geod
AH veteran
Along with wild boars, roe bucks are the most hunted species in all Europe. And if the driven hunt or the size of a big wild boar male it is a reason easy to understand for everybody, why this small and fragile animal rise so much interest among European hunters or even US ones?
Maybe because no matter how much time you will spend looking and analysing a buck before the shot, you will still find some fantastic shapes and characteristics of the trophy when you hold it in your hand, details that you never saw it through the scope or binocular. Or maybe it is like my grandfather use to say: you will never find 2 bucks with identical trophies. Or maybe because we hunt them in May when all nature is full of life and beautiful every year. Whatever the reasons, roe bucks hunt has their special charm.
Even if Romania is not Poland or Hungary when you talk about numbers, we have certain areas that can rival with best areas in those countries.
Now, let’s talk a little bit about the season. When is the best time to hunt roebucks, here in Romania.
As many of you already know, there are 2 major periods: May when the season starts and last days of July, fist days of August in the top of the rut season.
Let’s start with May: I will recommend first 2 weeks, if possible, or even 3th week if the schedule do not permit otherwise. Time frame depends also on the hunting grounds. Flat areas are better in the first or second week and highest areas are better in second or 3th week of May.
Advantage of May Hunting:
Low vegetation will permit you to spot bucks very easily. The bucks will keep the same habitat which is like a circle with a radius of no more than 1500 meters, usually 1000 meters. Pleasant temperatures and longer hunting time frame. Now please allow me to explain this a little bit.
Buck hunting is divided in 2: at the first light when you can find them up in the field up to 10.30 even 11 am, if the sky is cloudy and afternoon hunt when you can start at 18.00 hours up to 20.30 when the light is over.
Disadvantage of May Hunting:
Color of the antlers. If you put together a trophy have been shot in May with one hunted in August you will see the difference.
May trophies have pale color and they never compete with that dark brown color of the bucks antlers from August.
A responsible owner, ranger, gamekeeper or whatever you want to call it, will push the kill of best bucks in August, after they pass their genes to the next generation.
Rut hunting for roe bucks:
If May hunting is at least 3 weeks long, the rut hunt for roe bucks has very short period. 25 July to 5 of August is the best time and I strongly recommend it, no matter is flat or hilly area.
Advantages: Except red stag calling, I don’t think is something more exciting or rewording that roe buck calling.
It is an experience that every hunter should have it in his life. Period!
Few facts that I have to mention here. Young and inexperienced bucks will be 90% of the responsive bucks at the call.
Now, all areas can produce gold medal bucks(in very good areas), after the first days of the rut when they mating the females from the neighbourhood , big bucks can travel for kilometers.
Colour of the antlers: nice dark brown antlers make a nice trophy on every wall of a hunter.
Disadvantage: Morning and evening hunts are much more shorter than spring. The temperature is very high and around 9.30 in the morning you have to finish the hunt and you can only start at 19.30 in the afternoon.
One very valuable piece of advice: do not hunt immediately after the rut. That means betweens 10 to 30 of August! Never ever!
I hope you already made a general idea about when is the best time for bucks in Romania, let’s start with the next question, where is the best area to hunt roe bucks in Romania?
Most of romanian guides have several areas for bucks, we have 17 hunting areas for roe bucks, every area with his own characteristics. So, better make sure what you want and what you expect from your roebuck hunt in Romania and send some emails to your agents or to your outfitters. Some areas have plenty of bucks, some can offer a budget hunt and some can offer a trophy of a lifetime. Everybody say that a hunt finish when the trophy is on the wall. I will say that every hunt starts when you start looking for the agent, or the outfitter that will deliver your dream. I will also say that for outfitters, all hunts start long before hunters arrival. Every area will be inspected by one of our outfitters between one or two weeks before the spring season or one week in front the rut time. They will write a short report about the trophies expectation and the number of the animals in that area. Based on that report we will be able to recommend you one area or another to fit your desires. If you book with another company make sure you will ask for a short description of your hunting area. How many bucks are killed every season? Biggest expectation? Average bucks? All these are legitimate questions and you really need to ask them before book any roebuck hunt.
As many of you know the terrain in Romania is distributed roughly equally between mountains, hills and plains.
The roe bucks can be found in plains and low hills areas. For sure the highest numbers, biggest and heaviest bucks are found in flat areas. Our hunting grounds in Oradea, Timisoara, Arad or Satu Mare counties can rival with any hunting grounds from Poland or Hungary. But we also have 4 areas in Bacau and Mures counties that every year produce huge bucks and all areas are in the low hills terrain.
High hills and low mountains areas can be a good destination for those looking for a budget hunt and very nice landscapes but those areas will never bring you more than a bronze medal.
Last question. How?
Most of outfitters from Romania including ours, will conduct the hunt by spot and stalk. Basically, what you do is driving around with the car inside the hunting area, mostly in the areas where the local rangers know the animals like it or spot it before. Once the buck is spot it, you will stop the car and try to stalk the animal. We target old animals over 6 years. The bucks begins to degenerate after a certain age and the antlers will start to get smaller. The hunt is done early in the morning and late afternoon. A special charm and a little bit different way of hunting roe bucks is during the rut season. For this period, the preliminary observation of the game is mandatory. Usually, the roe maintain the same territories, so in the rut season you can spend a morning calling a certain buck in an area where he have been spotted before.
The guide or your outfitter will do a great job calling your buck, but you can find a lot of satisfaction calling your buck by your own.
We recommend Buttolo roe deer caller.
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