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A Hunting Excursion to Northern Bohemia, Czech Republic
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Copyright (C) 1993 by Michael Hohwy
Please feel free to use this story for non-profit reproduction
provided you display the original copyright statement. All other
rights reserved.
Recently, I found myself in a position to go the Czech Republic for
a long weekend of hunting. I had only recently returned from a
prolonged hunting trip, and was a bit apprehensive about asking
for time off from work. But, hard work carried the day, and I managed
to meet my deadlines before the day set. A Friday afternoon in
late September, myself and 3 friends left Zurich for the nightly
journey. It felt great to be on the road again.
The first couple of days I hunted for roe buck without much success.
It was the end of the season for roe and the bucks were not moving
much after the rut. Finally on the third day I got my chance:
We hunted a particular field one morning - where we had seen
a decent roe-buck and accompanying does and fawns the day
before. Or rather, a set of fields separated by hedges and
little forests. I had positioned myself in a location where
I hoped to spot the buck when he came out to eat, near where
we had lost sight of him the day before. It was a nice morning,
sunny, cold, quiet. At first I squinted through my binoculars
in the inadequate light, but after about an hour the sun was
appearing over the horizon. As it goes in hunting, the buck was
not where he should have been. But we spotted him far out on the
open field. 3-400 yards is too far for a shot at a small deer like
a roe, and there was nowhere I could hope to slip around him
without him or his companions spotting me. So,,, I decided to
get down in the wet grass and use whatever cover it offered
for an attempted aproach directly towards him. Slowly I crawled
through the wet grass, and every so often I could not resist the
temptation of glassing to see whether I was still undetected. I
managed to crawl to within 220 yards of him without being discovered
to a position where a prone shot would have been possible - only
to find that a bunch of cows had chased the deer away!!! RATS!
Wet to the skin I joined my companion in trying to locate
the deer again behind the next hedge, then the next, then the next etc.
We actually spotted a couple of does, but they spotted us as
well and bounded off. In the end we more or less gave up and
made our way towards home, hoping to spot some
deer along the way. Even if we saw no deer it was a brilliant,
sunny morning in the hills, the fields green and wet with dew.
As I came back to the field I had originally watched, I decided
to walk up a small crest to see if any deer were still in
the field, as unlikely as that might sound at this late hour.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a deer, watching
me frozenly. Huh? A deer? Binoculars up - by Joe, it was the buck
I had stalked before, antlers not very high but fairly heavy. He was
watching me and I him. I knew it would not be long before
he had had enough - I've made the mistake before of waiting too long
in a situation like this. Any movement could send him into full
flight, so changing position was out of the question. It had to
be a standing, offhand shot at about 100 yds. Slowly the rifle
came up and I found him in the scope. POW! Down he went! Does and
fawns exploded away and I walked over towards where I last saw
him - the well-known feeling of emptiness in the stomach when you
can't see your quarry after the shot. I needn't have worried. He
was where he had stood. What should have been a shoulder shot had
turned into a neck shot, but it had anchored him good. Let me admit
right here, that a .300 Win Mag with a 180 grain Nosler Partition at
about 3000 fps *is* too much for roe deer weighing perhaps 40 lbs...
But, then again, shots can be very long in those open fields, and
we were also hunting muflon sheep, pigs and red deer so the .300
had received the nod. He turned out to be a 10 year old buck, well
past his prime - as indicated by his antlers which were heavy but
short. In his time, he must have been a very good buck to still
have the configuration he did in this high age. Now, however, age and
the recent rut had combined to take away every last ounce of
fat from his body. His teeth almost gone, it is unlikely
he could have lasted another winter. A good buck to take! Besides,
incredible how luck had smiled on me allowing me to bump into
him again after the disappointment of the wet belly crawl!
Ah, hunting!
That evening I was on a high seat (typical European permanent stand)
watching a large field in another area. One of my hunting partners
had watched a magnificent muflon ram and his partner for no less than
a full hour that morning. However, my partner had already taken two
nice rams on this trip so he offered me a chance at this bigger
specimen. I greatfully accepted the chalenge, sheep are a constant
fascination of mine! The muflon is the smallest wild sheep in the
World, closely related to the urials of Asia and - although smaller -
often sporting a horn configuration similar to the urials. I had not
been in my stand more than 10 minutes before a band of sheep thundered
up the hill below me and stopped just in front of me. They had been
spooked by another companion of mine on his way to his stand for
the evening. The sole ram was not what I was looking for, however,
and I let him and his accompanying ewes thunder on after a short
break. Pretty spectacular! Stand hunting is not my favourite, it
is much too inactive for my taste. However, at times stand hunting
is the most promising method and I endure it in the hope of success.
This stand, however, never got the opportunity to get boring. Very
soon I had roe deer all over the field below me - I counted up to
13 deer in the field at one time - and there was a never ending
amount of animal rustlings all around me. Pretty exiting! I managed
to spot two muflon rams at about 5-600 yards, but even at that distance
and in the falling light I was pretty sure they were not what I had
come for. Central European hunting is often a late night affair - for
species long since gone nocturnal due to the high human presence.
