Thank you for the suggestions.
My grandfather emigrated to Australia from France and I’ve always wanted to go back and visit my family there. Naturally, I’d like to add a hunt to any time spent there.
What other game do they typically hunt in France?
We have 7 species of big games in France but only 4 are really native. The two species that are the most common are the wild boar and the roe deer. You can find them everywhere or almost now.
We also have a good population of red deers but they are not present everywhere in the country like roe deer and wild boar because they need a lot of space.
The last native species is the chamois and we have two subspecies in France. The "classic" chamois that you find in the Alps mountains and also in the Massif central. The other is the Pyrenean chamois aka "isard" and like its name suggests, you find it in the Pyrenean mountain along the spanish border.
Some say there is also the Chartreuse chamois and therefore, they sell tags at a very high price but I don't think it's fair !
The Mediterranean mouflon is not a native species on the continent because they were imported from Corsica (a beautiful island in the south of france) where it is still an endangered species and now it is officially protected. In France, mouflons found a perfect environment in which to thrive, and they flourished until the return of the wolf. In some place, that scourge has erradicated them and if nothing is done, the mouflon will disappear.
The 2 other species that are very controversial are the fallow deer and the sika deer ! Both are mainly found in game ranches but in some places, you can also find them roaming freely. The biggest population of free-ranging fallow deers is found along the German border, Illwad in Alsace, and in that place, there is a management with this specie. Elsewhere, they try to erradicate them.
That the same thing with the Sika. They try to erradicate them where they roam freely and even in game ranch, you can't transfer them anymore.
In the past, greenies bought a big game ranch for what they call a "rewilding project". They refused the help of hunters living around to take care of the fence, arguing we should leave the nature regulates itself, and unfortunately a storm destroyed the fence. Several animals escaped, including some possible hybrid red/sika deers and because we don't want such hybrids in the nature, some specialists were in charge to cull all animals at night with spotlight and thermal scope. That was a big mess.
I still haven’t decided completely, based on the various replies I’m leaning towards a no.
I posted on this website a few weeks ago looking for possible hunts in France near Paris for a single day, this place is just the one that was recommended.
I didnt want to at first but I’m going to attach a copy of their quote they sent me, I won’t be doing the 3 days/2 nights so that price isn’t accurate for me, I am doing 1 days 1 night, I’ve attached the full cost breakdown they sent me as well.
It seems fairly expensive but again I figured it’s 1 hour from Paris so I would be paying a premium, I can’t do any other country or area as I am just in Paris with my family so I’m extremely limited in my options. This was the only one that was recommended to me within reasonable distance to Paris to allow for a single nights stay/one day hunt.
I’m not rich by any means but I do like to spend money on various experiences, but thinking that this one day would be the equivalent of a day hunting a Kudu or Female buffalo on my Safari next year it’s a little hard to swallow.
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That's very expensive for one day of hunting and a roe buck !!
And $350 just for the licence ?
I pay for the whole hunting season 220 € and this licence is avalaible in the whole country. If I want to hunt in the 3 departements along the Germany border (where the hunting law is a bit different), I need to pay a little extra for boar hunting but it remains cheap.
For a foreigner like you, you just need to get a 3 days licence in the departement where you are hunting and with a special insurance and I'm sure you are well under 100 €.
Around Paris, it's complicated to find tags once again. People who hunt are very healthy, usually, and don't sell tags. It can happen but not very often.
In the south, it's a bit different. Many people just love to hunt boar with hounds and don't really care of other games. They sell tags to keep their hunting prices as low as possible. The friend I talked before buy each tag to hunting clubs at 150 € and he only takes 100 € of commision but it's not his main activity.
I saw you are free the july 19th and it's a bit late for me, because I will likely prepare the harvest at this date. If it was at begining of august, and if you were ok, I would have assisted you to hunt where I go. It's about 3 hours drive from Paris in the east. I have a buddy who rent a 220 hectares territory in the departement of Haute-Marne, 100% free range, in a nice valley between 2 big forests. We still have 4 roe buck tags but if the opportunity arise, we can shoot boars and foxes as well. Nothing is garantee because animals are not fenced, and we cannot really expect a big trophy, but that's cheap.
No daily rate, just the shooting fee if we are successful and the gasoil (expensive nowaday) and maybe a guesthouse for the night. The buddy also asks 250 € for a buck to pay the corn he uses to feed boars.
