A farewell to arms...
For all of us there will come a time to decide on our future with gun in hand. Hopefully we are capable of taking the decision ourselves.
A decision often following days and nights of contemplations setting up the pros and cons.
Reliving may be a whole lifetime in deep contact with nature, animals, birds and friends, who share the same interest and passion.
For most of us the decision comes after a longer period of thoughts in our own minds, less or often shared with friends or loved ones.
Most of us come to this naturally following the number of years of lived. Normally the question is: am I too old, am I no longer a safe shot and - sadly often - am I still physically capable of doing what I love to do with gun in hand.
I know younger people who simply after some years find out that killing and hunting just isn't what they expected when they took it up. Easy way to depart and just sell the gear.
For those of us - like me - who have been hunting since I could walk behind my father and uncle in the fields very early with gun in hand it is another story. We maintained the love for the countryside and the hunting most of our life even in the time of setting up a family, a career and maybe a demanding job. There was always time for going out.
I said my definite farewell to arms two years ago which really was a surprise to a lot of people I have shot with over the years. But, as you will read here, a lesser surprise to myself.
In many years my days out in the field or the forest were close to the same amount of time at home or at work.
This the inevitable conclusion that all of us in shooting or hunting must come to: the time to say farewell to arms. A time to say goodbye to brilliant days in field and forest and foreshore.
In the season for roe and red deer it was almost a daily part of the routine. We owned for many years land where hunting was possible and for ten years a small forest of our own, where red deer and roe were the main species.
So daily rounds with the dog was also a daily tour with the rifle. I'd never know if the big stag or the premium roe buck would be there. In the autumn it was very much a round to check if the woodcock had arrived. There were many woodcocks in the forest, with its firtrees and Norwegian spruce.
This routine could have led to many animals or birds in the bag, but the truth is, that my experience was, that I only shot very few as they became "mine" and I enjoyed seeing them and watching the bucks grow year after year.
Luckily my neighbors had the same attitude so in these years they just were nice to look at and follow - and of course from time-to-time cull a few for the household or friends.
It was different when I joined a group of friends who were shooting driven birds. This was not possible on my land or forest. So, I became a member of a roving syndicate. Maybe once or twice a month we shot at different estates. Not going for the big bags, but the smaller days made possible by yearlong connections to gamekeepers or owners. Bags were mostly from 75-100 birds for the 6-8 shooters.
A very memorable time in my "shooting career" with good friends, beautiful surroundings and well organized and sustainable shooting.
From being a guy with few shots through my shotgun I suddenly began buying cartridges by the hundreds and became a reasonably good shot - I know, because others told me...
I enjoyed the years and the company and my time alone in my own ground.
When I feel that especially my story of a farewell to arms is special it is because over many years, I was a free-lance writer in the Danish hunting press. It developed into writing and testing shotguns, which at the time was new in Denmark.
My professional years
My interest in shotguns became more and more intense and I did actually shoot and test a different shotgun every month for more than ten years.
I tested them all, from the cheapest Turkish guns to handmade Purdeys and H&H. Being so often at the shooting range to test different gave me many shots under the belt to clays which of course did well for my game shooting. I have tested and shot more than a hundred different shotguns.
Of course, my job had an influence on my own choice of shotgun. Over the years I have owned quite a few. From my family's Swedish Huskvarna side-by-sides to different British guns. My last side-by-side was a wonderful Westley Richards from 1892 with a balance as if it was built for me.
But many years of shooting over/unders professionally had its influence, so my shooting gradually became better with the over/unders. Also, I think a consequence of my age, as many past the middle mark probably will agree with.
With a bit of sadness, I let the Westley go for a Browning B25. My friend at the gun shop was not surprised. When I asked him, he went to the backroom and presented me with the Browning B 25 Pigeon Grade with two sets of barrels and original leather case. "When I took this gun in, I thought of you as a potential buyer," he said with a smile, and we made a deal.
The Browning is of course handmade, and I have myself visited the workers in Liege and watched them filing and engraving the B25's, so the standard is very remarkable even if the Pigeon Grade-gun isn't a premium gun.