Consequently the optics employed is of the appropriate type - with
*huge* objective lenses. That night, the almost full moon rose
early in a cloudless sky casting its silvery light over the landscape.
It was a *beautiful* evening as the temperature dropped towards
the freezing point and the moonlight cast its deep shadows behind
every stone and bush. Eventually the time came when I had to get off
my stand to meet up with my companions for the drive home. I slowly
walked through the silvery fields, glassing and listening. What a
joy life can be!
The next morning saw me in the same stand again by 4 AM. It was
pitch dark, but I wanted to be in my stand well ahead of the dawn
to minimize disturbance at this vital time. I'm sure that I heard
a muflon stomp off on the way to the stand, so even at this early
hour I ran the risk of scaring off the quarry I had come to look
for. It was too dark to shoot, and I had brought my 10x40 binoculars
in view of the daylight to come, so glassing was not possible either.
I settled in to wait for dawn to approach. Soon the stand lived
up to its reputation from the night before, animal sounds all over.
I'm pretty sure I heard the hollow sound of a muflon running in
the field below me and a roe deer got upset and barked. Atleast
I knew there were animals out there, even if I could not see them.
Slowly the pre-dawn grey light let me see the valley below me and
the hills beyond. As the light grew I could slowly start glassing
as contours took form in the binoculars. Roe deer silhouetted against
the grey sky were the first animals I saw, still too dark to tell
bucks from does. One sight was electrifying, though, it was a
silhouette where I could recognize the white patch muflon often
carry on their backs. There were sheep in the field, but it was
still far too early to tell what they were, let alone how their
horns looked. I continued glassing the roe deer as the light grew.
I'm pretty sure I had a good buck in the field that morning, but
he kept in the shade of the forest even as the light grew in
the sky. I never really managed to see exactly how big he was before
he - in the fashion of big bucks - melted into the dark forest
in the early dawn. Until now, I had only located what I thought was
one muflon. The ram I was hoping to hunt had last been seen in
company with another good, younger ram. My friend who had seen the
rams the morning before had described him to me: "The big one has
no muflon patch on his back, but his companion does. His horns are
full curl, heavy with the tips swinging in close to his eyes". With
the growing light I managed to spot a single muflon, but he seemed to
wear a back patch, so I figured it probably was not the one. But, wait,
behind him yet another muflon with a much brighter back patch...
Was it possible that my friend had described him as lacking a patch
merely in comparison to his companion? Still too dark to see his
horns, my entire concentration was now riveted to the darkest ram.
Gradually I could see that he was sporting a heavy set of horns, but
I could not see his full configuration. Time dragged by. He and
his companion were grazing slowly down the slope in the first yellow
light of the morning. Suddenly he lifted his head and I saw his horns
silhouetted against the light, I immediately recognized the full
curl and the tips sweeping in close to his eyes. It was he! At this
point in time I should have picked up my rifle and settled in to
shoot. But seeing those horns had been too much for me, and I
suffered from a good old-fashioned attack of buck fever. My heart
was racing and my hands were trembling. Fortunately, I realized that
an attempted shot in this conditiuon was not going to do me any good.
I tried to calm myself down with deep breathing and the help of a
piece of chewing gum I found in my pocket. As luck would have it,
the rams were undisturbed, so there was a good chance that my
(hopefully) temporary inability to act would not spoil my chance. I
kept breathing deeply, and gradually my heart settled down and I
started returning to normal. In between, I kept glassing the rams to
ensure I knew of their positions. I only got one good look at his
horns, but the smaller back patch gave the
larger ram away - I hoped. I slowly put my rifle on my wool cap on
the rail in front of me. If I leaned way back in the seat, I had a
decent shooting position, the forearm resting unsupported by my
hand on my cap in front of me. I was ready. The muflon was feeding
away from me, only presenting me with a rear end shot, so the
wait continued. I figured he was about 220 yards away, a distance
almost exactly zero for my .300 Win. load. However, the downward
angle could well cause the bullet to strike high, so a fairly low hold
was called for. The ram turned and fed to my right, his head down.
