacted and slowly, almost like slo mo, walked in a semi circle back through the undergrowth the way he had come only to drop after some 15 meters and disappear from view in the high vegetation. A bush shaking for a moment or two was a clear sign that the buck was down and then out.

I waited til 08:00 and then walked across the clearing to where the buck lay. A great mature roe buck with a great head! My second Blumberg buck! I was thrilled and after a few pictures, I packed up and dragged ‘my buck’ to the path and pick up point.








Back at the lodge a few of the guests and organisers admired the buck with ‘Waidmannshails‘ and handshakes. We estaimated the buck at 4 years old. A great buck to take!

One of the younger hunters trying his hand at gralloching a buck -





That afternoon we drove along the Oder river and found a nice town for typical German afternoon ‘coffee and cake’ and then it was back to Blumberg for the evening ‘box sit’ with my wife joining me.

We had a very high ‘high stand’ overlooking a partly cleared cut in the woods. A roe doe appeared from the woods and after feeding for half an hour she collected her fawn from its safe spot in the clearing. A nice sight to watch! A couple of foxes and a very noisy raccoon rounded off the evening and then it was, yes, BBQ and beers and wine and back to the hotel for 3 hours of short sleep!


Daniel Fraser bolt action in 7x64










It rained heavily in the night. The first real rains for some weeks.

Sunday morning was the last outing and I was allocated a high stand overlooking a ‘Suhle’ (a wallow) in a cut in some high reeds in the woods. With the rains and the cooler weather heavy mist hung in the opening. The night’s rain dropped heavily from the trees. A wonderful setting.

Box No. 6







The sun rose at exactly 05:00 and lifted the mist. I tried calling but nothing came in. And then at 06:30 looking out at the wallow, three large boars magically appeared out of the reeds before me! Two began pushing and shoving each other with loud grunts to see who was the boss, whilst the real boss of the three walked to the edge of the wallow and stopped.

Now this was an interesting moment for reflection. Each of the boars was easily 80 - 90 plus kgs and likely 3 years old and I was sporting a .223, plus I can shoot European wild boar in my own concession and only recent shot a dressed out 98 kg boar there. These guys being over the 60 kg limit would be EUR 1.300,- each. I sighted onto the ear of one of the three that was standing broadside but kept my finger off the trigger and watched as the three boars walked quietly away disappearing into the high reeds. Gone. But a wonderful sight to have seen!

Then a large roe buck appeared in the sun light on the other side of the ride. I glassed him at 240 meters. A long shot for hunting in Germany, and despite a very solid possible rest, I let him go on his way. Plus I had shot a good buck the morning before so no need to stretch things.

A short while later a few squeaks and squelching mud caught my attention and looking down to my right at the wallow below me there were some 5 large sows and 12-15 hoglets milling around! I sighted onto the neck of one of the larger piglets and at the shot he dropped on the spot, whilst chaos erupted around him with the sounder bursting in all directs, grunting and squealing as they bolted! My piglet stayed down!

At 08:00, I climbed down from my high stand and fought my way through the high reeds, the water and undergrowth to claim my pig! A young boar of some 24 kgs shot through the neck being my point of aim. Great stuff. I loaded up and dragged him the 700 meters along the wet path to the meeting point where we loaded the pig for the short drive back to the lodge. Two deer had also been shot bringing the total to 20 deer and the pig for the six outings.








After the butchering and gralloching and after coffees, the organisers laid down one deer and the boar on the grass courtyard each on a bed of oak leaves and in a typical German hunt ceremony with horns, the successful hunters were each congratulated with a “Bruch” and a “Waidmannsheil”, as was the blood hound that successfully undertook two tracking follow-ups on two deer that did not drop straight away but went some 200 meters plus before bedding down and expiring. The horns then sounded “Jagdvorbei” / the end of the hunt and with thanks, handshakes and “Aufwiedersehens until next year" the party ended with a total bag of 20 roe buck and 1 wild boar. As for numbers, the “Jagdkonig” (the most successful hunter) had taken 5 bucks followed by me with my two bucks and a pig. Most guests had taken a couple of bucks, so everyone had some sport.








I will do this again next year for sure, probably with our youngest son joining me. It was well organised with plenty of game all around, an enjoyable group of hunters and organisers and a great bang for the buck! I could not fault this hunt at all and the BBQs and beers provided by the hosts were great fun too and a great chance to swap stories and meet new hunting friends in the evenings!

