Croatian Mouflon/wild boar/golden jackal

Hey guys, starting to make a bit more of a hanot of these, maybe i can get round to doing an Africa write up at some point.

3 of us have just spent the weekend in Croatia with Vlad from FARhunt prinarily hunting Mouflon but managed to bag a wild boar and golden jackal also.

Just before i start, you wouldnt believe the issues this trip faced, from a potential change in hunting areas to BA pilots going on strike and forcing us to pay for new flights 400km away from where we were meant to land. Needless to say Vlad was very accomodating

After having landed late in Split on Friday afternoon, we headed into the local town to get some much need food/sleep ahead of the next days hunting. At about 1am a huge thunderstorm passed over us, with the thunder and lightning finally stopping around 5am.

We headed out to the hunting area which was a beautiful peninsula overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Luckily the weather was much better by 6am. We were able to shoot 1 mouflon ram under 50cm and 1 ewe. I didnt start the day well, shooting a bush just infront of the rifle and subsequently missing a ewe at 30 yards and then missing a fleeting oppurtunity on a nice sized ram (i guess thats part of hunting, i wont try to hide my mistakes thats for sure).
Decided to pop into a spot overlooking a feed station and finally managed to get into a nice ewe, which the 3006 did its job well with a neck shot at 25 yards. That certainly settled the nerves! It went quite quiet for a few hours after that, but i probably saw 30 mouflon in the mean time, just no decent rams. At about 1120, a medium sized ram came in to the feed, i decided that if i could get into a shootable position over the next 15 mins or so that I would take the shot. The little bastard managed to hide himself in thick bush! I was frustrated at the time but was without a god send... 5 minutes later, a large group of ewes came in, followed by three large rams. I watched the rams for 20 minutes trying to assess them, one of which i was sure i could take on my tag. I lined up the rams, who kept fighting (that was great to see and hear), and as soon as the smallest trophy ram was pushed aside, i put the crosshairs on his shoulders and slowly let the shot off. Sounded good,felt good,but he ran. I gave it 10 minutes and then followed up to the shot site. This is where the African experiences in the bush paid off, blood trailing through thick bush without a dog is hard, bur experience alsways helps! I kept following the blood, getting good signs with bits of lung on the bush. The mouflon had managed about 40 yards through some really thick cover but was stone dead on the spot. Happy days. Managed to drag the beast out for a photo with my PH and then gutted/skinned the animal out right down by the adriatic sea. Absolutely chuffed to bits for day 1 to have managed my ewe and very nice trophy ram. Day 2/3 and photos to follow
 
On day 2 we drove some 500km North East, literally just 2km north of the Bosnian border. Very interesting to see entire villages still abandoned with bullet holes in the buildings from the Yugoslav wars.

The travel was in order for us to try and get a wild boar or jackal. We were sat out on high seats/hunting boxes. I would normally prefer foot stalking but this was just as interesting, seeing the much larger carpathian red stags (one of the party shot a 105kg spiker!), european wild cats and beech martens. About 20 minutes before dark I had a nice big sow walk out in front of me, this was it, i was sure a piglet was coming (our targeted animals). At 120 yards this piglet followed the sow, but it wasnt stopping, crosshairs on the end of the track and squeeze when the nose touches it... whack! Pig down on the spot. Waited until the vehicle picked us up, nice sized pig in the end!
The next morning on our way to the hunting stands both my father and myself were able to shoot nice golden jackals each. This topped off a great hunt hosted by Vlad. Now all that remained was a 500km drive back to split airport, cheers BA!
 
Hi Josh!

Thank you for your kind words and comprehensive report :tiphat:
It was a real pleasure to hunt with you. Say hello to your father and Andrew! I'm sure we'll be hunting together again.

Just returned from chamois hunting in Slovenia. I guided Danish hunter with two sons (10 and 12) - beautiful hunt!

Cheers
Vlado
 
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