He was more than 40 when began to devote hunting more time.
(Interview with Sergey Uspensky)
Several years ago the association “Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz” established two trophy nominations. One of them - The Magnificent Seven united the most prestige hunting trophies. The second one “Mountain Five” includes Russian mountain ungulates. Not many hunters in Russia have these all these trophies. Sergey Uspensky is one of the twelve hunters awarded by “The Magnificent Seven” and one of the eight Russian hunters who got five Russian mountains ungulates. He also has big collection of trophies taken on the other continents. I met Sergey in his office and we talked about hunting.
“The Magic of the Real Safari”: According your hunting collection you are very experienced in hunting and traveling.
Sergey Uspensky: Yes, I had time for hunting and travelling.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: I look at you and imagine that you’ve been born in Siberia and all men in your family are hunters.
S.U.: I love Siberia, especially its southern mountain part but I was born and live in Moscow. But telling the truth I always felt so called hunting spirit in my family. My uncle Nikolay Sergeevich and my grandpa -Sergey Sergeevich were hunters. The grandpa had two hunting rifles. The one of them, double-barreled trigger gun, produced by Tula’s weapon factory I remember very well. It had the very simple design but attracted me so much. I liked everything about it, starting from its specific gun’s oil smell. The second gun I don’t remember well. It was also double-barrel gun with inner triggers, made in Germany. I guess it was produced by Zauer company. When I was young, I liked guns and shooting. I was about 11 or 12 years old when grandpa allowed me to shoot from his gun. It happened just once but was a real present I still remember my feelings at that moment. Probably my hunting career started at that time.
“ The Real Safari Magazine”: Do mean that your hunting way began from that moment?
S.U.: I began to hunt seriously just after 40 years old. I bought “Saiga” cal. 20 and was glad that could legally hunt with it. My first trophies were mostly cans because I needed to train shooting skills and what i did. Later I bought the Italian inertial semi-automatic rifle Benelli Raffaello cal. 12. That was my "second coming" to hunting.
“ The Real Safari Magazine”: Do you remember your first hunting trophies?
S.U.: Of course. I think that most of the hunters remember their first trophy for the end of the life. My first trophy was the boar. It wasn’t big but it was no matter. Then I got ducks, capercaillie, black grouse, woodcocks. Once in winter we hunted with friends and the moose came just to me. It was luck. I remember the bears, I hunted- the one I got on the oats and another one in the den.
“ The Real Safari Magazine”: Have you bought the rifled weapon after five years you've owned the smooth bore one?
S.U.: I fully realized that the rifled weapon give other opportunities for the hunter. My first carbine was CZ527 Luxкалибра .22 Hornet. Later I bought Blaser R 93 cal.300 WinMag. Today it’s my main gun.
“ The Real Safari Magazine”: The cartridge 22 Hornet was designed at the beginning of 30s (sometimes its’ called 5,6Х35 R Hornet) but it’s a rare thing in our country. Why did you buy it? What trophies have you got with it?
S.U.: It impressed me from the very beginning. It's convenient, light (its weight 2,8 kg) and proportional. The rifle's stock made from the beautiful walnut. It has the safe sliding bolt, and the chamber for five cartridges. Its barrel is long enough (600mm). Though its caliber coincides with the usual small-caliber cartridge, its shot is more powerful. These cartridges are produced with hollow point (HP) and semi HP bullets with the weight from 2,6 to 3,5gr. The muzzle speeds are in limits from 715 to 890 m\sec. Once I got 200kg boar with this gun. I hunted with it for pigs, badgers, raccoons.
“ The Real Safari Magazine”: What cartridges with what bullets do you prefer when hunting with Blaser R93?
S.U.: Usually I use Norma cartridges with Accubond. If I am going to shoot for short distances I choose Orix.
“ The Real Safari Magazine”: Where did you start mountain hunting? What trophies have you got?
S.U.: My first mountain hunt was on Kamchatka. There I’ve taken my first mountain trophy- Kamchatka snow sheep with symmetrical horns - 94cm each. Kamchatka impressed me by its nature and hunting possibilities. I visited it several times because couldn’t but fly there. I’ve got there such serious trophies as Kamchatka brown bear, moose and Koryak snow sheep.
“ The Real Safari Magazine”: It’s evident according your trophies that you have hunted a lot in the mountains. Where else did you hunt?
S.U.: I’ve been in the most of places, well- known among hunters. They were mountains of Altai, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Canada. In Canada I hunted for the Polar bear. Hunting in Argentina I consider to be one of the most interesting ones, though it’s not mountain hunting.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: What regions do you like most of all?
S.U.: I enjoy hunting on Altai and Karachaevo -Cherkessia. It's difficult to explain why. It was a combination of factors that did those trips so memorable for me.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: Do you remember your shot for the longest distance? What trophy did you hunt?
S.U.: I remember most of my successful shots. My personal record is 545 meters. It happened on Pamir, on the altitude 4500m. I caught Marco Polo in the crosshairs.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: Any trophy is very worthy for the hunter. But we all compete with each other by our trophies. What of your trophies are the precious for you?
S.U.: The horns of Mid-Caucasian Tur, Marco Polo sheep and the Kirghiz Ibex are the most rated ones.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: How often can you hunt?
S.U.: If you ask me about mountain or foreign hunting trips, I do it 2-4 times in a year. But when the hunting season starts in Russia, I try to hunt each two weeks.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: If we talk about hunting in the remote areas, how long do they usually last?
S.U.: Unfortunately, I can't leave business for a long. It takes to 5 days.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: What clothes do you use for mountains hunting? What boots are the most optimal ones for the mountains?
S.U.: Hiking in the mountains is not an easy matter that's why I prefer to use light clothes. Usually in the backpack I have thermal underwear, fleece jacket and a raincoat. As for boots, I prefer mountain shoes produced by the Mammut company. They fix the ankle securely and have a reliable grip with stones.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: Tell our readers about the most memorable case which happened with you in the hunting trips.
S.U.: Once my friends persuaded me to join them for a boar hunting with dogs in Argentina. The only weapon which the hunters were allowed to take for that hunting were spears. The team of spearmen consisted of three hunter and they had to stay as close to each other as it was possible, in other words shoulder to shoulder. The outfitter had the pack of dogs which were used to hunt for boars. Their task was to find the prey and then everything went like clockwork. In the first hunting day we detected the wild-boar. It was very fast and active. Dogs followed it but it was constantly moving. This excited not only dogs, but also hunters. The male ran so chaotic and rapid that our formation broke up and the boar attacked me. I reacted without thinking and hit the spear to its mouth and broke its fang. Next moment it tumbled me down and began to tear my leg. The dogs activated at that moment. The boar paid attention to them and I could escape. Next moment one of the guides, accompanied us, shot it.
They drove me to the hospital where the doctor treated and sewed up the leg wound. I had to get ten stitches. I longed so much to become the winner in that melee that next day we were in the same hunting area once again. It was the right decision because we three with the dogs's help could have taken the big wild boar.
“The Real Safari Magazine”: Thank you for the interview. On behalf of the editorial Board, I want to wish you good luck.
