Hunt Report area: Karczama Borowa, Poland
Dates of trip:8 Sept to 18 Sept, 2015
Dates of hunt: 13 Sept to 17 Sept.
Outfitter- Foret- Pol
Guide: Tomaz
Rilfe: Mauser 98 in 9.3x62, 4x Zeiss Jena scope
Preface: This hunt actually began at a hotel in Yaounde, Cameroon in April, 2014 where I met another AR member from Denmark( I was outbound and he was inbound on chase libre hunts). Long story short, he invited me to visit him in Denmark and go from there to a red deer/ roe deer and hog hunt that he could arrange in Poland. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. This report will be broken down into the visit part and the hunting part
Part 1-Sept 8-13
Sept 8-9
I flew US Airways from Augusta, GA to Charlotte to LHR, then BA to Copenhagen, in business class. Just my luck, they lost my luggage with all my hunting gear except binos and camera. I got the luggage back in Berlin when I checked in for my return trip. Overnighted in Copenhagen on Sept 9 at the Square Hotel in the very center of town. As an aside, I was met at the copenhagen airport by another AR member, who drove me around the area( including a visit to a royal hunting estate covered in fallow and red deer), took us to a great little local restaurant, then dropped me off at my hotel( a belated but much appreciated thank you, Jens!!)
Sept 10. I really enjoyed the 4 hour train trip to Odense to meet Jan K., my host. The Danish country side is beautiful. Jan lives about 3 hours drive away on the North Sea at Doverodde(sp??). On the way, we stopped at another large hunting estate where the head game keeper is a friend of Jan's. The manor house contains one of the largest trophy collections in Europe. Many of the specimens can no longer be hunted.
Sept 11. It was obvious that I would not be getting my lost luggage prior to our car departure for Poland the next morning,so part of today was for sightseeing and part was for clothes shopping. Luckily another member of our hunting party( Anders) was about my size so I borrowed some clothes from him to supplement what I bought. BA ultimately reimbursed me $439 for the clothes and duffel bag I bought.
Sept 12. We left northern Denmark about 11:30 for the 11-12 hour drive to the hunting area in central Poland. Beautiful countryside along the way. It was interesting cruising on the Autobahn at 145-150 kph and getting passed regularly. We overnighted at a small guesthouse in Germany near the Polish border.
Part 2 the hunt
Sept 13. Today was the official start of our hunt. We needed to be at the lodge by about 2 PM. After a leisurely breakfast, we got back on the Autobahn and entered Poland. I was quite impressed with how good the highway was. Once we left the highway, though, road signs were pretty much non-existent and we soon got a bit lost. No problem as we had plenty of time and arrived well ahead on schedule. Our group consisted on me, Jan, Anders and another friend of Jan's from Scotland, Ian. He had flown in from Scotland earlier in the day to Wroclaw, rented a car, and driven to the lodge. We met our guides, had a coffee, and headed to the hochsitzs(sp??). The weather was unseasonably hot with occasional rain showers. The roar was going full blast, although the stags weren't sparring yet. Everywhere around the hide, stags were roaring and occasionally coming out into the fields. I was after a stag, roebuck and a hog, in that order. I could have easily shot a roebuck and hog that first evening but i didn't want to spook the nearby stags. I had told my guide that I wanted a representative stag of about 5-6 kilos, so I passed on an easy shot at a 5x5 of about 4 1/2 kilos. Jan was the lucky one this day. he shot a nice 6x7 right at dark that later weighed about 6 1/2 kilos.


he also took some pictures of a huge stag that came out but a miscommunication with his guide resulted in pictures only. he saw several others that were also in the 9-11 kilo range



It was altogether a great evening and everyone saw a lot of game.
Sept14. Things start early with a 4 AM wake up. We were in the high seats by about 5 AM. Things were a jumping with a continuous roar going on in a 360 degree circle. Nothing wanted to come out of the thick forest, however, so after about 1 1/2 hours we climbed down and went for a walkabout. We saw a lot of hogs, roebucks, and small stags. The only large stag we saw was in grass/reeds so high that all you could see was his antlers- quite a rack. Back at the lodge by 10 AM for breakfast, then off to bed for a nap. We ate lunch about 2-2:30, then off to the woods about 4:30.It started raining soon after we got in the hide and limited visibility. With thick forest behind us and a pasture in front, though, we could cover a large area. We soon had 3 nice stags infront of us roaring at each other but a bit too far to suit me.Light was swiftly fading and they were slowly getting nearer. Suddenly about 75-80 yards away a real bruiser walked out of the woods and took up the challenge. It was so dark i could barely see the crosshair/post. At the go ahead from Tomaz, I took the broadside shot and heard a whack. I was amazed when the stag didn't react, but walked in a small circle and stopped facing away from me with a slight left turn. I quick;y put in a raking shot from left hip up into the boiler room. He then bolted into the woods, crossed a large drainage ditch and disappeared. We climbed down, walked to the edge of the ditch and listened. We could hear him coughing up blood, gasping and thrashing around. It was now totally dark and we didn't have decent flashlight between us( plus the drainage ditch was deep, long and full of water), so we went back to the lodge to get some retrieval help.When we got there, we discovered that a hunter from Belgium also had a stag down, so a whole crew was assembled to retrieve them both.We got his first, then went after mine. It took less than 5 minutes to find him after we got across the canal to the kill area. My guide went a bit nuts when we walked up to him. No ground shrinkage here. Through an interpreter he told me that he knew he would be very large but not that large. Rain and bad light had affected his best guess but i was ecstatic. He was 8x7 with huge mass. As it turns out, he was the same stag Jan had photographed from the same high seat the day before( see the pictures above- sort of before and after pics)




