CROATIA Hunting Information

[mark-hunter]

Wild boar fever, in Croatia.

 

[Sika98k]

Unfortunately they do now have real wild boar fever ! I was booking a hunt with a group in E. Croatia for next January (2024).
I received an email from “our man in Croatia “ sounds like a spy thriller, huh.
Anyway a severe storm has done a lot of structural damage. The forests have all had a lot of trees knocked down and even worse a bad outbreak of ASF in the Balkans has decimated the wild boar population.
He reckons it could be 3 years before hunting gets back to normal.

 

[mark-hunter]

Anyway a severe storm has done a lot of structural damage.

In last years, the storms get more severe then ever.

This year, during this storm, a tree fell on my house. An old oak. By luck, the center mass of the tree fell sideways and scratched the roof, but several strong side branches, destroyed few bricks, chimney, and few bricks on the roof, plus bent few meters of metal plate drains. So, minor damages at my home, but it could be much worse.

In the neighborhood, many large trees fell, including some 100 year old pine trees.

Then, there was the floods following the storms. I dont remember storms of that magnitude, ever before.

 

[HuntingGold]

Wow! I'm glad you are ok and happy that the damage is repairable.

 

[mark-hunter]

Update on general information and conditions on hunting in Croatia.

I believe that in my earlier posts I covered all aspects of hunting in Croatia, and what to expect.
One thing I accidentally did omit.

Testing the rifle before the hunt.

It is my experience that nobody ever asked me to test or zero the rifle before the hunt.

Somehow, this is not customary or common procedure.
There could be numerous reasons for that from cultural and traditional, to the basic lack of local range.

So, what to do?
So, a visiting hunter, is advised that upon a contact with the hunting agency or reputable outfitter verifies in advance to have option to test and zero the rifle before the hunt.

Generally, the system is following.
The hunt is in most cases organized by hunting agency, in cooperation with some local hunting club that operates their local hunting concession.

So, the hunting agent, upon client request will need to confirm this with local club, and then to confirm the same to visiting agent. ( a matter of a phone call, made on time, so local club can prepare some target and brief the hunting guide - very simple)

As mentioned earlier, usually, hunting clubs don't require this from their club members, and this part of hunting procedure can easily be omitted by them when meeting with client, or overlooked by agency when organizing the hunt.

Local hunters - club members have under their personal responsibility and ethics to keep rifles zeroed, and no fixed rules are established to test the rifles before the hunt, or before the season in most of the cases.

Some clubs do this on the season opening, but many do not.

Thus it is wise for visiting foreign guest in Croatia to confirm the options for zeroing the rifle through his agency contacts before going to the hunt.

 

[mark-hunter]

Will post the hunt report when getting some time to write.
For a time being, some pix.

 

[HuntingGold]

Very nice! Looking forward to your report.

 

[D-Orcutt]

Nice I’ll be there in September for a hunt

 

[mark-hunter]

Very nice thread i will link below, and will add a nice illustration to my Croatian thread.
Two of my roe bucks above, are hunted not far away from this area.

Driven Hunts In Croatia

Day 1: Kutina hunting grounds Early in the morning, the hunting tour operator drives us to the Kutina hunting ground. On the half-hour journey, we pass through small, snow-covered villages until we reach the hunting lodge. There, we meet up with the leaseholder of the Kutina hunting ground...

www.africahunting.com