Now the season�s off, just ended two weeks away, so it�s time to try to share some parts of the moods from Belgium (& France)�s 2011 season. Despite the fact the season wasn�t great (not so much game, herd management rules tend to exagerate the red does and fawns culling, and no opportunity to bag any trophy), we had very good moments allowing us to forget for some times the itchy problems of the �normal� day-to-day life.

In the early days of september, we were stalking and high stand hunting wild boars in Condroz, above the cliffs South of the river Meuse.







I took those two little boars with one single (300 grains) bullet.





In the end of september, I had the opportunity to change my fly rod with some off-shore fishing gear. A little team aboard a little ship, we went fishing in the channel about halfway from Calais to the UK, mostly looking for sea basses.

Very good results for the team and I was happy for a first attempt as I caught 7 nice basses, 2 cods, and 1 makrel.



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Exhausting fishing party indeed incluind 5 hours driving and 15 hours on the sea (fishing about 9 hours, ship anchored in very strong stream, ideal conditons for sea bass).

It took me a long time before I had the opportunity to bag something during a drive but the small game and bird season was good and I had the opportunity to bring the kids stalking and high stand hunting with me.









I had to manage a � custom � cheap meat cooler in the garage for the purpose of taking care of the meat when hunting in the summer.



The only big game I bagged during the Belgian drives (still using the .375 HH) ... Quite unlucky up to the end of december, then quite of ... unsharp ...



Some other action pictures ...

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Here are some pics of the French Connection�s 2011 edition. French friends from Lyon and Mourmelon joined us for a hunting week-end.

For the ones who know, the red deer statue is in St Hubertown t, Where I use to hunt. It's in St Hubert town's forest that St Hubert's legend was born. It is also the bird place of the "blood hound" breed, as you use to name them in English. Now there are mostly used as police dogs but they were originally bred for big game hunting purposes.













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But French connection implied two-ways trafficking, so I spent some time in Lorraine where I shot A red doe and a young roe deer.









We also went to Mourmelon in january with some Belgian friends.

Mourmelon is a very big military camp in "The Marne", next to the 14-18 battlefield. Mourmelon was known as the 101 airborne's rear base during WWII. My friend from Mourmelon's grandfather used to say that the german guns were to be heared up to Mourmelon during the siege of Bastogne.





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I was a very bad shooter there, missed 3 boars in a row. But we had a very very good time and a lot of champaign

Lately, with a bunch of friens, we were required to perform a culling drive in the end of january. About 50 boars were seen during the day, 17 went killed as well as 5 foxes.

I had one fox but I missed 3 boars in a row ... again



Dr "Hawkeye" waiting for some preys





These are the 5 boars killed on our line in the cliffs.



Dr Hawkeye killed 4 of the boars, 3 in a row, and one more retrating




I eventually performed the biggest kill of the season ...



That's all folks, hope you get some of the mood out there and wish you the best for the upcoming season.

That is some really great stuff.


Thanks for sharing it with us.

nicely done....I really like #17 of the man standing in the green trees....thank you for sharing with us....

Thank you so very for sharing photos and stories from "across the pond". GRF

Hi Alex,

Very good reportage of your hunting season!

Mourmelon makes me remenber younger times when i was based in Germany, we used to go there and Mailly, spend a week of training. Mud, rain, cold, white mud sticking our boots make them weight tons...
Roes were everywhere not affraid by our tanks or armored fighting vehicules..

But i asked my transfert to paratrooper regiment, tired of "the noisy tracked steel can" and went south west. Good place for roes too...!

How was the driven hunt? Not too much like military operation? Not far from my home in the big training camp of Canjuers (known to some marine's units of the 6th fleet) we have big battues too.
But a bit too much military for my own taste. Lot's of game, red, roes and boars. The shooting range open sometimes to more than a mile but with very limited access.

For me season almost over. Just one more mouflon stalk, end of month and will be done.

all the best

Dom

Excellent season.

Hello Dom,

I was hunting at the Mourmelon military hunting society for the third time in three years and things changed alot in three years.

