Hungarian Hunt

[SFC B]

All good mate, i knew what you were trying to say, no worries there.

Yes the soil mineral content plays a massive part in antler growth, really quite amazing. Even over here with our sambar herds i can notice areas that consistently produce better antler growth for the same age class of deer when compared to other regions. I guess with pretty similar habitat across the entire range in England, one of the big variances would be soil between the different areas.

HGWT, not to pry too much ( ) but what are the trophy fees like ( a range will be fine, just trying to get an idea). Thanks

 

[havgunwilltravel]

HGWT, not to pry too much ( ) but what are the trophy fees like ( a range will be fine, just trying to get an idea). Thanks

A lot of the trophies are on a sliding scale, generally the costs are reasonably similar between location (hunting area) to other hunting areas. The hunting region will set the trophy fees. The places we hunted had limited tags, i think 14 or so for the mouflon and maybe 40 for the fallow, not sure on the tag quota for the roe deer but we had to reserve these in advance.

We are lucky in that the areas we hunted normally have tags reserved well in advance and hard to get on board, but we had some friends over there who worked hard to find regions with good game and a chance at getting the tags. It worked out in the end.

Very general approximate costings for what we hunted, and please remember there will be variances between location and what they actually charge but this is an indication:

Fallow 3.0 kg - 3.5kg or less 1100 euro plus 12 euro for every 10 gram above 3.5kg

Fallow 3.5-3.9kg 1700 euro plus 25 euro for every 10gram above 3.5kg

Fallow 4-4.5kg 2950 euro plus 40 euro for every 10gram above 4.0kg

Keep in mind that there is a sliding scale so if your fallow is 4.05kg you pay more then 4.0kg and it goes up considerable once they get above 4.0kg.

As a guideline, my fallow went 4.05kg and was in the silver medal class.

On the ground with the picture of three, the middle one went 3.75 and the other on the right went 3.7, i could be out by a whisker, but it was around that weight.

I think i got it right with the charges, its a bit complicated. Still getting my head around it, they weight it for you within 24 hours. Very fair system. Some times you can get big antlered, but thin bucks that look very impressive and aren't that heavy, we seen some trophies in the 3.6-3.8kg range that were huge and great value for money. mind you you can't pick and choose between animals so its a bit of a roll of the dice.

The mouflon were for length of horn. Mine had horns around 72cm on the longer side and i paid around 1850 Australian from memory, very cheap wild sheep. If it was under 70 it would have been a fair bit less. Best value in my opinion was the broomed 60-70cm size rams, but not easy to pick and choose, again a roll of the dice, and kind of had to accept what was presented otherwise i might have not got the type of ram i was looking for.

Again it goes up when horn size lengthens.

Some areas just charge you a one up hunt cost fee and you go for it aiming for a certain size animal and pay more if you happen to shoot a larger one.

Roe deer, mine cost around $900 Aussie i think from memory, maybe a bit more, was a heavier buck which increases weight and price, maybe 440 grams. No monster, just a good representative.

On top of this we paid rifle hire, vehicle hire and accommodation and a small guide fee. Very small fees, motel was $20 aussie per person a night, same with other costs, very affordable.

There was some costings with VET certificates and CIC scoring, but not much.

For me who is somebody who normally goes self guided, i had no issues with paying trophies that went back into the hunting area and its budget. Bypass an outfitter and your save a lot of money. Less people involved the better. We deal direct with a hunt area manager now and have been allocated tags for the same species for the 2016 season.

First trip to this region could have swung either way, i hear of some bad reports in parts of europe, but we did our homework this time and our two guys on the ground over there are mad keen hunters so it fits in well with us.

If anybody is keen to explore europe, there are hundreds of options from mouflon in croatia and romania to magnificent wild red stags in romania etc and many other species, boars, bears, chamois, etc etc, I have a lot to learn and plenty to explore over there.

Also mods, if its inappropriate to be putting hunt costs up just delete post.

And i will state here i have zero interest in being a booking agent or getting clients for any hunting companies over there. Im just trying to give guys a bit more specific information on how it went and hunt costs.

 

[SFC B]

I appreciate the candor. Sounds like you had good value for the adventure.