The cross hairs found his lower shoulder, and I was blinded by the
orange muzzle flame as the recoil rocked me. I think I saw him go
down where he stood, but the recoil had taken him out of my sight
just after the shot, and there was the temporarily blinding muzzle
blast, so I was not sure. What I did see, was a mouflon at full
run across the field down towards the patch of forest in the valley,
next to the corn field, glowing golden in morning light. I jacked
another round in my chamber, and waited. Just before the muflon
reached the forest, he stopped, turned and pointed back in the
direction from which he came like a dog. I almost put my cross hairs
on him, as he stood there, powerfully built, horns heavily sweeping
out and down. But, then again, there was only one mouflon running,
he seemed to have a prominent back patch, and he seemed as uncertain
as I was where the his partner was. I decided I probably *had* seen
the big ram go down, and watched the other ram turn and disappear
into the forest. By now the field was void of any animals, but I
stayed on my stand for an agonizing extra 20 minutes. That would
allow my hoped for mouflon to stiffen up, or should he manage to
make a move, I would be ready for him. Nothing. Finally, I could not
stand the wait any longer, and got out of my stand and made my way
down where I thought I had seen him. He was exactly where he had
stood. A high shoulder shot had taken him down immediately, the
froth from his pierced lungs red around his muzzle. He was beautiful!
A heavy, full curl with good, broomed tips. We later measured him to
be easily of gold medal quality. In fact, although this hunting area
has very good mouflon, they had not taken a ram quite like him for
5 years. I knew how fortunate I had been to be offered a chance like
this after only 3 days in the area. Yet, that is hunting, luck is a
significant part of it. When the Gods smile at you, you have to grasp
the chance offered and be grateful.
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| From Mike Hohwy, without permission (but I'm sure he would not object) :>)
This might not be so bad if the intent was kept "PURE" think of all
the slob hunters it would eliminate.
Good for discussion anyway..........
Yo Bob,
RE:
> Congrats! Something we all fear here in the US is the adoption of
> "hunting tests". What do they test you on, local laws and that sort
> of stuff? Woodscraft? Ballistics?
Ah, hunting over here is a different proposition than what it is
in the US. The conditions are different (dense populations, small
areas for game - though often with dense game populations), traditions
are different (completely different clothing "codex" - *no* camo
here :-) - lots of traditions that are observed - such as blowing of
horns, putting the game on display after the hunt, special language
etc etc). I love the freedom of hunting in North America, you don't
find that here to anywhere near the same extent. But, when that
is said, there are also things to be said for the traditions and
ways of hunting over here. I don't agree with all of them, but some
I do appreciate.
A lot of the focus over here is on the "gentleman" hunter - in the
German part of Europe (and in other parts) this understanding of
"gentlemanship" is codified into a set of unwritten "laws" called
"Waidgerechtigkeit" (which translates into something like "proper
behaviour as hunter"). This deals with everything from ridiculous
issues such as what clothes you should wear and what language you
should choose, to very appropriate "rules" for how to treat the game
e.g. only shoot when you are certain of instant kill, always always
always track down wounded game, honouring the game after you have
taken it etc.
Gunlaws and other laws over here being what they are, not only from
the point of view of attempting to train people in the "gentleman-ship"
expected, but also from a legal point of view, the rules for education
for hunting (in some countries) are quite strict - make that extremely
strict in comparison with the US. Countries like Germany, Switzerland,
Austria and Northern Italy (South-Tyrol) have some of the strictest
requirements for would-be hunters. In Germany we had to go through
between 150 and 200 hours of theoretical (and some practical) education,
on top of that we had shooting lessons every Saturday from January
till the end of April. The test itself was comprised of 3 parts:
- shooting test (must be passed separately. For a decent
shooter not too much of a problem)
- written test (counts 60% together with the oral and practical
test).
- oral and practical test (counts 40% together with written test)
We had four subject areas, each of which must be passed separately
(with written and oral test counted together). Here are some of the
subjetcs which we were subjected to examination in:
- Wildlife biology (including all game animals, birds but also
some non-game species - mostly birds and
protected species - one of the biggest subjects)
- Forestry and agriculture (plants, limitation of damage caused by
game etc etc).
- Hunting laws and regulations (including treatment of protected
species, animal protection, etc etc)
- Arms (including safety, handling, technical construction,
ballistics, hand guns, cold weapons, optics etc)
- Laws around guns (lots of those here :-( )
- Hunting "tradition" (this is where the "gentleman-ship" comes in)
- Treatment of game meat
- Animal deceases (in particular recognition of various ailments,
and the requirements for reporting certain
epidemic deceases to the authorities)
- Dogs (including training, species, how to keep the
dogs, deceases,the various tests gun dogs have
to go through over here to be legally recognized
as hunting dogs etc)
- Ecology (increasingly important subject, as our limited
amount of space gets to more and more directed
towards mono-species crops and thus leaves no
proper habitat for animals - including game)
I'm sure there were a few more, but I can't remember any more at the
moment. So, as you can see there was a fair amount of stuff included.
It is pain in the neck to have to get through, but on the other hand,
having been through it, you actually have a very good basic knowledge
as an aspiring hunter about the things you should know. Some will
obviously be forgotten, some areas will be expanded with experience.
I'm not at all sure this would go down well in the US, but as I tried
to indicate above, one should not try to compare hunting in the US
to hunting here - although the basics are shared too many other things
differ.
Good luck on the SS .223 barrel. We are not under time pressure, so I'm
sure you'll find one - at your own time... :-)
Cheers - Mike
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