Now the beaters wear guns, not only the line captains, nearly every beater, and I think there is from 30 to 50 % of the game which never reaches the riflemen lines ...

the dogs block the boars, and the dogs owners kill them. Maybe the dogs are too aggressive, a lot of them get killed or wounded along the season.

They use to have more than 200 standings riflemen around the driven grounds but the number tend to increase because they're looking for more money (and the hunt is still quite inexpansive compared to belgian standards).

But it is still a pleasure to go there 'cause we have good friends in the area, and I always like to refill my "andouillettes" and champaign stocks, very good products at a very good price . We use to provide beers to our local friends.

I love drive hunt season. The friends, the game, the guns.... and ofcourse the food.

Drives can be nice but you have to be lucky if you don't want to remain awaiting for nothing seasons long.

to jagd and Alex,

Driven hunt are 75% chance, 20% standing still, 5% shooting...Season could be boring sometime!!

It's why i became dog driver with my friend and his jagd terrier and jack russell. Most of time don't even carry rifle, only Cold Steel Assegai and Trail Master...

Dom

Wow, so different. Looks like you guys have a lot of fun. What else, besides blankets, do you use to keep yourself warm? Do you take runniing shots with the rifles and scopes?

Yes, most of the shots are taken on running game.

I took a blanket to keep the son warm 'cause we stay hunting on ladders up to one hour during the night and I didn't want him to get cold.

When hunting in cold weather, posted during driven hunt, i use only high quality warm clothes and under wear (differents layers). Warm clothes can be expensive but the highest quality models keep you warm and leave you free of movements. Important when shooting game on the run.

With such clothes i hunted (still, posted)minus 20�C without to much problem except to the feet. I used canadian Sorel but now come to Harkyla (danish brand)shoes.
Hand can be a problem too, but gloves made real progress, i can keep the right hand in pocket with hand warmer but don't really like them.

For the ear my electronic Peltor helmet is a good protection against cold. Head is part of your body from most of your internal heat is lost (brain) so you must have the right thing on...

Generally in this type of hunting (Poland, Hungary, Baltic states, Scandinavia) drives are short so you move from one place to another, it help staying warm. We have warm tea or chocolate in thermo bottle, cereal and chocolated snacks, and some proteins (ham, saussage). You must drink warm often, it helps your body stay warm.

If game is at "rendez vous" it's OK. When nothing move can be long and boring.
The worst thing is rain, when temperature is closing to freezing point, not cold enough for snow. To my taste better snowing than raining.

But at the end of the day a bit of sauna, some dinks with friends, a good meal and your ready for next morning in the cold!!

As Grand Veneur told you most of game is shot on the run, velocity depends of number and species of dogs, biotope, hunting pressure and what game is hunted. Shot can be from 0 to more than 150m also depend of the area and country you hunt.

In France we made a study 12 years ago on 27000 shots. The medium range for driven hunt shot is around 50m. Most of time you have not a wide window to place your bullet and in some areas doubling on shot is almost impossible.

Rifles used can be all sorts but mainly semi auto in the south of Europe with double and straight pull coming close second. Battue scopes (mostly german) and red dot sights are the most used sighting aids, some use fixed sights. Shotguns are also often found in souther part of France, in Italy and Portugal. Shotgun users are posted where shots are really close.

In France buckshot is prohibited with some exception like in Corsica or in some western parts of the country for roes and foxes.

Game wounded is dispatched by the dog leaders or beaters when they are equiped to do so. Could be by knive, spear or rifle/shotgun. In Germany revolver or pistol is allowed to terminate wounded game. Not in Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal.

In cas of wounded, not found game, we more and more use special trained dogs which trail wounded game (not only blood, good dog can trail without much blood).

As you told: yes it can be fun and very interesting. Guiding dogs can be very tiring, sometime dangerous, but it's very pleasant way to enjoy hunt.

Bit long but hope it gives you some answers to your question.

Dom

That's a problem here and in some parts of France I had the opportunity to hunt: the later you go into the season the most we use to beat larger areas at a time, which means you, as a standing rifleman holding a "line", you stay at the same place, avoiding to move to get the biggest chances to see game in your shooting window, from 2 to 4 hours, and I have to admit it can be difficult once you stay longer than 1.30 at the same place, especially with cold wind or humid weather (which is a belgian specialty: maximum moisture with low temperatures, no sun to be seen, and coold strong wind ... ).

