I just got back from a 12 day hunting trip in Bulgaria. In that time I slept in 7 different beds so got to see many areas and lodges! I can truly say that I was blown away with the country as a whole.

Starting with my arrival in Sofia I was met by the outfitter who has been arranging hunts in Bulgaria for many years and was driven to the closest hunting lodge about an hours drive from the airport. I had told him that personally I was really keen to shoot a BIG wild boar and anything else that we may run into, but it was really to look over the country. I hurriedly changed and off to the first box stand it was. The box blinds in Bulgaria are elaborate affairs, with some having beds and a wood burning stove as well to keep warm!

On the way to the blind we say a number of roe deer, (the males had lost their horns by now and were out of season) as well as quite a few red deer hinds and small stags. At dusk the boar started pouring in. Baiting is legal in Bulgaria and apart from stalking is the method of hunting. When it was nearly dark the guide pointed out a boar that was facing us which i shot in the base of the neck. I knew it wasn't a giant but was keen to get one on the ground! It weighed 303.6 lbs!



Some photos of the lodge









The next day we travelled to two other lodges. The lodges and hunting areas in Bulgaria are government owned much like African concessions. With concession owners running them for a period of years. These are mostly wealthy businessmen who seem to spare no expense.

The magnificent lodge at Pravtiz





















From here we went on to a place called Rusalka up in the mountains. A rather remote area. The lodge was not as fancy as the other place but more than comfortable. Here I shot another 2 boar, the larger being 338lbs











to give you a perspective of the size



From here it was on to Cherni Lom, which is well known for its huge red stag. Its a very flat area so no climbing mountains and can be done by a hunter who is less physically capable. This year the largest stag shot was over 15 kilos! They also offer selection or cull hunts and I took advantage and shot a few red deer hinds. These are big animals especially when compared to Scottish red stags!



From there I visited a hunting area in the Rhodopes mountains. Here I was to shoot the largest boar of the trip which weighed at 374 lbs with 26cms tusks. This area is also excellent for mountain stags, Chamois, wolf, capercaillie, mouflon and fallow deer.







The folk singers just happened to be there as the rangers from the lodge had invited their counterparts from down in the plains. It was quite a party that evening with 20 guides. The local mountain folk music was really nice and quite different from a typical bag pipe. It was a befitting send off to the big wildboar.



Some of the trophies in the lodge





















Sofia the capital is a very nice city definitely worth seeing for a day or two. Taking guns is no problem and Turkish Airlines is a good choice of airline from the States. Depending on the species and priority of game that you wish to hunt, your hunt will be customized accordingly in terms of number of days, price and location.

The lodges in Bulgaria are of very high-quality ranging from comfortable to spectacular. Bulgaria is a great place to take your wife, girl friend or mistress to Meals and service are of very high standard and so are the hunting guides. The guides speak little English so a translator accompanies every group to brief the guides what you wish to hunt and will brief them daily before and after your hunt or accompany you on your hunt as well.

I will be posting some packages OR hunters can pay a daily rate and a trophy fees on the game that you have taken. In Bulgaria as in most of Europe, trophy fees are based on the size of the trophy taken. Hunters thus specify in advance the size of the trophy they wish to take so that the guide can select the right trophy. With red stag and other deer species a +/- 15% allowance from your desired weight is the rule. The weight is obtained after boiling and cleaning and weighing the skull and horns without the lower jaw of the animal. Chamois are scored using the CIC method of measuring the horns, wild boar are scored based on the average length of both the tusks.
Hunting is typically done by stalking during the rut, September for red stag and October for fallow deer or by hunting from high seats (box blinds). Boar are hunted from high seats and also driven hunts.

All in all I would say that Bulgaria is probably the crown jewel of European hunting if one were to take in to account everything. Species include:

Red stag
Fallow deer
Roe deer
Mouflon
Balkan Chamois
Wild boar
Capercallie
Some other wing shooting


Feel free to get in touch to talk about hunting in Bulgaria!



Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: +1 845 259 3628
DSC booth # 1222 (January 4th to 7th)
SCI booth # 5297 (January 31st to February 3rd)

Looks like you enjoyed a great hunt, Waidmannsheil. Nice pics and area.

Are the boar weights after they were field dressed, in kg, and then converted to lbs?

quote:

Originally posted by Dom:
Looks like you enjoyed a great hunt, Waidmannsheil. Nice pics and area.

Are the boar weights after they were field dressed, in kg, and then converted to lbs?

Dom with wildboar its the size of the tusks that count and is what you pay for the trophy fees. I was personally interested in the weight of the animals as there is so much BS about the weight of hogs and boars in particular! So I had each one weighed before gutted just for my ownself and I give the numbers here. Its also very difficult to judge the size accurately in photos and many are taken with the hunter sitting 100 yards behind. This is why I made a point of lying down next to it. I am 5' 6" and not skinny by an means!

