Roe Deer in Hungary July 2024

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,157
I ended up taking 3 bucks. I don't have a photo of the first buck without me, so here are some of the bucks taken.

If you are interested in this type of hunt let me know. I will provide the contact information for the outfitter.

Hunt was 2700 dollars, including the hotel and hunt and the 3 bucks. The bucks have to dry out and get officially weighed by the Hungarian hunting authority. If they my last buck still weighs over 400 grams I owe another 700 Euros.

Was a wonderful hunt, never been to Hungary before. None of the drama that is currently affecting Western Europe. So it was nice to travel.
Siofok Hungary 24-28 July 2024 Roe Deer Hunt
Couldn’t sleep woke up at midnight to drive to Hungary. Made at 1200 on Wednesday. 12.5 hours. Long ways!
Wednesday after arriving to the hunting lodge we started the afternoon hunt after an amazing 1600 meal outside the hotel on the patio. The meal was a wonderful red paprika soup with braised pork. Followed by a salad, red deer stew, roasted potatoes and a local variation of apple strudel.
As a group we left the hunting lodge and drove the 20km to the hunting organization lodge for the nights hunt. I was assigned Istvan, and a female guide I don’t remember the name of that spoke English. After a lot of driving throughout wheat fields, sunflowers, corn fields, vineyards and soybeans we found a wonderful old buck the guide deemed to be a “schoener bock”. So, a little range finding with the Swarovski EL 8x42 Range TA and a little dial up a MIL with my Zeiss V8 scope and I shot him off the hood as he was 250 meters lying down in a big cut wheat field. I later found out that he ended up weighting over 350 Grams (after cleaning) and was the biggest buck of the entire group until Friday night. My young guide’s father was the president of the hunting association, and he was the preferred guide from the other hunters that had hunted with this outfit before.
Thursday morning, we were up 3:00 AM for a 3:30 departure from the hunting lodge. We met the guides at the association at 4:00 AM and I had the same guide as the first night. We spent a lot of time driving the same sunflowers, cut wheat, corn fields, vineyards and soybeans to be presented another very beautiful buck. We were driving on the road next to the side of anirrigation ditch. A buck came out of some sunflowers with a doe and was 200 meters away. I dialed up .75 of a MIL and missed. No blood no double bang from firing and then hearing the animal being hit. This was curious as I had perfectly executed the Wednesday morning shot and had the same dead rest with a rolled-up blanket. A search found no blood or signs of a shot.
We returned to the hotel for some rest at 09:00 and I slept until 3:00 PM. Lunch/dinner at 1600 with another amazing soup, pork schnitzel, sauce and amazing potatoes followed by a nice desert of a streusel blueberry cake. Hard life it is!
Thursday evening, I hunted with another young hunter who worked in technology for Microsoft. His father was also a guide in the district, and both were named Lazlo or Lotzi for short. Lotzi and I had a lot of laughs, as he had a good understanding of English and was a very keen small game hunter with a young family.
Lotzi had a nice buck located in some soybean fields and we checked there first thing. It was a little hot, and our field had a few does but nothing else. As we stood there talking two bucks came out in front of us and disappeared. We decided to push the field a bit and walk toward where we thought the bucks were. The bucks started fighting and I was lucky enough to get the fight on video. What a thrill. There was some discussion about what sized bucks I was allowed to shoot, and some confusion. This would be the start of some drama between the outfitter and the booking agent. Eventually it was suggested by Lotzi that I could shoot the buck on the left the loser of the fight as he was inferior, if not young. So, with the Blaser sticks up I shot him,and I noticed that the shot was very high, and the buck dropped at the shot. Lotzi caught the shot on video which was wonderful as it was my first big game animal I have been able to get on video.
Back to the Hunting Association and we were met by the rest of the hunting party. There were some more nice bucks taken by the rest of the party. A hunter from Bavaria who lives near Garmisch-Partenkirchen in his 60’s shooting a Blaser k77 in 30 Blaser had missed a buck, and a young guy from Vienna had missed a buck with his grandfather’s 7x64 Mannlicher-Schoenauer and original scope.
We were finally caught up on sleep to have a sundowner after we returned to the hunting lodge. I had brought 4 massive 2-liter Pox Brau beers. A mix of 3 English style beers, some American beef jerky and Dukes Green Chili sausage. Everyone appreciated it, as the hotel package only included two meals.
