My European Red Stag Hunt

[Silas_Norris]

Hi everyone!

Hopefully this write up is helpful to someone.

I just returned from eastern Croatia along the border of Serbia.
While planning this hunt I struggled to find much information about hunting red stags in Europe.

Hopefully this information is helpful to others considering hunting in Europe.

I am not affiliated with any hunting guides or products. This is my honest feedback and review. This is also my feedback based on only hunting in Europe 1 time so my experience is very limited.

There are a lot of benefits to hunting in Europe.
1. Usually they do not book out years in advance. You can book a red stag hunt in Europe a few months in advance in many cases.
2. Hunting red stags in their natural and native home land is special. Few realize that the big racks coming out of New Zealand and Argentine are largely estate or high fenced animals. This often isn't advertised so you need to be very careful while booking with a outfitter for one of these giants. If it looks like a freak of nature, it likely came out of a high fence.

I went through World Trophy Adventures to book my red stag hunt. I typically book my hunts statewide directly with the outfitter but I thought going through a hunting agency made the most sense for a European adventure like this. It was smooth and easy and I will likely book most of my hunts through them now. It's nice having a agent that has physically been to many of these outfitters and can advise you on where to go based on what you are looking for and expecting during a hunt.

The red stag hunting in Croatia during the roar is more exciting than just about any hunt I can dream up. Red stags roaring all morning and evening in all directions. There seemed to be a red stag roaring about every 300 to 400 yards. If we busted a red stag, it wouldn't be a long walk to get onto the next stag.

The hunting conditions were rough this year due to some flooding which made some of the best areas not accessible. I will say, to me it was still a incredible hunt. We saw stags daily.

I shot my stag on the 3rd morning of a 4.5 day hunt. It is a gold medal stag and scored 206 cic.
I believe this would be around a 9kg stag. Not sure on sci score.

The one thing to really think hard about before booking your hunt is: the cost of the hunt is usually dependent on the size of animal you choose to shoot. This can make hunting hard. I had to pass up the first stag we had a chance at as it was too big for my pocket book! These upgrades aren't 100s I'd dollars but rather 1000s. I can't emphasize enough that you really need to stick to the side of deer you want to shoot or go on prepared to upgrade to whatever animal might present itself.

We flew from Chicago to zagreb and the outfitter arranged a vehicle to pick me up for the hunt. My wife went to Split for a few days which was a lot of fun for her. Croatia is a very safe place and the vast majority of people speak fluent English. They also seem to like Americans. I asked several people how safe it would be for my wife and oldest daughter and they all said it was very safe. Croatia's number 1 resource is tourism and the people there want to make foreigners feel welcome. We honestly felt safer in Croatia then in America in most cities.

If anyone would like more information on hunting red stags in Europe I have a lot more information I can provide. Also feels free to ask any questions you want in the comments. I'm happy to answer anything.

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[Glendine]

Well done Sir

That is a Fantastic Stag 9kgs is a solid weight again well done.

Glendine.

 

[phil1841]

Congratulations on a great trophy and hunting experience.

Couple of questions:
- Did you take your own rifle? If so, how difficult to enter the country with it?
- Are you bringing the cape and horns back to the US to mount? Curious how hard or expensive that might be (I've done Africa plains game the the trophy export costs have reached a ridiculous level these days).

Thanks for the report - it is nice to see feedback from some of the less travelled international hunting locations.

 

[Silas_Norris]

Congratulations on a great trophy and hunting experience.

Couple of questions:
- Did you take your own rifle? If so, how difficult to enter the country with it?
- Are you bringing the cape and horns back to the US to mount? Curious how hard or expensive that might be (I've done Africa plains game the the trophy export costs have reached a ridiculous level these days).

Thanks for the report - it is nice to see some feedback from some of the less travelled international hunting locations.

I used the guides rifle. You can take your own but I did not want to go through that process. He had a great rifle and was a compettive shooter. I was permitted to practice with it before hand.

I will have it mounted there and shipped. The taxidermy work was pretty high quality from the work I got to see (and I'm very picky). My friend in the states has his hide shipped back and the taxidermist charges 2700 to do a shoulder mount (very high end taxidermist).
I was quoted $900 for a shoulder mount. So, even if the shipping is quite expensive I think it makes sense to have it done there. I don't have a quote on the shipping yet but happy to update this with that info when I know.

I had my wife and oldest daughter along on this trip so we had a family vacation traveling around Croatia after my hunt was over so I didn't want to deal with guns and the hassle of antlers and hides any more than I had to.

