One Heck Of A Ride

144 Poland’s Roaring Stags that it clearly was the same buck. One shot later, I had my second record book animal from Poland. As had happened in Spain, my guide performed the traditional ceremony to honor the trophy, giving my roebuck his last bite before its final journey. He then dipped two twigs in the little buck’s blood and carefully placed one on his hat and one on my bullet’s entrance hole. In Spain, the guide has said the German words “waidmanns dank” and “waidmanns heil.” Ryszard, though, said “darz bor” and shook my hand and said I also should say “darz bor” and move the remaining twig from the roebuck to my hat, which I did. The same morning, George Moore returned with a fine roebuck. We measured the antlers of both bucks and found their scores varied by only 3/8 inches. George’s roebuck had a perfect six- point rack; mine had only four points but its extremely heavy bases made up the difference in our scores. After hunting seven days at the estate, we moved to another hunting lodge where everyone in our group gathered for the final days of our hunt. Here, the forest was even thicker than at This roebuck appeared precisely at the time and place guide Ryszard Ryborczyk predicted it would the first lodge and there were flying ticks and mosquitos in its swamps. There was heavy fog on the evening of the ninth day we hunted this forest, but we could hear the red deer roaring as we got into our tree stand. I will always carry the picture in my mind of the fine stag and its two hinds we saw standing in the middle of the meadow as the fog moved out. This was how I had always dreamed of Europe – a stag barely visible in fog with a dense forest as a backdrop. Its antlers were high and heavy, just as in my dreams. It rained that night, complete with thunder and lightning, but I was satisfied. I had hunted nine memorable days, taking two record book animals. Paul, Dennis and I decided to take an extra day for sightseeing. But first, we had to pick up a box or something to transport our animals’ hides back home with us. We went shopping in Warsaw and found suitcases that fit the bill perfectly. Next, we were off to Auschwitz for a tour of its museum to learn more about the Holocaust and World War II. The time I spent in Poland was truly a fine experience. I took every advantage I could to see and experience the country behind the Iron Curtain. I had tea with Ted, Zelda and our interpreter in a teahouse that was centuries old. I had signs painted for my roebuck and red deer trophies telling where they came from and when they were taken. I shopped in department stores and found things that do not exist in American stores. While shopping, a roll of carpet caught my eye because it was such a good quality. This, of course, was of interest to me as it is my business back home. I folded a corner of it back and had George photograph me with it. Everyone in the store froze when the flash went off. As we were leaving the store, we were stopped by the police and told we had to surrender our passports to them. After a heated discussion in