She had to leave before me so i had around 4 odd days of time to do what i feel like....
What does pappu feel like?
Like hunting, ofcourse.
A few calls were made and a friends friend who happens to be a professional hunter was on his way to pick me up from Budapest.
We met up and proceeded to drive to nagykanizsa, a small city in south western hungary and went further out to a small town of debrecen. A long drive from budapest to debrecen was made easy with the company of a good friend (Boris), some great weather( pouring rain) and a nifty little car(mini cooper).
Anyhow, we reached by around six pm and met the fellow on whose property we would be hunting. His name was jólt and he only spoke german or hungarian, hence the need to have boris with me who spoke english.
They thought that since we had come in on time, we could try sitting on a high seat that very evening and against my better judgement i decided to go for it as i did not want to waste any opportunity to hunt. I wanted to fire a few rounds through the rifle and get used to it, but i was told that there was no need for it, the rifle had been zeroed, the ranges would be short, etc etc. Anyhow, i wanted to see the rifle and handle it, if only for a few moments. A steyr luxus 7x64, with a continental hogback stock. A lovely zeiss scope which had a red dot and a russian low light attachment too. The photos will explain it all.
It had a set trigger and with grave machismo i explained that i planned on using the normal setting only.
I realized one thing, i wasnt getting a good cheek weld on this rifle. Ah well, too late now, and i didnt want to make it into an issue. How much of a difference can it possibly make right???
So we changed and proceeded to the hunting reserve. This 4000 hectare reserve is adjoining a 15000 hectare hunting reserve of the hungarian army and there is little to no hunting done on the army side so there we good sized animals available. But i was only looking at non trophy animals. Cheaper on the pocket and makes more sense if i cant take the trophies back to india.
Now, my previous hunting experience was in africa, which was beautiful and bright and open and everything cheery.
The sun was setting and the wind getting fresh as we entered the forest and i felt the first tremors of fear. Unreasonable, but seeing a foreboding forest, silent, except for the wind slipping furitively through the boughs and these humans walking like ephemeral ghosts through the silence and darkness is quite an experience. After walking for some time, we reached the high seat. As it was only me, this was going to be a high seat hunt. We slowly climbed up into the high seat. I got my bearing right and sighted down to the area where the corn for the wildboar was set.
Time now was half past seven and now started a whole new experience for me. The sheer silence in the cabin was contrasted by the 'noise' outside. I could hear the breathing of my two friends who were sitting with me. Their weight shifts would make the bench groan just so. The sound of clothing rustling gently, an elbow kept against a ledge, a rifle shifted slightly. You appreciate just how much noise one makes. By now the sun was down and the wind had picked up and it was raining. We were getting wet and cold. It didnt look like there would be any wildboar coming in tonight. I was miserable by now, but i wanted to sit. The rain stopped and it became even more cold. We could hear twigs snapping and everytime it happened, the low light scope would be switched on and we would scan the area for any sign of boar.
Nothing.
Eventually we realized that the snapping of twigs was the water freezing and cracking them and not the handiwork of some careless piggie.
It got so cold that i pulled down my beret as much as i could, put my hands under my thighs and stopped trying to keep my lips moist as that was making things worse.
Eventually there came a group of some 9 wild boar and they started shuffling around and eating the corn. The low light scope was attached to the zeiss scope and turnd on. I removed the safety and sighter down towards the boar.
I could see nothing!!! I cancelled the shot and gave it to my friend to check. The low light scope, in the cold and with repeated switching on and searching in high power mode had exhausted its battery, all i could see were faint dark shapes in the darkness.
I was advised to put a shot in center of mass and then we could track and finsh the boar off. Not something to warm the cockles of many of you, but i decided to do it. The atmosphere was such, i guessed i would have actually loved to track one through a night like this knowing fully well the risks involved.
I mounted the gun and after taking as careful aim as i could, i took a shot. Through the low light scope, one sees a bright flash of light, then a fog descends and it takes some time for the sight picture to return. In that much time, i knew i had missed. I saw the boar jump up in the air and turn and run. I had a gut feeling i had missed. We went down towards the center of the clearing and had a look around for any blood or spoor to follow. It started raining. The two gents with me got busy while i was trying to look useful. We found where the boar was standing, where the bullet struck, which was center of mass but directly below him on the earth. A clean miss.
You get very conflicting feelings when that judgement is passed. Relief that the poor beast is not suffering because of you and a feeling of shame that one missed a stationary shot at 70 yards.
Anyhow, we decided to return back and try again in the morning. It started raining again on the way out and by the time we reached the truck, we were all damp and in not so high spirits.
Getting back, we were treated to some fantastic hungarian food and soon retired for the night.
This was day one and i shall post pictures soon.
What were the other two doing? I looked to see that they had silently pulled up their tube scarfs from around their necks and had covered their faces so that only the bridge of the nose and eyes showed through. 