On a side note I shot the big wild boar square in the shoulder with a 9.3x62 using a Norma factory load with a Vulcan bullet. At the shot the pigs all scattered, the big one turned and trotted off like nothing happened. I was mad with myself for screwing up such an easy shot. We got down and followed by which time it had become dark. We found it dead about a 100 yards away. There was no blood trail to follow and the bullet did not exit. I would have thought a 9.3 would have got its attention a bit more!!! Am sure with a 375 H&H it would have been a different story.

I hear ya Arjun, I'm all too familiar with European practice having lived and hunted there for 30+ years, hence my question. All weights we used were field dressed, and of course scales are all kg. Meat was then sold by the field dressed weight, which includes hide, head, and all bones, hooves, etc.

Anyway, Waidmannsheil on some good Keilers. Your story reminds me of a big Keiler I shot with 30-06, same results as with your 9,3. It was dark when I shot, and so next morning the Bloodhound found it, also went 100 yards without a drop of blood and no exit. That's it in my avatar. They sure are tough critters, and I'm not so sure a 375 would have had different results! I shot my biggest Keiler in Hungary, 22cm tusks, with trophy fee. Enjoyed your story and pics.

I have enjoyed the hunting trips I have taken to Europe... looks like Bulgaria needs to be added to the list of must-sees. Congrats on some nice boar!

Very, very interesting. The mountains reminded me of here, in the West.

Some trophy photos from this season

Looks like a wonderful trip, Arjun. Congratulations and happy hunting!

Arjun: Those are some serious boars, and excellent photography throughout your report. Well Done!

quote:

Originally posted by reddy375:

quote:

Originally posted by Dom:
Looks like you enjoyed a great hunt, Waidmannsheil. Nice pics and area.

Are the boar weights after they were field dressed, in kg, and then converted to lbs?

Dom with wildboar its the size of the tusks that count and is what you pay for the trophy fees. I was personally interested in the weight of the animals as there is so much BS about the weight of hogs and boars in particular! So I had each one weighed before gutted just for my ownself and I give the numbers here. Its also very difficult to judge the size accurately in photos and many are taken with the hunter sitting 100 yards behind. This is why I made a point of lying down next to it. I am 5' 6" and not skinny by an means!

On a side note I shot the big wild boar square in the shoulder with a 9.3x62 using a Norma factory load with a Vulcan bullet. At the shot the pigs all scattered, the big one turned and trotted off like nothing happened. I was mad with myself for screwing up such an easy shot. We got down and followed by which time it had become dark. We found it dead about a 100 yards away. There was no blood trail to follow and the bullet did not exit. I would have thought a 9.3 would have got its attention a bit more!!! Am sure with a 375 H&H it would have been a different story.

None of your boars loook small to me.

I used my 375 Ruger on my large boar and glad I did. I shot him three times to the ground with 270 grain spire point loads . All three bullets exited, even the ones striking heavy bone, blood was every where. For large boar am diffently a 375 man. He was dead and on the ground in less than 4 seconds.

Thank you for sharing some great photos and your narrative.

Nice report

Great pics and awesome pigs Arjun
I’ll stop by in Vegas

Those big wild boars are tough. I was lucky enough to shoot my first boar this autumn in Sweden. We were hunting moose and we had a female with two calves coming towards us but she slipped past the line of shooters. I was at the end and sometimes the moose tend to use an old logging road so I walked down there to have a look for them. Out of nowhere came this giant boar at a maximum 10 m from me, trotting ahead. Shouldered my rifle and touched of on pure reflex (after checking there were no babies behind, had no time to check for tusks at the time). Thud. No reaction at all at the boar. That bullet (180 gr Norma vulcan factory load) double lunged and took out the top of the heart. A few meters ahead I got another possibility and shot again, a tad high but that bullet took the spine right off. Still he continued and just as he had trotted another 5-6m and I was ready to put the third bullet into him he collapsed. None of the bullets exited. The first one had encountered a rib at the impact (actually a small piece of bone was buried in the lead) and the second stopped just beyon the scattered spine.

The size of it? We had to measure it in parts since our scale was topping out at 100kg but summing up all parts it turned out to be 180 kg living weight (just below 400 lbs). Quite a beast! The tusks were "only" 20,1 and 20,5 cm. The guy who measured them felt sorry that such a big boar had so "small" tusks, he though I deserved more than bronze on that one.

Sorry for the side track, still excited about that boar. Especially since the largest one ever taken by our hunting team in that area was just below 80 kg :-D