gcbailey
AH veteran
I went on a Romanian bear hunt from 10-12 April. I originally planned to hunt for my birthday next week, with Dragos Stefanescu. Dragos called me and asked if I could move it up a week, as bear activity was good at the time. Since I was only a couple of hours away, I said no problem and drove over. Dragos was guiding for two other Americans in another location, so I hunted with Mihai, the club President. I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know if this would be a spot and stalk (my preferred method) or a baited hunt. it turned out to be both. While some may call it ignorant, I enjoy a good adventure, and part of that is going in to the hunt pseudo blind. Mind you, I am currently living in Romania, so I didn't blow money on a flight and hotel for a hunt I knew nothing about. Were I traveling from America, I would have asked millions of questions, and then asked them again to make sure I had it right. All of my hunts in Romania have been through word of mouth. I hunted pheasant with Catalin from Black Valley Romania, who recommended Dragos. Anyway, I didn't know what type of hunting we would be doing or what time of day. I was just going to enjoy the mini adventure.
On Thursday, April 10th, I arrived at the pin spot that Dragos sent me at 5:30 p.m. and met Mihai. We drove a short distance and walked out to a blind. Ok, it was going to be a baited hunt. We sat and saw a sow with two cubs, but nothing shootable. There were also some boar that happened by. My guide had thermal binoculars that he passed to me so I could see what was outside of the blind. Some boar came into our area as well. I am from Southeast Georgia and I don't do cold. and it was a COLD. I had three layers of clothes and still my hands and feet were numb. With nothing shootable arriving, we left the blind at 10:00 p.m. Dragos recommended that I stay at a hotel or pensuinea, but since I had work the next day, I decided to make the two hour drive back home.
On Friday, April 11th, I met with Mihai at 6:00 p.m. and we went to another blind where there had been bear activity the previous day. For those of you who are leopard hunters and enjoy sitting up all night in a blind, good for you. I can't stand it. Maybe it's my sleep apnea or just my composition, but if I'm not moving, I'm sleeping. And that's exactly what I did. Fell asleep, in a stand, in the woods, while bear hunting. I awoke from time to time (maybe my own snoring woke me up) and would sit, but unless I had the thermal binos, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. We left the stand around 1:00 a.m. and explored the surrounding area for a while, seeing if we could spot and stalk a bear. We saw a Red Stag cow, but not much else. I arrived back home at 4:30 a.m.
Saturday, April 12th, I met Mihai again at 6:00 p.m. and we went to the same blind as the previous day. It was a beautiful night. much warmer than the previous two nights. It was the Pink Moon and it was bright outside and no wind blowing. I got that feeling of confidence that it was going to happen. It just felt right. I cozied into my corner of the blind but actually didn't fall asleep this time. I sat very still and waited and enjoyed the cool night air. Nothing stirred. No birds, no mice, NOTHING. I was thinking to myself, well, that's what happens when you get overconfident- a big FAIL. We sat out until midnight but then my guide was the one who got restless. We left the blind and started exploring the surrounding area again. We had only been roaming around for about 15 minutes when Mihai points to a ridge line and says there is a large bear. Even though it was a full moon, I couldn't see what he was pointing at. He handed me his binoculars and I immediately saw the white hot outline of a bear, but I had no way of determining its size. The bear was roughly 400 meters away (~ 437 yards). Mihai asked if I could shoot at the distance. I told him I could, but I preferred to get closer. We started stalking and got to 200 meters (~218 yards). Mihai set up the shooting sticks. I was using Mihai's Blaser R8 in 9.3x62. I love that caliber, but I could not see the bear through the traditional scope. Mihai switched the Baler R8 out for the Mauser .308 that had a thermal scope. I have used thermal scopes before in Fort Benning and Iraq, and they are excellent on the Bradley vehicle. But hunting and killing aren't the same, and I felt very awkward looking through a thermal scope at the bear. I could clearly make out the bears features, but I had no idea if I was shooting the largest bear that ever lived or a cub. I'm also not used to seeing bears, so I'm sure that factored in to my discomfort.
I steadied on the sticks, and flicked the safety into the fire position. I pulled the trigger (rookie mistake, I know) and nothing. I wasn't sure if I heard the striker hit, so I opened the bolt to see if I hadn't seated a round in the chamber. Well, there was one and now I was fumbling with trying to get it back into the chamber. I got resettled, flicked the safety off again, and this time remembered to squeeze the trigger. The bear began running down the ravine, when he turned to the left, I shot again, now he was running down the ravine down and away from us. I aimed for his spine and fired again. He dropped and began to slide down the ravine. I could see in the scope that he was down. We walked the distance and found a blood trail where he had slid. The bear was lying upside down wedged between two rocks, stone dead (no pun intended).
The first two shots had pierced the bears heart, the third and final shot had hit him square in the spine. Honestly, some of the best shooting I've ever done on a rifle that wasn't mine. The closer I got to the bear, the bigger it got, until I could tell he was MUCH bigger than he had appeared in the scope. Mihai called some local men who I assume were part of the hunting club. They brought a big rubber tarp and put it underneath the bear. They then cut a tree branch to use as a handle to drag the tarp. If memory serves me correctly, there were 12 of us in total. Still, it took over two hours (we did stop for about half an hour for photos) to drag the bear 500 yards to the road. The bear was loaded on a Hilux truck bed, and we drove down to the hunting club to start skinning it. I rolled back into the house at 7:30 a.m., exhausted but triumphant.
