Charlie64
AH enthusiast
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2025
- Messages
- 343
- Reaction score
- 1,057
- Location
- Europe & South Africa
- Media
- 30
- Member of
- LJV NRW Germany
- Hunted
- England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Austria, Czech, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Botswana, Mauritania, Namibia, RSA, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Krygyzstan, Turkey, New Zealand & USA
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Two hunting friends and I share a concession in the Moselle Valley, south of Koblenz in the State of Rheinland-Pfalz Germany. It is a small concession consisting of two valley sides and a crest with State forestry blocks making up the boundaries with no fencing anywhere. Parts of the concession overlook the River Rhine and it's many vineyards, which the area is famous for.
The forestry blocks on either side of the concession are actively hunted, foresters cannot abide deer and the damage that they do. Plus they hold a number of large driven hunts in the winter months. As a result of their activity, good numbers of game - European wild boar, roe and occasionally red deer and mouflon tend to sit tight in our concession where there is heavy cover and less going on.
With milder weather forecast these last days, my youngest son and I decided we would make a short overnight trip and see if we could call in one or two bucks. Most of our hunting is done from 'high seats', typical for Germany, but in the rut it is a case of slowly walking the woodlands and open areas and stopping and calling and waiting. Stealth and patience!
We arrived in the concession late afternoon and after unpacking our camping beds (we would spend the night in the hunting hut) and cooler, we drove to the comb of the hill in the middle of the concession where we parked up and set off on foot.
At the first clearing, with my son on the sticks shooting his Sauer 404 in .30-06, hardly had I started calling with the Buttalo, when a young buck literally charged in barking to within 5 meters of where we were standing! He repeated this three or four times, all the while barking and barking, until he saw / winded us and pranced off into the woods, voicing his anger and alarm! He was a young buck, maybe 2 years old, not once to take. But nevertheless a great start to the evening and clearly the rut was still on in force!
We walked / stalked on through the woods, stopping to call and listen and glass. We could hear bucks calling and barking here and there. About forty minutes later my son spotted a doe crossing a cut in the woods and close on her tale an old, old buck. He did not hesitate and at the shot the buck buckled and broke to the left away in the woods. We waited a short while and then picked up a thick lung blood trail and after some 15 meters there lay the buck, cleanly shot shoulder to shoulder.
An old, old buck, worn hard from the rut and weighing in at just 14 kgs. From his head and teeth, I would put him at 7 - 8 years old, maybe more. A super old buck.
For our concession a 'Gute Abschuss' as we say in Germany - a very good one to take!
We field dressed the buck and got him on ice to chill down and then we enjoyed a cold beer back at the hut whilst recounting the events to each other.
A wine tasting at Scheidgen Vineyards the next day rounded off the short trip and then it was back home until the next excursion to the Moselle Valley.
Time spent hunting together with my youngest son is in my opinion priceless!
And now I will let some pictures do the rest of the talking .....
Thanks for coming along on this short report of a typical German roe rut hunt (except perhaps the wine tasting!)
.
Two hunting friends and I share a concession in the Moselle Valley, south of Koblenz in the State of Rheinland-Pfalz Germany. It is a small concession consisting of two valley sides and a crest with State forestry blocks making up the boundaries with no fencing anywhere. Parts of the concession overlook the River Rhine and it's many vineyards, which the area is famous for.
The forestry blocks on either side of the concession are actively hunted, foresters cannot abide deer and the damage that they do. Plus they hold a number of large driven hunts in the winter months. As a result of their activity, good numbers of game - European wild boar, roe and occasionally red deer and mouflon tend to sit tight in our concession where there is heavy cover and less going on.
With milder weather forecast these last days, my youngest son and I decided we would make a short overnight trip and see if we could call in one or two bucks. Most of our hunting is done from 'high seats', typical for Germany, but in the rut it is a case of slowly walking the woodlands and open areas and stopping and calling and waiting. Stealth and patience!
We arrived in the concession late afternoon and after unpacking our camping beds (we would spend the night in the hunting hut) and cooler, we drove to the comb of the hill in the middle of the concession where we parked up and set off on foot.
At the first clearing, with my son on the sticks shooting his Sauer 404 in .30-06, hardly had I started calling with the Buttalo, when a young buck literally charged in barking to within 5 meters of where we were standing! He repeated this three or four times, all the while barking and barking, until he saw / winded us and pranced off into the woods, voicing his anger and alarm! He was a young buck, maybe 2 years old, not once to take. But nevertheless a great start to the evening and clearly the rut was still on in force!
We walked / stalked on through the woods, stopping to call and listen and glass. We could hear bucks calling and barking here and there. About forty minutes later my son spotted a doe crossing a cut in the woods and close on her tale an old, old buck. He did not hesitate and at the shot the buck buckled and broke to the left away in the woods. We waited a short while and then picked up a thick lung blood trail and after some 15 meters there lay the buck, cleanly shot shoulder to shoulder.
An old, old buck, worn hard from the rut and weighing in at just 14 kgs. From his head and teeth, I would put him at 7 - 8 years old, maybe more. A super old buck.
For our concession a 'Gute Abschuss' as we say in Germany - a very good one to take!
We field dressed the buck and got him on ice to chill down and then we enjoyed a cold beer back at the hut whilst recounting the events to each other.
A wine tasting at Scheidgen Vineyards the next day rounded off the short trip and then it was back home until the next excursion to the Moselle Valley.
Time spent hunting together with my youngest son is in my opinion priceless!
And now I will let some pictures do the rest of the talking .....
Thanks for coming along on this short report of a typical German roe rut hunt (except perhaps the wine tasting!)
.
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