Six-pointer Within Range

Text: Martin Poul Gangelhoff 

Foto: Anders beier

Outside the car windows, the spring night is gradually dissipating in the first rays of sun. It’s four o’clock in the morning, and another hour will go by before the sun peeks over the horizon. But for the two people in the car, this is the perfect time of day. They are hunters on their way out to a “Hunters’ Heyday”. Because the date is 16th May, opening of the buck hunting season, and they have to be ready and waiting at dawn. 

The hunters in the vehicle are Emelie Cecilie Pettersson and Tommy Bager. Tommy has gone buck hunting many times before, but Emelie only passed her rifle exam for buck hunting a few weeks ago, and now she aims to go out and hunt her first buck. She has hunted wild game many times before, however, and while sitting in the car she feels the familiar hunting instinct kick in. As Emelie gets out of the vehicle and moves towards the forest fringe where her favourite deer stand is located, she is in full ‘hunting mode’. This is apparent not only from the rifle slung over her shoulder, but also from the camouflage-coloured hunting gear and the way she stealthily moves through the landscape. 

Shortly afterwards, she is seated alone in her small deer stand, three or four metres above the ground, with a clear view across the field in front of her. A woodland fringe is 300 metres further on, and one or two roebucks will soon emerge from the woods to graze in the meadow. Emelie is ready and waiting, the sun is rising, and then … nothing. No bucks; only a couple of hares hopping around near the base of the deer stand. The sun keeps rising, but there are still no bucks. It’s a cold morning, but Emelie has some coffee to stay warm, as well as abundant patience. She keeps waiting. 

At a quarter past eight, she hits the jackpot. Three bucks cautiously emerge from the woods. One is a handsome adult with a magnificent rack on his head. A rack that many commonly refer to as antlers. But in hunting jargon, ‘antlers’ is a term reserved for males from larger deer species such as elk, whereas males from small deer species have a rack. From her deer stand, Emelie keenly focuses all her senses on the buck. But he is too far away. The distance from the rifle barrel to the buck is about 200 metres, which is too far if a hopeful hunter wants to be certain of hitting the target. And a proper hunter doesn’t take any chances at the animal’s expense. No wild game should have to suffer to put food on a hunter’s table. This principle has been deeply ingrained in Emelie ever since her father took her hunting with him at the age of six. Unfortunately, the buck doesn’t get any closer, and twenty minutes later the buck and the other two roe deer have wandered back into the woods to chew the cud. 

Time is running out for Emelie’s dream debut as a roebuck hunter. She is about to give up and return to meet up with the other hunters for a little ‘buck boast’ where felled bucks are put on display. Tommy suggests that they sneak over to a different deer stand nearby for one last try. He points the way with his bow on his back as he looks through his binoculars. When they reach the bottom of the deer stand, Tommy spots a roebuck. Emelie climbs quietly back up into the stand and peers carefully over the edge to localise it. It is standing just over 80 metres away from the deer stand. She calmly adopts her shooting position, raises the rifle next to her cheek and finds the buck through her sight. The buck’s rack is a six-pointer, depicting a fully grown buck. 

Her sight finds its target as Emelie takes a deep breath and holds it. She slowly squeezes the trigger. A little more, a little more and then … the bang of the shot breaks the wooded silence, which settles in once again a few moments later, however. The buck leaps back towards the woods, but Emelie knows that she has hit her target. She packs up her rifle and she and her husband start stalking the prey. They find the drops of blood in the grass where it had been standing. Some pink lumps in the blood indicate that the shot hit the buck in the lungs. The couple don’t need to search for long, as they find the buck lying at the edge of the woods. The fresh forest vegetation has absorbed the buck’s blood, and the heat from its dying breath has vanished into thin air. 

