I am very interested in European hunting traditions and protocols.
Are there any good books in english that cover these traditions in the germanic countries, Alps, scandinavia and the UK?

Thanks

Hi Kayaker,
yes there is a nice book about Roedeer hunt.
Text is in Italian and english:
Title: IL CAPRIOLO
Autor: MARCO E. NOBILI
Edit by: IL VOLO
But I don't know where you can buy this nice book, check on the web...
Faina

Thanks Faina,

That a good start, will follow up...

What about Game and Hunting by Kurt G. Bluchel, seems to cover the topic quite well.

Tasso

In the UK we have a lot of deer of six species. There is virtually nowhere in the rural UK that has no wild deer and deer densities are far higher than they are in most parts of the USA.

Roe deer are found pretty much in every part of southern, western and northern England, with a smaller numbers in the east and midlands. They are everywhere in Scotland and they are even in a few areas in Wales.

The main thing about UK deer hunting (we call it stalking as the sport is in getting close) is that, with the exception of red stags, roe and sika deer on the open hill in Scotland, most stalking is done in the first two hours or the last two hours of daylight and the rest of the day is free for sightseeing or maybe some fishing.

The roebuck season is April to October and this means that, with the longer days, stalking in the middle of the season is often over by 07:00 and will not start in the evening much before about 19:00. The season for the other male deer is roughly August to March so the sessions are later in the morning and earlier in the evening but there's still plenty of daylight for sightseeing.

Having travelled to the UK and paid for accommodation you can then expect to pay one of the many outfitters something like US$300 a day and this will get you two stalking sessions. On top of this you will usually have to pay a trophy fee based on the quality of the head shot, these can go from US$50 to US$2,500 and the UK has some of the best roe heads in Europe with many Gold Medals shot each season.

There is effectively no public access hunting in the UK and in all cases you will be hunting on privately owned ground and will be given an exclusive area to hunt in so there is very little chance of anyone else hunting in your area and the chances of shooting accidents are much lower than in the States, we don't need to have the ludicrous situation of wearing orange safety clothing over Realtree camo!

With nearly all UK stalking the herds are managed carefully for quality and most male deer in their prime are left in the herd until they are past their best breeding age. You will shoot only the deer that your guide (stalker) tells you to based on what you are prepared to pay.

Long range shooting and shooting at a moving target is not encouraged and in the woodlands and on farms the typical shot will be well inside 100 yards whilst on the hillside your stalker will try to get you within 150 yards and you will spend a fair amount of time on your belly. In a woodland or farmland setting you may well be placed in a high seat (our equivalent of a tree blind) to wait for the deer and take a safe downwards shot.

Having said this there are also opportunities for stalking at ground level but in a well populated island like ours you have to be very careful about making sure that your target has a safe background before shooting.

kayaker....Merry Chrsitmas,

There's tons of Teutonic literature; actually more than you could probably red & digest in a life-time but it's 100% printed in the German language (means you have to wait until the end of the sentence for the verb....) so unless your German is quite good (Affrikaans, although more Dutch related?) you're not going to get much out of them. I've never seen a compehensive book in English that covers it they way it should be but I'd love to be corrected (if someone else knows of a sucha tome).

Like s-basher relates above though; there are countless, excellent books from the UK on European Game Animals; Roe, Red, Fallow Deer, CWD, Birds - you name it. I've not seen a bad one but they tend to the spendy side due to Currency Exchange.

The work of Walter Frevert, over here probably the most famous forest warden and hunter, is available at the moment from Kosmos at quite an attractive price, if I remember it right for around 30 Euros you get 3 books in one. The title is "Mein Jaegerleben", very recommendable reading even though he does not tell anything about his times hunting partisans for the Wehrmacht in Belarussia.

Great,
Thanks guys...

Cheers

kayaker as Gerry said - one of the biggest publishers is Paul Parey