ROMANIA: Roe Deer With HUNTROMANIA

Fredrik

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Hi all!

This will be my first hunt report on this forum, it turned out to be a pretty long one. First of all I want to express my gratitude to Marius Merutiu at Huntromania for the exceptional offer. He offered a 3 day roe deer hunt in beautiful Romania including 2 roe deers to promote a new area free of charge! This hunt was originally planned for 2020 but during the pandemic this hunt was postponed over and over and again but after more than 900 days it finally became a reality. I also want to make any apologies in grammar/spelling etc that I might have made since English is not my first language.

Outfitter: Huntromania ( Link )
PH: Marius Merutiu
Area: Chiuiesti, about an hours drive NE of Cluj-Napoca
Dates: 2-6 of June 2022
Animals sought: Roe deer bucks
Animals seen: Roe deers (plenty!), hares, phesants and multiple type of birds
Animals taken: Roe bucks.
Equipment: Remington 700 in .30-06 with a Vortex 3-12x56 Hoghunter scope using Norma Vulkan factory ammunition. Shooting sticks provided by Marius was a four legged type of brand Gunstix.
Hunting method: Mix of stalking, glassing and still hunting.

This hunt included a lot of firsts for me.
- First time in Romania
- First time bringing a firearm abroad
- First time hunting with a PH/fully guided hunt
- First 4 pointer buck
- First 6 pointer buck

2/6
Alarm set at 02:15 am. That meant I had a good 3 hour sleep that night... Arrived at Arlanda Airport (Stockholm, Sweden) an hour later. Already about 150 m line to the check in that opened at 03:45. I had heard about the airport chaos going on but still I could not believe what I saw. Anyhow, after 1hr 45 min in line, I finally got all paperwork to bring the rifle along and could check it in. The line to security check was also long but just as I got to the gate by 05:30 they started the boarding. Slept most of the flight to Munich.

Next flight to Cluj ended up leaving about 2hrs late, mainly due to lack if airport staff after the pandemic. I could see through the window when they handled my (hard) rifle case when loading it. Glad it was a hard case! The weather forecast for the coming days had included a lot of rain and as we were approaching Cluj, we were entering some massive clouds.
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Apart from that the flight to Cluj was uneventful. When we were soon to land I got some good aerial views of the type of terrain we were hunting in, fields with thin lines of bushes and smaller trees mixed with fields and forest patches.

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Got off the plane, found my way to border control. They checked the rifle, ammo and paperwork. Super friendly staff and in 10 min I was through the process. Swift as ever, and far from the reports I´d read on a messy process here in Cluj.

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Outside I met up with Marius. We had just over an hours drive to the hotel so we had time to get to know each other and he was a good guy. My impression of Romania was that it was clean, neat, safe and had excellent habitat for roe deers with plenty of beautiful rolling hills with fields mixed with forest patches (or the other way around which was more the case in the hunting area). The people are friendly and hardworking and many still live of the land with their own odd cows and small fields. I even saw multiple horse-drawn carts and on most fields the harvesting of the hay was done by hand and with the help of horses. I never felt unsafe and there were never any problem in leaving things in the (sometimes unlocked) car. There were no signs whatsoever of the war in Ukraine.
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Anyhow, we got to the hotel around 17. I had not planned to hunt on the travel day but Marius was eager to get out, so I got just over an hour to unpack, get dressed and get some food down, but what is a better motivator than going hunting? The room was nice, even had a jacuzzi bathtub (that I never used it though).

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So, off we went. I had been a bit surprised that I was picked up in an Opel Astra as it wasn't the type of hunting vehicle I had in mind, but I figured Marius knew what he was doing. After a 10 min it was time for vehicle change. This was more like it, a Suzuki Grand Vitara with proper offroad tires.

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Several times during the stay Marius showed his excellent offroad driving skills. Anyhow, we went left with the Suzuki, fixed some permit paperwork with a ranger, and I wanted to check the rifle. I tried to use the four legged sticks Marius provided. I have used the classic 3-legged many times but never the four legged type. It took some to get used to them, but on the last day I think I got the hang of them... They are super steady and really great for long range but for me, not being used to them, it was a bit more cumbersome to move sideways with them.

Anyhow, rifle was OK so off we went. We started stalking uphill and it immediately became obvious that I had dressed to warm. Being from Sweden hunting normally happens in temps -10° to +5C°. Here it was over 20° C. We stalked slowly through some high grass for maybe 15 min to a high seat where we got positioned. After 15 min a nice fox came out. It's another story but I'm desperate to shoot a fox having been tricked by foxes so many times over the years but we didn't move. After additional 20 min or so Marius point out a buck coming out on the far side of the opening we are overseeing. Apparently I was a bit sluggish after being up since very early and the flights so when Marius says "take him" I put the rifle on the side of the high seat and realized that the seat was very low, no way I could sit down and get the buck in scope as the barrel pointed to the sky. Of course I should have realized this when I got into the blind. I tried some kind of half stand but was really unsteady so I got up to a standing position using the corner support pole as support. Then realizing I had to change magnification after checking the rifle. Trying to get the bead on the buck, hearing Marius go "shoot - shoot" (he must, properly, been wondering what this lunatic from Sweden was doing...). Finally I got the bead on the buck, he's now on a slow trot to the right. I fire. I lost him at the shot and didn't see the reaction but as I find him again he runs like a madman quartering towards us and I hear Marius go "shoot again". Instantly got that cold gut feeling. The buck swiftly runs in behind a large pile of hay, but he didn't come out the other side. There's nowhere he can go without us spotting him. He´s either expired or is trying to fool us. I keep the rifle pointing in that direction for a while but we neither saw nor heard anything. We waited for a few min. Nothing – everything was totally silent. Marius thinks we should go check it out. As we approach, he says congrats but I can't spot it, still that gut feeling - didn´t really let go of that feeling until I was 100% sure, but suddenly I see it. What a wave of emotions. What a relief. I thank the buck and Marius put the last supper grass in his mouth and gives me a short branch dipped in the blood for my baseball cap as is the tradition here.

We take photos and I'm emotionally quite empty. Turned out that I did shoot him too far back but it must have nicked the edge of the lungs or hit some artery as he expired that quickly anyway. True luck that we didn´t end up with a long tracking session of a gut shot animal!

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This was an old buck, about 7 years with quite worn teeth. He was a 6 pointer but he had passed his prime and best antlers time, so a perfect buck to take. My first Romanian buck after less than an hour's hunting! And what a buck, a nice old 6-pointer. I almost got a sense that this hunt was going to be easy...

We dragged him to the car and then went up a hill (true offroad driving) and stalked around for a bit glassing the beautiful surroundings during a fantastic sunset. We saw a couple of females but no males.

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Then we drove back, skinned and gutted it, and based on my bad shooting it was a messy operation. Then we had some nice food and by 23:25 I feel asleep before the head reached the pillow.


3/6
Alarm went off at 04 am. Pretty darn tired but hunting is again a good motivator. Met with Marius and off we went. Proper dirt track driving again and we stalked to an opening where we waited for 20 min. Nothing except another fox teasing me when passing us at 6 paces... A nice experience even though my trigger finger was itching.

We took the car (serious driving again, as was the norm I learnt) to almost a summit of a hill. We glassed for a while and saw a nice buck some 300-ish m away. He was in the middle of a large opening. Let's get after him said Marius and I felt that this was too easy. You should work for your trophies. I shouldn't have had those thoughts! On the way we stalked around a small hill and he was out of sight for maybe 3 min. We slowly edged closer. We didn't see him but at least I was 100% he was in a small depression just ahead. As silently as possible we slowly edged closer, step by step. Me closely shadowing Marius. Rifle in hand and my heart beating fast. It's amazing how your senses sharpen at moments like this. I became utterly aware of the soft squeaking sound from my leather boots. Finally, we got to the edge and were able to very slowly lean forward and to peer down. I had already half lifted the rifle. No buck. Gone. I was properly surprised! We circled the area slowly and kept looking in all directions and there were really nowhere he could have gone, yet he wasn't there! He had really disappeared like a ghost and none of us could figure out where he had gone. In one sense this was good as it would have been too easy otherwise, and I actually rate this stalk as the best one during the trip, even though I never took a shot. Just look at this amazing scenery!

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We went to another place and hiked up a field full of flowers, super beautiful in the morning sun but when Marius wants to gain elevation quickly you need to up the game to keep up! Especially if you live in a flat area like me you get your heart pounding on these hills. We saw some hares and several tracks but no roes so we went back to the car.

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Marius told me that the buck I shot yesterday was the main one there and that he hadn't shot one in that area for 4-5 years so I felt very privileged! The landscape truly seems to fit roes as it's broken with fields and patches of dense and sparse forest and plenty to eat. We went back to the hotel where I got 3hrs of well needed sleep. Then off for lunch where I tried a traditional meal, a soup served in a circular bread loaf (lacking a better way to describe it). The soup was good and pretty similar to Gulasch.

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We went out again just after 18. Still 26-27 deg C, so this time I had just thin clothes. Starting to learn how to dress by now. We stalked for a while up a hill and found a spot to glass the hills. We sat from 19:45 to about 21. During the time we saw at least 5 different females (possibly more as they were coming in and out) and 2 bucks. One just briefly and the other one very far away. We also saw some nice birds.

Then we went to the car and I thought it was over for today but Marius apparently thought we should check one more place nearby. We started stalking this place and suddenly a female jumped up close to us. We kept going and suddenly Marius froze. I didn't see anything but as long as he was standing still, so were I. His body language said it all. Crouching down we made it a few meters to a small hedge, Marius climbed up first, slowly setting up the sticks. He took my rifle as I was climbing up. I got set up on the sticks and at 100m there were 2 roes, one was a female, but the one to the right was unknown as it had the head down in the tall grass. Marius told me to get prepared for the right one but to wait for his word before I took a shot. The light was disappearing by the seconds now and even with a 56 mm scope it was really on the limit, but I had the roe in my sight. It stopped. Broadside. My thumb on the safety ready to flick it. Heart pounding. The head went up. Female. Ok. Heart rate went down. We waited for a little bit more to see if there was a male coming in but we soon gave up due to the fading light.

Then we then went for a late dinner, some kind of really delicious "half hamburger" meat thingies, and also some very good trout.

4/6
Was picked up by 04:30. I was pretty darn tired still, but I bet Marius had much less sleep than I had. Anyhow, we went to another area and stopped to glass for a while but saw nothing, so we went on. Marius thought he saw something from the car, so we drove in and parked at the edge of a field. We started stalking and reaching the corner of the next field, climbing a fence at the very first light. Less than 100m from the car, we had a female closely watching us from maybe 100m off. We had a staredown for what seemed like an eternity and I was just waiting for the bark, alarming all others, but fortunately it didn't come. Not to disturb her more we started walking in an oblique angle to her, still having her full attention and when we were clearly increasing the distance to her she went back to feeding. We kept on, this field was crisscrossed with bushes in hedge-like more or less straight lines and a lot of small ravines and ridges, pretty similar to the area in the photo taken from the plane in the beginning of this text. The sun was rising and burning the morning mist away and the field was full of flowers. A truly beautiful scenery with the rolling hills surrounding us. We were slowly moving forward with a lot of short stops to glass. Marius was looking left in his binoculars when I suddenly spotted a buck straight ahead, in a gap between some bushes, fully broadside. I got Marius attention. A quick look for him and he said "nice old buck, 180m, take him" as he was putting up the sticks. No doubts from Marius there at all. 180 m is what I consider at the edge of my ability at a target as small as a roe deer as I want to be very certain of a fatal shot (I know - I did mess up on the first one but was lucky, hence I had my doubts on going for a long shot). I still hadn't really become friends with these 4-legged sticks and fumbled around. Just as I (finally) got him in my sights he barked and took off. We ran a few m and set up again as he became visible in another opening, but I was too slow again and he was now properly gone. And not only that, he did some barking alarming others as well. I was pissed with myself, Marius had delivered me to a good position and I was too slow. Twice! Well, that guy was now gone so we circled a bit and went in a direction roughly towards the car. By now I was quickly realizing this was no easy game as was my initial feeling after the first evening.

We pushed on and there was a ridge ahead and I think Marius has a sixth sense as we moved really really slow and stealthy when approaching the ridge. I saw Marius in a crouched position carefully lifting his head and then dropping down as he was putting up the sticks, whispering "Good male. Shoot!" I slowly raised myself and could see something reddish between the tall grass. I got the rifle on the sticks and didn't waste time looking but put my eye on the scope directly. I was 100% focused on placing the crosshair on the shoulder of this guy, maybe 70m away. Full broadside, facing right, totally unaware of us. Just as I started the trigger squeeze I realized I had actually not looked at the head, being so focused on the shoulder. I got the remote thought that what if Marius is wrong and it's a female? (completely silly, as Marius is a true professional) I better double check. Shouldn't have. WOW! That's probably the largest living roe deer I've ever seen!!! Buck fewer hit me big time. The crosshair that was so still seconds ago was now doing a proper macarena dance all over the deer. I released the pressure on the trigger, he´s still there. He´s still broadside and unaware of us. Wind is good. Heart beating fast and hard. I took a deep breath, used all of my mental strength and got the crosshair where it should be and - BANG. He dropped at the shot. A touch high but a good hit in the vitals. I put the safety on and was just shaking. I almost didn't dare to go check him out, but Marius urged me on. We got up to him. I went down on my knees, thanking him for letting me take him and simply admired this fantastic buck. Absolutely perfect in any and all ways in my opinion. I was in heaven. We spent some time taking photos as the setting was really beautiful. I was full of feelings, the excitement, the relief after messing up earlier and to gain some confidence back in my shooting. Also some somber feelings as this king is now gone from the area.

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Note the “heart shape” from the front with the tips going inwards, this is really a true picture perfect male in all his glory.


We then dragged him to the car, more effort than you'd expect with all those ravines! After we got back to the car Marius asked me if I was done or wanted to keep hunting bucks for a trophy fee, as the deal he had initially offered me included two bucks. I thought that as I was now in Romania on a hunting trip with time to spare, and no other obligations, so the decision was easy, as long as it was reasonable from a herd size perspective, I said I'd like to keep hunting. We agreed that up to 2 more would be ok to take. I also emphasized that big antlers was not of importance to me from now on, I was after the experience, with one nice and one magnificent 6 pointer.

We went to another place and stalked another field with bushlines in and out and over ridges. As we were nearing the summit, Marius was looking left when a buck came from the right and came out behind some bushes at 50 m straight infront of us. He saw us immediately and took off. Marius hadn't seen him but set up the sticks to where he expected him to come out. He was perfectly right (surprised? Not me…), the buck appeared exactly at the predicted place, broadside at about 150 m. He stopped. The sticks were up. The buck was broadside. I fumbled around on the sticks again. The buck took off. WTF! How hard can it be? Now being really really pissed at myself. I lost yet another opportunity by fumbling around on the sticks.

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We decided to wait for a while if he'd come back from the forest to feed but he didn't.
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We went back to the car and dropped the carcass at one of Marius friends who should take care of it. Then back to the hotel for some rest.

The weather has mainly been sunny with the occasional cloud until now but now it was significantly cloudier. There was even risk for some light rain for the afternoon. Anyhow, we took off and went to the back side of the valley where we sat last evening. We had a really nice spot, even though I was properly sweaty when we got up there. I was certain this was a really good place, but we had no luck.

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We slowly stalked down and were able to see the area where we found the two females yesterday evening. We spotted 2 females there now again, likely the same ones as yesterday, but after waiting for a while we didn't see any male, so we went back to the car.

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In the far upper corner we saw the two females yesterday and one of them today.

I figured we were done for the day as it was now becoming dark. We drove on and suddenly Marius stopped the car and asked me to get out, but very slowly and to get my rifle ready. There's a buck 100 m off. I got out, got the rifle out, got it loaded, set up on the sticks. We're looking at a field at a slope with multiple bushes. Where is he? I can´t see him. Marius tells me where to look. I see nothing. Close to the big tree he says. I look. Nothing. I look through the scope. Nothing. Through my binos. Can't see him. So we go around for a bit. Marius tells me where to look, I look where I think he wants me to, and I just can´t see him. Apparently he's moving around and Marius seems him all the time and I'm almost starting to believe I´ve got some medical conditions with my eyes, as I normally consider myself pretty good in spotting animals. Marius even digs out his thermo binoculars and when I try those I can finally see it! Switching to the scope. Nothing. It's now really becoming a comical situation and I almost start laughing. Light is fading by the second. So we keep going around and finally I see him!! He has a slight quarter but generally facing right. I got the crosshair in place and squeeze. Bang. He runs forward and we lose sight of him behind some bushes. We take the car up the slope. We quickly found plenty of blood but I followed some old tracks but fortunately Marius is a professional and quickly found the right tracks and found him under a big tree so Marius crawled in and dragged him out for me. I had shot him in the chest between the front legs hitting the off-side shoulder from within hitting heavy bones. This must have created some kind if overpressure/explosion within him sending bone shards all over. The entry hole was half my fist and the exit way more than my fist. I've never seen this kind of massive damage on both entry and exit before, but I´m guessing all the bone flying around caused some kind of overpressure. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of this. Regardless, he was properly dead. He was young and had small and crooked horns so a good one to remove from the gene pool. An interesting thing with this buck was that he was very grey in his fur, not as reddish as they use to be.

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Then back to Marius to skin and gut him. The shoulder was completely destroyed. Then Marius asked if I wanted to hunt more. I had a full day more planned for hunting before my flight home was booked so we made a plan to go out again in the morning and see what we could find. Went to bed by 2330.

5/6
Final day of hunting. We took a "sleep in" and started 15 min later, which meant we were off by 04:45. We went further than yesterday morning and passed the area where I took that magnificent buck yesterday. We carried on and stopped several times glassing from the roadside but didn't see anything. Eventually we went into a field, parked and made some serious glassing standing by the vehicle but didn't see anything so we started stalking. This field also held bushes but not as many as we'd seen on the fields yesterday. Before we even got 100m suddenly there's a buck standing not 40 m from us slightly to our right. I see that it's a buck but didn't have time to judge him before he took of, barking heavily. He quickly went down to a nearby stream where there were some thick bushes and trees. He was hanging out there barking like a madman. I got set up on the sticks - quickly this time, finally starting to get the hang of it! Suddenly he appears but he is facing us and there's also plenty of branches in the way, but I could clearly see him barking at us. He is really annoyed by our presence. Suddenly he spins around and runs away from us. I barely had time to think " Ok, that's it" when I see he him again. Apparently, he did a 90 deg left turn in the thick stuff and is now running full broadside up the slope and suddenly stops. Looking at us. Barking of course. I have a sense that the distance was at my limit, but I hear Marius say "distance is good, shoot". I felt good, having finally become friends with the sticks, took a breath and basically without thinking just took the shot. I had a good feeling. Best feeling of all shots this trip. Then I see him spinning around and running down the slope to the right again, and he is running like crazy. That wasn't strange but I got a bit worried that he was running in a normal fashion, no flapping leg, no wobbling, no visible blood. You all know the running style of an animal that´s been badly hit. This guy had none of that. He disappeared behind some bushes and then I got another glimpse of him. Still running fast and no wobbling. Some doubts start coming over me. At this moment Marius says “You missed and shot over him”. My stomach immediately turned to an ice box. Marius said the only reaction he saw was a slight shrug and based on the running he thought it was a clean miss. I felt really bad, was this how this fantastic trip was to end? Of course we would go check him out but I really felt bad, I felt so good when taking the shot. The moments on repeat in my head over and over. Did we have a wounded animal at our hands now? We decided that I carefully noted where I took the shot and Marius got the car to drive it over there. Marius said that the distance was 200m. I had aimed a touch high but at 200m I thought I'd rather shot under than over him but with my mind spinning while walking, I finally got there. I couldn't find the exact spot for the shot but in the high grass I could easily see where he´d went. I didn't want to disturb more than necessary so I waited for Marius before following.

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The tree to the left in the pic is where we first saw him, then he went into the thick stuff to the right in the picture and I sot him between the piles of cut brushes in the center of the pic.

When Marius arrived he showed what a professional he is. I was focused on the place of the shot but we have the track, he said, so we should follow it for a bit and look for blood. Yes, of course that's a better plan. After 10-15m we found blood. Not a miss, which in one sense felt good but did I just wound it? The blood didn´t look like the light lung blood I had hoped. Will this be a long day of tracking a wounded animal? Still that cold feeling in my stomach. We quickly found more blood and further on it was clear blood was coming out on both sides, which made me feel a bit better but I was still really worried. A few more steps and we found a small piece of lung. Good! I started to feel a little better but would not take anything for granted just yet. Suddenly Marius stopped and turned around and shook my hand. He had spotted the buck plain dead a few meters ahead. The shot was perfect, just behind the shoulder. This was just a very strong buck, but I guess since he was so agitated he had a lot of adrenalin and that made him run like this. I thanked him for letting me take him and we took some pictures. This was a 4 pointer. Bigger than any I had shot prior to this trip but small in comparison to the two first. I think he ran nearly 100 m from where I shot him.

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It was too early to go back for breakfast so we drove up on a hill and on the way up we saw a buck with one nice antler, he'd lost the other one.

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A few days after the trip Marius sent me an email telling me another hunter had taken this guy, he was 9-years old.

We went to the summit and spent some time glassing and enjoying the sunrise and to hear Chiuiesti wake up on a Sunday morning. Suddenly a female roe came running by at 50m and she kept going downhill until we lost sight of her.

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Then we drove back, had breakfast (roe deer liver) and skinned and gutted the buck. Marius showed me a way to skin it that was new to me, he left some of the skin and broke the rear leg just below the knee and then we took one leg each and rolled the skin up on the leg. When we did this one on each side at the same time it was surprisingly easy to skin him. The pic below might make you understand the concept.

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We then went and dropped off two of the carcasses and picked up the first trophy that had been processed and if I wanted to, I could have brought it with me! Quite a difference from the usual taxidermy turnaround times in Africa! But as my second trophy wasn't ready I asked to have them both shipped later.

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Marius dropped me at the hotel and as I was resting and packing for the rest of the day and I was starting to reflect on this hunt. We did 6 outings. I shot 4 bucks, all one shot kills - but I was lucky on the first one. I had 3 more proper opportunities that I blew. I believe I was able to spot 2 or 3 roes before Marius but he beat me with the all the others, which were many! Basically, this is a great roe deer area. They are there, but don't get fooled, it's not as easy as you think. You do need to work for them. Marius showed me trophies and photos of other bucks taken in the area that were bigger than mine, so the monsters are out there but I think some other areas might be better if you want to look over many bucks before you pick one. However if you are after proper bucks and not necessarily the very biggest ones, this area is great. You need to sweat, keep up with Marius on the slopes and do your part, but in terms of hunting experience, I personally would prefer this area to one where you just drive around looking for the biggest one. This was true hunting and testing the skills of the hunters. Plenty of animals but it´s a hunting trip, not a shooting trip.

6/6
Was picked up by Marius and taken to the airport. Export of the firearm was as swift as coming. They checked the paperwork, checked the serial number on the rifle, counted the cartridges and checked it against a paper that Marius had prepared detailing how many shots I had taken. Done in 10 min. Then flight to Munich with a 6hr waiting that turned out to be 7+ hours. Uneventful flight to Sweden and then the last drive back home and the trip was over.

Final reflection:
Would I do this again? If I wanted to hunt roe deers I'd say this is as good and exciting as it gets based on my preferences of hunting methods and ethics. I personally don't have a "fix" for roes, so I doubt I'd pay to hunt roe deers anywhere again, but if I did, I'd certainly consider this area. You might not get the very biggest ones, albeit odds that you´ll get a big one are good, but on the other hand you´ll have a very nice hunting experience. So I´d say this particular area would be perfect for a seasoned hunter who wants mature animals and values the actual hunting experience.

Would I hunt with Marius again? Absolutely! I've rarely, if ever, met someone who knows game and area this well. He knows every bush in the (large!) area and despite that I even see roe from my house at home now and then, he learnt me a lot about their behavior. He's a true professional. I'd love to hunt a bear with him but unfortunately the bear hunting has been closed for 7 (?) years in Romania. Red stag is also in the cards for me seeing some trophies at his place. He had a 10,5 kg trophy that he showed me that was just beyond belief! He mentioned he also had some fixed priced red stags which is nice as the trend, especially in Europe, is to have a tiered pricing based on size.

Final tips:
- Bring your own firearm, the process is simple, at least if you live in Europe.
- Don´t forget your binoculars as glassing is important.
- Use a scope for low light conditions.
- Bring a tool to remove ticks – there are plenty around.
- Unless you are used to 4-legged shooting sticks, practice on using that type beforehand.

Finally, THANK YOU Marius for this very nice experience that I will not forget in a long time!

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I´ll do my best to reply to you.
 

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That’s a really beautiful hunting area. Do you know the weight or score of your larger buck?
 
Wow, excellent report Frederick. A trip to Romania is definitely on the bucket list!
 
Sounds like a great hunt. You got some nice Roe deer. Congrats. Thanks for the detailed report.
Bruce
 
Great hunt and thanks for the awesome report
 
Yeah it was a really nice trip and a very nice area. The largest buck wasn´t prepared when I left but I doubt that I´ll score it, then I can always look at it as a massive buck. If I score it and it turns out to be e. g. silver, I´ll likely not admire it as much as I´d do without scoring it. However Marius showed me a few trophies that were larger than mine that were taken in the area so there are for sure some really big ones around.
 
Waidmannsheil @Fredrik ! Very well done. Roe buck hunting is one of my favorites in Europe :)

You wrote an excellent report too!
 
Congrats and thanks for sharing!
 
Excellent report and yes, Marius does a great job! Glad it was fun and it is beautiful countryside, with plenty of game. Cheers
 
Hi all!

This will be my first hunt report on this forum, it turned out to be a pretty long one. First of all I want to express my gratitude to Marius Merutiu at Huntromania for the exceptional offer. He offered a 3 day roe deer hunt in beautiful Romania including 2 roe deers to promote a new area free of charge! This hunt was originally planned for 2020 but during the pandemic this hunt was postponed over and over and again but after more than 900 days it finally became a reality. I also want to make any apologies in grammar/spelling etc that I might have made since English is not my first language.

Outfitter: Huntromania ( Link )
PH: Marius Merutiu
Area: Chiuiesti, about an hours drive NE of Cluj-Napoca
Dates: 2-6 of June 2022
Animals sought: Roe deer bucks
Animals seen: Roe deers (plenty!), hares, phesants and multiple type of birds
Animals taken: Roe bucks.
Equipment: Remington 700 in .30-06 with a Vortex 3-12x56 Hoghunter scope using Norma Vulkan factory ammunition. Shooting sticks provided by Marius was a four legged type of brand Gunstix.
Hunting method: Mix of stalking, glassing and still hunting.

This hunt included a lot of firsts for me.
- First time in Romania
- First time bringing a firearm abroad
- First time hunting with a PH/fully guided hunt
- First 4 pointer buck
- First 6 pointer buck

2/6
Alarm set at 02:15 am. That meant I had a good 3 hour sleep that night... Arrived at Arlanda Airport (Stockholm, Sweden) an hour later. Already about 150 m line to the check in that opened at 03:45. I had heard about the airport chaos going on but still I could not believe what I saw. Anyhow, after 1hr 45 min in line, I finally got all paperwork to bring the rifle along and could check it in. The line to security check was also long but just as I got to the gate by 05:30 they started the boarding. Slept most of the flight to Munich.

Next flight to Cluj ended up leaving about 2hrs late, mainly due to lack if airport staff after the pandemic. I could see through the window when they handled my (hard) rifle case when loading it. Glad it was a hard case! The weather forecast for the coming days had included a lot of rain and as we were approaching Cluj, we were entering some massive clouds.
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Apart from that the flight to Cluj was uneventful. When we were soon to land I got some good aerial views of the type of terrain we were hunting in, fields with thin lines of bushes and smaller trees mixed with fields and forest patches.

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Got off the plane, found my way to border control. They checked the rifle, ammo and paperwork. Super friendly staff and in 10 min I was through the process. Swift as ever, and far from the reports I´d read on a messy process here in Cluj.

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Outside I met up with Marius. We had just over an hours drive to the hotel so we had time to get to know each other and he was a good guy. My impression of Romania was that it was clean, neat, safe and had excellent habitat for roe deers with plenty of beautiful rolling hills with fields mixed with forest patches (or the other way around which was more the case in the hunting area). The people are friendly and hardworking and many still live of the land with their own odd cows and small fields. I even saw multiple horse-drawn carts and on most fields the harvesting of the hay was done by hand and with the help of horses. I never felt unsafe and there were never any problem in leaving things in the (sometimes unlocked) car. There were no signs whatsoever of the war in Ukraine.
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Anyhow, we got to the hotel around 17. I had not planned to hunt on the travel day but Marius was eager to get out, so I got just over an hour to unpack, get dressed and get some food down, but what is a better motivator than going hunting? The room was nice, even had a jacuzzi bathtub (that I never used it though).

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So, off we went. I had been a bit surprised that I was picked up in an Opel Astra as it wasn't the type of hunting vehicle I had in mind, but I figured Marius knew what he was doing. After a 10 min it was time for vehicle change. This was more like it, a Suzuki Grand Vitara with proper offroad tires.

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Several times during the stay Marius showed his excellent offroad driving skills. Anyhow, we went left with the Suzuki, fixed some permit paperwork with a ranger, and I wanted to check the rifle. I tried to use the four legged sticks Marius provided. I have used the classic 3-legged many times but never the four legged type. It took some to get used to them, but on the last day I think I got the hang of them... They are super steady and really great for long range but for me, not being used to them, it was a bit more cumbersome to move sideways with them.

Anyhow, rifle was OK so off we went. We started stalking uphill and it immediately became obvious that I had dressed to warm. Being from Sweden hunting normally happens in temps -10° to +5C°. Here it was over 20° C. We stalked slowly through some high grass for maybe 15 min to a high seat where we got positioned. After 15 min a nice fox came out. It's another story but I'm desperate to shoot a fox having been tricked by foxes so many times over the years but we didn't move. After additional 20 min or so Marius point out a buck coming out on the far side of the opening we are overseeing. Apparently I was a bit sluggish after being up since very early and the flights so when Marius says "take him" I put the rifle on the side of the high seat and realized that the seat was very low, no way I could sit down and get the buck in scope as the barrel pointed to the sky. Of course I should have realized this when I got into the blind. I tried some kind of half stand but was really unsteady so I got up to a standing position using the corner support pole as support. Then realizing I had to change magnification after checking the rifle. Trying to get the bead on the buck, hearing Marius go "shoot - shoot" (he must, properly, been wondering what this lunatic from Sweden was doing...). Finally I got the bead on the buck, he's now on a slow trot to the right. I fire. I lost him at the shot and didn't see the reaction but as I find him again he runs like a madman quartering towards us and I hear Marius go "shoot again". Instantly got that cold gut feeling. The buck swiftly runs in behind a large pile of hay, but he didn't come out the other side. There's nowhere he can go without us spotting him. He´s either expired or is trying to fool us. I keep the rifle pointing in that direction for a while but we neither saw nor heard anything. We waited for a few min. Nothing – everything was totally silent. Marius thinks we should go check it out. As we approach, he says congrats but I can't spot it, still that gut feeling - didn´t really let go of that feeling until I was 100% sure, but suddenly I see it. What a wave of emotions. What a relief. I thank the buck and Marius put the last supper grass in his mouth and gives me a short branch dipped in the blood for my baseball cap as is the tradition here.

We take photos and I'm emotionally quite empty. Turned out that I did shoot him too far back but it must have nicked the edge of the lungs or hit some artery as he expired that quickly anyway. True luck that we didn´t end up with a long tracking session of a gut shot animal!

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This was an old buck, about 7 years with quite worn teeth. He was a 6 pointer but he had passed his prime and best antlers time, so a perfect buck to take. My first Romanian buck after less than an hour's hunting! And what a buck, a nice old 6-pointer. I almost got a sense that this hunt was going to be easy...

We dragged him to the car and then went up a hill (true offroad driving) and stalked around for a bit glassing the beautiful surroundings during a fantastic sunset. We saw a couple of females but no males.

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Then we drove back, skinned and gutted it, and based on my bad shooting it was a messy operation. Then we had some nice food and by 23:25 I feel asleep before the head reached the pillow.


3/6
Alarm went off at 04 am. Pretty darn tired but hunting is again a good motivator. Met with Marius and off we went. Proper dirt track driving again and we stalked to an opening where we waited for 20 min. Nothing except another fox teasing me when passing us at 6 paces... A nice experience even though my trigger finger was itching.

We took the car (serious driving again, as was the norm I learnt) to almost a summit of a hill. We glassed for a while and saw a nice buck some 300-ish m away. He was in the middle of a large opening. Let's get after him said Marius and I felt that this was too easy. You should work for your trophies. I shouldn't have had those thoughts! On the way we stalked around a small hill and he was out of sight for maybe 3 min. We slowly edged closer. We didn't see him but at least I was 100% he was in a small depression just ahead. As silently as possible we slowly edged closer, step by step. Me closely shadowing Marius. Rifle in hand and my heart beating fast. It's amazing how your senses sharpen at moments like this. I became utterly aware of the soft squeaking sound from my leather boots. Finally, we got to the edge and were able to very slowly lean forward and to peer down. I had already half lifted the rifle. No buck. Gone. I was properly surprised! We circled the area slowly and kept looking in all directions and there were really nowhere he could have gone, yet he wasn't there! He had really disappeared like a ghost and none of us could figure out where he had gone. In one sense this was good as it would have been too easy otherwise, and I actually rate this stalk as the best one during the trip, even though I never took a shot. Just look at this amazing scenery!

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We went to another place and hiked up a field full of flowers, super beautiful in the morning sun but when Marius wants to gain elevation quickly you need to up the game to keep up! Especially if you live in a flat area like me you get your heart pounding on these hills. We saw some hares and several tracks but no roes so we went back to the car.

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Marius told me that the buck I shot yesterday was the main one there and that he hadn't shot one in that area for 4-5 years so I felt very privileged! The landscape truly seems to fit roes as it's broken with fields and patches of dense and sparse forest and plenty to eat. We went back to the hotel where I got 3hrs of well needed sleep. Then off for lunch where I tried a traditional meal, a soup served in a circular bread loaf (lacking a better way to describe it). The soup was good and pretty similar to Gulasch.

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We went out again just after 18. Still 26-27 deg C, so this time I had just thin clothes. Starting to learn how to dress by now. We stalked for a while up a hill and found a spot to glass the hills. We sat from 19:45 to about 21. During the time we saw at least 5 different females (possibly more as they were coming in and out) and 2 bucks. One just briefly and the other one very far away. We also saw some nice birds.

Then we went to the car and I thought it was over for today but Marius apparently thought we should check one more place nearby. We started stalking this place and suddenly a female jumped up close to us. We kept going and suddenly Marius froze. I didn't see anything but as long as he was standing still, so were I. His body language said it all. Crouching down we made it a few meters to a small hedge, Marius climbed up first, slowly setting up the sticks. He took my rifle as I was climbing up. I got set up on the sticks and at 100m there were 2 roes, one was a female, but the one to the right was unknown as it had the head down in the tall grass. Marius told me to get prepared for the right one but to wait for his word before I took a shot. The light was disappearing by the seconds now and even with a 56 mm scope it was really on the limit, but I had the roe in my sight. It stopped. Broadside. My thumb on the safety ready to flick it. Heart pounding. The head went up. Female. Ok. Heart rate went down. We waited for a little bit more to see if there was a male coming in but we soon gave up due to the fading light.

Then we then went for a late dinner, some kind of really delicious "half hamburger" meat thingies, and also some very good trout.

4/6
Was picked up by 04:30. I was pretty darn tired still, but I bet Marius had much less sleep than I had. Anyhow, we went to another area and stopped to glass for a while but saw nothing, so we went on. Marius thought he saw something from the car, so we drove in and parked at the edge of a field. We started stalking and reaching the corner of the next field, climbing a fence at the very first light. Less than 100m from the car, we had a female closely watching us from maybe 100m off. We had a staredown for what seemed like an eternity and I was just waiting for the bark, alarming all others, but fortunately it didn't come. Not to disturb her more we started walking in an oblique angle to her, still having her full attention and when we were clearly increasing the distance to her she went back to feeding. We kept on, this field was crisscrossed with bushes in hedge-like more or less straight lines and a lot of small ravines and ridges, pretty similar to the area in the photo taken from the plane in the beginning of this text. The sun was rising and burning the morning mist away and the field was full of flowers. A truly beautiful scenery with the rolling hills surrounding us. We were slowly moving forward with a lot of short stops to glass. Marius was looking left in his binoculars when I suddenly spotted a buck straight ahead, in a gap between some bushes, fully broadside. I got Marius attention. A quick look for him and he said "nice old buck, 180m, take him" as he was putting up the sticks. No doubts from Marius there at all. 180 m is what I consider at the edge of my ability at a target as small as a roe deer as I want to be very certain of a fatal shot (I know - I did mess up on the first one but was lucky, hence I had my doubts on going for a long shot). I still hadn't really become friends with these 4-legged sticks and fumbled around. Just as I (finally) got him in my sights he barked and took off. We ran a few m and set up again as he became visible in another opening, but I was too slow again and he was now properly gone. And not only that, he did some barking alarming others as well. I was pissed with myself, Marius had delivered me to a good position and I was too slow. Twice! Well, that guy was now gone so we circled a bit and went in a direction roughly towards the car. By now I was quickly realizing this was no easy game as was my initial feeling after the first evening.

We pushed on and there was a ridge ahead and I think Marius has a sixth sense as we moved really really slow and stealthy when approaching the ridge. I saw Marius in a crouched position carefully lifting his head and then dropping down as he was putting up the sticks, whispering "Good male. Shoot!" I slowly raised myself and could see something reddish between the tall grass. I got the rifle on the sticks and didn't waste time looking but put my eye on the scope directly. I was 100% focused on placing the crosshair on the shoulder of this guy, maybe 70m away. Full broadside, facing right, totally unaware of us. Just as I started the trigger squeeze I realized I had actually not looked at the head, being so focused on the shoulder. I got the remote thought that what if Marius is wrong and it's a female? (completely silly, as Marius is a true professional) I better double check. Shouldn't have. WOW! That's probably the largest living roe deer I've ever seen!!! Buck fewer hit me big time. The crosshair that was so still seconds ago was now doing a proper macarena dance all over the deer. I released the pressure on the trigger, he´s still there. He´s still broadside and unaware of us. Wind is good. Heart beating fast and hard. I took a deep breath, used all of my mental strength and got the crosshair where it should be and - BANG. He dropped at the shot. A touch high but a good hit in the vitals. I put the safety on and was just shaking. I almost didn't dare to go check him out, but Marius urged me on. We got up to him. I went down on my knees, thanking him for letting me take him and simply admired this fantastic buck. Absolutely perfect in any and all ways in my opinion. I was in heaven. We spent some time taking photos as the setting was really beautiful. I was full of feelings, the excitement, the relief after messing up earlier and to gain some confidence back in my shooting. Also some somber feelings as this king is now gone from the area.

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Note the “heart shape” from the front with the tips going inwards, this is really a true picture perfect male in all his glory.


We then dragged him to the car, more effort than you'd expect with all those ravines! After we got back to the car Marius asked me if I was done or wanted to keep hunting bucks for a trophy fee, as the deal he had initially offered me included two bucks. I thought that as I was now in Romania on a hunting trip with time to spare, and no other obligations, so the decision was easy, as long as it was reasonable from a herd size perspective, I said I'd like to keep hunting. We agreed that up to 2 more would be ok to take. I also emphasized that big antlers was not of importance to me from now on, I was after the experience, with one nice and one magnificent 6 pointer.

We went to another place and stalked another field with bushlines in and out and over ridges. As we were nearing the summit, Marius was looking left when a buck came from the right and came out behind some bushes at 50 m straight infront of us. He saw us immediately and took off. Marius hadn't seen him but set up the sticks to where he expected him to come out. He was perfectly right (surprised? Not me…), the buck appeared exactly at the predicted place, broadside at about 150 m. He stopped. The sticks were up. The buck was broadside. I fumbled around on the sticks again. The buck took off. WTF! How hard can it be? Now being really really pissed at myself. I lost yet another opportunity by fumbling around on the sticks.

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We decided to wait for a while if he'd come back from the forest to feed but he didn't.
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We went back to the car and dropped the carcass at one of Marius friends who should take care of it. Then back to the hotel for some rest.

The weather has mainly been sunny with the occasional cloud until now but now it was significantly cloudier. There was even risk for some light rain for the afternoon. Anyhow, we took off and went to the back side of the valley where we sat last evening. We had a really nice spot, even though I was properly sweaty when we got up there. I was certain this was a really good place, but we had no luck.

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We slowly stalked down and were able to see the area where we found the two females yesterday evening. We spotted 2 females there now again, likely the same ones as yesterday, but after waiting for a while we didn't see any male, so we went back to the car.

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In the far upper corner we saw the two females yesterday and one of them today.

I figured we were done for the day as it was now becoming dark. We drove on and suddenly Marius stopped the car and asked me to get out, but very slowly and to get my rifle ready. There's a buck 100 m off. I got out, got the rifle out, got it loaded, set up on the sticks. We're looking at a field at a slope with multiple bushes. Where is he? I can´t see him. Marius tells me where to look. I see nothing. Close to the big tree he says. I look. Nothing. I look through the scope. Nothing. Through my binos. Can't see him. So we go around for a bit. Marius tells me where to look, I look where I think he wants me to, and I just can´t see him. Apparently he's moving around and Marius seems him all the time and I'm almost starting to believe I´ve got some medical conditions with my eyes, as I normally consider myself pretty good in spotting animals. Marius even digs out his thermo binoculars and when I try those I can finally see it! Switching to the scope. Nothing. It's now really becoming a comical situation and I almost start laughing. Light is fading by the second. So we keep going around and finally I see him!! He has a slight quarter but generally facing right. I got the crosshair in place and squeeze. Bang. He runs forward and we lose sight of him behind some bushes. We take the car up the slope. We quickly found plenty of blood but I followed some old tracks but fortunately Marius is a professional and quickly found the right tracks and found him under a big tree so Marius crawled in and dragged him out for me. I had shot him in the chest between the front legs hitting the off-side shoulder from within hitting heavy bones. This must have created some kind if overpressure/explosion within him sending bone shards all over. The entry hole was half my fist and the exit way more than my fist. I've never seen this kind of massive damage on both entry and exit before, but I´m guessing all the bone flying around caused some kind of overpressure. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of this. Regardless, he was properly dead. He was young and had small and crooked horns so a good one to remove from the gene pool. An interesting thing with this buck was that he was very grey in his fur, not as reddish as they use to be.

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Then back to Marius to skin and gut him. The shoulder was completely destroyed. Then Marius asked if I wanted to hunt more. I had a full day more planned for hunting before my flight home was booked so we made a plan to go out again in the morning and see what we could find. Went to bed by 2330.

5/6
Final day of hunting. We took a "sleep in" and started 15 min later, which meant we were off by 04:45. We went further than yesterday morning and passed the area where I took that magnificent buck yesterday. We carried on and stopped several times glassing from the roadside but didn't see anything. Eventually we went into a field, parked and made some serious glassing standing by the vehicle but didn't see anything so we started stalking. This field also held bushes but not as many as we'd seen on the fields yesterday. Before we even got 100m suddenly there's a buck standing not 40 m from us slightly to our right. I see that it's a buck but didn't have time to judge him before he took of, barking heavily. He quickly went down to a nearby stream where there were some thick bushes and trees. He was hanging out there barking like a madman. I got set up on the sticks - quickly this time, finally starting to get the hang of it! Suddenly he appears but he is facing us and there's also plenty of branches in the way, but I could clearly see him barking at us. He is really annoyed by our presence. Suddenly he spins around and runs away from us. I barely had time to think " Ok, that's it" when I see he him again. Apparently, he did a 90 deg left turn in the thick stuff and is now running full broadside up the slope and suddenly stops. Looking at us. Barking of course. I have a sense that the distance was at my limit, but I hear Marius say "distance is good, shoot". I felt good, having finally become friends with the sticks, took a breath and basically without thinking just took the shot. I had a good feeling. Best feeling of all shots this trip. Then I see him spinning around and running down the slope to the right again, and he is running like crazy. That wasn't strange but I got a bit worried that he was running in a normal fashion, no flapping leg, no wobbling, no visible blood. You all know the running style of an animal that´s been badly hit. This guy had none of that. He disappeared behind some bushes and then I got another glimpse of him. Still running fast and no wobbling. Some doubts start coming over me. At this moment Marius says “You missed and shot over him”. My stomach immediately turned to an ice box. Marius said the only reaction he saw was a slight shrug and based on the running he thought it was a clean miss. I felt really bad, was this how this fantastic trip was to end? Of course we would go check him out but I really felt bad, I felt so good when taking the shot. The moments on repeat in my head over and over. Did we have a wounded animal at our hands now? We decided that I carefully noted where I took the shot and Marius got the car to drive it over there. Marius said that the distance was 200m. I had aimed a touch high but at 200m I thought I'd rather shot under than over him but with my mind spinning while walking, I finally got there. I couldn't find the exact spot for the shot but in the high grass I could easily see where he´d went. I didn't want to disturb more than necessary so I waited for Marius before following.

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The tree to the left in the pic is where we first saw him, then he went into the thick stuff to the right in the picture and I sot him between the piles of cut brushes in the center of the pic.

When Marius arrived he showed what a professional he is. I was focused on the place of the shot but we have the track, he said, so we should follow it for a bit and look for blood. Yes, of course that's a better plan. After 10-15m we found blood. Not a miss, which in one sense felt good but did I just wound it? The blood didn´t look like the light lung blood I had hoped. Will this be a long day of tracking a wounded animal? Still that cold feeling in my stomach. We quickly found more blood and further on it was clear blood was coming out on both sides, which made me feel a bit better but I was still really worried. A few more steps and we found a small piece of lung. Good! I started to feel a little better but would not take anything for granted just yet. Suddenly Marius stopped and turned around and shook my hand. He had spotted the buck plain dead a few meters ahead. The shot was perfect, just behind the shoulder. This was just a very strong buck, but I guess since he was so agitated he had a lot of adrenalin and that made him run like this. I thanked him for letting me take him and we took some pictures. This was a 4 pointer. Bigger than any I had shot prior to this trip but small in comparison to the two first. I think he ran nearly 100 m from where I shot him.

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It was too early to go back for breakfast so we drove up on a hill and on the way up we saw a buck with one nice antler, he'd lost the other one.

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A few days after the trip Marius sent me an email telling me another hunter had taken this guy, he was 9-years old.

We went to the summit and spent some time glassing and enjoying the sunrise and to hear Chiuiesti wake up on a Sunday morning. Suddenly a female roe came running by at 50m and she kept going downhill until we lost sight of her.

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Then we drove back, had breakfast (roe deer liver) and skinned and gutted the buck. Marius showed me a way to skin it that was new to me, he left some of the skin and broke the rear leg just below the knee and then we took one leg each and rolled the skin up on the leg. When we did this one on each side at the same time it was surprisingly easy to skin him. The pic below might make you understand the concept.

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We then went and dropped off two of the carcasses and picked up the first trophy that had been processed and if I wanted to, I could have brought it with me! Quite a difference from the usual taxidermy turnaround times in Africa! But as my second trophy wasn't ready I asked to have them both shipped later.

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Marius dropped me at the hotel and as I was resting and packing for the rest of the day and I was starting to reflect on this hunt. We did 6 outings. I shot 4 bucks, all one shot kills - but I was lucky on the first one. I had 3 more proper opportunities that I blew. I believe I was able to spot 2 or 3 roes before Marius but he beat me with the all the others, which were many! Basically, this is a great roe deer area. They are there, but don't get fooled, it's not as easy as you think. You do need to work for them. Marius showed me trophies and photos of other bucks taken in the area that were bigger than mine, so the monsters are out there but I think some other areas might be better if you want to look over many bucks before you pick one. However if you are after proper bucks and not necessarily the very biggest ones, this area is great. You need to sweat, keep up with Marius on the slopes and do your part, but in terms of hunting experience, I personally would prefer this area to one where you just drive around looking for the biggest one. This was true hunting and testing the skills of the hunters. Plenty of animals but it´s a hunting trip, not a shooting trip.

6/6
Was picked up by Marius and taken to the airport. Export of the firearm was as swift as coming. They checked the paperwork, checked the serial number on the rifle, counted the cartridges and checked it against a paper that Marius had prepared detailing how many shots I had taken. Done in 10 min. Then flight to Munich with a 6hr waiting that turned out to be 7+ hours. Uneventful flight to Sweden and then the last drive back home and the trip was over.

Final reflection:
Would I do this again? If I wanted to hunt roe deers I'd say this is as good and exciting as it gets based on my preferences of hunting methods and ethics. I personally don't have a "fix" for roes, so I doubt I'd pay to hunt roe deers anywhere again, but if I did, I'd certainly consider this area. You might not get the very biggest ones, albeit odds that you´ll get a big one are good, but on the other hand you´ll have a very nice hunting experience. So I´d say this particular area would be perfect for a seasoned hunter who wants mature animals and values the actual hunting experience.

Would I hunt with Marius again? Absolutely! I've rarely, if ever, met someone who knows game and area this well. He knows every bush in the (large!) area and despite that I even see roe from my house at home now and then, he learnt me a lot about their behavior. He's a true professional. I'd love to hunt a bear with him but unfortunately the bear hunting has been closed for 7 (?) years in Romania. Red stag is also in the cards for me seeing some trophies at his place. He had a 10,5 kg trophy that he showed me that was just beyond belief! He mentioned he also had some fixed priced red stags which is nice as the trend, especially in Europe, is to have a tiered pricing based on size.

Final tips:
- Bring your own firearm, the process is simple, at least if you live in Europe.
- Don´t forget your binoculars as glassing is important.
- Use a scope for low light conditions.
- Bring a tool to remove ticks – there are plenty around.
- Unless you are used to 4-legged shooting sticks, practice on using that type beforehand.

Finally, THANK YOU Marius for this very nice experience that I will not forget in a long time!

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I´ll do my best to reply to you.
 
Thanks for the great review. Your writing brought the excitement of the hunt to me as I read it!
 
Congrats @Fredrik , that was a very good hunt, and an excellent report.

Brought back memories !
 
Wmh! Really nice report.

And next time shoot the damn fox ;)
 
Excellent report!
 

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