Dear 9,3x57

Thank you for your detailed explanation. It is all understood and was understood from start; when I was asking Ripp to "stop posting photos of such big animals" it was really meant to be a joke.

To the contrary of Germany and Central European countries formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, France (but the north-eastern part, Alsace & Lorraine, which were taught good hunting practices by the German between 1870/1918 and 1939/1945) doesn't have really established hunting traditions but for what we call ‘vénérie’, which involves big game hunting (red deer, roe deer, wild boar, fox ; and wolf in the old days) with hounds with followers on horseback, but we will not speak about ‘vénérie’ in this post.

As you mentioned it for the US, folks in France gained the right to hunt from the Revolution in 1789 ; before that hunting was only for the nobility and poachers were harshly prosecuted. Hunting rights are therefore deeply rooted in rural communities and hunting is quite unsophisticated, to say the least; hunters usually seal an area, let the dogs in, shoot indiscriminately at every piece of game that goes out, then share the venison and celebrate. It is quite difficult in such rural communities to get tags for individual hunting, such as stalking. This type of community hunting is still inexpensive but, as you pointed it out, is subject to bag limits; in the village were I live, this year's bag limit for the shooting syndicate (circa 20 active members) is of 16 roe deer and no limit on wild boars (we don't have any other "big" game in this part of the country). As I mentioned it, I cannot get from my village shooting syndicate roe deer tags for "individual" hunting as for them the sport is to be "collective" and, although they allow me to shoot wild boars, I must share the venison of those I harvest; all very tribal in fact!

Although it is becoming more common, stalking is therefore not the norm in France and if you want to stalk, then you must either find village shooting syndicates that will sell you some of their annual tags but there are not many, or own/rent huge tracts of land in order to get hunting rights on this acreage, or hunt with the French Forestry Commission that retains hunting rights on government-owned land. In such circumstances, your annual bag will only be limited by the time you can spend hunting and by how deep your wallet is.

In my own case, my main limitations to hunting are currently time and managing my wife’s expectations : time as I travel a lot for advising on international projects and wife's expectations as many wives are under the impression that their husbands should dedicate all their available time, mainly if they are often away, to fulfilling home/family related duties. Despite such ‘adverse’ conditions, I managed so far this year to harvest one roe deer and two isards, and I may hopefully get some more before the season closes on 28 February.

As we all do, I first go hunting for the pleasure of being alone or with a good friend out in the hills for one or for a couple of days, afterwards I select the quarry on the trophy's size, and then I always take back the venison I have harvested with me. Mountain hunting also involves for me another important dimension ; it is every year the renewed personal challenge of remaining fit enough in order to overcome difficult mountain hunting conditions and the personal satisfaction of having done it another year again!

I will post photos of my hunting season in France, small bag but real enjoyment, as soon as it will come to a close and, in the meantime, I look forward to enjoying my peers’ posts on the Forum.

Best regards.

Louis