Couple of thoughts, as I've just returned from a six-year stint with the military in Germany. Although Red Leg's observations are correct, our collective hunting experiences are limited, I've picked up a few tidbits from the Stuttgart, Germany hunting community and my own very recent experiences.
Even with airfare, lodging and travel expenses included, you can easily take a massive red deer in Eastern Europe for way less than $10k. My suggestion would echo the previous advice: take half the money and spend it traveling Europe, and you'll still be able to take a trophy you'll absolutely love (maybe several animals) for the remaining half. Not a month ago, I shot a 137 CIC point red deer in the Czech Republic for not quite $2k, including services of the agency, lodging, meals, tips for the guide, rifle rental, preparation and shipment of the trophy (to Germany). A silver medal animal, up to 199 CIC points, would be about $5500 USD, all those previous costs inclusive, and I'm confident the more experienced European hunters would tell you a silver medal animal is huge, absolutely huge. I have used St. Hubertus Hunting Tours (
https://www.hubertushuntingtours.com) twice now; I've hunted for black grouse in Austria and the Czech for red deer, and been absolutely blown away by the quality of the hunt - these folks have some top-notch outfitters across Europe and I've been very pleased. St. Hubertus will arrange for a hunting/tourist combined trip, too, in some very high quality European castles, spas, hotels, etc.
However, if you really have interest in a cost-effective, quality hunt AND cut out the middleman, I suggest dealing directly with the Lesycr Czech forestry agency (located just across the border from Dresden, Germany). I hunted with the agency for my red deer (arranged by St Hubertus). Their prices are something close to rock-bottom for Europe, as this is a government agency.
www.lesycr.cz - ask to hunt with Dalibor. (the attachment is in Czech but nothing a good translation app like
www.deepl.com can't solve). Prices are the lowest for red deer I've seen in Europe and you can easily arrange for lodging in comfortable hotels nearby. Guide service is extremely inexpensive, and rifle rentals, transportation, licenses, etc are all arranged/included. Prices for red deer are below:
155,00 – 159,99 ................................................................... 1183-1362 € (1 bod 35,8 €)
160,00 – 164,99 ................................................................... 1363-1632 € (1 bod 53,8 €)
165,00 – 169,99 ................................................................... 1633-1902 € (1 bod 53,8 €)
170,00 – 179,99 ....................................................................1903-2562 € (1 bod 65,9 €)
180,00 – 189,99 ................................................................... 2563-3340 € (1 bod 77,7 €)
190,00 – 199,99 ................................................................... 3341-4263 € (1 bod 92,2 €)
200,00 – 209,99 ................................................................. 4264-5942 € (1 bod 167,8 €)
210,00 ................................................................................................................. 5943 €
If my orders had extended another year or two in Stuttgart, I'd have absolutely made at least one, if not two more trips to hunt another red and a fallow.
