Bulgarian Adventures

Wow, finally I'm able to access the forum without the annoying proxy site, I guess BG IPs got unblocked.

I got a hunting license and bought a beautiful Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon with 28" barrels and an adjustable comb and took it out for some quail hunting, even got some for dinner. They tasted amazing both as a roast and as a soup.

I got the last two without a dog, just walking through the field, so far they're the most precious to me.

 

I also managed to get out to the countryside for a while, it's a different world out there, a little piece of heaven outside of the nasty concrete city. I also got in contact with local hunters and will join them for some grouse, pheasant and boar when I have the time.

 

My wife and I also got motorcycle licenses, so I got her a little 470 cc Honda, which I also ride when I'm free and I love it. I'll be getting a Transalp 750 for me in Spring, so I can travel and explore with it.

 

this! Very cool pics!

And that bird gun !! Very classy . Beautiful work of art!

 

Thanks guys, it's good to be back!

Bushy, it can be used on anything walking in Europe, depending on the cartridge. It will be my pig gun until I get a rifle (here you need to have 2 years of hunting experience to be able to buy a rifle, then it can be in .50 BMG if you like).
Years before, during the commie rule it was almost impossible to have a rifle (there were probably around 1000 in the whole country), so a ton of pigs, elks and bears met their end by a 12 or even 16 gauge shotguns.

Here how it does with 32 gram slugs, shooting from hand, standing and the target is 25 meters away.



The shell is 70 mm, for size reference. Our pig season starts on the 1st Saturday of October, so I will be practicing more with slugs by then.

The gun was a dream of mine for a long time, the crazy Italians give it a lifespan of between 200 000 and a million rounds, depending on the maintenance. They even have spare parts that are sized for different stages of wear on the locking mechanism. It is the Sporting model, as I intend to shoot a lot of clays with it too, not only hunting. It shoots really soft, if someone else pays the shells I can do it all day

I think it's a very good blend of field and basic sports gun and will last me a lifetime.
It's the base model, but all the other more expensive models from this series use exactly the same mechanism and barrels, the only difference is the wood grain and the engravings.

 

Today was a good day!

I got up at 4:30 to walk the dog, then went hunting at around 6:00. I hoped to get some quail, but they've either started their migration south, or we've decimated them We will try another field next Friday. Anyway we went to a sunflower field after that to see if we can have some pigeons. There were plenty of semi domesticated ones that I decided not to shoot, as they are not afraid of humans, so it would be like shooting them in a park I would gladly have a wild one, and in fact one landed directly on the walnut tree under which I was taking cover, but I didn't saw it while I was under the branches and heard him flying off as I was doing a circle around said tree. He was huge, literally the size of a pheasant. The sound he made flying off, flapping his wings was very pheasant like, big bird. When I saw him, he was getting away and I decided that at that distance I might just hurt him and not be able to retrieve him, so I let him go. Next time this bastard is going into the pot No shots fired, but just being out was really nice.
I got home, took my wife and daughter and we head off to a trail that goes along a river and some nice waterfalls. It's even called "White River", like the knives. We did the hiking part and it was time for an already late lunch. It started raining a bit, so we didn't wait for embers to form and grilled our sausages over the fire. They were cremated a bit, but still delicious.
It was an awesome day outside, can't wish for anything more.

Well perhaps only shooting the damn pterodactyl of a pigeon

Cheers!

 

Nice area, thanks for sharing. Sausage looks damn good too.

 

Yeah buddy, glad you're well and posting again. Good stuff going on there! Keep us posted. Thanks for sharing.

 

Welcome back Boz. I was wondering where you wandered off to. ( Beware the flying Grass Carp my friend…Beware.. )

 

Thank you guys!

I will need a new freezer for this one, I swear I could feed a whole village with it
My biggest fear is having him drop on my head after the #5 hits him from the half choke

 

Those sausages yum!!!

 

We finally got some rain last night. The quail migration has started and we have a little bit of time left before they go, the ones we had today were very fat, like two teaspoons full of fat in each. Hopefully I will have some more tomorrow.