A Heidelberg winter morning…
First published in Irish Country Sports & Country Life Magazine, 2020
I finally reached my destination on a dry and cold winter’s night, met by Julia Szeremeta and Dr Markus Sack and several Teckels at the train station. The journey leading up to this would take an article itself but to cut it short I got on the wrong train not once, but twice and the airline lost my luggage! I am now very clear on the difference between a regional and an Intercity Express train. In future, jump on the white one!
With that out of the way it was so great to see my German friends, the Teckels and again experience beautiful Germany for a few days. What is not to love about Germany? The people, the culture, the food & not to mention the hunting tradition which for me is the best in the world, personally, Germany is everything I could ever want and my only regret is that I didn’t discover it when life would have allowed me the opportunity to spend years instead of days there.
I had come to Germany on the invitation of his Highness Ferdinand Graf Von Merveldt who I had the pleasure of meeting earlier in the year while working with Teckels on a driven hunt in the same area. He and I discussed trees, Germany and Ireland at length and some months later I received a very kind invitation to participate in a state hunt in the area where I had previously been. I could never quite put my finger on exactly what it is about Oak forests, Boar and Teckels that really quickens my blood but it really does and for me it is simply not possible to put into words the feeling & atmosphere of standing in a forest with dogs baying, shots going off and Boar dashing between ancient Oak trees and this is something I would be doing within a few days of arriving in Germany, and to say I was looking forward to it was an understatement!
Driven shooting with a rifle simply does not exist in our part of the world, it is not something many people are accustomed to, least of all me, and Julia suggested that some practice may be in order so as I could make the most of my hunting opportunity and she knew just the man for the job!
Jagdschule Rhein-Main, which is the Rhein-Main hunting school is ran by husband and wife team Jochen and Nadja Nieser who gave Julia, Markus & myself a most warm welcome into their beautiful German home on a dry & sunny winter morning. We had much to discuss and while Jochen who is a CPSA qualified instructor and an absolute passionate hunter had many questions about hunting in Ireland I too had many more about hunting in Germany and as we drank coffee provided by Nadja his wife who is an equally passionate huntress and we discussed all manner of German and Irish country sports I felt (as I always do in Germany) very much at home. Before long, it was time to get down to business and it would be here that Jochen would show me just why he is a highly regarded hunting instructor in Germany.
I must be honest, A Wild Boar simulator to me sounded something akin to learning to shoot on a PlayStation and I had slightly disregarded it as a novelty. However, I was soon to be proven wrong and as he rigged up the Mauser M12 .308 rifle I would use the following day in Heidelberg. I took in the rather large cinema screen in front of me. Jochen explained that the country scene in front dotted with bushes and trees was my hunting area and when I was ready the Boar would appear from anywhere and I had to shoot them! The Mauser was connected by laser to the screen and as the Boar appeared I fired and missed and the screen then switched to boar close up showing where the shot went and the proceeding lead on a timeline, a very technical and informative piece of the system which is known as the Marksman ST2.
Jochen quickly explained where I was going wrong with lead, foot placement and mounting and of course within several more shots, a little advice & further encouraging words I began to hit more and more Boar that crossed the screen! With all doubts of tomorrows hunt firmly brushed out of my mind by Jochen, we set off to the local Gun range for some moving target practice. German hunting practices get as close to the real thing in every scenario from dogs to shooting and this was no different. A “Running” Boar which was hidden but appeared at random times across the bottom of the range was the target and I had to hit it with the Mauser M12 which was now back to fully analog and firing .308 ammunition with quite a thump. I took a few shots to get the swing of it and within a few more Jochen was giving me an encouraging pat on the back with each successful three rounds and we walked up and down the range placing stickers over the old shots so we could recognise the new shots until I was hitting the target each and every time. With a firm handshake and a “Waidmannsheil” from Jochen and Nadja we left the range and travelled back through Darmstadt to Mannheim and I took a few hours sleep as we had been celebrating Julia’s birthday the night prior in a fantastic restaurant with Daisy the Teckel, Markus, Antonio, Regina, my new friend and wine expert Matthias and his wife Jenee. This was of course followed by a sort of German style pub crawl with a rather large tankard of German beer consumed in each new pub! A long but absolutely fantastic night and one I shall never forget!
