Hi, I'm just back from Mazuria, NE Poland, where I've stalked a medium-size, 6 years old stag. I booked with Diana-DK. The trophy is certainly nothing special, but it corresponds to my personal idea of size/cost. I previously told to my guide, Piotr, that I would not shoot a big stag. Unfortunately, the roaring was scarce, despite one of the best possible periods, probably due to the windy/rainy weather. The first evening, on a seat, I glimpsed a quite big stag with 2 hinds, that did not roar at all and during the further 2 days I could hear very little roaring or nothing at all. As for my stag, it has been shot during the morning, on approach; we could get as close as 25 meters, without seeing it and it didn't notice us either, untill the last second; it run away briefly, almost without knowing why. We crouched and stood still during 5-6 minutes, then carefully walked forward for 30 meters. It was still, broadside, about 100 meters away in the middle of a forestry road. I could aim correctly and shoot it right behind the shoulder; it run away like a rocket and disappeared from our view; I was 99% sure that the stag was deadly wounded. We went carefully to the point of impact and saw a good amount of blood. Piotr decided to go back to the lodge/house to take his Laika bitch, in order to do some blood tracking. 40 minutes later we were back and Nori found the dead stag; it could run for about 70 meters after the impact. I shot it with my beloved Tikka 695 cal. 300WM; the cartridge was reloaded by me, using Noslers Part. PP 180 g. and Vith. 165 powder. The bullet went through the chest, right behind the shoulders; the exit hole was about 1.5 cm. Later we found a huge hemorrhage coming from the lung area. Needless to say that everybody was really satisfied; furthermore Piotr said that the last 2 hunters both badly missed their stag, so it was quite an improvement! Food and accommodation were satisfactory and, on the whole, I had a very good time in Zamordeje/Maskulinskie.

P.S. The photos have been "cleaned"; there was some blood on the coat.



Piotr, my skilful guide, with Nori


The hunting lodge


Piotr's house

wildboar

weidmannsheil it looks like a good trip, i am glad they took good care of you.

peter

Congratulations on your hunt, and thanks for posting the pictures.

Rgds,

FB

congratulation, and.. good "photoshop" work whit the blood, a sign of respect for the animal!

Thanks all!

@Lorefuma: I always remove blood spots from the photos that I post, but I often ask to myself if it's not a sort of hypocrisy. BTW, I use a nice free software called PhotoFiltre; it's a simplified version of Photoshop but complete enough for the vast majority of users.

Nice hunt!

I am dreaming about Poland, I have never heard a bad report.

quote:

Originally posted by D99:
Nice hunt!

I am dreaming about Poland, I have never heard a bad report.

oh i can give you a few, the old saying about "you get what you pay for" is really true in poland. but it is still one of the best pleaces to go besides hungary

best regards

peter

+1 on Peters statement, there has been some really poor hunts arranged in Poland, however that is really not the countries fault.

Best regards Chris

quote:

Originally posted by peterdk:

quote:

Originally posted by D99:
Nice hunt!

I am dreaming about Poland, I have never heard a bad report.

oh i can give you a few, the old saying about "you get what you pay for" is really true in poland. but it is still one of the best pleaces to go besides hungary

best regards

peter

Nice report, nice stag! Congratulations. I really want to hunt more of Europe in the future!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Nice report, nice stag! Congratulations. I really want to hunt more of Europe in the future!

come on over, we got plenty of fun left for you also.
what would you like to hunt ?

best regards

peter

Peter
Congrats on a great hunt and stag!!!!

Very nicely done!

Well done,nice stag!

Poland and Hungary are not the best!
You can find good or bad managed estates in every country. The problem is that open estates in Poland are ruined what I've heard from my clients. They are Polish and if they need some good, wild and non fenced trophy Croatia is their destination for last 5 years. It is the same with most of the European big game hunters. Fortunately Croatia is still unspoiled with commercial hunts but not for long I'm affraid.
It is shame that some agencies make DVDs about hunting in fenced area missleading unexperienced hunters.Last I've seen from Diana was driven boar hunt in fenced area.