I just returned from a "Honey Dew" trip with my wife cruising up the Danube from Budapest to Passau, Germany. One feature of the trip was a bus ride from Linz, Austria to Salzburg, and another was the bus trip from Passau to the Munich Airport.

On both trips, which were via four-lane limited access highways with almost continuous adjacent development (commercial, residential, manufacturing, etc.), I observed that nearly every small patch of green (probably barley or other small grains) had a deer stand (hide, blind) on it. Most stands were on wooden frames about 8-feet high and the boxes appeared to be about a meter square.

I'm guessing that the main quarry is roe and fallow, with possibly a few reds. And I'm also guessing that the hunting is almost exclusively at night by moonlight as I never saw anyone in a stand. I'm just curious and wondered what some of you natives might tell me about how the hunting takes place here.

Stonie,

First, I hope you had a great time on your vacation.

Secondly, a good question ..... here's a condensed version.

As in Texas; Teutonic hunting (Germany, Austria, parts of Switzerland & Italy) is based on Leases(=Reviere), some small, less large(r). The vast majority probably average throughout all of these countries @ 300-400 hectare (740-1000 acres) per Lease. They are catagorized either Hochwild (Capital Game) or Niederwild (Small Game) Leases. They are also priced accordingly and like in Texas the price of a premiere Capital Game Lease with solid attributes (Location, Location, Location) will suck the breath right outa your body.

Neiderwild Reviere has game up to the size of Roe Deer but can also be frequented by Wild Boar (nomadic; so they're considered to come and go as they please). Lease duration for Small Game Leases are 7 years.

Hochwild Reviere includes Red Stag or Fallow Deer; usually due to the lcoation where such are found also include a sizable poulation of Wild Boar. Lease duration is 14 years. Prices for Capital Game Leases start at @ 5 figures per anum (€€€ not $$$).

Obviously a lease where you spend most of your Sunday afternoons scrapping dead Roe, Fallow, Red Deer & Wild boar off the pavement with a shovel are not as highly desired and therefore priced accordingly. Same goes for those directly adjacent to the Industrial Area.

Since as you've noted the compactness of at least two of these countries it's actually amazing at how much hunting (read=amount of game) there is to be had and the concetration of game as well.

In Tuetonland hunting is based on conservation, and executed by selective culling. The young, ill, injured and lesser trophies qualities are culled intitally and after that it boils down to age, sex & trophy quality. It is illegal to shoot Red Stag, Fallow & Roe Deer during darkness here in The Fatherland; the only exclusive night-time quarry are Wild Boar. There is also a pretty all-encompassing priority list of who gets the bullet first; so not only do you require good optics (it is illegal to have an artificial light source attached to your rifle/scope) but the ability to use them to pot the correct animal; so no, it's not just about placing the recticle dead center of a large black/grey blob and stroking the trigger.

These fixtures:

Enclosed high seat is a Kanzel, an open ladder with seat (usually without cover) is a Hoch Sitz. Placed appropriately the high seats are for less intimitating use; normally in the spring, summer and fall where weather plays less of a role and game movement opportunities arise; sometimes their positions are moved according to hunting opportunities. The Kanzels are usually the permanent fixtures for winter/night time use. Correctly you noted many adjacent to highways, autobahns & country roads as game in these areas that tend to traffic accidents are culled heavily. I'd prefer to harvest a lesser trophy than to wait until he's a hood ornament if known to be frequenting a field adjacent to a heavily trafficed road. The same goes for a doe & her fawns or a cow & her calf.

While what we refer to as still hunting or stalking is practiced; in many regards these fixtures are the preferred culling method and offer alot of solid virtures.

1. Safety; especially bullet backstop; you shoot from an elevated position so Mother Earth is in many respects your best friend - due to the congestion this is parmount (always). If a safe shot doesn't present itself; come back another day and most likely the same game will return (eventually, unless it's been taken out by the neighboring lease or run-over).

2. A position to glass and identify game; often as not you'll already know/recognize particular animals frequenting fields, meadows, glenns; their habits, bedding areas, etc. the decision is then made which takes the bullet according to a defined "harvest plan". Injured & ill, get taken out immediately. We don't go out without previously having discussed what's on The Menu or a Game Plan; everyone knows what is expected as far as what's gonna get shot; if there are questions or doubts, ask. Asking forgiveness for dispatching the wrong creature is not an option.

3. A binocular is your best friend, you'll use it alot as it enables you to make the right choices and you are expected to be able to identify all game animals by age, sex & catagories of trophy quality. In many of the leases I hunt we will all receive 1 Roe Buck a year; make it count; the right age group and correct trophy quality; if you make a mistake - shucks - Bad on Ya. Nevertheless you just spent your Roe Buck bullet for the season; don't shoot another one unless you receive Papal Dispensation. You'll also spend your time in the trenches shooting culls long before a Lease Holder allows you the luxury of a good trophy as well, you earn your stripes, so to speak.

