I was on an hunting trip in Poland from 1-5 august with Aurora Jaktreiser (huntingtravels)

We hunted in the Jelena Gora area, and we stayed at the hotel in Strezgom, where hunted nearby from. It was fun to see lots of roedeer there, since where i live its little roegame and the most of it are either hunted by lynx, or poachers. Plus the ordinary hunt takes the toll on the little tribe of roe deers.

It was 4 Norwegins and ca 14 Danish hunters that went to Poland with good hopes of an fine hunting trip.

I thought i would be able to see some animalø, not ca 100 out on the hunting trips, and many fine bucks, but it was the oldest ones that didn`t come out in the plains , they were in deep in the forrest areas, and barking , that was "Opa" , i heard 3 Opas that day, and they had been seen before and they were big.

I should have had the Buttolo with me, but i didnt, perhaps that would have lured one of them out , and my trophy bill would have risen with that little squeeze on the buttolo?

We hadan long drive ahead of us when i met Ole Ivar and the other guys, Vidar and Daniel at 0730 in the mroning for the trip, We were at the hotel Granit, our Base camp , some 36 hours later.

Tiredsome trip, but not stressfull as we had our own car downwards, we went through Sweden and Denmark where we met the danes .

The trip through Germany went ok, and we came to Poland ca 1400 hours at Strezgom where we met out Interpreter Magda, she helped us getting the rooms on the hotel and guides and she was invaluable to us, for us she was the Oberjeager.

The meeting with the guides took place a little bit later and at 1830 we was out on our first stalking.

The stalk was fine, but it was alittle bit to much driving in the car, so i told my guide , using an car in Norway was illegal for hunting at home, so we stalked more and more after that.

Sitting in an hochsitz, looking on some deers, and several fine bucks, was very fine, the the guide saw an fox on my right side, and slowly brought the rifle up and fired the first 358 Norma Magnum of the hunt at the fox on ca 50 meters, I shot to high, so i had too shoot again, the fox was looking curious around himself and i hit him in the shoulder, , he fell down kicking alittle bit, then it was silent.

We saw the fox afterwards, and the shot had gone out center on his shoulder. so he was gone instantly from the 250 grain Oryx bullet.

http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l51/34rigby/?action=v...nt=404Jeffery419.jpg

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my Jaeger Miroscyzslaw, he found several fine bucks for me and this
picture is taken up in the wild boar forrest

http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l51/34rigby/?action=v...nt=404Jeffery327.jpg

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the result after the first mornings hunt, 3 fine bucks in one hour of
stalking, i missed at 2 bucks, if i hadnt i would have had 5 bucks

http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l51/34rigby/?action=v...nt=404Jeffery351.jpg

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our interpreter Magda, she was prizeless with the help for getting
hotell, food, tour guide, speaking with the hunters for us and much
more,. a very kind girl that studies economics and english



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Vidar and Ole Ivar, Ole Ivar are the booking agent for Aurora hunting
tours which i traveled with

Kz Lager Gross Rosen, a sinister place

http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l51/34rigby/?action=v...nt=404Jeffery363.jpg

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The 358 norma Magnum rifle

Miros 7 kg Hirsch trophy at home

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http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l51/34rigby/?action=v...nt=404Jeffery390.jpg

his 8x57 IS Waffenfabrik Bronn Mauser rifle without a thumb sut out on
the side, and a Polish scope, i think the scope is made on advise by
the
russian Zeiss factory or the East German Zeiss Jena scope.
This is just a few of the pictures i took, next year im bringing a
video
camera to film more

I`ll update it more this evening.

Very nice hunt ! But I thought you were going to test your 404 ?

We had to take the shooting test here home before the trip anyway, and i dindt get the Swift bullets for the 404 before i came home, so i used the 358 Norma that was bureaucratized. already.



The girls at the hotel were very fine in their service on our staying there.

It was a sandwich at 0430 or 0530 before hunting and breakfast at 0930, dinner at 1630 and supper at 2230.

They worked like that and service is high on their agenda. Many poles are working here in Norway and they have work moral and service with them .


We went out at a little before five oclock , to an very bic fine field aread, out whole hunting area was 5500 Hektar big , so it could be an 30 min to the other hunter guy, we seldom saw it each others on our trip, it was nice to see large open field with lots of game, good game preservation and predator control.

It was unusula to see the wild dog tracks in the field, as the guides called them also with the foc included, Bandit, but they were prohibited from shooting, big troubles with police was waiting up ahead if that happend.

After an little stalk we came up on an buck and two female, the hunting fever set in , and i missed at ca 130 yards. The topsoil flew in front of him up in the air , and i heard the word "bomschuss" if the game were anschuss, hit and it went away you had to pay for it.


