ROMANIA: Gizmo's Romanian Hunting Adventure

[gizmo]

So to back up a bit, about a mile from the place we were staying we got a flat on the mountain road. No worries though. Horia called for another vehicle and Alein, Mrs. Gizmo, and I jumped in the new vehicle while Horia stayed backed and put a new tube in the tire.

My wife interacting with the local children, they really like American candy.

By the time we finished the sightseeing the hunting rig was back up and running. Alein would be my hunting guide as Horia’s mother in law had died the night we flew in and he had some family affairs to tend to that evening.

Mrs. Gizmo was exhausted so she went back to the lodge to lie down while Alein and I struck out after Roe buck. After a ten minute drive we got to our first spot. Actually on the way I saw my first Roe, a doe grazing in a meadow not 100 yards off the road. Alein told me if we had no luck we would come back to that spot and try.

I will say that one needs to be in decent physical shape to hunt here as its mountains and a lot of walking. You don’t need to be a super biathlete or anything but be prepared for walking and climbing. It’s wonderful though as the scenery is breathtaking and as I’m about to explain game is absolutely everywhere. I’m not kidding in this area there is a Roe or Boar behind every rock. This particular area wasn’t high enough for stag but the deer density was outstanding.

We parked the car on the side of the road, loaded the rifles, and off the edge we went. There was a horse cart trail that went in between two mountains down to a creek turned and went back up to the road. I’m guessing five or so miles long. The grass and wild flowers are waist high so you must move slowly to see the Roe deer before they see you. Most of the time the only thing visible, if they are on equal ground, is their head.

 

[johnnyblues]

My man ! The globe trotting hunter! You go boy! Can't wait for some pics.

 

[gizmo]

We could still see the road, behind and above us, when we saw the first Roe. A buck jumped up out of the grass and bounded down the hill. The wind was in our favor but I think he heard us more than saw us and certainly couldn’t have smelled us. He wasn’t very spooked so he went just out of sight. We moved forward slowly. The hillside had patches of dense woody brush with the occasional large tree scattered about. As we snuck up to a small patch of brush there were a half a dozen Roe browsing about. As we inched forward Alein stopped and motioned for me to creep up. There, not 10 yards in front of us was the buck we had spooked bedded down in the grass. The tips of his antlers only giving his presence away. We eased forward, slowly. He stood up and dropped off of the ledge just out of sight. Again we moved forward and as we did he stepped out onto the path 3 feet in front of us. As I eased the rifle up Alein stopped me. The buck looked at us and bolted. As he ran off Alein told me that while he was mature he wasn’t a shooter and that he was a cull. He told me that we could do much better and that they would cull the deer at a later time. At his running the remainder of the deer took off, all does. At first I thought that may have spooked off all the other game but about a hundred yards later we were in deer again. All does and as we moved on they too fled up the side of the mountain. At that point I heard some barking. As I turned to look up the hill in the direction it had come from, expecting to see a stray dog, a Roe deer doe was standing on a small outcrop barking up to the other deer we had spooked. It was the damned thing I have ever seen. A deer, barking, I started to laugh. Alein explained that Roe bark to communicate and I’m here to tell you it sounds exactly like a dog. We pushed on and within a few minutes I could hear something scurrying around in front of us. As we moved closer a large sow European boar lay in the grass with several piglets, some suckling.

We pushed forward and she stood up. As she did so piglets went everywhere. She turned to face us and began a deep guttural growl. “Uh oh”, I know what this means. She is highly upset we bothered them and as a “small” sow was about the size of a large Texas boar hog. She started clicking her tusks and I was getting ready for her to come. We had a bit of a standoff. We decided not to push her and she slowly backed off cursing at us in pigese. Once out of sight in the thick brush she became more concerned with rounding her piglets up than us and we moved on. We continued down the trail and jumped a very good buck but he was gone well before I could take a shot. Once we hit the bottom at the creek we followed the trail back up the other side. Again we jumped a good buck but in the tall grass he spotted us before we spotted him and was gone. This theme continued countless times back up to the top. The grass was killing us so once up to the top we changed spots and went to where the place we had seen the doe from the road. We were starting to loose light when we got there but there were deer milling about everywhere. We made a half mile before turning back as the light was too low to tell buck from doe.

First afternoon down and what an amazing experience. We headed back to the lodge where Horia and Mrs. Gizmo greeted us. Now Horia has a bottle in his hand and some shot glasses. A proper Romanian welcome was in order. In the bottle is a homemade Romanian concoction called Polinka. It is a local drink made from the fermented wild plumbs found throughout Romania and is roughly 1 million proof. I’m here to tell you that one could easily run a car off this stuff with no problems and probably gain 30 horsepower. Wow it’s strong. 5 shots later and I was done. It swayed to the table to a traditional Romanian barbeque of local meats, sausages, and chicken. My stomach still on fire from the Polinka, I cooled it with some ( ok maybe a hellava lot) of local made white wine. By the end of dinner I could no longer feel my face and I figured it was well past time for a shower and bed. Fortunately I managed up the stairs without falling but unfortunately I liked to broke my neck getting out of the shower. The shower in the bathroom sat up about 1 ½ foot off the floor as I stepped out I lost my balance. In an attempt to save myself I lunged forward, bad idea. One foot landed in the toilet and I fell back into the shower. Good news was I was drunk enough it didn’t really hurt at the time……………yet. Bad news I woke up the next morning at 5 a.m still drunk with a black bruise that went from my left butt cheek half way up my back.

