Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Europe Question from an ignorant American

So I've watched, with great interest, a small ceremony take place at the end of some European hunts, consisting of the game being laid out on the ground, generally followed by a tune played on bugles. What is this called? It seems to be essentially a tradition of reviewing the day's harvest.

Your not an ignorant when you ask for something. The ignorant feels he knows everything and don't need to ask!

It's a ceremony that honor the game taken, the hunters for their good hunting and shooting but it's also a ceremony where hunters thanks the beaters and dog leaders who premitted the success of the hunt. That ceremony is winning ground even in countries where it was not very well known or popular like mine, France.

Merci beaucoup, I appreciate the info. Here in the Southern US we just tend to cut their throats, gut them in about 2 minutes flat, then toss them in the back of the pickup trucks. Very efficient and businesslike, but it lacks a certain decorum. I may have to get some of my friends to participate in this on our next outing.

I've seen Ted Nugent do something similar. Granted not so elaborate but a short prayer or giving of thanks after the hunt. I think it is appropriate to do, not forcing religion or others traditions down anyones throat but a little appreciation for what you have killed on a hunt doesn't seem wrong to me.

In Germany where the tradition is Old and strong it is called a "streckelegen".(laying out of the game)

There are several songs played on the horns. A horn blow to call the hunters together, a horn song to start the hunt, a horn song to end the hunt, a horn blow to call the hunters together again.

Then there is a song played for each species of game taken from high to low. The game is also layed out in order of heirarchy. "hochwild"- Red stag up front down through the different big game (fallow deer, sitka, boar) then to the "neiderwild" or low game which can also be descrbed as small game roe deer down through rabbits and fox. If you have a large number of animals in long lines then every 10th animal might be pulled out half a body leingth to make them easier to count.

The game is layed out with a branch in their mouth from one of the 5 primary trees of germany as their "lieser bitzen" or last bite. The fox, as a pest generally doesnt get a last bite. The game is layed on its right side so that it's heart is facing up toward heaven.

The hunters that are successful are given a "schutzen bruchen" (shooters branch) from the jagdpector either over the pector's hat or knife. I was once even given the branch over a horn. This branch is to be placed in the right side of the hunter's hat to be recognised for the evening. I have heard that if you make a bad shot or shoot the wrong animal you will be given a very large branch. If a "schweisshunde"(blood hound) is used to find the shot game then the shooter may break off a section of his branch and hand it to the owner of the dog who in turn places the branch in the dog's collar to be recognised for the night.

All fo these branches are broken, never cut. This goes with a tradition from the early days of hunting in central europe where all fo the hochwild was reserved for royalty while the pesents were limited to small game. So in order to keep their poaching of the large game secret they always broke the branches that they left as signs so that their actions were less noticable in the forest.

These lower class of hunters even came up with their own language, the Jagdspreche "hunting speach" based on the german language so that they could even talk about their hunting within earshot of others without consiquence. Example. Instead of saying "bloud" (blood) they would say "swcheiss" (sweat) so they could remain secretive. A boar's ears were reffered to as plates and so on.


On social hunts like the ones you mention generally the beaters(people pushing game with the dogs) don't usually have to pay for their food as the Jagdpector(hunt owner) will either pay for it or the hunters will pool together money in a hat to pay for it. A good hot meal and a beer is almost garanteed after a hunt like this and is really the prime time of the day when you get to sit around and hear some of the greatest stories.

It really is an amazing culture.

That is nothing short of amazing. I knew of "Waidmanns Heil" and "Waidmannsdank", but nothing of the traditions of the hunt. I'm definitely going to get a few of my hunting partners to give this a try. Hunting is a bit short of tradition here.

It's not the only thing that they do better than the states....

I have to admit that the first time I heard "Waidmanns Heil", it was the title of a Rammstein song.

nice. I live at Ramstein so i hear stuff like that a lot.

Marseille, jagd; thank you a very informative post. GRF

Thanks,
being of German heritage ( fourth generation American )
I have always enjoyed the pagent but never knew it's meaning, that well.

Marseille, I see it linked with the honors ceremony frome the v�nerie (horse mounted hunt), so it's some kind of an old French tradition, at least with the true hunting trumps, isn't it ?

On some hunts it is common to play the honors to the hunters and the games taken "fanfares" with the trumps.

It's too interesting not to share.

It's a nice ceremony, especially with good trumps players. The part with twigs granted to the shooters, we call it the cermony of the "bris�e" in French. But informal hunts in small bunches of friends are good too. I like both of those kinds.

Yeah, we dont have FKK here

WildnothttaihaveeverbeentooneAlaska ��2002-2011

or a 9 month long deer season.
or a 1:1 buck to doe ratio.

FKK ???

Paying honour to the downed game is actually a rather formal event. Look at the pic and you will notice that the animals are laid out according to a very formal pattern, pertaining to species (hierarchy) and sex (direction of the stem of the twig).

Forming a circle, all participants take off their hat and keep it on their heart, while a blood drenched twig is presented to each shooter in turn. All the while the trumps (trompe d'Orl�ans = 4.9 yds. long in 3.5 turns) are blowing. The ceremony takes place after night fall and the scene is lighted by wood fires. Quite an emotionally laden experience, BTW.

The whole hierarchy explained in a simple picture, Thanks Andr�.

I love this stuff and only wish we had more tradition/ceremony, and respect given our game here in the states. And I'm afraid what I see on hunting shows on television are getting us farther and farther away, rather than closer to the respect the game is due...