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"Hahn in Ruh" is an old phrase meaning "to set the hammer back into the half-cock position"
this means end of a hunt
end of the season
end of the hunting in general

I was on Langeoog island in the Wadden sea/ North sea this week and its maybe not out of interest if I show some pics, old and new. up to world war 2 there were no restrictions here about hunting on the beach and the sea. the beach so wide the wave's were going was seen as no-man's-land and anyone could hunt there on ducks, geese and more witout a licence.
one specialty was seal hunting and what I show here was more or less the same for the netherlands, germany and denmark. seal hunting stops in the netherlands 1962, in germany 1973 and in denmark 1977. however there are voices now in denmark for a controlled hunt on seal's again

"of Nimrod's and hobby shooters

In particular, the seaman of those islands have always known and much liked to tell of the seals, and tried with all means to make hunting parties on seal's appetizing. Finally they earned at a hunting trip not just a little. They often have the uninformed and zealous amateur hunters after several hours of "seal hunt" even demanded exorbitant prices. "The hunting of seals is one of the main pleasures of the Nimrod's (passionate hunters) at the bathers. However, the seal hunt was not easy, it required detailed knowledge of the animals and their habits." Still, it was very rare for an inexperienced hunter actually to shot a seal, and many hundreds of shots were fired every summer in vain for the East Frisian Islands, to a single animal that was realy killed. Thus, according to an old report: "This individual seals are usually just as alert as smart and always know the right time hiding before the fatal bullet hit. it happen this often comical misunderstandings, and it has happened more than once that a floating log or agglomerated clusters seaweed, even a peculiarly shaped stone on a sandbar in the distance was mistaken for a seal and serve as a target point for some bullet's before the error is finally cleared up. "

The Stalking

The real seal hunting, as practiced by experienced seal hunters operating was done one of the sandbanks. To an old report: "About half tide the seal hunter isin his boat and now sail to the well known sandbanks where the seal like to bath in the sun. if he spied with his glass the seals he approached silently with his boat to the sandbar far away from the desired game and marched carefully and possible against the wind with his gun on the unsuspecting seals. " "Has he come within a few hundred meters, he try to fool the seal about his presence by passing through deep abdominal crunches while walking his torso up and down. Finally, he lies down quietly and watched for a while the animals ahead. Such a seal hunter has to be seen to describe, it can hardly be describe, he is in an old, multi-colored, patched and stained suit of oilskins. on his head he wears a hood that barely leaves the face free, put the legs in long sea boots or remain completely barefoot.
Especially the "Huxen" (mimicking the movements of the seals) had to be learned. By mimicking the forward movement of the seal on the sand (tightening the legs and moving forward to put away the hands) the hunter now had to sneak within firing range. "A shot in the head alone is deadly. Is the animal injured, but still capable of movement the hunter running quickly and kill it with one stroke of his boat-hook. The slain seal was usually skinned immediatly, a work that an experienced hunter could do quickly. The thick layer of fat was left on the skin and take of at home to cook it to Tran ". Often, however, all efforts were in vain when birds siting on the banks with their warning call and simultaneous escape alert the seals. So the hunt was often unsuccessful.

In hunter circles Juist island with its surrounding sand banks was known for the extremely high animal population of seals. But also from the other islands seal hunting was operated. The number of summer guest on the islands grew from year to year and the seal hunt was, especially for spa guests, a popular recreational sport. Thus, a spa guest wrote 1869: "I managed to hit a seal with a Dreyse needle gun at least at ninety foot step's. in this moment he lowered his head and drove flat on the sea. the seals die almost immediately when hit by a single pellet at the right place "

Exploitation of furs

how important the seal hunt was before, figures show, that 1000 to 1200 seals were shoot between the Ems estuary and Sylt island every year. The fur of the animals was taken by most guest as a trophy at home. Many skins served there as a bedside rug. Sometimes, the animals were also stuffed as a trophy or the skin were tanning. in the mid-19th century sealskins were purchased by the Hanoverian government to make coatings for infantry knapsack. Per coat they paid 12 ½ to 15 pence. Sealskins also came on the market and were made into small bag's (called "Rubben") for chewing tobacco and the like. of an average seal it weas possible to gained about eight liters Tran. However, the liver was cooked and eaten, it should taste like beef liver. "

my special thank to Alfred Schmidt in Emden /Ostfriesland for the text and some of the old pic's
http://www.schmidt-fluke.de/fluke.htm

the sleeping seal hunter

after the hunt: tottrinken - dead drinking

an older scope mount on a M 98 hunting rifle where the scope is located on the side of the action

the seal's of langeoog once

and now

they have count over 8000 seals between Hamburg and the dutch border this year alone so I think this animal is not realy threatened with extinction. Norway, Sweden and Finland have never stop to hunt seals and iirc Norway also allow tropy hunting for foreigners. hunting there is a little bit different because the seal's have tens of thousends of small rocky island's to hide so they dont lie on large sand banks like plainsgame in east africa stand in the Serengeti.
the hunt on the ice in winter time like its done in sweden and finland seems to me the best way.

the trophy room of a finnish seal hunter photographed last summer on Utö island /Finland

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Norwegian hunter misses moose, shoots man on toilet
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bringing civilisation to the barbarians

Edited by lancaster (15/09/12 07:01 AM)