Recently I travelled to Romania to hunt roe deer. Wishing to travel light, I had come to Romania without my rifle. I had made arrangements to rent one there.

On Tuesday evening, George and I met up with the ranger, Peter. We left town, and drove a few klicks to a sand pit so I could try the rifle. Peter handed a rifle to me and suggested I dry fire it to test the trigger. It was a Dragana .30-06 with a powerful scope. I had not seen this brand before, but it seemed to be a fairly standard bolt action hunting rifle. The trigger was pleasingly light. The ranger then loaded it and I fired at about 100 meters, center punching the target. Sweet. He then took back the rifle and we drove off to look for deer.

We drove over the open rolling hills and past some woods. They told me as the evening progressed we would see many deer. They were correct. We soon started to see deer in small groups. We glassed several small herds, and found one with a very nice buck in it. It was on the south side of an east-west ridge. We dropped back into the valley on the north, headed east, went over the ridge near some woods, then headed back west to find the deer. When we got near, the ranger stopped, then handed me his rifle. He indicated I should rest the rifle on his shoulder, and shoot.

That presented me with four questions to resolve. Was he serious? Would that work? Was it something I was willing to do? Finally, which deer should I shoot? The answers I came up with were,one, yes he seemed serious. Two, I'm not sure if it is a good idea or not. Three, I don't think I will agree to do that. Four, well, four did not matter because the deer were all running away. Crap.

Plan B was to hide in the wood line to try to ambush deer moving through the area late in the evening. Before we did that, we had time to look around in the fields a bit more. We headed back the way we had come, and unexpectedly found the same same small herd of deer.

The ranger handed me his rifle, and I raised it to my shoulder. As I looked through the scope, I saw a tiny glimmer of light a the end of a black tunnel. This was not my familiar Remington. This rifle was another man's sweetie. I moved my eye closer to the scope to find the correct eye relief and located the buck standing in the tall grass. I had to go through some contortions to get the cross hairs on a vital area. After what seemed an inordinate amount of time, I got things right and gently squeezed the trigger. The buck dropped instantly.

Conditioned by years of whitetail hunting, I instantly initiated a snappy reload. I lifted the bolt handle and yanked the bolt back - and right out of the rifle. Astonishment and mortification are the two words that come to mind. I could not believe I had just broken this man's rifle. I hoped the buck was down for good, 'cause I wasn't going to be shooting again any time soon.

The buck was down and done, and George and Peter were laughing at me. The rifle was not broken. Apparently this model of rifle does not feature a bolt stop. Who knew?

Later that night we celebrated the fine buck with the rangers in town. Many bottles were emptied and hunting stories were told late into the night. Red wine mixed with cola is a fine drink. I don't care much for either one alone, but the combination is excellent. Interestingly, those who drank their wine straight suffered much more the next morning.

I had booked the hunt with BestEuropeanHunts. I can confidently recommend them to anyone wanting a fine hunt, and a nice tour of the country afterwards.


The buck.

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Red wine mixed with cola is a fine drink.

You lost me there, but congrats on the Roe Buck. Those are fun little guys to hunt.

Upland,

Waidmannsheil!

Thanks for taking the time to tell your story and send along a photo. Glad you enjoyed yourself.

Looks like a really good Sixer, a Trophy Roe Buck for sure.

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I lifted the bolt handle and yanked the bolt back - and right out of the rifle.

Thanks for sharing the experience with us

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Many bottles were emptied and hunting stories were told late into the night

Glad you got to experience something a bit different and enjoyed it! Been there, done that. Thanks for the write up and pic, and Waidmannsheil on your hunt, looks like a good buck, Dom.

Waidmannsdank to all!

Well done Uplander, nice buck you've got yourself there.

Thanks for the report and congratulations on a fine roe buck! I have only hunted Scotland but thoroughly enjoyed my adventure and look forward to hunting in Europe more often, intriguing trohies and a different "style" of hunting than we yanks are used to. Reports like this give us more options to consider when planning a hunt on the Continent.

Congrats!

Thank's for shareing!

Nils-Ole

Congratulations to this big buck!

I assumed you were a cockney on a stag do when you said you'd been for a 'roe buck' in Romania!

Sorry, Small Bore, I don't understand your joke. Explain?

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I assumed you were a cockney on a stag do when you said you'd been for a 'roe buck' in Romania!

Uplander - we share a common language, it sorta stops right there ..... you really DON'T want to know.