Today, Dragos paid me a visit and presented the bear skull, paperwork, and the bear's penis bone (I think it's a traditional to take that as a trophy). The bear came in at 410 CIC, just allowable for exportation to the states. It turns out to be a CIC Gold medal bear! Dragos is an official measurer and graciously offered to score my Red Stag and Chamois from my hunt last year (that post is here: https://www.africahunting.com/threads/romania-romania-hunt-2024.89086/). My Red Stag was a Silver medal and the Chamois a Bronze. If hunting in Romania was the Olympics, I swept it the awards. I don't hunt for medals or record books, but it is always a nice addition to what is already a personal trophy. Romania has been a hunting dream.
On Thursday, April 10th, I arrived at the pin spot that Dragos sent me at 5:30 p.m. and met Mihai. We drove a short distance and walked out to a blind. Ok, it was going to be a baited hunt. We sat and saw a sow with two cubs, but nothing shootable. There were also some boar that happened by. My guide had thermal binoculars that he passed to me so I could see what was outside of the blind. Some boar came into our area as well. I am from Southeast Georgia and I don't do cold. and it was a COLD. I had three layers of clothes and still my hands and feet were numb. With nothing shootable arriving, we left the blind at 10:00 p.m. Dragos recommended that I stay at a hotel or pensuinea, but since I had work the next day, I decided to make the two hour drive back home.
On Friday, April 11th, I met with Mihai at 6:00 p.m. and we went to another blind where there had been bear activity the previous day. For those of you who are leopard hunters and enjoy sitting up all night in a blind, good for you. I can't stand it. Maybe it's my sleep apnea or just my composition, but if I'm not moving, I'm sleeping. And that's exactly what I did. Fell asleep, in a stand, in the woods, while bear hunting. I awoke from time to time (maybe my own snoring woke me up) and would sit, but unless I had the thermal binos, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. We left the stand around 1:00 a.m. and explored the surrounding area for a while, seeing if we could spot and stalk a bear. We saw a Red Stag cow, but not much else. I arrived back home at 4:30 a.m.
Saturday, April 12th, I met Mihai again at 6:00 p.m. and we went to the same blind as the previous day. It was a beautiful night. much warmer than the previous two nights. It was the Pink Moon and it was bright outside and no wind blowing. I got that feeling of confidence that it was going to happen. It just felt right. I cozied into my corner of the blind but actually didn't fall asleep this time. I sat very still and waited and enjoyed the cool night air. Nothing stirred. No birds, no mice, NOTHING. I was thinking to myself, well, that's what happens when you get overconfident- a big FAIL. We sat out until midnight but then my guide was the one who got restless. We left the blind and started exploring the surrounding area again. We had only been roaming around for about 15 minutes when Mihai points to a ridge line and says there is a large bear. Even though it was a full moon, I couldn't see what he was pointing at. He handed me his binoculars and I immediately saw the white hot outline of a bear, but I had no way of determining its size. The bear was roughly 400 meters away (~ 437 yards). Mihai asked if I could shoot at the distance. I told him I could, but I preferred to get closer. We started stalking and got to 200 meters (~218 yards). Mihai set up the shooting sticks. I was using Mihai's Blaser R8 in 9.3x62. I love that caliber, but I could not see the bear through the traditional scope. Mihai switched the Baler R8 out for the Mauser .308 that had a thermal scope. I have used thermal scopes before in Fort Benning and Iraq, and they are excellent on the Bradley vehicle. But hunting and killing aren't the same, and I felt very awkward looking through a thermal scope at the bear. I could clearly make out the bears features, but I had no idea if I was shooting the largest bear that ever lived or a cub. I'm also not used to seeing bears, so I'm sure that factored in to my discomfort.
I steadied on the sticks, and flicked the safety into the fire position. I pulled the trigger (rookie mistake, I know) and nothing. I wasn't sure if I heard the striker hit, so I opened the bolt to see if I hadn't seated a round in the chamber. Well, there was one and now I was fumbling with trying to get it back into the chamber. I got resettled, flicked the safety off again, and this time remembered to squeeze the trigger. The bear began running down the ravine, when he turned to the left, I shot again, now he was running down the ravine down and away from us. I aimed for his spine and fired again. He dropped and began to slide down the ravine. I could see in the scope that he was down. We walked the distance and found a blood trail where he had slid. The bear was lying upside down wedged between two rocks, stone dead (no pun intended).
The first two shots had pierced the bears heart, the third and final shot had hit him square in the spine. Honestly, some of the best shooting I've ever done on a rifle that wasn't mine. The closer I got to the bear, the bigger it got, until I could tell he was MUCH bigger than he had appeared in the scope. Mihai called some local men who I assume were part of the hunting club. They brought a big rubber tarp and put it underneath the bear. They then cut a tree branch to use as a handle to drag the tarp. If memory serves me correctly, there were 12 of us in total. Still, it took over two hours (we did stop for about half an hour for photos) to drag the bear 500 yards to the road. The bear was loaded on a Hilux truck bed, and we drove down to the hunting club to start skinning it. I rolled back into the house at 7:30 a.m., exhausted but triumphant.
Today, Dragos paid me a visit and presented the bear skull, paperwork, and the bear's penis bone (I think it's a traditional to take that as a trophy). The bear came in at 410 CIC, just allowable for exportation to the states. It turns out to be a CIC Gold medal bear! Dragos is an official measurer and graciously offered to score my Red Stag and Chamois from my hunt last year (that post is here: https://www.africahunting.com/threads/romania-romania-hunt-2024.89086/). My Red Stag was a Silver medal and the Chamois a Bronze. If hunting in Romania was the Olympics, I swept it the awards. I don't hunt for medals or record books, but it is always a nice addition to what is already a personal trophy. Romania has been a hunting dream.
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