11.12.2024 • Travel

Where dreams come true

The combination of tradition and professional game management in Hungary ensures a wide range of hunting opportunities and comparatively high game populations. Hunting dreams come true here almost all year round. And in 2021, the World Hunting Exhibition will also be held in Budapest.

Text: Thore Wolf, Photos: Max Sattler, Patrick Huber

When he thinks of the rut, Rainer Schwarz's eyes light up. “It's simply a matter of the heart,” says the CEO of Blaser Safaris, ”the feeling of being in the middle of the rut, seeing the stags and hearing them roar, it's simply indescribable.” Almost every year, he is on the trail of the “king of the forests” during the rutting season in Hungary - often with customers, but sometimes also on his own behalf.

Thanks to deep-rooted hunting traditions, stylish hunting lodges are available for accommodation in Hungary.

State hunting grounds traditionally provide the game with sufficient stands and thus ensure comparatively high game populations.

Anyone who has experienced a fallow deer rut during the day will come back again and again. Fallow deer from 2.5 kg to over 5 kg trophy weight come to the hunt.

Hearty stews, spicy paprika sausages and tasty hams offer energy-rich culinary delights.

Hungarian hunting grounds.Klicken, um Alternative zu verwenden

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However, Rainer Schwarz's passion for hunting in Hungary started differently. “Buck hunting brought me to Hungary for the first time many years ago,” recalls the Austrian-born hunter, ”and since then I have never been able to let go of Hungary as a hunting country with its diverse opportunities.” Not only can you hunt in Hungary all year round - the season runs from March 1 to February 28 - but also the variety of game that can be hunted, expert professional hunters, a conscious conservation policy and warm hospitality make hunting in Hungary a very special experience. In most hunting grounds, the hunting year begins a little more quietly, as it is now only possible to hunt overhunters and tuskers. However, with the start of the buck hunt on April 15, more hunters from all over the world come to Hungary. Most of them are drawn to the East Hungarian Plain, where bucks with antlers weighing more than 600 grams in some cases are hunted!

Incidentally, the hunting grounds there offer their guests some very good fly hunting in the fall. Those who prefer a more varied route have the opportunity to combine buck hunting with sow and small game hunting in the large forest hunting grounds. The stag rut starts at the end of August and really gets going in the first half of September. The hunting lodges are now fully occupied and the “trophy stags” are shot in all hunting grounds until mid-October. During the same period, fallow deer (south/south-east of Lake Balaton and in the east) and mouflon (north of Lake Balaton, in the Bakony Mountains and north-east of Budapest) also rut. After that, from November onwards, the hunting of red deer, fallow deer, mouflon and wild boar begins. For hunters who want to stalk at the same time, hunting from a carriage or stalking wagon is a very special experience!