With the simulator complete, the range well shot and a good night’s sleep under my belt I was in Julia’s jeep at 5.30 am and we were en route to an area just North of Heidelberg which was the location for todays driven hunt. I was feeling confident after yesterdays instruction from Jochen and quite looking forward to the day.
The air was still, slightly foggy and almost warm. We were among the first to arrive and as we stood in the small layby along the road at the edge of the forest it was easy to see hunters approaching wearing Tyrolean Hats, blaze orange or sometimes both. I received warm handshakes from many faces new and familiar including Alexander and Volker grab, Martin Böckenhoff and of course his Highness Ferdinand Graf Von Merveldt.
After the many regulations and rules were read out to the entire and translated to me very quickly by Julia, we were loaded into a large Mercedes truck and set off into the forest to our respective high stands for the morning drive.
I was shown my stand and I climbed up the Oak rungs as the morning sun broke through the trees, the air was still and almost heavy with a light fog and I could see a little more than one hundred yards ahead. I took the rifle from the slip, loaded a magazine and clipped into the gun, checked the safety and got it into position. The surrounding trees had arrow markings showing which direction to shoot and not to shoot, and I had about 300 degrees from where I was so I had a good opportunity should anything come my way. It was cold, and only got colder as I stood, every now and again I would hear the dogs baying in the distance sometimes followed by a shot ringing out and as I stood deep in thought some movement caught my eye which snapped me back to reality, but it turned out to be a Teckel by the name of Daisy, currently in training with Julia before returning to her owner Mike Schlapa in the USA. Daisy was quickly followed by Milo, Sire of my bitch Cider and a top class Boar dog with absolutely no fear! Milo travels for miles on driven hunts and on a previous hunt in 2019 he travelled so far in pursuit of a Boar he ended up joining in with another pack of dogs on a totally different hunt miles away until a hunter rang the number on his collar and Julia was able to retrieve him that evening. I saw nothing further until the Mercedes truck arrived to collect me and in speaking with several other Guns with my limited German on the way back down off the hillside there had a been some Boar moving and a few shots, but I was not the least bit disappointed, being here itself was plenty for me!
Our second drive was proceeded of course by a large log fire, strong coffee and much German cake and all sorts of niceties. I spoke with the beating team lead by Michael Sprenger who I had met earlier in the year and he had been having a great season so far. Michael and his partner Anna Marie travel to driven hunts with their team of dogs all over North Germany several days a week, 6 months of the year and they really are something to see in action.
I was back in another 4×4 with several other Guns and driving up quite a steep forest track before again being dropped off at a High Stand. This was being slightly more limited as I could only shoot one side and it was also quite unnerving as I could hear the beaters close by several times. Shooting in close proximity with a shotgun is something we do as second nature, but shooting a .308 in such a situation does unsettle me slightly! This drive would be slightly shorter as with short winter days there is a requirement for extra time to allow for the collection of animals, dogs and of course the hunting ceremony. After two hours I had saw nothing, not even a dog but I had genuinely a really fantastic time, I had enjoyed every second of every minute in that forest, I enjoyed seeing old faces and meeting the new ones, seeing the dogs work, and just being in Germany.
All of a sudden a Roe Deer was coming towards me, at full speed! It caught sight of me and it verged right, it kept running and approached the forest track as I mounted the gun, Jochens words came to my mind, feet, mount, pull through…Bang.
“Eine Reh”. Ferdinand Graf Von Merveldt called out and urged me forward as I stood alongside the other hunters and beaters with the Deer, Boar and Foxes laid out on branches with the logs burning in each corner. I walked forward and removed my hat and he presented me with the “Brauch” for my Roe deer. It was a great moment, and I felt very proud to have had the opportunity to hunt in Germany in such a spectacular place, if I had not shot anything it would have made no difference, it was a once in a lifetime day.
Flonheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality, in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Julia Szeremeta and I were travelling here today with Milo, Cookie and Daisy to participate in another organised hunt mainly focused around the Vineyards which Flonheim is known for. It was a stunning area and you would be hard pressed to know by looking if you were in France, Germany or Italy, old buildings, vineyards and local wine available on the roadside. A special feature among the vineyard cottages that served farmers and winemakers as huts throughout Rheinhessen are the “Trulli”. Like white sugar hats they light up between the rows of vines. Three of them can be found in the region around Flonheim. The name comes from the round houses that are found mainly in Puglia / Italy. In the Flonheim region they were built in the 18th century as huts in the vineyards.
We assembled with the other hunters in a small picnic style area along a quite road. The atmosphere was friendly and jovial and along with the many Teckels, there were some Deutsch Drahthaars in attendance. After providing our hunting license for inspection & stamping by the person in charge, it was on to the game cart and off to the first drive. We reached a large lake and as the guns spread along one side, the beaters pushed through the cover on the opposite side and the first thing that nearly knocked me over was two fine specimens of Roe Bucks they were stopping for nobody! This was a small game hunt today however so the Deer were quite safe. A few ducks fell to the guns initially and all were retrieved from water and ground by a couple of Teckels. Julias Cookie made a fine retrieve of a large Mallard and I spotted another Teckel carrying a Pigeon while was crossing into the second or third field on the scent of a Deer! Our second drive began on the top of a Vineyard and so scenic was the area I almost forgot about shooting! A fine Sunday morning in a German Vineyard, Teckels breaking the silence and Pheasants, roe deer, Hares and Foxes breaking everywhere, what more could you want! To my left and right two pheasants went down quickly followed by a fox behind me. 2 Roe Deer passed me, rumbling the hard ground as they did so and tightly behind them was a young Teckel “Felix” owned by Patrick Ergal from Darmstadt. The guns went quiet, and again it was time to move. There was many areas to cover within the 3000 hectares and we had no time to waste. Our third drive of the day was quite high on the hills and I was placed right beside I small hut on wheels which which was obviously used for Deer Stalking. I had a view of the entire Flonheim I was so high up, and the beaters worked below and towards us coming uphill. A few cock pheasants went over the crest but were out of my reach and below I saw a fox slipping through the cover, but his scent gave him away as a pair of Teckels opened up on him. The Roe Deer in this area where prolific and just kept popping out from behind trees and bushes! We worked our way downhill gradually and eventually met with the beaters in the middle and then across to the game cart which took us back to the meeting are where Teckels roamed around and guns discussed the mornings sport and we ate fantastic soup and warm bread, of course followed by the usual German cake! I felt very at home as I always do in Germany and the hunters as always made me very welcome. Julia as always had been in the thick of the action with the Teckels and had cut her hand quite badly which we managed to clean up and get back together before setting off on the next drive which little known to us would go on into darkness.
I was positioned at a Deer stand on the ridge of a hill, the scenery was so spectacular, if something had broken before me, I would have missed it! Rolling hills of vineyards as far as the eye could see, and Boar roaming on a crest in the distance. I could see the Teckels and a Drathaar working below and along with Daisy, Cookie and Milo there was a tiny little smooth haired Dachshund called “Hexa” which is German for Witch. The little dogs have so much energy, beating, retrieving & baying since 8.00 am and they were still going! Eventually the guns met the beaters such was the layout of the ground and I was glad to see the Game Cart arrive into the lower Vineyard. We assembled and climbed aboard the cart with Pheasants, Foxes, Hares among the bag and as we trundled down a steep track the spirits were high. I reached the bottom, met Julia and the game was laid put and the guns & beaters assembled for the Horn blowing ceremony which was joined by some members of the public who asked if they could watch and took great interest in proceedings as they showed their children the laid out game and the Teckels ran among them in their usual high spirits even after covering many miles over some very steep ground. It had been a great end to an amazing few days, To his Highness Ferdinand Graf Von Merveldt and the hunters from the Heidelberg hunt, Jochen and Nadja Niesner from the Jagdschule Rhein-Main and of course my great friends Julia Szeremeta and Dr Markus Sack, Ich möchte mich recht herzlich bedanken. These are the days I will look back on and smile.