Red stag Hunt Draw(PICS AND VIDEO ADDED)

[carpsniperg2]

good luck bud! you know i am rooting for you. better make sure you take one with nice crowns

[Moose Eyes]

That's awesome.  Keep us posted!

[Wea300mag]

Congrats, what are the odds? Is it like an OIL tag here? Either way, you are making the most of your time over there. Definitely keep us posted.

[JCClement]

Good luck, can't wait to see the pictures and read the story.

[addicted]

Congrats, what are the odds? Is it like an OIL tag here? Either way, you are making the most of your time over there. Definitely keep us posted.

odds are good.  odds are also good to get the hunt but you have to put yourself in a position to get it. (US military in germany.... check...... German hunting license.....check..... applications turned in on time..... check)

[grundy53]

Good luck !

[addicted]

Just got back. I'll get some story and pics posted when i get through some Honey-do's.

[addicted]

Alrighty then. The hunt started on monday afternoon. We were to meet our guides(professional Forestry Officers) and split off on our own into the 23,000 hectar Graffenwoer training area in eastern Germany. My guide was a stout man named Herr Weiss(Mr.White).


I Forgot to tell you a key part. On the way to the woods we stopped and had to take a proof shot. I've heard of guy having their hunt threated by a shot missing bullseye by an inch or two so i was a littler nervouse to start. The first guy went to take a shot. 100 meters out of a stand on paper. Nearly a bullseye.  Next guy up, my buddy Richard. Boom. half inch high. Good to go. Next one up is me.  Around me were Proffessional hunters, as well as seasoned veterans boasting 30+ years in the woods. And here i was, probably one of the youngest hunters every to go for this hunt, and definately the youngest american they had ever seen try the feilds of Graff. I was trying to getup into the stand as slow as possible to keep my breathing and heart rate down but it was still double pumping. I've never been so nervous to take a shot at paper in my life.  I shouldered up feeling the stock shortened by a personal friend of mine, a buchsemacher attending school in Ferlach. Lined up and popped forward the set trigger that i had adjusted myself. Held steady and boom.  Took out my brass and stood up my rifle while I waited for The foresters to walk the leingth of the shooting lane and check my target. I gotta tell you, as confident as i was in my set up, i was sweating bullets. When they got to my target they paused and spoke for a moment. Something they had not done with the other hunters..... OH CRAP. i was sure i had screwed the pooch at that point.......I think my had began to shake. as they neared me the yelled. "Is Good."   

"its Good?" i replied, shocked at what i was hearing.  My forester told me in the car that my shot was about a half inch low from dead on. Pretty good since the 4C Reticle dot is about 2 inches at 100 meters.

He showed us some heads int he back of his truck shot the previous friday, as well as  antler that was shot off by another hunter.



 We drove a ways back into the training area accross a few bomb ranges and through some very nice forest with the occasional small lake or pond. When we reached our area we dismounted his eurospec ford pickup(like a deisel ranger, very cool, very capable, very fuel efficiant) and walked a few hundred yards back on an over grown logging road. once we reached the stand he climbed up first and I followed. I immediately picked up on a cow feeding in the brush about 35 yards infront of the stand. Also their appeared to be a young cow off to the right about 100 yards. as the time rolled by more and more cows and calfs came out along with one spike bull. There were about 15 animals in all from 40 to 170 meters away. It was pretty cool. about 1845 all of the animals suddenly appeared spooked and filed out of the feild. the wind was good so i  do not beleive  it was us that scared them. a few minutes later my guide pulled us from the stand and we began back to the truck to head towards another stand to finish the evening. During the walk he told me we had to move because the area we were in was too close to the 1900 live range and we had to move to another stand to keep from getting shot. Apparently the animals knew it too.

On the way to the second stand i saw a MONSTER bull with double crown trotting accross a meadow and into the trees before we could even get a good look at him.  i became a little more than excited at that point.

On the second stand it was getting dark quick. About 250 meters infront of us in a clearing the width of a road i saw bulls chasing cows through and through. none stopping for me to get a good look at them. We ended the night when as it became dark.


T

[GoldTip]

Great story so far, but let's not be one of those pic teases...... Impatiently waiting for the rest of the story.

[addicted]

That night the other guys told me that they had seen 40-60 animals a peice and had had some close stalks.  