4. A solid rifle rest to place a perfect shot so as not to destroy meat; which is critical on the delicate Roe Deer, they're small deer; especially at anything over 100 meters and if you can pot Roe with good consistancy and NOT destroy meat at 200 meters you're a Hero. The desired shot is just behind the elbow, right through the boiler room, so you don't rip up the carcass. Wild Boar, Fallow & Red Stags can take more of a beating but basically the same holds true, a nice, clean shot is desired and you're expected to use the attributes of these fixtures to maximize accuracy. Especially, when shooting under less than optimal conditions such as at Wild Boar night, or weather. Take a Texas Heart-Shot animal to the lease holder (it's his property unless he sells or gives it you) and I can pretty much guarantee that will be the last time you hunt with him and for sure you just purchased the carass of a Roe Deer (or the gulash remaining) for yourself. You'll have the option of paying cash or he'll send you an invoice.

5. The heavy-duty enclosed Kanzels are where we spend the sometimes bitterly cold, moonlit evenings, mornings and occaisionally entire nights waiting for Sus Scrofa, and there's no sense in scrimping on comfort in this regard either. I've encountered every form of Kanzels running the gamut from utter misery up to & including luxurious extravagant penthouses with beds, matrasses, sheets & pillows, spitoons (not for spit, either), carpeting, insulation, food, beverages, snacks and Trail Cams; this is only limited by legal constraints and your imagination.

Oh, yeah; then there's the sweat equity; you'll also spend a couple weekends a year maintaining; repairing. Moving some, repairing others, constructing and placing new ones. New struts, holes in the roof, removing mice, bee, wasp & hornets nests, a new ladder or a coupla new rungs here or there, trimming branches for your fields of fire, etc. but the great part of these workdays is the commraderie. The lease holder(s) will always have a coupla cases of cold beer and a bottle of schnapps in the stream to cool adjacent to a beautiful forest clearing with a fireplace or grill for his workparty to enjoy the results of a hard day's work and contemplate the upcoming season; actually these workdays are pretty special events.

Gerry as always well said, clear and accurate.

I would add the following. Most reveres are neiderwild reveres, as such they serve three distinct purposes. First is the management of game in an agriculutral setting. These reveres are farm based and the primary management principle is prevention of crop damage. Revere owners typically settle up with the local farmers twice a year over crop damage, usually the price is tolerable. It can reach five figures quite easily if the hunter and forester are not doing their jobs. The second purpose is what we would consider typical trophy hunting. In addition to the mandated specific numbers of each species to be culled is a allotment of trophy quality animals. These are used to generate revenue and hunter interest. Comfortable accomodations and hospitality are a source of pride to a revere holder. When someone invests in your revere to trophy hunt it would be considered poor form to allow them to show up and sit in a less than desirable stand or seat. Finally all reveres supplement the large cost of ownership by selling game meat to the local meat monger. Most venison found in restraunts and stores comes from local hunters. Not to mention the many local specialities such as wild boar bratwurst as well as duck and rabbit.

When you take this and Gerry's information into consideration, and factor in what is essentially year round hunting seasons it's easy to see the necessity of permanent fixtures for hunting.

.
Great observation and question and two great and detailed answers !

As regards hunting times its not just during full moons (mainly for wild boar) but pretty much all the time and especially weekends !

Hunters will tend to sit for roe deer early mornings from 04.00 a.m. and late afternoon and evenings from 16.00 thru to last light. Wildboar will often be all night events catching a bit of shut eye in the Kanzel from time to time!

Often the seat / Kanzel that you sit in will depend on game movement and the wind with some of the seats / stands having feeders in sight (again here very regulated how many feeders per lease!)

Its a very interesting way of hunting and requires what is referred to as "Sitzfleisch'!
Some have it, some dont!

Cheers

.

Thank you for the education gentlemen.

I learned a lot.

I noticed the same thing on a couple drives from Munich up to Straubing and Bogen. Texas looking deer blinds everywhere! I saw quite a few roe out grazing (May time frame)

I have noticed there is a deer blind (Hide) within about 200 meters of the approach path at Munich airport. When you see the stand you are maybe 100 ft off the ground? (Give or take on the distance/height, but it was there!) Also saw one just around the entrance to the airport if I remember correctly.

I just remember thinking that would never fly in the USA!

There are a surprising number of high seats visible from most of the autobahn I have driven on. The same is not typically true in Texas. Though I have noticed it to be true in the mid-west.

I saw a lot of "elevated hides" last year when I rode the train between Frankfurt and Nuremburg.