I can say... I would highly recommend Roger Jorgensen with World Trophy Adventures. He knows about every outfitter in Europe and was super helpful with every single question I had including getting all the permits, congrats etc. He can also help with the paperwork if you choose to bring your own gun. I'm not affiliated with him at all but I will say finding a outfitter would have been much harder without his detailed help.

 

[gwtravis]

 

[Suera]

Congrats sir, I hunted many red stags in my country and other Europe countries for years. Your trophy is very good, you have to be happy, and like you said the brame-roar of the deers is an impressive spectacle that everybody should watch one time in his life.
In most of the European countries is very easy bring your own rifles but not necessarily usually outffiters has very good rifles and scopes and you save the paperwork of bring yours.
The problem you comment here is very common you always pay for what you shoot , the size and score of the horns make the difference , in some animals you can save lot of money if you only shoot a representative and not a medal.
Finally Croatia is a beautiful country to hunt and enjoy with the family I have good friends there and I enjoyed lots in the past

 

[Silas_Norris]

Congrats sir, I hunted many red stags in my country and other Europe countries for years. Your trophy is very good, you have to be happy, and like you said the brame-roar of the deers is an impressive spectacle that everybody should watch one time in his life.
In most of the European countries is very easy bring your own rifles but not necessarily usually outffiters has very good rifles and scopes and you save the paperwork of bring yours.
The problem you comment here is very common you always pay for what you shoot , the size and score of the horns make the difference , in some animals you can save lot of money if you only shoot a representative and not a medal.
Finally Croatia is a beautiful country to hunt and enjoy with the family I have good friends there and I enjoyed lots in the past

You are correct. You always pay for what you shoot. This is the common way of doing things in Europe. It's not unique to my outfitter. However this is not going to be easy for most of us Americans. I had to pass on a 230 cic stag in the first two hours of my hunt because he was too big. I also almost had to pass up my animal due to the fact that he was also bigger than I had originally agreed to shoot. It's not a lot of fun having to discuss pricing when a animal is standing right in front of you.
While this is the common way to do things, this was the worst part of my trip.

My stag was 14 years old with hardly any teeth. My guide said he was past breeding age.
I was also told his antlers were likely bigger the previous two years. So, this is a superb example of a stag that the hunter and the outfitter should want to take out of the herd, yet we almost had to walk away from him because I didn't want to pay 6k more for him. Didn't make a lot of sense and still doesn't to me. We should want to manage animals and take ones like mine out of the herd. That's my honest opinion.

That said, I respect how other places want to do things.

There are some outfitters that will let you pay one price and shoot any sizes animal. I would likely want to go that route if I hunt Europe again.

 

[Suera]

Hey, I understand what you are saying really sometimes is a fuc.. for outfitters and hunters, many times you don't watch the correct animal because is too big or small. There ara close packages for hunt at least in Spain but you have to understand one thing. The outfitter-guide that have gold medals or big animals know the money that these animals cost and there are people that want these monsters and for them is not problem the money, then this outfitter won't go to loss money making close package. Because he can loss thousands dollars
Other wise outfitters that have areas with good animals but that many times don't arrive to gold medals prefer make close package because they ask you a good amount of money and they know that you are going to kill a representative maybe a 30% possibilities to kill bronce medal and silver-gold medal 5% is a lottery, then this is why he prefer sell close package.
The best way is that outfitter say you in advance the price of everything then you go to hunt and you kill what you have money for pay and if you have a good outfitter he can say you very fast if the animal is in your range or price or how much more can be and you can decide in seconds.

And many times is the animal is a little sicks or very old and is good take it out for the wildlife manage if is a good outfitter although the trophy is bigger that what you are looking he will make you a very big discount and sometimes same price because he is the first that is interested in kill this animal
One more time congrats for your trophy is nice and like you said very good to take out it for the population.

 

[KsCovertHtr]

As many have said, Congratulations on a great looking stag and an awesome hunt. Thank you for info that you provided. Good stuff.

 

[Panhandler80]

Great write up and information. Thank you. Looking at the same thing as well for sometime next fall.

 

[RPN]

That's a great looking animal - the straight main beams are different to our more rounded style, but very nice regardless - and absolutely distinctive to the area.
I traveled in Yugoslavia on the early 90's, and loved the place, loved the people, hated the system. It's good to hear they have made a go of it after years of trials.