There's something primordial about it

Hunting is a sport that transcends borders, reveals Miles Malone as he guides a keen German visitor on a memorable muntjac stalk

- Miles Malone

The initial excitement as we made our way to the high seat in the dark had started to subside as we sat, damp, the cold morning now permeating our clothing. That sense of impending action began to return as the dark was gradually replaced; first a dim haze, then a faint glow on the eastern horizon and finally the outline of boughs and gently swaying branches moving to the stiffening breeze. The wood woke from its reverie.

Beside me sat a young German hunter who, having won this stalking weekend as a donated prize, was concentrating intently upon the woodland ride stretching before us, awaiting his first sighting of a muntjac.

University fraternity

Sebastian is a young novice hunter, or jungjägar, from Münster, where he is studying. With no hunting background or family members involved, Sebastian’s path to accessing hunting experience and the attainment of the challenging jagdschein qualification was a tough one. Sebastian was lucky enough to join a university hunting fraternity, something quite different to any organisation here in the UK.

The group is made up of students and alumni, forming a hierarchy of knowledge and experience to impart to new hunters. The older alumni, or alter herr, who now have their own hunting grounds, provide opportunities to those juniors, as they themselves received in their university days. The organisation goes much further than the act of hunting; it’s a social and supportive network, providing education on conservation, ethics, etiquette and the upholding of hunting traditions.