Watch hunting, what is it?

Watch hunting is a form of hunting that means that the hunter watches or waits for the game in its natural environment and adapts its location to the animal's movement pattern. Often the guard hunt takes place in a hunting tower or at other strategic places where the hunter expects the game to appear. These can be natural pastures, game exchanges or habitats. Watch hunting can also take place at feeding stations or at prey, but is then called prey hunting.

The same laws and regulations apply to watch hunting as to other forms of hunting. Dog watch hunting is not used. However, you must have access to a search dog nearby so that the search can begin within two hours of the shot being fired in the event of a shooting.

Watch hunting - general

 The guard hunt means that you as a hunter often sit on guard or on guard even before the game arrives. However, it is also possible to mix watch hunting with other forms of hunting, such as e.g. stealth hunting. The watch often takes place at dawn and dusk, but also at night with the moonlight as the only lighting. For prey hunting, however, bait lighting can also be used. Watch hunting takes place on a variety of game species, but the most common is watch hunting for wild boar, fox, deer and especially roe deer. However, watch hunting also takes place on fallow deer, red deer, elk and other game. 

 Watch hunting for foxes and wild boar may take place during regular hunting times, even if a large part of this hunting takes place throughout the year in the form of protection hunting or predator hunting. Watch hunting for deer usually takes place at dawn and dusk except during the first premiere hunting days when the roe deer are active for most of the days. 

When hunting for watch, many people often bring binoculars so that the right game can be selected in peace and quiet. In addition, it is easier with a good pair of binoculars to check for suspicious observations.
 During the watch hunt, it is important to be very careful when sneaking to the hunting tower, dike or grain. It is not uncommon for the game to already be lying and pushing nearby and you therefore do not want to scare the animals away. It is also important to think about the wind direction. You must always have the wind in your face, otherwise the animals will weather you and you will definitely not see any game. It is also important to take it easy at the time of the shooting. When hunting, you often get a lot of time to take safe and good shots when the game is not in motion.

 Good luck.