06 July 2022, 01:43
reddy375I got stuck in to the Roebuck!
I posted a hunt offer for a Spring Roebuck hunt earlier this year. This was the hunt I went on!It's been awhile since I last hunted in Romania! So I decided on a Spring Roe deer hunt. Travel to Romania was very easy on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul. Turkish Airlines is gun friendly and I had no issues whatsoever. Infact on arrival back in to the States at JFK, NY an airline representative was there to meet as I stepped off the plane and whizzed me through immigration and to the Customs office where my rifle was delivered!
With my rifle permit procured ahead of time. Entry in to Romania was simple and straightforward. The customs and police officials spoke good English and were polite and genuinely interested in my hunting plans. Departure was equally easy. The usual checking of the rifle serial number and counting of ammo. One new twist was that the outfitter on my departure had to provide a letter declaring how many rounds i had fired!
I hunted three different areas within a three hour drive from Cluj and ended up taking eight Roebuck! These little deer are numerous and on every outing you can expect to get a shot opportunity or two. The hunt takes place early morning and evening. We covered ground by driving the vast hunting areas and once we decided that a buck was a shooter we approached on foot. On occasions, we also set up on hillsides overlooking a valley and fields and glassing.
Accomodation was in hotels and the food was great. Cluj is also a nice European city and worth a day or two to visit.
I was using my Merkel Helix 300 Winchester magnum which is definitely enough gun for such a small animal and needless to say it was very effective with 150 grain Norma ammunition. One was shot with a 180 grain Scirrocco handload. I was using the GUNSTIX shooting sticks and can report that they are super steady to use, far superior than any 3 legged design. For more information and to order a set visit www.gunstix.com. The average shot distance was around 150 yards with two long shots being 275 and 292 yards respectively. Long shots on a small animal off shooting sticks but very doable with these shooting sticks.
The weather was beautiful springlike weather and the new fields were lush and green. There was absolutely no concern of the war in Ukraine even though at times we were within 200 kilometers of the border! Apart from Roe deer it was also a treat to see two European brown bear one evening. They are off limits for hunters and the population has reached plague like proportions. I will let the photos speak for themself!
I highly recommend a Roebuck hunt either in the spring or in the fall seasons. It is a relatively inexpensive hunt, especially for representative trophies and you can shoot quite a few Roebuck if you wish to. This is an ideal hunt for a father and son or for a family group or friends just looking to have a fun hunting trip. Roebuck is the white tailed deer of Europe and Romania has very good trophy quality as well for the serious Roe buck hunter.
All the animals I shot were mature and as you can see from the photos there were some really old ones and a few good trophies too. There are even bigger ones out there if you are willing to spend the time and money. This was just a fun trip to shoot my 300 and field test the GUNSTIX shooting sticks. I was using a new Zeiss V4 scope with an elevation turret and it tracked beautifully and maintained its zero there and even after I returned.
If anyone would like information on hunting in Romania do reach out. I have worked out a good combo package with Marius for Red Stag, Fallow and Roe buck for this fall.
On to the next big adventure next week!
Thanks for coming along on the journey.
Arjun Reddy
Hunters Networks LLC
www.huntersnetworks.com
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: +1 845 259 3628
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