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As one gets older time seems to quicken and it is already mid December and the end of year Waldjagd ( woodland hunt ) 2017 is upon us. It seems like yesterday that I wrote about the 2016 woodland hunt and the 2017 hunt was already here on the second Saturday before Christmas, Saturday 16th December 2017!

Whilst the Waldjagd is basically a bird, hare / rabbit and predator shoot, I have posted these reports in the past on the European Big Game Hunting, as its a big day in the calendar for all involved being the end of year annual get together for some 20-25 persons that all share a passion for hunting and shooting in a small town in North Rhein Westfalia in Germany, not far from the Dutch border.

Anja did not join in the hunt / shoot but came to the evening dinner. Timo, our youngest and a keen outdoors teenager, did join, working our Springer bitch, Teal. It was great having him along.

Packed and loaded, we drove the short 20 minute journey to a nearby town on the wider outskirts of Duesseldorf, where the shoot always holds. It was a dry, brisk winters morning and although rain was forecast there was not a rain cloud in the skies as dawn broke.

The same procedure as each and every year, the guns, beaters and helpers began to gather from 09.00 a.m., exchanging greetings and Wainmannsheils. Some guns with dogs - although not many this year - a Weimaraner, a Munsterlander, a terrier, a black Lab wearing bells and our ESS, other guns with hunting horns and some with both. As in the past a mixture of guns from O/U Brownings and Berettas to side by side Merkels and Sauers and even a 12 bore drilling shotgun this year! That was a first and a weight to carry around all day I'm sure!




























At 09.30 the horns sounded 'Begrussung' (Welcome) and the Jagdleiter welcomed the guns, the beaters and dog handlers and the helpers - the tractor driver who would be pulling the wagon, the game cart driver and others. We were then divided into three groups being beaters with walking guns, flanking guns and standing guns and then we proceeded to walk and hunt the woodlands.








Guns took up their allocated places left and right of a block of woodland, standing guns were positioned at the top end and the beaters, dogs and walking guns worked and walked their way up the blocks flushing game as they went.





Throughout the morning shots rang out - mostly clean single shots, a compliment to the guns - and the game bag began to fill.








Shooting an old Spanish side by side 20 bore, my "rainy day" shotgun, I managed to drop a large woodland hare on the second drive, rolled cleanly with the right barrel of size 6 shot. Teal, our ESS bitch, now 10 years old, took her time with the retrieve but got there in the end.








We broke for lunch at 12.30. Sausages, rolls, mustard and Christmas Stollen (fruit cake) at the village playground with the horns breaking the hunt and then announcing the start of the hunt again after lunch. I have written before and I will write it again, that I always find it wonderful in rural Germany that 20 hunters with dogs, horns and hunt vehicles, can break for lunch at a village playground, wearing an assortment of camo and blaze and, propping shotguns against fences and benches, can enjoy each other's company and companionship over a sandwich or soup on a Saturday afternoon. Children played, passers-by called out greetings and everyone was happy. Some parts of the world still seem to be ok! God bless rural life and townships!

The call to lunch -





In the afternoon we worked more woodland and two patches of recently ploughed in corn stubble. More hare and a rabbit were added to the bag. A woodcock flushed and flighted away without being shot at and a number of roe deer raced and sprang from one block of woodland to the next, the bucks with naked heads, their new antlers not showing yet.

It was a glorious day, dry and sunny and only later towards dusk did it cloud over but no rain fell - proving the weathermen wrong !








We laid down a modest bag of 11 hare, a rabbit and 2 cock pheasant, with the Jagdleiter thanking the guns for their safe shooting, the beaters and dog handlers for their hard work and the drivers for chauffeuring the the guns around during the day. "Jagdvorbei" was sounded on the horns and another wonderful Waldjagd drew to an end.





Well it went on a while with the traditional dinner and drinks in the town pub that evening with one of the guns being announced "Jagdkoening" (Hunt King), he having shot the most game - two hare and a cock pheasant plus it was his birthday as well. That cost a few rounds!

I took two hare and a pheasant home for the table, preparing the bird as a traditional Scottish 'cock a leekie soup' and the two hares done as 'jugged hare'. Both were great eating and all the more so as we put them on the table ourselves!

Now, the "More" in the title refers to two other events over the holiday period following on from the Waldjagd. Between Christmas and New Years, Timo and I plus the ESS, joined two of the other guns from the Waldjagd and we went out for a day in the pouring rain working the hedgerows and borders. All legal game was open to shoot with the only rule being you carry and later consume whatever you shoot. An 8 lb forest hare is a weight to carry around all day so you think twice about shooting one of them straight away!

We walked and hunted for some 4 hours and finished with a modest bag of a rabbit, a cock pheasant and a wood pigeon, which all went into the pot! We saw plenty of roe deer and plenty of hare, a few rabbit, pheasant, woodcock and pigeon. It was, despite the rain, a great day outdoors.






And the third part of this Christmas shooting tale is that Anja and I joined two wonderful friends of ours, Ulrike and Hermann, for 4 days shooting geese and ducks in Cumlosen, Brandenburg, on the banks of the Elbe River, which was the old border between East and West Germany before 1989.

We stayed in the local village guest house / pub, awakening early mornings to catch the morning flight and again going out in the late afternoons for the evening flight over the Elbe flood plains.






It was a fascinating shoot, the morning silence being broken by the honking and quacking of hundreds of geese as they took to the air to flight from their resting waters to their feeding fields across the river. The pale morning skies laden with honking geese flying in wide arrow head formations. What a spectacle. We managed a few geese and duck between us but the geese were more than high at 60 / 70 meters pushed up by six weeks of open season on geese and frequent hunting and shooting. I dearly hoped for the chance at a swan, they are legal and open in Brandenburg in December and January, but it was not to be. Maybe next year. I have never shot a swan and coming from the UK, swans are Royal as in Britain all swans officially belong to the Queen! Maybe next time!

Despite the bad weather that we had and despite the modest bags, it was a joy and a privilege to be out in a new part of the country, meeting new people and seeing new sights. Although the Berlin Wall came down nearly 30 years ago the scars of the past were still very visible with once beautiful buildings and farm houses boarded up and in ruins.

Here some pictures that tell the story of the shoot and the surrounding countryside and farm and village buildings -























And after the morning flight there was always fresh coffee and breakfast!










And that dear AR friends and readers brings another "Waldjagd" to an end. I hope that these reports have not become repetitive and 'the same as every year' and I hope that the 'more' in this report and extra pictures is of interest.

Thank you for coming along and wishing you all a wonderful 2018, with memorable and safe hunting and shooting with family and friends, old and new!


Charlie & Anja

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Ps apologies that the texts are small and the pictures large. I know about resizing but I am trying to put this together off an iPad and a pub wifi ! Back in Nigeria !!

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Great report and photos. Thanks for posting it!

Great tradition....thanks for sharing!

Do you travel from "South & West Africa" for that hunt every year?

Waidmannsheil!

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Norton hi. I wish ! But in truth, whilst it may look that way, we spend most Christmas holidays in Germany and UK, so we always try and catch the 'Waldjagd'. Tradition, a good crowd, a good day out and usually the chance at a hare or something else!

Cheers

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Thank you for the hunt report and great pictures. So good to see that old traditions are alive and well

I love to see the appreciation for the hunt, and the comaradarie that goes with it. Well done!

Love it..