Friday same routine up at 3:00 and at the hunting association at 4:00. We had been seeing red stags, hinds and a young roe deer buck on our drives out in the morning and this morning was no different.
I was assigned Yuri this morning and we picked up his friend as we left the hunting association. We went back to the area I hunted with Lotzi to try to find the older buck Lotzi had seen near where I killed the younger buck on Thursday night. On the drive in we saw a stone martin bouncing across the cut wheat field. A few moments later we noticed a European brown hare heading the other way. I don’t know if we were that haressalivation, but I think he was happy to see us. This was actually a very fun hunting morning. We saw over 50 roe deer, and at least 15 bucks. We had two bucks that were deemed shooters,but no shot opportunity was presented. I also saw a golden jackal sleeping next to an irrigation ditch. I didn’t know what I was looking at or I would have asked the question, he would have been an easy shot. At 50-60 yards away. Was a morning of a lot of wildlife seen for sure. Hundreds of hares and pheasants.
Friday nights dinner was red deer roast served with berries and croquettes. With a very spicy pheasant soup starter. YUM!
Friday nights hunt was with Lazlo’s dad Lazlo. Our hunting group started calling him Lazlo the elder. He had lived in Germany as a younger man, and we struggled but had some conversations in broken German and with the help of the phone translation. We sat in a high seat on cut wheat stubble with sunflowers on the far side 200 meters away. Fairly early in the night with plenty of light a massive buck came in and gave me a 150-yard shot. I shot directly under him. So, I was bit perplexed. We searched and saw no blood or sign of a hit, and Lazlo didn’t hear the bullet strike. I thought I did, but it could have been the sound of the bullet hitting a sunflower.
Saturday morning Lazlo the elder and I were back in the same area I missed the buck and had no opportunity for another shot. We saw a grand total of 5 deer this morning. Was getting hot quick. Mark had missed another buck and had asked to fire a couple cartridges at a target to see what was going on. Since that was available, I asked to do the same and we both found we had rifle problems. His rifle was shooting almost 12-14 inches off high and to the left. My rifle was about 5 inches low. A quick adjustment with the Blaser R8 and V8 Zeiss and I was in the 10 rings. No excuses!
Saturday evening after a meal of pork shoulder, roast pork loin and some kind of amazing soup we were back at the hunting area. This time back with Lazlo the elder. He had an interesting vehicle that I have very rarely been exposed to the VW Amarok pickup truck. Drove wonderfully and very comfortable.
We started in a big cut wheat field near where I missed the first buck I missed with him on Friday night. A young buck came out after Lazlo called him in with the Fox Pro and a recorded Roe doe call. Lazlo and I moved down to another high seat at the end of the field behind a skeet club. Close to last shooting light we had a big buck come out. Lazlo told me to Schuetzen”. So, I did. I didn’t have much of a rest to get comfortable on and I hit the buck far back. A quick second shot and he was down. We had to drive about 30 minutes to get to the buck, as he was in a field we couldn’t access from the high seat we shot him out.
Eventually we got there and got him gutted and in the truck. Light was poor and the photos don’t really show how big the buck was. We returned to the Hunting Association and there were other nice bucks shot that evening. Our agent Lief from Austria had killed a beautiful 400-gram buck. My big buckended being 450 grams raw on Monday morning after boiling and drying for 24 hours.
Back at the hunting lodge we poured the last two beers I had brought and talked about the hunts. I had plans to leave after breakfast at 9 am. I was up at 6 am on Sunday, as my sleep schedule was screwed up, so I packed up my room and packed up the car and said goodbye to Gunter who was also not able to sleep until breakfast. We both sadly departed ways as I had greatly enjoyed spending time with him.
The drive from Siofok to Rheinland Pfalz was long, it took me 13.5 hours and Google maps redirected me a few times. I was supposed to go through Salzburg, but I ended up driving through the length of Bavaria back mostly the same route I came on. I got home at 19:00 and was happy to see my wife and kids.

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Joined
Aug 26, 2021
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51
That’s awesome! I did a study abroad program in Budapest. Would be fun to make it back to Hungary for a hunting trip.
 
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Mojave

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,157
I would say a 430 type buck is a 350 bull elk in trophy quality here in Europe, or 150 whitetail, or a 160 mule deer.
 
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