this guy's official weight turned out to be 10.1 kilos. Needless to say. I had a few celebratory scotches that night.


TO BE CONTINUED......

Well done on a Kapital Hirsch. Fantastic animal - was it aged approximately?

What was the dressed bodyweight?

Thanks

It was aged at 8 plus years. I have no idea what it weighed as it was taken straight to the butchery from the field. I will say that the body looked about the same size as a medium elk. BTW, the time stamp on the pictures are 6 hours out of phase( I forgot to rest the camera clock).

Sept 14 continued....
After we retrieved the stag, we positioned him for pictures in the field. My guide was the group's official hunters horn blower and he did a fine job. It was fitting and proper to pay homage to such a fine animal. Everyone removed their hats, bowed their heads and listened to the haunting sounds echo of the forest.I videoed the ceremony but didn't take any photos. We did the same thing with Jan's stag the night before.
Sept 15. With the primary animal done, I now concentrated on a roebuck, which were abundant. We saw several on the morning hunt but none that appeared in a shooting position. The morning routine was always the same. We would stay in the high seat until about 1 1/2 hours after sunrise, then go walking and stalking in the woods. We always saw a few pigs but they got a pass. These are some pictures from one of the hides.





The afternoon hunt was always the same ,too- just stay in the hide until it was too dark to shoot. This evening just at dark a nice roebuck walked out about 75-80 yards away. Long story short I just flat missed an easy shot- about 1" over his back. Oh well...
Sept 16. Another early wake up call and into the hide by 5AM. Not much going on except the continuous roar and roe deer females. Out of the hide and a walkabout. We saw several really nice stags(6x6 or better). About 7 AM we had walked back by the hide where I had missed the chip shot the day before. As we stood there glassing the field, a really nice roebuck walked out into the open in almost the exact same spot where I missed the previous shot. This time I redeemed myself and flattened him. Turns out he was quite a bit bigger than the one I missed. He weighed 370 grams after drying.




I was amazed when I walked up to him how small he was. Think a small whitetail female and you get the idea. I was now able to concentrate on a pig for the afternoon hunt. About 5 PM found us in a hide in an area we hadn't hunted before. Down the firebreak was a bait pile as well as large fields. There were 3 stags roaring around us in the forest continuously. Shortly after we arrived 1 of them walked out in the open about 200 yards away. He spent the next 2 hours walikng around out front, roaring and herding a group of hinds. Numerous roe deer also put in an appearance but no hogs. These pictures taken that afternoon give you an idea of the quality of stags to be seen. He was a 7x6-7 as best I could tell.





Sept 17. I could have arisen early and hunted pigs this morning but I ( and the other 3 guys in our group) elected to sleep in, settle out accounts and head home by noon. I really blew my budget on the stag, anyway, and I had seen plenty of hogs that I could have shot. Everyone in our group got their intended game. One stag each for Jan(plus a pig)and Anders( plus a roebuck), 2 pigs for Ian, and 1 stag and roebuck for me. I had gotten extremely lucky considering that until 3 days before, I had never seen a red stag or roe deer. The results were great.







We left after lunch and Jan dropped me off at Berlin/Tegel airport, then continued on the Denmark.. From there I took a bus downtown to my hotel. At 9 the next morning I went back to the airport where I was reunited with my lost bag. I rechecked it and my new duffel and headed home via LHR. Wonder of wonders( and inspite of having priority tags on the bags) the airline once again lost my luggage. I got them 3 days later.
Final thoughts. This trip was unbelievably fun and the results speak for themselves. The organizer and all the details were first rate. The amount and quality of game was unbelievable. I wouldn't mind going back in the winter for a driven boar hunt. My thanks to Marek( the organizer), Darek( the head gameranger) and Tomaz, my guide. A very special thank you to Jan for all his hospitality. Denmark is indeed a beautiful country and I saw it literally from top to bottom. Anders and Ian were fine hunting companions and a lot of fun to spend time with. I know nothing about stag hunting elsewhere but I can say with certainty that this area of Poland is absolutely flush with nice animals.

