Wolf Hunting with Flags
Winter is the best season for wolf hunting. Hunting with flags is the most interesting, breathtaking and dynamic method of hunting wolves.
Hunting with flags requires serious preparatory work by an experienced and knowledgeable guide. It’s necessary to begin preparations in early October, after identifying the place where wolves live and hunt. When the guide learns the number of wolves in the area, their daytime resting place and paths they regularly use, he identifies a suitable hunting location and attracts wolves by placing a carcass of a large domestic animal (cow or horse) in a clearing in the woods, as close as possible to a place where the wolves go to rest in daytime, such as swamps or thick bushes. Twice a day the guide needs to check whether the bait has been visited.
Just before the hunt, having located tracks of wolves leading from the bait, the guide takes a path through a lightly wooded area in a circle around the wolves’ daytime favorite resting place. Narrowing the circle, the guide takes into consideration the direction of the wind, the topography of the area and wolf paths, and determines where to place hunters, where to complete the line of flags, and where to begin the drive. After positions of hunters and the procedure of pursuit have been determined, the area is circled with flags. A rope with flags is hung on tree branches and on bushes, and tightened around tree trunks and thick branches about 10 inches from the ground. At the same time hunters are placed at their positions near the flags.
Hunters must strictly obey the rules of the hunt: when at a position, hunters are not allowed to leave the position without the guide’s signal; they must determine the shooting distance by surveying the area with their eyeballs only, without moving the head or the gun. Wolves have excellent eyesight; any careless move by the hunter will be noticed and will scare them away and out of the shooting range. Having placed hunters at their positions, the guide joins the beaters and gives a sign to begin the hunt. The beaters move slowly towards the shooting line, communicating with each other by shouting from time to time and driving the wolves towards hunters.
The wolf will appear in front of the hunter suddenly and noiselessly. Wolf hunting with flags is not easy, because often one is faced with multiple targets moving very fast and in different directions. The hunter should let the wolf come closer and decide quickly where to shoot. Wolves are tough animals; even when seriously wounded, a wolf will often speed away from the hunter without slowing down.