I somewhat collected myself and dressed to meet Alein down stairs for the mornings hunt.

 

[cpr0312]

@reedy0312 if your serious give me a shout and I can give you more info and Horia's contact info. Feel free to email, pm, or call me.

@gizmo,

I certainly would love to hunt somewhere in Europe someday. Europe is a place I have not been to yet. And when there is someone who has had a good time and the deal is good, along with the scenery.... Yes!!!

I need to be able to "break up" with Africa and New Zealand for a year or two first

But yes I am certainly interested and maybe we can get in touch to speak about it soon!

 

[gizmo]

@gizmo,

I certainly would love to hunt somewhere in Europe someday. Europe is a place I have not been to yet. And when there is someone who has had a good time and the deal is good, along with the scenery.... Yes!!!

I need to be able to "break up" with Africa and New Zealand for a year or two first

But yes I am certainly interested and maybe we can get in touch to speak about it soon!

Just holler at me when ready. Its freaking amazing!

 

[Brent in Az]

A Texan in Romania? There goes the neighborhood!

Just kidding!

Great report. Looks like an awesome place to hunt. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

I was always fascinated with Transylvania, and the Carpathians. Visiting Castle Dracula AKA "Vlad the impaler" would be cool also.

 

[gizmo]

Now another thing about Romania I might mention is that if you are coming in the warm months there are giant prehistoric teridactyle mosquitos so bringing spray is a must. Unfortunately I didn’t have any and apparently I am one delicious fella because I liked to have gotten eaten alive. Horia saved my bacon as he had some Off which kept them at bay. I’m positive that the legend of vampires does not come from Vlad Tempest (more on him later) but from Romanian mosquitos. That’s also where the correlation of bats and vampires come from as they are relatively the same size, the mosquitos and bats that is. Alein had the occasional mosquito land on him; I on the other hand was surrounded in a fog of them. I’d be willing to bet I lost 3 pints or so of blood which would certainly explain the reason I was falling behind at times. It certainly couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I’ve gained about 40 lbs over the last several years and am a bit out of shape.

Anyway, so we went back to the first spot from the day before where we had seen all the Roe. This time a different tactic, we needed to get some elevation to have a chance in seeing them in the tall grass. It worked. Within 10 minutes a nice shooter buck is standing just off the crest of the hill below us at about 100 yards. Now with Polinka still very much doing its magic from the night before I attempt to get the cross hairs settled in off hand and take a shot. Yeah that was a joke, I whiff it and he trots down the hill only to stop at the bottom to bark back at me in defiance. He presents another shot and the same result. Now I’m pissed at myself and in hind sight I am disappointed in myself that I even tried to shoot with the previous night’s Polinka fog in my head.

I tell Alein that I’m in miserable shape to try and shoot still and that I need to work this gasoline out of my system. He obliged. Down off the ridge we go and a few miles into it the hootch is wearing off. We take a different route through the valley and at the bottom make our way through a stunning meadow full of blooming wild flowers. I should mention here that I have severe allergies, pollen being one of the worst, but wasn’t overly concerned about it as I take several medications to combat this daily. Head first I go through the meadow without a care in the world, that is until about a mile into it when both of my eyes begin to swell completely shut. By the time we got to the top I was done. Now I can’t see at all, Alein rushes me to the house, and Horia is telling me I need to go to the hospital. I had already lost an entire day on the trip and I wasn’t about to lose more time. Horia again saves my bacon as he has a Romanian version of Benadryl. While I have a virtual pharmacy of allergy meds I didn’t seem to think it necessary to bring simple Benadryl which proved, at this point, to be a momentous mistake.

So with a tablet borrowed from Horia and a shower I laid down and took a nap. When I woke up I took another and by that evening the swelling in my eyes had gone down enough for me to see and I was back in business.

One thing I forgot to mention is that right after I showed a pathetic display of marksmanship we stumbled upon one of the coolest experiences I’ve had. There in the tall grass on the side of the ridge was a few day old Roe fawn. I managed to snap a few pics before we carefully backed out. We were careful not to touch the animal or disturb his hiding place not too much but wow what a wonderful example of God’s creation.

 

[gizmo]

A Texan in Romania? There goes the neighborhood!

Just kidding!

Great report. Looks like an awesome place to hunt. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

I was always fascinated with Transylvania, and the Carpathians. Visiting Castle Dracula AKA "Vlad the impaler" would be cool also.

