Wild boar hunting in Romania

[biriuck 273]

As I already explained HERE, the main way of hunting wild boars in Romania is at driven hunts with dogs and beaters. This way of hunting is not appreciated by everyone because some people will consider this dangerous  due to slugs and bullets that could do harm at big distances or due to the bears that could/will appear, especially in autumn, in mountains & hills  areas (2/3 of the country). A bear is usually not representing a danger to someone because they are still afraid of humans (don't know for how long with this exaggerated protection!) but at a driven hunt he is harassed by the dogs and could attack. A female with cubs is even more dangerous. Others will simply want to hunt more or they are looking for a special trophy (hunting a big trophy at a driven hunt is possible, it's something normal to see 1-2 big males until the final of the day, but is a matter of luck to shoot them since they will usually try to escape between beaters or on the flanks)  and will buy individual hunting permits permits.

Here is a young male hunted by me in autumn because I needed some meat (I'm eating meat only from my parents farm or from hunted animals)

Hunting with an individual permit is allowed the entire year for males and is not very expensive for members (200-250E, trophy and meat included). Some gamekeepers will invest more and they could provide some great trophies but the price asked for a big boar will depend on the tusks length (up to 1000-1500E) .

The main methods of hunting are high seat and stalking.

Stalking has less chances of success because they are usually hiding during the day  in thick bush (we have real troubles trying to get them out of there even with small dogs!). I don't know how is this plant called in english but this is one of their preferred for hiding (Hippophae rhamnoides)

Stalking wild boars is very interesting in late autumn and winter (less vegetation) for the ones willing  to walk great distances. Will bring a big satisfaction to the hunter but he will need patience.

Is much more frequent to wait the boars in a high seat or on a natural height early in the morning, in the evening and even late in the night. You will need a good scope for shooting in low light conditions. This is important not necessary for shooting down the animal (it's not so hard to identify the target vital organs) but more for correct identifying it. You don't want to shoot a sow (especially if is not open season) and for sure you don't want to kill a bear by mistake (40.000E fine + ~2 years without your guns!)

Usually, for old males I had to wait for many hours and this was not an easy thing since in winter I had to handle a temperature of -14 - 18C. To good part in winter is that snow will help you with the light (you don't need a full moon with a proper scope). 

This was a ~4 years old male. I had to wait more than 6h but the temperature was OK (it was the beginning of winter)

 

Another young male hunted in this winter. It was really cold and I had to spend a few days.

 

In the plains and hills areas, the wild boars could be really big but I prefer to hunt  in the mountains because the trophies are bigger despite the smaller weight. The chances to hunt are also smaller but..everything has a price.

The next one is also my biggest so far (if I'm considering the tusks). He had only ~120-140 kg, I was waiting for him more than 6 hours in the night but I managed to shoot him in the next morning while searching for tracks in the area.

The tusks are not particularly long (22.4cm) but are wide (31.2mm). This means that he is well above the gold medal

Here is a picture right after skinning the animal (I was also preparing the tenderloins for a quick barbeque but this is another topic)

In conclusion, this type of hunting could get someone nice experiences and [sometimes] big trophies with not so much money if he has time to spend. When the time period is short and the expectancies are high, the costs will increase exponentially. In my opinion, the experience is the most important part

 

Edited April 12, 2018 by biriuck
afraid "of"

[Welsh_red 4,644]

Really like the tusk mount you got there 

[biriuck 273]

On 4/13/2018 at 14:31, Ben Holbrook said:

Yes, I agree with you, Romania is certainly the country where you can hunt giants Wild boars. The drive are really thrilling and boars also more than 300 kg come into sight.

Yeah, driven hunting is thrilling, the only part that I don't like about it is the vegetation from the beginning of the season. Boars of 200-300 kg could be seen more often in the plains/hills areas, especially in autumn (when they are doing important damages to the crops) but the ones with great tusks are usually 120-170 kg.

On 4/13/2018 at 18:18, Welsh_red said:

Really like the tusk mount you got there 

Thank you.

I'm buying them at ~20E from an old man who has this hobby.  I'm using epoxy for  filling and fixing the tusks

[Kerny92 1,246]

When you look at the size of those cutters hunting those with catch dogs and no chest plates is suicide.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Kerny92

[Born Hunter 17,763]

29 minutes ago, Kerny92 said:

When you look at the size of those cutters hunting those with catch dogs and no chest plates is suicide.

Do people routinely hunt proper wild boar (not feral hogs) with catch dogs anywhere? On the continent it seems they mostly use hounds if hunting or just bushing types if pushing to guns.

I'm now going to google the range of Wild Boar! ha

Edit: Dogo's in Patagonia maybe?

Edited June 8, 2018 by Born Hunter

[Kerny92 1,246]

11 minutes ago, Born Hunter said:

Do people routinely hunt proper wild boar (not feral hogs) with catch dogs anywhere? On the continent it seems they mostly use hounds if hunting or just bushing types if pushing to guns.

I'm now going to google the range of Wild Boar! ha

Edit: Dogo's in Patagonia maybe?

Yeah I don't think it happens in Europe from what I can find, I think the South American specimens are smaller than the European and Asian ones.

[biriuck 273]

It is illegal to hunt wild boars with catch dogs in Romania. Some people will do that on their risk and yes, they are able to catch a wild boar (mostly females and youngsters but sometimes also full size males) 

We are using the dogs just for finding and pushing the animals to the hunters.  Obviously, injures are frequent  because the dogs will often make contact with a wounded animal or with one that will simply don't want to leave the thick vegetation. Small size dogs are usually safer to use...

