3rd Annual German American Friendship Hunt in Hohenfells Germany

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It was a bit more than a 3 hour drive and luckily we didnt catch much traffic. We Showed up the day before the hunt with enough time to freshen up and swing by the PX on post for some odds and ends before the formal pre hunt dinner. Since my digital camera kicked the bucket after Afghanistan the wife was kind enough to buy us a new fuji waterproof, dust proof, shock proof, 14MP camera to document the hunt with.   

 After stretching our legs in the PX and checking into our gasthaus I cleaned up and put on a new suit I had aquired from a good friend just for such an occasion. It was a little big in the waist, but nothing the tailer can't fix this week.

[biggamehunter]

looking forward to your hunting stories. las years was awesome. 

[rasbo]

sharp looking outfit

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At the dinner we met with several friends. Some I see several times a year, and others I only see once a year on this hunt where we are brought together by a passion for hunting.

As usual the German food is fantastic, I went with a jagerschnitzel with Spatzle and a local weiss beer.  You can get jagerschnitzel almost everywhere you go and everyone has a little bit different spin on it making it amazing and new everywhere.  I would switch to the metric system just for german food. 

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Thanks guys. Always happy to share stories.

Below the start of the presentation the forst department shared with us.

Some Friends.

Our Highest ranking patrons this year were Gen Wessels(german) and B-Gen Gibbs (US)

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After Dinner and greeting everyone where we listened to dozens of hunting stories and funny tales we headed back to the Gasthaus for maybe one or two more beers before bed.

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In the morning we enjoyed a nice little european spread breakfast before heading to the meeting place for the hunt. Once again good food. You could get fat really easy living over here. My wife ensured me that she must love me a lot to be getting out of bed so early in the morning just to tag along on the hunt.

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We loaded up the thermos with hot coco and headed out to the hunt.

As explained in other threads, this is a very social hunt where you meet lots of people from all over.

The horns called us together and the head forster for hohenfells Dr. Pepite welcomed us and gave us a briefing for the hunt specifics then brought the chapel leaders to the front to say a prayer.

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We broke off into our groups then hit the woods as the rain came down.  A bit after we got into the seats the rain stopped and revealed a beautiful day.

I bundled the wife up in an ansitz sack and ranged my shooting lanes. I didnt like the particular spot that i was assigned to..... but thats the beauty of a drive hunt. You might show up and say "this spot sucks" then a whole herd of boar will run by before you even have a chance to wet your pants, let alone touch a shot off.

We heard shots within minutes of getting into the seat and they continued spread through the morning. About 30 minutes after we got into the seat a Red stag Cow(altier) and her calf(calb) came trotting down to my left. I got on them quick and had my crosshairs on the calb with several solid shooting oppourtunities along about 70 yards but it was sillouhetted by sky so i had no back stop. When it finally came below the ridgline there were trees in the way. Once they got to a tank trail behind me the cow stopped them to take a look around while the calf was behind a tree, then they were off never to be seen by me again. That bit of excitement kept the blood pumping for a bit until I looked to the right and saw a young boar come into view onthe right about 75 yards away.

I got on him quickly and saw that he had a wounded right rear leg. I took a shot within 10 feet of first seeing him and he squeeled and flopped in circle before moving toward me more. Another shot which my wife said went over his back on the move, then a third shot which dropped him. He started to try to get up on his front legs once again and I put one more threaded through some branches to finish him.

Not too long after a heard of red deer came out into the open meadow about 450 yards away and charged accross the open quite majesticly. There were probably a dozen of them and i tried to catch them on video as a 450 yard running shot wasn't in my arsenal that day.

Now that we had seen a good amount of animals and had some success I was quite satisfied that my wife was having a good time which made the day twice as good.  Just before the 1200 gut break we had four roe deer come out in the woods infront of us and right as i was about to take out a doe(bucks arent in season) they bolted the other direction.

At the 1200 15 minute gut break i went down to break open the pig . I found that my first hit had hit a bit far back with the quarting causing a back leg to get caught, the second hit had spined him, and the third hit had put his lights out infront of his ear. I wasnt happy with it taking for shots to put down such a small pig and it bugged me for the next hour or so until I finally took a proof shot at a stump concluding that my gun was still dead nuts.  at least I didn't let him get away like the last hunter to shoot at him.  After talking with the other hunters in the area I think I found the guy who had take a shot that was a bit to far on a running young boar.

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after the break angela had a sandwich and some hot cocoa which probably lead to her little nap before we ended the hunt at 1400.

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Back at the Streckelegen we watched the animals come in a truck load at a time. The number were up from the prior year where we were hindered by a couple feet of snow.

In the end we finished with 66 animals for the first day.

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mo jo

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It was a good strecke.

After all the hunters and game were gathered the horns blew respect for the game taken and the successful hunters recieved branches for the right side of their hats to be recognized for the night.