On the pictures in the Cliffs next to the river Meuse, we were freezed ... We stayed about 4 hours not moving in the wind after climbing the hill ...

It's hard to find gear not too heavy in order to be able to walk up to our designated spots and to properly shoot the game, but warm enough to keep you in comfort during hours of freezing ... The feet are for me a keypoint ...

Hi GV,

I know about these long beats: absolutly dislike them to the point of refusing invitation on these...

But sometimes like you did, i'm caught too. Dry cold is one thing, but same temp with humidity plus wind. Good for our Alaskan friends, they are used and equiped to...

May be it could help other euro guys on the forum (i'm not involved in the company): Harkila clothes (Danmark)are the most effective clothes i tested and used for years. They are used by many of my swedish/finnish friends in freezing temperatures. They are expensive but only have good thing to say about. Come to their website or to Seeland.

I went to their winter shoes too...

I have very warm clothes i bought in Canada when living there but they are not so well adapted to our ways of hunting.

Dom

I enjoy the "muck boots" since I discovered them.

Stetson 100 % wool are my favorite hats, and Browning XPO vests ...

The rest is not very important to me, except good thermal underwear and sockets layers.

i just checked the pictures I posted and ... saw no sun on those, so typical ... except for the off shore pictures

how can I attach here some pictures from my hunting season ?

You must open an account at www.photobucket.com

Upload pictures there the put their link on your messages on the fire. Maybe you have other options than photobucket but i don't know.

Dom

Browning XPO are not too bad! Try to put some sunny pictures on the fire to warm your heart and body a bit.

Dom

Cool ... It's been nearly 3 years we're freezing without central heating at home, I need SUN !!!

My season was more quiet than the former five years. Had hunted/killed to much the last years so decided to take it easy this year.

Was in Austria in december 2011 to hunt game, weather was fine and landscape fantastic. People were really kind too.

Glassing for gams.



Slope were step and we climbed to 2400m then walked up and down fron 8.30AM to 4.45PM. Shot a female 5/6 years old (the tag i had)

In october guided some german friends to hunt mouflon. Was incredible, we though we were in august with temperatures above 35�C at twelve. No water in the mountain, had no rain for 3 months.

It's not America but there is enough place to hunt...They shot 3 mouflons, not very big one, but it was a "take your chance game" because the heat transformed the uses of mouflons: feeding at night instead of daylight.

You would have like the sun, GV! But it was too much...

Season followed by a november trip to Portugal. I had promised a moose hunt in Finland to a good friend but was canceled for different reasons, so i managed to find red deer hunt in the north of Portugal. He took a smallish red deer (selection) and a good stag after more than 3 hours of good stalk. One shot from the 300Weatherby handloaded with french FIP bullet.




The day before i shot two "wanabee does" with one 338Federal 200grs fusion bullet. In fact we decided they were "brazilians" because they looked like does but were sort of males...Weather was changing with rain storms mixed with sunshine.



It's a place full of "cigognes"

In january was back in Portugal again where we had monteria and staking hunt in a region bordering Spain, the Tage river being the border. We hunted red deers, wild boars and fallow deer. I helped my portugese friend to guide german friends. The young woman i was guiding shot a very nice fallow deer.



During the monteria i decided not to shoot deer, only boars. No luck had only deers coming. Only shot one which was wounded. Rest of time took pictures.

Look well you see red deer does running from the dogs just in the middle of picture.



And another one.



In the gardens orange trees were loaded with best fruits i ate: not a single chemical inside or around. Real sweet, not nice but very good. We ate fantastic cheese (real one), typical portugese meals, fish, and had good wine.

Your hunts are still absolutely GREAT, Dom !

I never heared about portugese hunts, it looks like Portugal offers Nice opportunities (and sun ... )

Red stags are th� nicest games we hav� in Belgium but hunting is so expansive h�re it's easier to hunt plain fam�s in Africa.