A short drive later and the buck is lying in a row with five other felled bucks for a little ‘buck boast’: the session after the hunt itself. Together with other hunters in the area – both those who shot a buck and those who didn’t – Emelie shows her respect for the dead animals. They bow their heads, and anyone wearing a cap or hat takes it off. Her buck is not the biggest of the six, but almost. The other hunters have praised her for felling her first buck – and on her first roebuck hunt at that. A triumph that only a few hunters get to experience. So Emelie has good reason to be proud. Not only because of the sporting recognition of her fellow hunters, but because her quarry helps her live the sustainable lifestyle that she and her family strive to pursue. 

Dozens of buck boasts are being held all over Bornholm on this 16th May 2023. The island abounds with roe deer, as well as ducks, pheasants, wood pigeons and woodcocks. The hunters gather in private woods and on hunting grounds owned by the Danish Nature Agency. Not least in the magnificent Almindingen Forest, where Denmark’s Royal Family has gradually made it a tradition to take part in the ‘Hunters Heyday’. For the past couple of years, HRH King Frederik has taken part, and before him it was his father, Prince Consort Henrik. The royals are not the only ones who enjoy hunting on Bornholm. Hunters from all over Denmark come here to hunt on Bornholm, and they return once they’ve tried stalking prey in Bornholm’s beautiful multifaceted nature areas. 

To Emelie it is precisely the experiencing of nature that is her top priority when she goes out hunting in Bornholm’s woodlands. This is where a nature lover like her can thrive and feel free. But it’s also about using nature naturally the way Emelie and her family hunt for meat in the woods and make it part of their household’s diet over the year. In their opinion, this is the most eco-friendly way to eat meat, and they prefer it to buying imported meat from chilled supermarket counters. Emelie emphasises that the biggest benefit of hunting for your own meat is that she knows it is sustainable. She has seen the animal to be healthy and lively before she kills it. And the subsequent carving process confirms that the animal led a healthy life. 

To Emelie, hunting is related to the pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle. It expresses the efforts of her and her family to strike a better balance between themselves and nature. This is also why they have decided to have three generations live under the same roof at a farmstead just outside Rutsker. Emelie, her husband Tommy and their two children have moved in with her parents. The three generations are pooling their resources, which frees up time to mind the couple’s metalworking business and the family farm, which also includes a couple of pigs, a couple of horses and some chickens. It also frees up time to pursue the family’s shared interest in nature and hunting. The family has bought five hectares of woodland where they not only go hunting for meat, but pursue fresh air, wide open spaces and freedom. At the same time, they conserve their natural resources by managing wild game and planting new trees and plants in the woods to create new sanctuaries for the animals. 

To Emelie, it’s actually about leading a simple life which basically involves respecting nature, caring for it, and giving back whenever you take. She calls this a ‘down-to-earth approach to nature’, but this way of thinking is actually ancient wisdom that has slowly been displaced by industrialisation and consumer culture. In this context, sustainable hunting is simply ordinary hunting in which the human being, on an equal footing with other predators, is bringing down prey, but never more than is needed. This is also why the hunting instinct is so readily accessible in Emelie. She doesn’t consider it a hobby or a sport. To her, hunting is a natural process, and the hunting instinct is part of human nature. Not everyone bags the ‘trick’, as she puts it, but for Emelie Cecilie Pettersson, her first roebuck hunt was a success. A hunt in which she used her skills, her senses and her natural hunting instinct. An instinct that is once again dormant until the next time she ventures forth into the Bornholm countryside in the wee hours of the morning, wearing camouflage and with a rifle slung over her shoulder. 

And Bornholm’s countryside is notably an ideal setting for pursuing one’s hunting instinct. But before you can go hunting, you obviously need a hunting licence. No matter if you are a seasoned hunter, a novice or just inquisitive about hunting, Bornholm’s woodlands comprise a multifaceted diversity of wildlife and landscapes with a lot of wild game. Stalking prey through Bornholm’s forests with billion-year-old bedrock underfoot is a harmonious, timeless experience. The hunter can enjoy the customary excitement of the hunt, as nature permeates his or her senses in a symphony of woodland colours, fragrances and birdsong. Bornholm is the ideal space for hunters to await the adrenaline rush of the well-planned felling of a handsome, healthy roebuck. Just like our forefathers have been doing for centuries.

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