The next morning we hit the stands just after 0600 in the dark.  I Could hear bulls Roaring in the dark but as it became light near 0700 none were in the field infront of us. At about 0745 i saw a spike momentarily 265meters to the left.  Then nothing but Roaring from the distant woods until about 0810 when a very good bull appear in the same spot as the spike moving accross. A few minutes later another very nice bull came out about 70 meters to my left. It had double crowns but unfortunately i had signed up for a single crown hunt.  I snagged a short video of him for you  guys. I really wish he would have stayed in the feild and roared so i could show you guys but no go.  Soon after we left the stand.

we arrived at the meeting point to find 2 of my buddies that had hunted yearby had scored. Richard was on the stalk and nailed a 15 year old regressing bull and my buddy Joe had shot a pretty nice bull with a left side crown.  I helped my buddy Rich gut his gramps bull and the brunfzeite (Rut) had them stinking really bad. like an elk but plus more moldy sweet and sower sause with a hint of spicy wet dog.

[addicted]

And i just wanted to let you guys know, I was rockin the Danners and a CarHart jacked for all the americans back home. 

[NWBREW]

Awesowe....Congrats. Great writeup too.

[Ray]

NICE

All I remember from Graf was mud and rain or snow.

[addicted]

When we met up with my other buddy Doug we found that he had also shot a 5x5 bull. A bit younger but still a good kill. Since he had shot a smaller one he was still going for a bigger one in the final hunt that afternoon.

My Forester and i Met up about 1630 to head out for the final hunt.  I had almost exepted the fact that i was going home with only good memories but my buddies kept my hopes high.

We hit a stand overlooking a large closed range and only stayed for a few minutes as some tornado's were dropping rather large bombs nearby and my guide though it was keeping the animals in the woods so we moved on.

we drove into a dense section of the forest then got out and snuck into a stand a few hundred yard further between a thicket, a swamp, and some broken brush.  Soon after we got into the stand i could hear Wild boar Snorting and snapping branches in the thicket to my right. I would have love to have shot a boar but it wasnt on the menue. After some time a cow showed up to the left about 150 meters away and dissapeared again. Then two cows with a calf came accross the feild.  after they were gone i saw the cow on the left again. As i gazed at her my guide noticed me looking and looked himself. Then i Saw him grabb his spotter. only one thing makes him grab his spotter..... A bull. I looked behindn the cow about 40 yards further counter clockwise and ther he was. I got up my binos and strained around in the seat. he was a good 6x6 or something similar.  I looked at him looked at my guide, looked back at the bull, back at my guide then back at the bull and then i looked to my rifle by my right leg......... Then the bull trotted up to the skyline stood for about 10 seconds and then trotted into the woods.     My forester shared a quick "sheiste" and said hopefully he chases the cow back into the open and that it was too bad he was silouetted on the skyline as he wouldnt have let me take a shot.  As it got darker in the evening a spike came out chasing a couple of cows. then a wild boar femail about 50 kilos trotted across the feild on my left out of the swamp. A few minutes later 2 more boar came from behind me and dissapeared into the thicket on the right where they squeeled and snorted as they met the other pigs hunkered down. I tried to get my video camera on them but they hit the thicket too fast.  Soon after it got too dark and that was the end of my Graffenwoer adventure.

up next, the streckelegen

[addicted]

At end of most large german hunts we have a streckelegen, where the animals are laid out with their lieser bitzen(last bite), a branch of a tree placed in their mouth. They are laid on their right side so that their heart is pointed towards heaven. The animals are laid by class of species and size from left to right front to back.  A branch is also placed on their chest signifying that they have been clamed by a hunter.  It is a very traditional ceremony dating back hundreds of years to the time when a hunter had to do such in secrecy. 
The horns are blown to signify the gathering of the hunters. Then the hunt host says a speach about how majestic the animals are and how greatful he is we came then the horn players blow the song specifically for the red stag to honor them then another tune to signify the end of the hunt. Then onto the FOOOD.  we had a choice. Red stag burgers or red stag steaks  . it was awesome. i had volunteeredto drive so the other gentlmen enjoyed the variouse german beer.

The barrel stuck to the antlers of this one is filled with corn and the wild board knock it around to get the corn to fall out of the holes as a kind of bait station.