A short article i wrote about one of our meetings in Spain
The birth of the Cuervo River, close to the town of Vega del Codorno, is a unique landscape of the Spanish geography. Located in the province of Cuenca, surrounded by large forests and mountains is definitely a special place for any nature lover. From the weekend of November 22 is also a special place for some of us because these forests served as a meeting point for a special hunt. What was special? No less than 16 bow hunters, all with traditional bows, coming not only from Spain but from other parts of Europe, such as England and Finland to hunt with their bows animals as fallows and red deers or the elusive "jabalí" or wild hog.
The weather was not helpful, rather it was terrible, and the hunting land goes from 7,000 hectares to just over 2,000 as the rest was covered with several inches of snow.
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As you can imagine, the proffesionals guides and outfitters of Sierra de la Madera, were not very happy with this. If this by itself this is not enough, high winds, more snow falling and freezing temperatures throughout the weekend making each day a tough experience for the hunters.
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We saw the sun only on the last day of the hunt, on Sunday. Without doubts, this conditioned all the hunt, game sights were plentifuls but were not translated in lots of real shooting opportunities. Deer stalking is really hard but do it walking on snow and ice is close to impossible.
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Treestands were availables but is clear that traditionalists like to hunt "the hard way" and everybody prefers to walk over sit. I think that we enjoy more the experience, the adventure and explore new terrains than shooting from a seat. Only two or three guys hunted some hours from treestands and was when the best shooting opportunities arrived with deers sights at 40 or 50 meters.
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The area is home to good specimens of wild boar but the most effective way to hunt them is from treestands and during our hunt the best ones were in areas filled with snow and therefore illegal to hunt from them (in some places the law says that is not legal to hunt when the snow covers the ground with 15 cm of snow)). However, we saw several specimens of wild boars during daylight, at 13:00 PM for example, and is that the hunting area is really quiet and the animals are under little hunting pressure.
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Definitely an amazing experience, fantastic, where we enjoyed long hours not only on the field if not in the hotel and restaurant, with a great atmosphere exchanging experiences with the different hunters. The list of countries hunted by attendees is amazing, New Zealand, Australia, USA, South Africa, Namibia, Argentina, Canada, Hungary, Zimbabwe .... years of bowhunting.
I'm sure we will repeat and i think i will see many of these hunters again during the next years as the hunting area is a dream for european bowhunters.
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If you have interest in the next meeting or to exchange hunting experiences, feel free to contact
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Thanks for sharing Jorge,I need to plan that trip.
Thanks for sharing the hunting in Spain, wow no hunting in snow!
Yes, the law is not clear with this and it depends of the province and of the ranger, but you can have problems hunting with snow in many places
Appears that the team discovered true gold during this adventure.
Surely I would be interested in that trip
Nice group picture, looks like everyone had fun, thanks for sharing.
Great pics. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you !!
It was a special time with great people, Jorge! I look forward to repeating it! :)
Hey Nigel, always looking to hear more stories about the Ivy family !!!
Thanks for sharing!
Killer photos! That is some truly beautiful land. :thumbsup:
Thanks for sharing that, very nice!
Thank you again guys, hope to see one tradganger in the future!!
Wow,great pics.It looks like a big happy team of european bowhunters.I wish some day i could draw my bow in Spain!!
:thumbsup:
Viva España Jorge! Estas invitado a Utah cuando quieras venir amigo a cazar Elk!!
Conner, be careful, one guy inviten me some years ago and i was in his house during eight days after whitetails!!
Utah?? I need to check the Dnr webpage... :-)
Great pictures Jorge. Looks like a beautiful place to hunt. I would be interested in the details for any future hunts.
Brian
Wow,no hunting in the snow...I would be in trouble.We start getting snow in September and have snow on the ground yet,and snowing right now.
Thanks for sharing.
Amazing, I spent about eight years in Germany and archery hunting was no allowed then, would have been great in many places I was located. Glad things are slowly turning around. Come on down to Texas we don't get much snow and hunting hogs year round is a blast. Super story.
:thumbsup:
QuoteOriginally posted by BRichards:
Great pictures Jorge. Looks like a beautiful place to hunt. I would be interested in the details for any future hunts.
Brian
X 2, thanks
Send me a private if you are interested, i keep the contact with the outfitter and i will be hunting there in two weeks.
QuoteOriginally posted by Wudstix:
Amazing, I spent about eight years in Germany and archery hunting was no allowed then, would have been great in many places I was located. Glad things are slowly turning around. Come on down to Texas we don't get much snow and hunting hogs year round is a blast. Super story.
:thumbsup:
Hunting with the bow is still not allowed in Germany and I doubt that will change anytime soon.
However, France, Spain, Hungary and Finnland are some of the few...
Cheers
Alex