Oh but just wait, I've got a ton of stuff on that! The mountains you see in the pictures are the Carpathians and they are breathtaking.

 

[Brent in Az]

Oh but just wait, I've got a ton of stuff on that! The mountains you see in the pictures are the Carpathians and they are breathtaking.

You have my full attention!

 

[gizmo]

So during the time between my nap and the evening hunt it’s time to go sightseeing, well as much as one can see out of the minute slits between my swollen eyelids. A bit further up there was a monastery that we had seen the day before and we were dying to go check it out. In the grand scheme of things as far as Romania goes it is a relatively new monastery being built in the 1700’s roughly about the time we Americans forefathers were signing the Declaration of Independence. So in relative terms as far as Romanian history goes, it was built roughly last week.

I was a beautiful drive up to it and it lies in the middle of the best native, free range, native stag and bear hunting on earth. The forests up there are old and dark with sporadic open meadows in which stag mill about. Dense ancient trees block the sun and reach to heaven. There is something about being in that timber that brings chills to you and the hair on the back of your neck stands up. Just out of sight and remaining unseen wolves roam looking for their next meal.

Once at the entrance it’s a short hike to the monastery and we met the resident nun that lived there. She was very welcoming and took time out of her day to show us around. There is an old and a new church. Both are Romanian Orthodox. Alein interpreted for us while she told us of the history of the place. It was breathtaking. Note some of the pictures were taken on my wife’s camera and for whatever reason they won’t attach the same way so you will have to click on the attachment to see some of the pictures, mainly of the inside which is stunning.

 

[Sand Rat]

Wait a minute, I thought this trip was a Christmas present for Lady Gizmo. Shouldn't she be the one out hunting Roedeer? I'm wondering where you're going for Mothers Day...................perhaps to Spike's and shoot a sable?

Great report so far, looks like a trip the wife and I would enjoy as well. We're always looking for a different European adventure.

 

[gizmo]

Wait a minute, I thought this trip was a Christmas present for Lady Gizmo. Shouldn't she be the one out hunting Roedeer? I'm wondering where you're going for Mothers Day...................perhaps to Spike's and shoot a sable?

Great report so far, looks like a trip the wife and I would enjoy as well. We're always looking for a different European adventure.

Wait a minute , don't alert the wife to my secrets.

 

[gizmo]

Ok so bear with me folks, I'm typing my fingers off. Also, I know some of the pics are crappy. My daughter turned the flash on my camera settings off while we were in Africa and no one has yet to figure out how to turn it on. My wife has an expensive camera that takes great pics but she hasnt grasped the concept of how photography works and has a habit of taking pics that are cockeyed.

 

[siml]

Awesome stuff...beautiful pics.

 

[Brent in Az]

A lot of old world history in countries like Romania. Hunting and sightseeing it, a great experience!

 

[gizmo]

Now that the days sightseeing is over and it’s getting close to that magic hour we headed out to go hunting. Alein decided we’d go to a lower elevation where the grass was a bit shorter and hunt some crop fields. It was about an hour’s drive to the area we were to hunt. This particular hunting area is 30,000 hectares so it’s quite large with a vast diversity of terrain. As we got close we were chatting and tooteling down the road telling jokes. We came around a corner and in a plowed field just off the road is a stud of a Roe buck. Alein stopped the car and we both sat there in open mouth shock with, what I am quite sure was some pretty dumb looks on our faces, staring at this deer. Alein was the first to snap too and we backed up out of sight and plotted a stalk. There was plenty of cover and we eased up a dirt path to the edge of the field. I turned the scope magnification up a touch, settled the cross hairs, and touched off the trigger. The bullet slammed into the bucks shoulder and he spun and bolted with the telltale signs of a heart shot. We made our way back to the road and around parallel to where he was standing and arterial spray led us off the plowed field up on top of a little hump and he lain piled up dead as a door nail. I had my first Roe deer and my first European animal. I was ecstatic. What a unique and beautiful little creature. I took some time to give thanks and admire him.

After pics we loaded him up and continued on to the original place we intended to hunt to see if we could pull a double as the hunt included two Roe bucks.

 

[gizmo]

Ok folks, I'm tired and my body clock is all jacked up so I going to pick back up tomorrow and get some rest. There is a whole lot more to come. Thanks for all the replies I hope ya'll are enjoying this as much as I'm enjoying sharing the story with you.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Looking forward to tomorrow's edition Erik!

 

[spike.t]

The shower in the bathroom sat up about 1 ½ foot off the floor as I stepped out I lost my balance. In an attempt to save myself I lunged forward, bad idea. One foot landed in the toilet and I fell back into the shower. Good news was I was drunk enough it didn’t really hurt at the time……………yet. Bad news I woke up the next morning at 5 a.m still drunk with a black bruise that went from my left butt cheek half way up my back

........................

 

[cpr0312]

Nice!