Hi,

Since the hunting season more or less is finished here in Germany, I want to share some pictures and information about Chamois hunting in black forest. Since it is a gouvernemental hunt which has a very long waiting list, I decided to post it just here in the European forum since it will be very hard to get this organized outside of Europe.

Originally this hunt was a stalk hunt with a guide but since the demand was so big and a lot of hunters that show up are not in good shape to be successful. So now it is a 4 days event where between 10-15 hunters get invited and it is sitting on a highseat only. Every hunter sits in every hunting area for one afternoon and one morning. The success rate about all hunters is around 30% per hunter but this includes bambis and one year old chamois since the idea is to control the population in addition all trophy males can be shot, females are not allowed.. The hunt takes place in the rod to increase the chance to shoot a trophy chamois.

Being the youngest of the group (yes a lot of attendees are very old) it gave me the chance to get the more difficult seats which had a better chance. My first Guide gave me the advise to sit as long as possible in the morning.

So the first morning I shot a 105 point chamois


It was a bit of luck since it made an alert which informed me of its presents. Otherwise I might have missed it.

Downside is you need to carry the chamois yourself




You might see the highseat. So it was a bit of work.

However the next days it was very foggy. However the last morning I was lucky again:




So where some of the other guys didn't see one animal I shot two good ones. So I decided to leave a little earlier because with a third trophy the guys would have gone insane

Waidmannsheil! Thanks for posting! Just out of curiosity, when you say there was a long waiting list, how many years did you have to wait?

Those are the longest looking chamois horns I have seen.

I love the chocolate cape against the snow.

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Two nice looking chamois! Waidmannsheil !

I guess you can keep the heads or do the go to the Stadtsforst ?

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quote:

Originally posted by Gerac:
Downside is you need to carry the chamois yourself

You are getting a bit soft in your old age, carrying out animals is all part of the fun of self hunting

Nice animals and good heads, what horn length?, I've hunted Reh in the Black Forest and helped build a hochsitz for a chamois that had been seen in the area. Where do you hunt in the Black Forest?

Chamois are my favourite animal to hunt, they are a nice looking species related to antelope and we are blessed with plenty of them here in the South Island of NZ.

The main problem with getting the chamois down or up the hill was my bad preparation. I didn't bring a rope or anything and so while finding a steady rest I needed to pull it by the horns.

I don't want to complain but it is some work and especially while they are smelling like hell.

The chamois get bigger in the black forest since the live on lower altitude compared to the alps. So on heights between 600-1200m there is a lot of forest and the feeding is much better.

Horn length of the both animals are 37,5 and 36.

@Hannay: I think it was about 7 years.

quote:

Chamois are my favourite animal to hunt, they are a nice looking species related to antelope and we are blessed with plenty of them here in the South Island of NZ.

I second that, although I have other favourites too !

Congrats Gerac - those bucks are superb. Any hunter here would be proud to take horns that good. Here, 25 cm or better is considered first class, and is.

quote:

Originally posted by Gerac:
The main problem with getting the chamois down or up the hill was my bad preparation. I didn't bring a rope or anything and so while finding a steady rest I needed to pull it by the horns.

I don't want to complain but it is some work and especially while they are smelling like hell.

The chamois get bigger in the black forest since the live on lower altitude compared to the alps. So on heights between 600-1200m there is a lot of forest and the feeding is much better.

Horn length of the both animals are 37,5 and 36.

@Hannay: I think it was about 7 years.

That sure is some great horn lengths. I'm not overly fussed on eating chamois meat as even with a relatively young animal the meat is quite strong in flavour. I did eat some when in Germany and found it quite strong too. Agree the bucks can be smelly if carrying.

Usually with a smaller animal we make them into a "pack" and carry them that way on our backs but we don't usually have ticks here on our wild animals (I think some wild pigs can have small ticks but they don't live on humans. I was always wary of ticks in Germany and was warned to be careful by my hunting companions as they do carry Lymes disease. They were quite careful with their hunting dogs to do a tick search after hunting.

This is how you should carry your chamois out - my son packing out a good fat red deer

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:

quote:

Originally posted by Gerac:
The main problem with getting the chamois down or up the hill was my bad preparation. I didn't bring a rope or anything and so while finding a steady rest I needed to pull it by the horns.

I don't want to complain but it is some work and especially while they are smelling like hell.

The chamois get bigger in the black forest since the live on lower altitude compared to the alps. So on heights between 600-1200m there is a lot of forest and the feeding is much better.

Horn length of the both animals are 37,5 and 36.

@Hannay: I think it was about 7 years.

That sure is some great horn lengths. I'm not overly fussed on eating chamois meat as even with a relatively young animal the meat is quite strong in flavour. I did eat some when in Germany and found it quite strong too. Agree the bucks can be smelly if carrying.

Usually with a smaller animal we make them into a "pack" and carry them that way on our backs but we don't usually have ticks here on our wild animals (I think some wild pigs can have small ticks but they don't live on humans. I was always wary of ticks in Germany and was warned to be careful by my hunting companions as they do carry Lymes disease. They were quite careful with their hunting dogs to do a tick search after hunting.

This is how you should carry your chamois out - my son packing out a good fat red deer

Interesting Eagle.
My Aussie based German hunting buddy and I thought the meat from our trophy Chamois was some of the best we had ever had ! Perhaps we’ve used to stronger flavours after living off Sambar all summer ?

quote:

Originally posted by Ridgeman:

Interesting Eagle.
My Aussie based German hunting buddy and I thought the meat from our trophy Chamois was some of the best we had ever had ! Perhaps we’ve used to stronger flavours after living off Sambar all summer ?

We have some Sambar here in the North Island but never hunted over there so couldn't compare taste with other animals. Don't know why I have found chamois a bit strong, they graze on the same feed as red deer and tahr. Tahr to me is about the best eating just like prime beef or better. I like feral goat, also eating same feed as chamois in certain areas here.

Waidmannsheil!

Its been a long time since I shot my Gams...around 1987. Took it in the Bavarian alps around a small town called Wendelstein.

Sound of Music scenerey. It was Brunftzeit for the Hirsch in the valleys... Absolutely gorgeous. I ended up with an Abschuss Tier...nice young male but obviously not trophey quality like that. The terrain was all vertical and we were often above the treeline.

I hunted a lot in Germany as a GI and because I spoke German well enough several of the Forstmeisters near Kitzingen told me to come and shoot any time I wanted...just call them if I shoot something to meet at the office and pay the going price for the meat. They told me to shoot every Wildschweine I saw! The one forest meister had an Abschuss Plan of over 30 Rhewild which he could never accomplish...so I helped... Said he couldn't do that with a German Jager...but because I was a GI he had some wiggle room. I was very popular in my little Dorf where I lived being the only hunter in town--I kept the Metzger and Gastwirtshaft in Rhe and WildSchweine and they bought me beer at the Stammtische for it!

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KY Nimrod, What great memories! Sounds like you had a great time and some awesome hunting in Germany. Did you get to keep any of the wildboar trophy tusks or Reh horns ? But coming back to the thread, gams is indeed a very special trophy!

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Waidmannsheil!!!

Very nice.

I shot mine south of Munich, almost in Austria. Never had it professionally measured, but my amateur measuring showed it at 90+. Still looks good on the wall.

Don