Difference between......

[sharps4590]

....a "driven hunt" and a "pressing hunt"? I was browsing Norbert Klups book on drillings again and saw these two terms used to describe a hunting method in Germany. I thought I knew what a driven hunt was....and I do here in the Missouri Ozarks.....but evidently don't know what it is in Germany, or the difference between the two, driven and pressing. Is it possible to explain it to me....who can sometimes be sorta thick headed?

[Axel E]

Such confusion is bound happen when a superficial and in parts wrong book is translated by some philologist without knowledge of the very specific terminology of the German "hunters language". Such things happen frequently, also the other way around, for instance in the German translation of Hemingway's " The Green Hills of Africa”. Some gun and hunting related sentences are understandable only if you try to translate them back to English, provided you have a working knowledge of both the English and American technical terms. So the ph asks H.: (translated back by me) “Have you taken some thicker cartridges for your .30-06, in case we encounter a rhino?” Nonsense to any German hunter, but the ph was talking “solids”! Or: “I could not see the beast because a drop of rain was lodged in my rear sight and had to be blown out first.” The use of receiver peep sights for hunting is unknown in Germany…
Or the hunter works frantically on the "Bolzen" of his gun. Common dictionaries translate bolt to Bolzen, but the bolt of a rifle is the Verschluss or Kammer in German, the Bolzen is the striker.
Now to the hunts:
A “Treibjagd”, translated as “driven hunt”, though sometimes used as a more generic term, is usually in the open fields and meadows for small game like hare or feathers. There are several subspecies of Treibjagd like the “Kesseltreiben” (literally “kettle drive”, better encirclement drive) or the “Boehmische Streife” for hare, where guns and beaters/game carriers move more or less in line through the fields, or the “Vorstehtreiben”, the classical English “shoot” for driven pheasants with the guns surrounding a thicket with the beaters working through it.
A “Drückjagd” = “pressing hunt” is usually in the woods for big game like wild boar and deer, though foxes and hares may be taken as “targets of opportunity” too. The classical Drückjagd comprises also, like the Vorstehtreiben, of “Guns” surrounding a thicket or corn field with boar inside, standing about every 50 yards along clearings or forest roads, where there may be a chance for a shot at running game. Beaters and/or dogs work through the bushes to press the animals to move out.
Hunting tactics change, so both the Treibjagd, for lack of fur and feather, and the classic Drückjagd are less done now.

[sharps4590]

Thank you Axel, I appreciate your time and the explanation. I understand completely. I had read and been told that the translations of Klups books was sometimes lacking. The vast majority of them I have been able to figure out but those two....they had me thrown for a loop. The one thing that really annoys me is that in his book on double rifles a sidebar, on Holland & Holland I believe, simply stops, obviously unfinished. That was the editor and publishers fault...wonder where it went?

[Axel E]

Not only the translations are lacking, but the original, German versions too. I don't know the English translations, but don't blame the translators for all blunders.

[Axel E]

Never mind, translations are very difficult. Many years ago my old friend Lud Olson asked me about the fantastic German – English dictionary I used when writing to him. I was stunned because I had not used any dictionary. In Britain, many technical terms are different between the London and the Birmingham guntrade, just as they are different between Suhl and Ferlach. But, as I learned very quickly the hard way, even British English and American English are quite different when it comes to technical terms on guns and hunting. I once visited the biggest bookshop in London. I asked a salesman about their department of books on “hunting”. He smiled at this ignorant foreigner and asked me some more questions. I learned now about some nice differences: If an Englishman is “Hunting”, he sits on a horse, dons a red jacket and chases after hounds and foxes. If he has a shotgun in hand and waits for driven pheasants, partridge or grouse, he is “Shooting”. If he has the same shotgun, follows his pointer and pursues fur and feather, he is “Rough Shooting”. If he sits in a blind or boat and waits for ducks, geese or other such birds he is “Waterfowling”. If he has a rifle and looks for roe, fallow, red or any other deer he is “Stalking”, even if he sits on a high seat and does not move around. If he packs his large bore rifle and goes to the former colonies in Africa or elsewhere, he does some “Big Game Hunting”. Of course, the book departments were sorted according to these very different activities.

[mike ford]

Axel, Vic,
All this is why I gave up reading the machine translations of German Texts.In spite of my very poor German, it is easier for me than the transtations. I took me a long time to understand what a "one put running" is(einstecklauf- insert barrel), but once I understood that, then I knew what a 65cm running is.In addition to Waidmannssprache(hunterslanguage)we also have gunsmithing technical terms, normal German in several dialects mixed up in our conversations, so its easy to see how misunderstanding and hurt feelings can occur. The machine(computer) even translates proper names. If there had not been a photo, I would not have understood that a "Warplace"drilling is a Krieghoff. All this was under the Babelfish translations.
Mike