[bird 9,897]

On 09/06/2018 at 13:29, biriuck said:

It is illegal to hunt wild boars with catch dogs in Romania. Some people will do that on their risk and yes, they are able to catch a wild boar (mostly females and youngsters but sometimes also full size males) 

We are using the dogs just for finding and pushing the animals to the hunters.  Obviously, injures are frequent  because the dogs will often make contact with a wounded animal or with one that will simply don't want to leave the thick vegetation. Small size dogs are usually safer to use...

are the dogs you use     jagdterries  as there are supposed to be very good dogs on wild pigs, thats  finding  and holding if need be , very brave little dogs

[biriuck 273]

The driven hunt season for wild boar is ending in Romania (allowed until last day of this month), I had some great hunts and I managed to shot 3 piglets in total. No big boar in my scope  at driven hunts but my "luck" does not surprise me  To be honest, I had a  3 years old male boar in 25m from me but the slug was diverted by a tree branch  and he went away.

2 of my piglets. Small but tasty

It was not the case for my friends, a nice season for most of them...

A gold medal boar hunted by a gamekeeper 

 

2 weeks left, hopefully I will have the chance to shot at least one big boar this season. If not, no problem, we are allowed to hunt wild boar males all year  but the method will change in order to not disturb the sows (high seat and stalking)

Edited January 15, 2019 by biriuck

[biriuck 273]

A picture sent to me by a friend who organizes nice wild boar hunts

[biriuck 273]

After the end of the last driven hunt season, I had 2 individual permits remaining. They are valid until 14 May and I had enough time to stalk for at least one big male. 

Since it was no hurry, I started to hunt in the mountains because we could always find a big solitary male in the huge forests. They are not afraid of wolves and even a bear will think twice before attacking such a male because it has great armor, it is very strong and it has 2 sharp knives.  Such a male will rarely go down from here and they are rarely responding to baiting. You need strong legs and time to spend in the woods and I had both but with no luck. At least I enjoyed the nature  

I also spent some weekends on other types of hunting, like a pheasant driven shot and a fox & jackal hunt. I was still calm because I had time and I also had some nice tracks in 2 areas. Suddenly, I was notified that I need to fly to UK and work there for 4 weeks. Right after my return we also have the orthodox Easter and I realized that I may loose both permits. I decided to just spend a few nights and shoot any male I could find. 

I had some luck this time, I was also helped by the full moon and I managed to shot my first male on 2019.  Not a big one, a young male of ~100kg. It was late in night and I have no picture from this.

2 nights before my flight I was back in the woods, waiting for another one. And I was lucky again   This male was 4-5 years old, it is not impressive but it is a nice one. At the same age, this would be twice this size in the plains area because he would have huge crops near him.  

I had time only to extract his tusks and to fill them with resin (the ones from the left, 20,00 and 20,50 cm long). I will fix them on a wooden plate when I will be back in Romania.

[Meece 1,957]

Another superb post.   Very envious of that shooting situation.  That's a lot of pork to handle and butcher.  Beautiful countryside but I hate the cold and snow. Years ago one of my daughters went to poiana brasov skiing.  It was back in the days of nikolai Ceaușescu. About 1986/7.  I asked her to get a shooting magazine whilst she was out there but she said that all of the shops were virtually empty of anything  to buy. The snow fell very hard and she was delayed at the airport.

[biriuck 273]

17 hours ago, Meece said:

Another superb post.   Very envious of that shooting situation.  That's a lot of pork to handle and butcher.  Beautiful countryside but I hate the cold and snow. Years ago one of my daughters went to poiana brasov skiing.  It was back in the days of nikolai Ceaușescu. About 1986/7.  I asked her to get a shooting magazine whilst she was out there but she said that all of the shops were virtually empty of anything  to buy. The snow fell very hard and she was delayed at the airport.

Many, many things are completely changed since then. You could buy anything you like, all you need to do is to be healthy and work in order to have the money for it  Back then it was just one shooting/hunting magazine (with content approved by the party, of course )  

The 2 males are quartered, frozen and labeled. After my flight back home, I will cut the best parts for myself and the rest will be sent to a butcher for salami.

The fact that they had almost no fat is very good and allows us to keep them longer in the freezer.

Edited April 2, 2019 by biriuck

[biriuck 273]

I had a very busy summer and I was unable to hunt as often as in the last years, but I could not miss the first night with full moon and no clouds. Especially now, when the first apples and plums are falling from the trees and the wild boars are looking for them the entire night.

I was lucky and I had my chance for a few second with this big boy here (>200kg of skin, bones and muscles. A little amount of fat). It is considered very big for mountain area because here the food is not so easy to find (no crops in the area for at least 20km south). 

I was able to see only his back for a while but he exposed a little bit of his right side for half of a second just before entering a thick bush. I took the shot and the bullet smashed his ribs (2 broken at entry), completely destroyed the lungs (the heart was missed only with 5 cm), broke another rib at exit and remained in the thick armor skin of the left shoulder, in front of the first left leg.

The bad part was that it was a moving target and he was able to make a jump. Right after that bush, it was a deep slope (~20 m deep) and we had to use a winch to pull him out  Then we had to drink hot coffee and talk for another 3 hours while the meet was cooling  enough to be put in the freezer. 

Norma Oryx 18.5g, impeccable again 

Not a huge tusker compared with his body size but is still a beautiful trophy. The right fang was longer with 1 cm.

[Born Hunter 17,763]

8 minutes ago, Balaur said:

My experience out there was that it's similar to France , running dogs are frowned upon, most use pointer types although I only got out with the hunt on bird and hare days and one predator day, we were in the plains, with some forest that held boar, did want to get on boar but situation changed and back in UK now I've a place out there if you wanted a stop over/base before heading into Carpathians etc. Atb Joe.

Thanks for your input. The continental HPR breeds and work style is quite interesting. Particularly their versatility.