It was my mistake, and i shouldnt have taken the shot, but i have been unlucky on big game hunting before , so it was the first time i had an animal for my self in the target, and which no one els could get anyway from me.


But that s hunting, you `ve never know what happend.

Alittle bit later, we was stalking at the side of an field and we saw an very fine buck grazing, aganin Diana &Hubertus was messing with me, i missed again at a support,

I said to the guide that we have an saying at home that says, all good things comes in 3, alle gode ting er 3.


we were stalking in the fine doe wet grass, and the sun was warming up the sun was shining like gold in the wet white grass, it was shining like diamond fields.


I thought that it was only thing missing here was that Arwen and Legolas would come riding on their horses out of the mist...



I was taken out of the dreams when he said, "ein gute bock, da druben"

There he was grazing, up ahead, less then 100 meters, i got the monopod, shutzenstock up ahead, and prepared the shot, but Diana had one more trick in her book lined up for me....

When the shot was taken , i hit him in front of the shoulder, and he set out on his last run, that was short, less then 20 metersm, and he cradeled up in his filed, for the last time , when we came up to him.


The trick was now, the shooting stick broke, and i was reloading in loose air.

But it wasnt neccessary, i knew it there, it went down good.



We went after another buck after this one was gutted, and the bullet had done little damage , good performance it was he said.

We went after another one , and that buck went good , he got down in the shot on ca 70 meters range.


But then the difficult one came up.

We was going for another stalk in the same area, it was crawling with deer there, it was incredible. We spotted an fine buck up there, and i made myself ready, what happend nect, i dont know, he started to run away from us , he was hit tofar back.

The search was on, we searched an bush area after him, finding blood trails after him, and after alittle bit finding his laying area where he had rested for a while, it was bad feeling i had about the shot, christ, i felt bad for him. But the guide said that i should stand ready with rifle there, while he searched the area.

We found him after a bit, he said Schiessen, only problem was he on the other end of an treetunnel , and i dropped into sitting position firing thru the branch tunnel that dindt have a branch in the shooting line unless the one he was holding down for me not to shoot on.

The tree tunnel was filled of gun smoke and i had ringing in my ear, but i dindt feel so much of the shot or recoil.

I took him ca 10 cm behind the shoulder, but he was in chock so i gave my knife to the Guide who stuck the buck in the base of his neck.

After that episode, he light an sigarette, since i dont smoke i dint take one, but it was mixture of saddness and relief in that it went well .


The trip into the hotell was ok, and the guys looked abit straneg as 2 of them had shot one buck , the 3 one hadnt shot one, and i had gotten 3 bucks.


I rested the night , i had hunted enough for the day, plus it had been a long trip there in the first place.

Ohh, boy how long am i going to write when i get to Africa on hunting....

Day 3, wild boar hunting.

I thought myself that i had hunted enough roebuck wo i wanted to stalk wild boar in forrest area. We went out of the town the guides Russain jeep, i start to understand how the russian army has behaved so weil in various terrain with those cars. They were great, and russian combo between Landies and G Wagans as i thought of.

We passed an old barrack camp in the distance and my guide haid "KZ Lager Grozz Rosen" , we hunted ca 4 miles away from the camp, hunting in such a fine area where so much gruesome thing had happend 60 years ago. It was an un easy feel to the whole setting.


We came up to the area and the Schultz&Larsen was loaded up for big game, the reason why i had this fine rifle with me instaed of the 404 is that 358 has an Meopta 3-12x56 scope and it handles nights and bad light very well.

The 404 has an leupold 1-4x , but im going to use it on wild boar next time.

We went through fine agriculture landscape, with fine forrest roads and nice oakforsset, thing i have just seen in hunting films and magazines, now i was here . We started to climb up the terrain, it got a little bit steeper up the hills, and when we rounded an turn into an open area, an old timber cut down areas, an glissening, if i remeber the glossary right.

Then an very nice buck was scared and he started to run away while he was barking, like "get out of my revir," an very fine red buck in the green area. it was an fine sight in the morning.

We stalked alittle bit more up the hill, when Miro`s stopped and started to smell something, he whispered to me very low "scweine...."

I smelled them, the light pig odor came from the forrest area up ahaed, and we walked even silenter up the track towards them . Then we saw an laying pit in the road, there one big bore had laid during the night , i coulndt take a picture there cause it would scare the pigs nearby. They was scared and run very silent away on the other side of hill, ca 20 meter away from us. So it was pigs in the area.