This gun is heavy and shoots like a dream. It is - to be honest - a sporting gun for the clays and that’s what I have been doing since the day I bought it.
My books along the way
In 1921 I wrote a book about shotguns. There are no books dedicated to shotguns in Danish. My book "Haglgeværet" was a first. Close to coffee table size it was a massive publication from one of the leading Danish publishers. 327 pages with beautiful pictures and text about all you need to know about shotguns.
In addition, I benefitted from my work testing more than hundred shotguns and we chose to present 42 different shotguns in picture and text. The reception and the reviews were very positive, and many have told me they enjoy the book on their bookshelf and reading it.
As authors will know, the economical outcome from such a massive special work is not equal to the amount of time spent. It is a book I am very proud of, and it came on the market in a quality that is rare, when we talk about special books in Denmark.
The following year I published a book about the development of hunting in Denmark over the last 100 years. We had a major change of the hunting laws in 1922.
It was never meant to be a historical thesis, but a look at the development among Danish hunters and their ways of hunting. There was huge research to be done, and I was of course lucky as I have been an active hunter in about 50 of the 100 years. I have done most of the hunting you can do in Denmark, and I have met and hunted with hunters from all aspects of the Danish hunting society.
I know them for good and worse and as I dug into the parts of the hunting life the more, I found elements and behaviors, that never was talked about or even mentioned. Being a professional journalist, I needed to act accordingly to my journalistic approach: that nothing should be covered up or not mentioned. Even the things that no one ever talks about, or no one really wants to be known publicly.
The book was published in November 2022: "Jagt i Danmark - de seneste 100 år (Hunting in Denmark - the past 100 years).
The reaction to the publishing came as surprise for me. I expected some debate and especially because the Danish Hunting Association had announced that they would start a debate on the ethics and morale in hunting. My book was all about that.
Unfortunately, after the book was sent to key people in the hunting society (and of course association leaders) six days prior to publication Hell broke loose.
I was at the time a high profiled writer at the association's magazine writing about shotguns. But none the less I was fired six days after they had read (or maybe just seen) the book. Why, was clear to many people I know, and the book was of course never mentioned inside the Hunting Association.
More than 50 years in journalism has taught me that publishing the truth does have its consequences.
The book sell very well and as I hear it, is still known as the "book everyone has read, but no one dares to talk about it..." That is in my view not a bad review at all.
The final farewell to arms.
In the final pages of the book, I had written about the considerations I had myself about shooting. I wrote the true story of the day on at pheasant shoot where I had been pleased with my shooting during the last drive, but suddenly was struck with a unpleasant thought:
"I had for my pleasure, because I could afford it and because it was possible in a couple of hours killed well fed and well flying pheasants, that had been fed in the pens with hundreds of kilos of grain and corn that could have supplied maybe a whole village in South Sudan with bread for a week."
For me it was the end of it. I see myself as a person trying to keep standards, morale and ethics high. My lifelong dedication to humanitarian approach and help for people in need was this morning tested beyond its limits.
For some time, I continued to shoot clays with pleasure and joy. But maybe the clays were too closely connected to the birdshooting. I think so and within a few months my interest in hunting, shooting and finally also guns disappeared.
This article will surely be the last I write about my own part in it and my own lifelong hunting and shooting.
I still have guns in my cabinet. They are heirlooms and the beautiful Browning is up for sale.
I never thought about this when I was young and in my maturing years. Everyone knew me as "the hunter".
I think today that many hunters are acting ethically within the borders of morale. But from my lifelong experience and from my research for books and articles I also know that there is a darker side of the "happy hunter's life".
If hunting/shooting shall continue to be generally accepted the acting, behavior and openness on what goes on needs to be taken seriously.
Don't think I am lost and that I miss things. I am off with flyrods, beautiful flies and wellies by the rivers in Denmark whenever I get the chance. Yes, I hunt the brown trout or the sea trout. But they seldom take my fly and if they do I give them cautiously back to the water.
And I am still writing, but now my writing is about conservation, environment and sustainability.
I still have my blog about guns and hunting:
My new conservation blog:
