Driven hunting in Romania

[biriuck 273]

Driven hunting is, in my opinion, the traditional way of hunting in my country.  The main species hunted this way are wild boars (the most popular), foxes, golden jackals, hares and pheasants. When we manage to get rid of the stupid bureaucracy imposed by the "greens", we are also hunting bears and wolves in the same way.  We are not allowed to hunt red stags or roe deers in this way. In most cases, driven hunting is not possible without hunting dogs and we are using a variety of them but the most spreaded ones are  Transylvanian Scenthounds (Sadly, due to frequent injuries, many hunters are not using pure breeds for wild boar hunting)

Usually, each hunting association has the members grouped so that each group will hunt in a specific hunting area, managed by them. The hunting areas are big in Romania, no less than 3.000ha in the plains and no less than 10.000ha in the mountains. In the past, each member had to pay an annual fee to his association  (~300E) and in return he will be allowed to participate each weekend on a driven hunt for the species that they had in that area. Also, in the same fee, it was included a hunting permit for all the migratory birds and for pest control.  The members will also have a smaller price for hunting any species. Now, the offer is diversifying and one could find associations where he will pay a smaller annual fee but will had to pay something each time he wants to go hunting.  They need to use marketing tools and for some of them is hard to adapt.

I'm a member in 2 different associations, one with 32 managed hunting areas and another one with ~20  hunting areas. I could find anything in both of them, from quails and pheasants up to the  red stags and chamois. A normal hunting party is formed by 8-20 hunters + beaters but from time to time they are also organising hunts with many peoples in areas well known for having a plenty of game (usually, you need to pay for participating to this kind of hunting).

A few pictures from this season:

And one from a payed hunt:

 

 

In terms of hunting equipment, I should mention that is mandatory to wear some orange clothes during the hunt for easily identifying each other. Shotguns with slugs are still the main used weapons and they are especially efficient in areas with thick vegetation. In the last years, more and more hunters switched to rifles due to their superior power at longer distances (most popular choices are .30-06, 300WM, 8x68S and 9.3x62 but many are also using smaller calibers: 7x57, .308W).

I'm using a 9.3x62 equipped with a Leica Magnus 2.5-16x56 on a quick detachable mount. The chosen ammo is Norma Oryx 18.5g, one of the most popular used for big game here (you could see in the next picture why)

Since I'm not having too much luck on driven hunts , I often pay additional hunting permits for hunting wild boars alone with the gamekeeper (but this is another topic)

 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by biriuck

[Meece 1,957]

Nice write up and great pictures as usual. That a big area to hunt. Do you have to go on the organised drive at the weekends or can you just go into another controled area of the club and do your own thing,  can you just decide to go pheasant shooting on your own and ignore the driven shoot ?

[biriuck 273]

Yes,  I can go on any of the hunting areas managed by our club. We are not forced to participate at the driven hunts

[Boghossian 0]

Very interesting - do you normally do 2-3 drives a day or 9-10 shorter drives like I have seen in Poland.

I imagine the biggest boar are shot at night over feeders - do you hunt by moonlight (or lamp light...)?

I will contact you when it comes time to come hunt in Romania!

[biriuck 273]

2-3 drives, depending on results, weather and terrain. We could never do 9-10 shorter drives because the dogs will chase wild animals at large distances.

It is not a rule that the biggest boars are shot at night because those are very careful (is easy to hunt a boar at feeding points but is not so easy to hunt a big male. I had to wait for more than 6 hours in cold weather for such a large male once) . 

I will search some pictures with big tuskers hunted in driven hunts but my gallery is huge  

[biriuck 273]

This one was hunted by an old hunter at a driven hunt in an area next to the one I'm hunting. It is no additional cost for members  

[biriuck 273]

On 29/10/2018 at 16:56, Boghossian said:

I will contact you when it comes time to come hunt in Romania!

Anytime

I think that I will fly to UK sooner  (my employer is about to sign a new contract with an UK partner)

[bird 9,897]

10 hours ago, biriuck said:

Anytime

I think that I will fly to UK sooner  (my employer is about to sign a new contract with an UK partner)

great post and pics, and good write  up  mate, those 2 foxes on the pic with those 5 pigs , they look in top condition , and  big foxes , unless its there  nearer the camera lol , thats just size, but either way great foxes .

[biriuck 273]

2 great boars from the last weekend - 200+ kg and a young one of ~ 150kg. The boars from mountain areas are smaller but the breed is pure and the tusks are usually bigger. 

Nothing on my name, I had 2 close encounters with bears (a small one and a really large one - more than 450 CIC points) but they passed trough without making any problems. 

We also had great dogs with us (sadly, not in the picture)

Edited November 5, 2018 by biriuck

[biriuck 273]

Driven hunting is not only about big game in Romania. Well, in my case it is, I spending most of my time in the mountain areas but once in a while I will also go to a small game hunt.

This time I had a very bad weather with temperatures bellow -7 degrees Celsius and a constant wind (which will make it worse).

Here we could see the beaters at big distance from us...

...and here me with one of my hares. 2 shot, 2 missed by me.

 

We have big problems with hares on most of the hunting associations due to a mixture of factors (modern agriculture, poaching with Greyhounds, insufficient funds allocated for fox hunting and pest control) but here I have seen a decent amount of them. 

 

Edited January 18, 2019 by biriuck