After we started to get down from the area we came to an hill landscaope which we crossed, and if you were hungry the bery bushes that was wild cherries was there, they were good, unfortunately we wasnt there later, then i would have picked some wild pears and apples that grew there. It was fun to see something els than the cold north for an change..


we came across an filed and there it was a set of Hirsch tracks , very fine tracks of a big hirsch, after the stalk was over, we went back, seeing that we had good time before rendezvous at the hotel, he asked if we should go to Gross Rosen for a visit and then coffe e and kake at his house. Ok said i .


Gross Rosen was a sinister place, with the history said there 160 000 people had perished inside that camep, as it was an Granite works, it had been very hard to be there.

For the first time i saw that pretty gruesome, ironic words over the Gate "Arbeit Macht Frei".

It was unbeliavle to see things like that.


We went to his house, and it was a fine house, with many fine trophys, and his rifle was an Waffenfabrikk Brunn i 8x57 JS. he had some pictures of an gold medal buck he had gotten some years ago, and pictures of other clients he had guided to various fine trophys.

He showed me the biggest hirsch he had gotten an very fine 7 kg stag, so they live in an fine area for hunting .

The night hunt was after pigs adn roebuck too.

They grow lots of corn there due to the climate, and wild boar has a fiedl day in those filed, it remined like an train tunnel the boar had come into the field, and they also made very fine potato filed by their own help, truly amazing the wild boar, wonder on how the big boars of Argentina behaves in the fields? I must go there and see for my self soon.

We came up out on a fine filed that was parted in 2 with an little forrest area in, we heard Opa barking in there so we stalked more areas and returned afterwards there. But he was in there.

I waited with the rifle on the large bipod, waiting to see if he came out, 5 minutes, went, 10 minutes, 15 min, nope he wasn`t coming out, i thanked hubertus for the exitement and thanked the VISA card alo, it could have been expensive if he had...

Out on an filed nearby too see if we saw someone else, but darkness came onto us very fast and it was back to the hotell.

Waidmannsheil mr rigby, I enjoyed reading your experiences there in Poland, very interesting, Dom.

quote:

Originally posted by mr rigby:
We hunted in the Jelena Gora area, and we stayed at the hotel in Strezgom ...

Mr Rigby,

Where is this in Poland? West, East, North, South? Just interested.

Congratulations on your hunt. Hope you have many more.

Its to the west of Poland, ca 40 kms from the German Border, and ca 80 kms from Czech republic.

It was easy to get there , and next time we will take the ferry from Ystad in Sweden to Gdansk if i dont remeber wrong, and drive from there and down .

http://www.eurofresh.se/poland-map/index.htm

here is a map of Poland and its easy to see where the hunt took place.

Plus in Wraclow its a large airport and a Airliner firma operates out from Norway and that takes few hours to get to the area also.

quote:

Originally posted by mr rigby:
Its to the west of Poland, ca 40 kms from the German Border, and ca 80 kms from Czech republic.

It was easy to get there , and next time we will take the ferry from Ystad in Sweden to Gdansk if i dont remeber wrong, and drive from there and down .

http://www.eurofresh.se/poland-map/index.htm

here is a map of Poland and its easy to see where the hunt took place.

Plus in Wraclow its a large airport and a Airliner firma operates out from Norway and that takes few hours to get to the area also.

"We hunted in the Jelena Gora area, and we stayed at the hotel in Strezgom, where hunted nearby from. It was fun to see lots of roedeer there, since where i live its little roegame and the most of it are either hunted by lynx, or poachers. Plus the ordinary hunt takes the toll on the little tribe of roe deers."

Per the map it is part of once was Silesia where some of my ancestors came from in the 1830's.

One reason, out of nostalgia that I would like to hunt Western Poland, the regions which were once East Brandenberg and Silesia.

Your ancestors left Poland with the many fine Polish babes, ehh i mean deer and wildboar areas for Australia........


It was a fine trip, and i think i will go there next year also to get more fine memories and trophys.

quote:

Originally posted by mr rigby:
Your ancestors left Poland with the many fine Polish babes, ehh i mean deer and wildboar areas for Australia........


It was a fine trip, and i think i will go there next year also to get more fine memories and trophys.

Mr Rigby,

I think when my ancestors lived in the region and emigrated German was the common language, and was until 1945, but such is history.

Visited the region in 2002 including many villages which my ancestors and other settlers to my area came from. The local people were at first quite paranoid but when they realised we weren't Germans looking to return (God forbid! ), some were reasonably friendly.

What I did enjoy was the forests and woods in the region and sighted many roe, pheasant, boar, fallow and red deer. Would have loved to hunt on that trip but mostly the wrong time of the year. One day will hopefully have a hunt there.

I enjoyed your photos and stories. Thanks.

Very nice hunting areas there, and many bucks there.

And the Polish "doedeer" also.....