I collected my two roe heads from the cool room - for mounting - and after ‘thank you's’ and ‘Aufwiedersehens’, it was back to the hotel for a shower, breakfast with my wife and an easy Sunday afternoon drive home with an exhausted Springer Spaniel sleeping the whole way in the car home!

Thanks to K&K as agents and to Blumberg as the concession owners and organizers and thanks to all AR readers that come with us on this report!

A classic Germany roe buck hunt during the August roe rut in a classic German concession! There was nothing to improve on this hunt at all, except perhaps the lack of sleep but as my wife always says “we can sleep when we are older!”

Waidmannsheil!





(Maybe worth a PS to mention that Blumberg runs 2 roe buck hunts in May at the start of the season and then the August hunt taking some 75 bucks off the concession annually. In addition they run 2 big driven days concentrating on wild boar and red deer with bags of 200 animals each driven day. This is very much about game management more than the sporting element and rather than hire a hunter to manage the numbers, Blumberg sells the 5 programmes annually to mainly German hunters and sole marketing by K&K. A win win for all involved! The game dealer / butcher was scheduled to collect all shot deer and my one pig on the Monday after the hunt - so the meat / venison goes straight into the local food chain!)


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Thanks for posting such a readable report Charlie. Both insightful and enjoyable. Good to get the full account of how you scored that young, eater boar. You know it's been a good hunt if you need time afterwards to recover !
Great pics too although Anje ( spelling ? ) doesn't look too delighted with her sip of champers. Maybe too cheap a grade for her refined tastes ?
I know nothing of hunting costs in Europe or Germany but agree that package cost sounds quite reasonable.
Congrats on your straight shooting and success.
Cheers.

Waidmannshail! Thanks for the thorough report!

Great story Charlie:
Very fine pictures too.
Several big bucks it looks like.

I was going to ask about the meat, if you got to keep it or not. Thanks for that info.

What surprised me most was the underbrush. I got to travel Germany quite a bit back in '71-72. All the understory was cleared everywhere back then. Is it yet and just allowed to grow in that area?

I didn't get to hunt, I was "allowed" to go along on a sit for roebuc one evening at Nierstein, small field on the Rhein. I took my new Sako .222mag along to let the German use. He owned a gasthaus and invited me to join him.

I had a real battle over him insisting he buy my rifle. Of course the US Army rules against that. For the size of those deer, that's a perfect cartridge.

Thank you for such a great write up again.

I took a train up to Bremerhaven, then east to Berlin August '72. I believe Helmstedt is where we were stopped and the armed guards checked our papers. Outside was others with their dogs on leash. Whole different deal now that Germany is wide open. Wish I could get back and check it out without the wall.

George

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George, You are exactly right it was Helmstedt - went by bus and car a number of times from Hamburg to West Berlin on the transit road. Armed border police would enter the bus to check papers and possessions, cars were searched and all the time German Shepards on leather leads straining on the sidelines!

30 odd years ago now!

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Great report Charlie

I have no idea what a 222Mag is but I have no faith at all in the 222rem - I shot a few (20-25) Roe with it in my Blaser kipplauf but had a few runners with pretty perfect shot placement. I now have a 6mm BR barrel and this works like like a dream.

Good report - weidmansheil!!

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Originally posted by georgeld:
Great story Charlie:
Very fine pictures too.
Several big bucks it looks like.

I was going to ask about the meat, if you got to keep it or not. Thanks for that info.

What surprised me most was the underbrush. I got to travel Germany quite a bit back in '71-72. All the understory was cleared everywhere back then. Is it yet and just allowed to grow in that area?

I didn't get to hunt, I was "allowed" to go along on a sit for roebuc one evening at Nierstein, small field on the Rhein. I took my new Sako .222mag along to let the German use. He owned a gasthaus and invited me to join him.

I had a real battle over him insisting he buy my rifle. Of course the US Army rules against that. For the size of those deer, that's a perfect cartridge.

Thank you for such a great write up again.

I took a train up to Bremerhaven, then east to Berlin August '72. I believe Helmstedt is where we were stopped and the armed guards checked our papers. Outside was others with their dogs on leash. Whole different deal now that Germany is wide open. Wish I could get back and check it out without the wall.

George

It looks like a great time was had by all. Thanks for posting!

Great report Charlie. Some nice buck but the photo I truly felt pangs of jealousy over was the shot of the Dan Fraser. In one word - superb.