I saw something on TV the other day that got my interest... about how many red stag are killed every year here. I was happily surprised to learn that between 60 and 70 thousand red stag are harvested every year. Our red stag are not the tophies you see on videos from the private ranches in Argentina, but they are basically a smaller elk.

On some of my posts, guys will ask about the hunting here, so I thought I'd share a few statistics.

France is roughly the same size as Texas, twice the size of Colorado. This year there are 1.2 million active hunters out of a population of roughly 65 million people. Hunter safety classes are all full and lisence sales climb anually. 47% of active hunters are under 55. The number of women hunters is growing quickly.

Last year in France, there were over 800,000 wild boars taken, over 600,000 roe deer, and over 60,000 red stag. Populations of all three animals continue to climb.

Our weekend group of around 15 has killed over 100 wild boars this year, along with 12 or 14 red stag. Our Tuesday group of 7-9 hunters has taken 24 roe deer and 4 red stag. Hunting is over next Sunday, but we've been hunting since October 1. I get to bowhunt roe deer during the rut in July and August, but they don't allow red stag hunting during the rut. Maybe someday.

There is a lot more game here in our new place than we had at the farm, and so far we've met some really good folks in these hunting groups. No complaints.

Just thought I'd share.

Pete

Interesting

That's awesome stuff Pete, thanks for Sharing

thanks for the info,,, may have to try to hunt Europe one day (France or other)

That's cool, I have watched some very fancy wild boar hunts in France on TV, very nice and the celebrations after the hunts look fun.

Do you get to hunt waterfowl or trap or hunt predators?

Trapping is all around but no fur market. No waterfowl around me but up north they do OK. Noting like the US though.

Pete

Wished I would have seen that side of France when I was there. Thanks for sharing Pete.

What I remember of red deer in Germany was long legged critters. Tall but not much heavier than a big northern whitetail. The roe were tiny little things, I imagine our coyotes would wipe them out in short order if we tried introducing them.

How many acres do you hunt? What’s it require to get a place to hunt, asking permission or something more? I’m just really curious about how things are done there and other places, since I’m here where hunting access is pretty easy to get...well some places more than others. Lol

But I think roe would be great to have. Especially when it comes time to drag them out, lol.

That's alot of aminals and alot of people to share that kind of space. Good management and good habitat.

I read that 66% of wild hogs have to be harvested annually to keep that population from expanding.. I doubt that happens anywhere.

Wild Boar from what I saw is the most common game animal hunted by the most hunters and the easiest to get access to. Kind of the entry species to hunting in Europe. I know it was far cheaper for this GI to get a license to hunt than any of the deer or birds. I never followed it up and regret it to this day but that was my observation in Germany in the late 80s.

I also suspect the true wild as opposed to our feral domestics don't have as large a litters and much of Central Europe has much shorter growing seasons, mostly coniferous forests and heavier snowfall.
Wild Boar were extirpated from the British Isles long before the age of repeating rifles.

good to hear it is growing with women and younger people.

What firearms and cartridges do French hunters typically use to take roe deer and red stag?

I've seen WWII Americans shoot roe deer during the winter of '44/'45 with their M-1 .30-06, probably a bit overkill even with fmj rounds. Then again, I've killed jackrabbits (hares) with .308 in a distant past so I don't necessarily have an issue with overkill.

KsTrapper... it is a very different system here, but works well for me.

Imagine if I live in a village of 300 people and the size of the community is 20,000 acres. Every landowner in that village has the option of giving the access to their land for the hunters of that village during the season. If they do not allow that access they cannot hunt their own land either, unless they have more than about 35 acres in one piece. Then they can have private hunting on their land. Very few people do that, and nobody around me. Because 90% of the hunting is driven hunting, access to all of the land is inportant. At first it bothered me to think about other hunters coming on my land, but in reality... I saw others a few times a year, but I had access to hunt over 30,000 acres without asking permission. That is really great when I bowhunt in July amd August for roe deer, as nobody else around me does that. Elsewhere in France there are large tracts of land for private hunting that is fee based.

As for popular calibers here, we can shoot roe deer with rifles, but on the driven hunts most use shotguns and slugs or shot size 1 or 2. No buckshot. For wild boar and red stag, the most popular calibers are .280 Rem, 300 Win Mag, .30-06, plus several Mausers like 7X57, 8X57 and others. Before, there were lots of lever actions in .30-.30, but fewer these days. In the summer hunt I like my Swift for roe deer, but on the driven hunts I use my Benelli and #1 shot.

Wild boars and stag are becoming a bigger problem for crop damage and car accidents, and hunters actually pay for those damages from lisence fees. It cost my wife and I about $180 a year, plus some local association fees and we can hunt anywhere in France for that. The hunting associations in each village, called an ACCA, normally throws a big game feed for the village and makes some money each summer. We give meat to non-hunting landowners on a routine basis and they love it.

In Germany, if you own land with game on it, the government tells you how many boars, stag and deer you HAVE to harvest. If you don't, they send in government hunters and then send you the bill.

Crazy in a lot of ways, but it works great for me.

Pete

That's very a Unusual system for sure. But it sounds like you don't mind that much.

I don't mean to speak for Swift or others in Europe but my observations having spent a few years in West Germany is that there are some serious land use considerations in play. Most countries are the size of our states but with populations rivaling our metropolitan seaboards. It has been this way for longer than our nation has been in existence.
There has to be some sort of balance between agriculture, forestry, recreational and urban use. And all of it has to work or you get the major disruptions Europe has been prone to over the centuries.

It's odd being an American observing the highly structured way of doing things over there but it works for them.

Doesn't sound bad at all, thank God for public hunting here in the states as private ground hunting is quickly becoming the sport of kings..

I will be in France for 5 days in May doing the tourist thing, Paris, The Loire Valley and Lyon on the way to Italy.. Any notable sporting stops in the tourist traps mentioned? We intend to visit James Purdy and Sons while in London, but that's our only "sporting" stop scheduled so far..

Larry...

I hope you enjoy your trip here. I know a bit about Paris, but nothing about the Loire Valley and Lyon. In Paris a must see is the Musee de la Chasse. You will see art and ancient guns that will blow your mind. I was only dissapointed that the "message" of the museum was that hunting was a thing of history. By my original post, it is clear that hunting is a current activity.

Another great museum in Paris is the Musee de la Marine, but it is under renovation now. Maybe by May it will be open. Check it out, as I was amazed the first time I saw it, with the huge paintings of naval battles, huge ship models and other stuff. There is/was a Beretta shop in Paris, with some high grade guns but mostly clothing. It might be closed by now.

Be careful of restaurants in France that have expansive menus because a lot of the stuff is frozen. Pick your restaurants based on a limited menu of what you like. The beef is great, lamb is always good and simple roast chicken with fries is always decent or great. In the big cities, almost anybody under 50 speaks some or a lot of English, so don't be bashful.

There are some good gun stores in Paris, but most of the small shops in smaller towns have gone out of business.

The Purdey shop must be amazing, but expect a bit of snobbery, especially based on how you dress and if they know you don't want to buy a gun, you'll get a nice walk through. Still great to see the workmanship. Make sure to eat some good fish and chips, served in newspaper. They do it well.

If I can help you in any way, please send me a pm.

Good luck.

Pete