PS: This is the gold medal certificate I was given showing a CIC score of 213+and a place in the Polish record book..Wish I spoke Polish to know what it says!

Thanks for sharing Jerry.

I am glad everything went well with your lost luggage in the end. Very pleased to read here you have had an enjoyment hunting a roedeer and stag.

Best regards J.

What a great report and great trophies as well!

I have never been to Europe. I would really like to hunt there!

Good to read Jerry - great trip we had, lot of fun, and we did well in a very traditional setting and with respect for the traditions.
And your stag is a once in a lifetime stag - congratulations.

I'll translate it in PM J in next couple of days
Polish is very similar to Czech

Proper that - great stag and roebuck you got - Weidmannsheil

Did they extracted the "grandeln" (canine tooth)? If so I'd realy like to see the picture of them.

Till official translate let me give it a shot since Polish is (as Czech) similar to Slovene

"Republic of Poland

Certificate
Cervus elaphus (latin name for red der)

Forester of the Karczma Borowa forest district,
In Lasow Panstwowych at Poznanie regional management
Is confirming that Mr Jerome Dollar, has on 14th of Sepember 2015
In 446 hunting district located in Wielkopolsko,
Acquired a trophy of a stag
Measured according to international CIC scoring system
At 213,26 points, earning gold medal."

Good report Jerry - a great trip all round!

The guys there worked really hard for us and all credit to them.

I too hope we can get a driven hunt organised for the future - absolutely the best fun!!

PS I'd say your stag probably went 130-140 kg butcher weight - by no means massive - unlike the caber (the trophy) which was by any stretch both huge and beautiful!

Thanks for the translation Mouse93
I was in bed so I was gonna do it today

quote:

Originally posted by mouse93:
Proper that - great stag and roebuck you got - Weidmannsheil

Did they extracted the "grandeln" (canine tooth)? If so I'd realy like to see the picture of them.

Till official translate let me give it a shot since Polish is (as Czech) similar to Slovene

"Republic of Poland

Certificate
Cervus elaphus (latin name for red der)

Forester of the Karczma Borowa forest district,
In Lasow Panstwowych at Poznanie regional management
Is confirming that Mr Jerome Dollar, has on 14th of Sepember 2015
In 446 hunting district located in Wielkopolsko,
Acquired a trophy of a stag
Measured according to international CIC scoring system
At 213,26 points, earning gold medal."

Thanks a lot for the translation. Here are the canine teeth. As you can see, they are well worn, approx 1 1/2cm long.

Alright - thanks for that - this stag is older than 8 years!

Mouse93, you are right this stag is older than 8 years. And it is a nice set of grandelns, good colour and shape. Believe they call them "elk ivory" in US / Canada.

Ian, I think you are right on about the weight, dressed and ready for freezer he would have been around 140 kg, just gralloched he would likely be around 190.

Cheers

this picture is of Kuwinda( Ian) with a set of tusks from 1 of his pigs. He shot 2 about 12-1 AM the last night of the hunt( while the rest of us where snug in our beds!!

Boar tusks are great no matter the size
Very nice by the way

It was my first boar (shot heaps of warthog) - so for me it was great, irrespective of size!! The boar gods always seem to conspire against me and this time it was no different - there was no moon and unless there was some background light or a light background it was impossible to see at all.

This boar was only 4 or 5 years old but a keiler and went 85kg on the hook.

Did you get the top jaw tusks as well?
85 kg's is good boar anywhere in Europe
That's damn near 200 lbs.
Lots of meat...

very nice stag

Wow Jerry what a stag! Well done on your hunt in Poland. I really enjoy hunting in Europe with it's customs and pageantry. Neat adventure you had.

quote:

Originally posted by boarkiller:
Did you get the top jaw tusks as well?
85 kg's is good boar anywhere in Europe
That's damn near 200 lbs.
Lots of meat...

Yes, all four - I need a wee plaque to mount them on - a fine momento.

Wild boar meat is great - I had a superb meal in Wroclaw with wild boar and other local ingredients - polish cooking is much underrated.

I had baked boar brisket there in Czech with flour dumplings and wild rose gravy
I gotta learn that one
One to die for

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Wow Jerry what a stag! Well done on your hunt in Poland. I really enjoy hunting in Europe with it's customs and pageantry. Neat adventure you had.

Not bad for a first European hunt( although certainly not the last)!! I loved the tradition of blowing the hunting horn as a sign of respect.

That's first stag J?
Oh boy, tough to beat that one.
What a great hunt boys

quote:

Originally posted by boarkiller:
That's first stag J?
Oh boy, tough to beat that one.

Mark these words