Last weekend of january was in the Pyren�es, border with Spain with friends to stalk "isards" (gams from Pyren�es mountains).

Had no luck but walked a lot and enjoyed nature.







To be continued...

Thank you all kindly for the pictures and the desrciptions. I have NO idea what -20 deg must be like.

Here we try and keep warm with OBS - Old Brown Sherry! Works for cold feet, cold ears and the bladder. Just kidding, we have OBS at night when we think it is very cold anyway but nothing close to what you have.

Do you have a wide variety of game?

Hi GV, was more tourism than hunting, as i told you, i put brakes on shooting this year, even if i put down some.

The following pictures are from the place where i hunt mouflon. Here the wild boars are not skinned but shaved as we used to do every where years before. The meat is better, smoother, tastier when cooked in "sauce" (daube de sanglier) or when you want to make salted or smoked ham.
first the animal is drived into wery warm water, almost boiling, for a very short time (5 to 10 seconds) then hunters shave hairs, after that wild boar is gutted and cleaned (note this practice is done when weather is cold).

Hunting is collective, meat is shared between all hunters, some is saved for old hunters or people from that very small village who don't hunt any more. It's tradition, coming back to ages long gone by. A thing most anti hunters can't understand or even imagine. We hunt for pleasure and for meat, nothing is waisted. Dogs get their share too.

When the season is over, at the beginning of spring, we organise a big feast, with children and wifes, eating products from the hunt. Every body bringing in its own specialty.

That close the season and prepare the new one to come.



Here a small boar ready to be shaved


this boar was 190lbs ungutted.

Hi Pieter,

Depends on the areas where you hunt. In some parts you have red deer, wild boars, roe deers, mouflons, gams, plus small games and foxes, badger etc...Wolves is coming back strongly in France but totally protected as is the lynx. The "bouquetin" which is a big french Ibex is back every where in Alps but totally protected at the moment.
In other parts we mostly hunt boars and does or boars and red.
Red deer is increasing and pushing toward new territories south and south west of France.
It's not South Africa, Namibia or North America but we have enough to do.

Around 1100000 roes, 700000 wild boars, 45000 red deers, are officialy taken each year.
But for boars and roes these numbers are way under estimated for differents reasons...
In Germany they kill even more than that but we don't have same hunting laws and seasons. I can hunt from 1st june to 28 of february. Not all parts of France have the same dates of opening. Game is managed by hunters, state, ecologists, and lobbies are acting for and against hunt.

We also hunt small game. Here two woodcocks taken last week while testing the Beretta Perenia 20gauge for a magazine.

Pieter, I had -5 in Namibia.

-20 is just ... 4 times colder

Scalding and scraping of the hog is the way the old folks in Appalachian Mountains prepared their winter's meat. Most usually the "hog killins" took place in late October or early November. The whole community would gather and help one another with the work.


My grandparents did it that way when I was a small boy. Some folks in the mountains still do it this way.

By far the best sausage I ever had was made during these affairs.

Thanks Mr Stella Artois, that helps!

Now, how cold is -5??

In Springfield (Mo) we had -12 one day and that was enough to get some police coffee down my throat. -20 is still a mystery.

When we still had family with a farm we would on occasion buy hogs from them. The men would (pre-1976) shoot the hog with a 22 and then drag it to the concrete slab next to a fire that was boiling water in a 44 gal drum.

Then we put a hessian bag over the hog and poured boiling water over it to prevent the water from searing the skin. The kids then had to take spoons to scrape the hairs off. Of course we lost interest after about half an hour and went playing instead.

This brought back many memories!

Thats a wide variety of animals thanks. How did the Beretta work? And what are "gams"?

Pieter, Grand Veneur and Writing Frog are huntin' fools!! SO!! We are allowed to state that they Officially Suck! Two great fellas there. and before I fergit...GV, your kids are ADORABLE!!!! Good on you for teaching them the love of the wild and hunting!!!! WF, YOU must be part mountain goat!!!

