[SBprone]

The French hunt deer! And with some really big rifles.

They drive the deer with beaters and then use someting like a .300 Win mag to take a shot at a RUNNING deer within 40yd or so. I read about this somewhere and it does sound crazy.

Afterwards they lay out one hell of a lunch on camp tables.

[8mmMauser]

I used to watch the locals do a "battre" across from our window, when we lived in a farm in France. I knew the "hunters". They would line up in a row, blow a bugle and stomp across the fields, woods and brambles.

The little deer in the woods would be only the ones planted for the purpose! Whether deer or pheasants the game was just enough for the shoot. Nothing remained long afterwards. Pheasants would wander in to our yard and join the chickens, tame as can be. None would survive the winter, replete with raptors, owls, few game.

They had just as much fun doing a battre with foxes.

One person would get the chance to blast the deer. Then they would all celebrate the killing. I have talked with the locals for hours. Never a one could come close to understand how we view hunting.

Despite the friends and some decent ones, I cannot stand Socialist France. The stereotypes we read here do not start to do justice to the truly ridiculous ones extant.