• German participants confirmed
• Nine nations expected

Europe’s best deer callers will be vying for the title of European Champion in the Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund on the Saturday of the JAGD & HUND Exhibition (03.-08.02.2009). The decision as to the German participants has already been made through the qualification round at the German Deer Calling Championship in Hanover. Altogether the organisers of the editorial department of WILD UND HUND and the Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund GmbH are reckoning with 27 competitors from some nine countries.

Deer calling has been practiced for more than a decade at the JAGD & HUND, Europe’s leading exhibition for hunting and angler fishing, normally with the German, now with the European Championship which is to take place for the first time again since 2000 in Dortmund. On Saturday 7th February 2009 at 14.00 hrs Europe’s best deer callers will be proving on the stage in Hall 4 who is the number one in this royal discipline.

At the 11th German Championship of Deer Callers on 6th December 2008 in Hanover three German participants were able to qualify to take part in the European Championships: Andreas Töpfer from Hann. Münden (Lower Saxony), Josef Fox from Lohmar (NRW) and Hans-Günther Schärf, Mayor of St. Andreasberg (Lower Saxony). They will be measuring their skills against participants from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Poland and the Ukraine. This will be no easy challenge since the Czechs, the Poles and the Hungarians traditionally prove to be very strong opponents in this competition. At the last European Championship in the Czech Republic in 2008 the Czechs Michal France and Lubomir Dolezal took the first and second places. The third place went to Andrzej Misiak from Poland.

The art of ”calling the deer“ is an extremely challenging hunting craft and belongs – as the ”haute école“ of bait and call-hunting – to a tradition that goes back over centuries. The aim of deer calling is to impersonate a rival to the old bull on the mating ground during the red-deer mating season (from September to the beginning of October) to lure the old bull closer and out of his cover. Specially prepared ox-horns, triton-snail shells, glass cylinders, heracleum pipes (the hollow stalk of giant cow-parsnip) as well as a series of man-made instruments serve as aids for amplifying the sound and the resonance for the deer caller.

The European Deer Calling Championship is not the only event at the JAGD & HUND. Numerous others such as spectacular off-road vehicle rides on great courses, the German ladder-building competition, close-to-nature demonstrations of various types of hunting and presentations with hunting dogs as well as birds of prey, film shows by internationally-acclaimed nature film producers, demonstrations in casting and fly-fishing and many other highlights make up the programme.

The JAGD & HUND is a huge paradise for those hunters, anglers and nature-lovers looking for new experiences and shopping opportunities. In altogether six halls an extensive range will be on offer, ranging from looking after and care of game, to hunting equipment, hunting institutions, hunting tours, hunting vehicles and hunting lodges, equipment for fishery and fishing, angling holidays and angling equipment through to countryside protection and nature conservation.

For further information please take a look at www.jagdundhund.de.

Media information 145 / 2008 - 15.12.2008
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