Hi Pieter

Gams are chamois and isards. They are same species but the isard is a bit different in size (smaller and hair)The Chamois live in the Alp, French, Austrian, Bavarian, Swiss, Italian also in other place like former Yougoslavia and Romania. Some are pure mountains game other more forest. The Isard live in the Pyr�n�es mountains which are border between France and Spain. The chamois was introduced in New Zealand where it's also hunted.

Here some pictures:

Austrian chamois female with young



this is a good isard billy taken in Pyren�es.



The Perenia was OK for small game, fast to the shoulder, light enough for long walk upland, looking for mountain partridges or woodcocks, very efficient bore with very good patterning. Easy to take down, very good wood (for Beretta), finish flawless. Expensive but that's more than one hunting life of service.

Dom

Hi ET,

Part of mountain goat may be, but old and tired one. Time pass, i need to control my weight more often. And as i like to eat and cook...But with will, heart and soul i can make my 55 years old meat climb and walk to 10000 feet. A bit slower than 15 years before but i can play with friends 20 years younger.

Will going on till i can.

Hunting fool: for sure, try to enjoy the more i can before years take their toll. And remember, it's a part of my job too. And your allowed to say i suck!

Regards

Dom

I hope you know that "You Suck, You Officially Suck, and You Turbosuck" designate ENVY in increasing degrees!!! Our friend Pieter has posted a couple of him with Cape Buff so he Officially Sucks too!!!

Thanks Dom. The chamois I know from that name. The isard is completely new to me and I would most likely confuse it with a chamois at first glance. Nice touch the Europeans have with the "last meal" from his mouth.

Glad to hear about the Beretta. They just recently got the contract with the SA Police to supply Beretta 9mm's.

EvilTwin - there are many suckers on this forum! I still have to shoot a white tail that I will gladly confuse with a muly! I can taste white tail thats how bad I need to hunt one.

Way cool pics. Thanks for sharing!

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Hi Motorist,

Do i need facebook account to open picture? I can succeed yet and don't have book account...

First i did'nt want to post these pictures but after all, why not!

The season for me is over till 1st of june and roe deer buck hunting opening. Pictures were taken the 29 of february, last day of general and mouflon hunting season. My friend has a tag for female so went hunting with daughter who was in school holidays.

We walk and stalk all morning not able to found young female we were looking for (better meat). In the afternoon to be sure the zero of her K1 6,5x57R was right, i shot a big fox off hand at more than 100m and killed it. Then after, walking a bit, we made a stalk on a bunch of mouflons, finding the good one. Alice and me ended crawling on knees and hands (they had seen us), using bushes as concealment. She took the shot at 70m lying on my right shoulder, the female looking at us at an angle. The handloaded hot roaded 8,2g KS did the job killing her on the spot. Day was beautiful, warm, with fantastic blue sky, as in springtime, after 3 weeks of cold to -17�C, never climbing above minus 5�C.

Atfer that shot the season was over, i (we) were in very good mood. Ready for another one!

Taken from the Caroux, far away in the distance what's look like clouds are the white summits of the Pyren�es mountains, border between France and Spain.


Not too high an hill, the place we hunt climbs to 1100m, around 4000feet. But it's always up and down and tiring.



After the shot, Alice (17) and her little Merkel K1 stutzen in 6,5x57R. Light to carry, powerful enough, accurate the little rifle and it's cartridge are easy to deal with. She like the very soft recoil of this ammo.

Writing frog..probably yes you need FB account. From my side I can't upload here pictures as you do. All pictres are in my computer and not on public sites. But I will load them up as attachments here. Probalbly need to post several times as here is limit of 100KB. Pictures from last visit to SA spring 2011

here some pic's more from SA. Total score 6 nice memoires to tell
The place was 100 miles up from Fort Elisabeth and terrain nice small mountains

now some pic's for Estonia.

and some more

Fantastic pictures my baltic friend! Seem you had very good season and very nice trophy too!!

Thank for sharing!

Dom

Thanks WF...if I drop Africa then local season was not so great...two mooses, one red deer, one white tail and 10-12 wild boars...can be better but I do not complain. Had several nice moment what will remember years... like wounded wild boar attac and killing shot from 3 meters . The roe deer pictures are from my home garden "collection". Have feed them now 3rd winter.
Rein