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I’ll share a secret - since August my wife, son and I are learning to play the Jagdhorn. The Furst Pless horn to be exact. We have practice every week Wednesday with 12 other hunters and are learning 15 songs / signals. In April when the course ends there is an official test from the regional hunting association and to pass you need to be able to play 5 signals chosen by the examiner from the 15 - you get the Blaserhutabzeichen (a Hunting horn pin for your hat / cap). ‘Wow!’ I hear you say. But it’s all good stuff with heaps of German hunting tradition - it’s fun and we have made some new freinds. It’s kind of a secret as we have kept it quiet from family and friends and will surprise them one day when we can stand with the ‘horns’ at a hunt and perform!

Moving on, one of our new hunting horn friends and I were talking about small game - pheasant, partridge, hare, rabbit and so on when he asked me if I wanted to go out with him hunting rabbits / cotton tails.

“Sure, I love hunting rabbits!”

So late the other day, I walked round to his house, he lives six blocks away. He got his Tikka T1X in .22lb out of his gun safe and a backpack and we set off in his car.

Now I may have written before that all land / ground in Germany, has hunting rights tied to it by law and the landowner must either hunt the ground himself or alternatively lease out the hunting rights. This applies to all woodlands, wetlands, agricultural and farmland and even town and city parks and cemeteries. Yes even town and city cemeteries!

And exactly there is where we were headed - the main city cemetery. My friend has a 3 year lease on the hunting rights to 54 hectares of town cemetery covering pigeon, crows, jackdaws and magpies and rabbits! He may only use a .22 or .17 and not a shotgun so as not to make too much noise and disturbance.

We were there in 10 minutes and after informing the local police station by phone that we were hunting in the cemetery and after hanging notices on the 3 cemetery gates “Hunting in Progress”, we entered the cemetery grounds in search of rabbits!





It was dusk and most of the visitors had left the cemetery bar a few stragglers who were tending graves and a gardening crew that was raking up the fallen autumn leaves. The cemetery closes at 6:00 pm. The stragglers gave us a few curious looks but said nothing. And there we were, a .22LR over the shoulder and a thermal spotting scope and shooting sticks in hand, walking and stalking the paths and grass areas in between the plots and headstones for rabbits!








Very soon we saw some rabbits, skitting between the rhododendrons and after a few minutes the rifle was on the shooting sticks and ‘whack’ the first rabbit was in the rucksack!





We walked and stalked for an hour or so and managed a bag of six rabbits between us before calling it a night.

It was kind of surreal. Totally silent and peaceful, walking slowly around the cemetery in the middle of the city plinking rabbits with a .22. You could hear them scampering amongst the dried, fallen leaves and then we would pick them up on the thermal. Or we simply stood still and scanned the open grassy areas picking them up with the naked eye.





It would have been easy to shoot double figure rabbits but that would have been a waste. We did not need so many. Back at home, I skinned and gutted five of the six for the freezer. Number six was a messy shot and will go on the fox bait pile in my concession. We enjoy eating rabbit and I will make a nice casserole at the weekend.

Well that’s the story folks. Probably the strangest place that I have ever been hunting so far - the city cemetery! And by the way, it is a beautifully maintained cemetery with large trees and huge rhododendrons, large rose beds and perfectly manicured lawns. A kind of heaven on earth for rabbits!(Sorry - I could not resist that last sentence!)

It was a fun outing of a different kind and a good bag of rabbit to take home! I look forward to hopefully another invitation to hunt cemetery rabbits!

Where is the weirdest place that you have ever been hunting?


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The end result - wild bunny rabbit for the pot!





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That’s awesome
Bright side is, you guys didn’t wake up zombies

Hi Charlie,
Checking that you received the PM I sent 03 November ...??
Cheers
GRANT

Really appreciate your unique hunting stories Charlie. Would never have imagined that a graveyard is a hunting lease - but why not? Hope they tasted great.

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Delicious, with a good glass of Bordeaux!

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