Last day of the hunting area.

We went out stalking in an different part of the first area we had been in , with the long wide fields that stretcjhes long ways. In some of the area that i had previously walked through you could see hundreds of hayballs that had been made by the farmers there.

The 358 was easy to carry and it was a nice rifle that finallly had been blooded in hunting field.

We set the car at an field, and went out to stakl ,. It was unusula to see the various bucks an their familys grazing with a few hundred meters betweeen each other. Difficult to see that at home.

Some bucks got away, and then we saw a gute bock at ca 300 meters away that we staleked up on. Very slowly the trip went out in the field, carefully and slowly, yard by yard was covered to 130 meters from him and a female doe.

Miros light an cigarette and used that as an wind indicator. The wind was blowing constantly mildly, but the treacherous wind changed every few seconds it seemed like. That was as far as we could stalk up due to the flat terrain without cover and the wind.

So the bipod was set up and i was following the buck as he was playing with his girlfrined. They were running here and there and he was hiding behind an haystack and i got some strange visions of the Trench warfare snipers of WW1 in the mind at that time.

But they ran away from me out of the field, and it was funt to observe the, playfully.

Next time i must have an videocamera with me for the trip.


We went back to the jeep and set out on further trip into teh area. Since we was hunting on an 5500 hectar area i didnt see any others hunters during the trip, ecept for later that day when they did some field trophy care.


We went stalking in the fine area holding us close to the bushes for camuflages and we came up on an buck and doe that was grazing, the range was 190 meters, alittle bit long perhaps, but the shot went and it was alittle bit back, but it went well . I gave him another shot and that was that.

After gutting that one it was out for another buck, and it was 1 km or so fo walking that i made a "mr Rigby" blommer. Bipod supprt, 12x on the scope, range 50 meters and miss........


After searching the busharea incase it was blood there for several hundred meters it was bomschuss.


After another stlak on some hundred meters the last shot fell of that day.

I had the rifle on support and the Meopta was on 8x. Everuthing felt perfect, the rifle, trigger, suooprt,. was stable, nerves was little present there . It was a good lungshot, i saw the cascade of blood on the exit side and it was very short time before he perished. He went down, stood up and fell down kicking alittle bit and he was gone.

That was the biggest buck of them all that will be mounted by a veru good Norwegian taxidermist.

The range was 100 meters. And afterwards we got the jeep and one of the other hunters came there and the PH`S skinned the buck for mounting, it was the only one of all the bucks that will be shoulder mounted.


That night i was hunting fox since i had shot enough bucks, i went north through the e city , uo past the mobile phone central and further up there. That area had many fine cultral landscapes scenery and it was nice to walk and look after fox, but we were mostly talking about various things.

We looked at many roe deers, several fine bucks, but i had shot what i wanted, so i dint want to hunt more, instead i took picture.

And some short videofilms on my camera.

We heard Opa agin in the area, so i think i have encountered 3-4 really big bucks, that was old and with sharpe senses protectiong the area.

When we was stalking back to the car, we heard and saw fox , but they were on long range, 500 meters, it was getting dark and it would have been an difficuklt stalk so i dint pursue the thought of stalking on the gropu of fox, or if i was on 300 meters and i if had had the 300 Win Mag or the 264 Win Mag that will come soon .
Perhaps then, but the 250 grain Oryx has to little trajectory for such an long shot, perhaps i should have loaded the 225 grain Accubond that one has a high level of SD and BC. A Mountain bullet it is that one.

I was tired after th hunting days so i dindt hunt the last days, i met the guys when they got back to the hotell at 0800 for breakfast and packing into the car.

then it was time for the Trophy and Ethic Commision to measure and weigh the trophys.

We met at the Hunting "Church" for the hunting Union in a minute to walk from the Hotel, The guys came there with all our bucks (monetas) and it was weighed on an new scale.

The Oberjaeger Josef weighed them and we looked upon the scale with various thoughts in mind. The bucks that been shot yesterday and that day they was assumed how much they weighed in due to they hadnt been cleaned and boiled.

The money started to roll, since 3 of the bucks weighed in over 600 grams before the 90 grams of the jaw was deducted from the total weight.

After that was over it was time to get out on the road again, and with one 12 hour unexpected stay in Flensburg due to shortfuse in the car and on the garage at 6 9n the morning and efficien service, it was at home the next day at midnight, and just setting in things and chrashing.

I got the trophy list of the weight yesterday and they read Buck 1 338 grams, 133 grams, 320 grams, 290 grams, ca 309 grams, they couldnt measure the last one due to estimations of the weight there, so i was lucky there since that 7 antler are bigger than the first buck....


Well that was what i rembered now,. but a trip next year is under planning.