I had never hunted in Dagestan before and I really wanted to go hunting there. I have already been in Karachay-Cherkessia, on the border with Kabardino-Balkaria in the Uchkulan area. A very good and memorable hunt was in North Ossetia. I remember it because I managed to get a very good Dagestan tur on the second day of hunting from a distance of 180 meters. The animal struck me with its power and endurance, a shot from 300 win mag into the upper part of the shoulder blade, knocked it down, but the animal got up and began to leave after a couple of seconds. Doubt grew in me every second about the success of the hit when I accepted the congratulations of the huntsmen with a successful shot. Unfortunately, I could not make a second shot, because I stumbled and clogged the trunk with snow after the first shot, covered with general jubilation and joy. I was amazed by its stamina, strength and endurance while chasing it.
In the spring 2015, my friend won a shooting competition in the Republic of Dagestan, the organizers of the competition established a prize for the first place - hunting for the Dagestan tur. This event could not but stir up my memories and imagination, which began to draw new hunting adventures. So I decided to join my my friend in hunting for a Dagestan tur, and began to learn about the prices for hunts in North Ossetia, in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the prices for mountain hunting are growing every year. They have grown significantly even in North Ossetia, not to mention Azerbaijan. So, I decided to wait with the hunt for the Dagestan tur, but, as it often happens in life, the chance gives you the opportunity to make your dream come true. Accidentally I was browsing the Internet with a topic about hunting for a Dagestan tur, when came across a Dagokhotobstvo website. I wrote them a letter and they immediately replied to me. A correspondence began, but I didn't have time to discuss the conditions to the smallest detail, since my friend was already going to leave for Dagestan by car. Therefore, we’d discussed the only issue of price and payment, which pleasantly surprised me, and my friend and I went to Dagestan. After a 14-hour drive, we arrived in Makhachkala, a hotel was booked in advance. In the morning my friend and his company would first participate in the next competitions, and then go hunting. I was going to meet with Sasha Yarovenko, with whom I negotiated about hunting. We met and went to his superior boss, Zaurbek Yunusovich Vagidov. He made the impression of a well-mannered, friendly person with a good sense of humor, in general, disposed to communicate. The hunting plan was as follows, Sasha was supposed to take me from Makhachkala to the city of Dagestan lights, then a man named Lamet was supposed to pick me up from there. I was supposed to go to the Rutulsky district already with him, where the guide Zair was waiting for us.
All the days I was in Dagestan, the weather was disgusting, it was raining very gloomy, in the end the weather made its own adjustments to my hunting. was offered to take part in a Lezgian wedding after sitting for several days and waiting for good weather. The peculiarity of the Lezgian wedding is that only the groom is present at the wedding and they bring the bride only after everyone has had a good time, but otherwise, the wedding is like a wedding, fun, noisy, good. I had to spend one day at home after the wedding, Gismeteo promised one sunny day, and it was decided to use this chance to test a carbine before leaving. Just imagine my disappointment when I arrived at the place of the shooting and found that the phone, into which a ballistic program was downloaded, that allowed me to make corrections for long-range shooting, turned out to be wet, all attempts to resuscitate it turned out to be in vain. I tested the carbine to zero at 200 meters, and left. Then I called a friend and asked to count the corrections on his calculator. I wrote down the corrections on a notepad up to 500 meters. We arrived in Rutul at night, the guide Zaire met us, as it should be according to the Eastern law of hospitality, he fed us, gave us tea, and almost put us to bed, but since the hunt was planned in the vicinity of the border with Azerbaijan, it was necessary to issue passes to the border zone, which was done. But the excessive vigilance of the border guards made us lose time. Alim and I stayed in the UAZ, while Lamet and Zaire went grocery shopping. When they came back, I sat into Lamet's Niva, and Zaire got into his UAZ and we went hunting, crossing the mountain river. We'd almost driven through it when the UAZ stalled. The situation was complicated by the fact that it was not possible to leave the car there, since we could not have driven further on the Niva. Somehow we pulled it out with the usage of the Niva, but spoiling the clutch. Later, when we were shaking in the Niva on a rocky mountain road, I thought how far-sighted the organizers had acted, when hedged and took two cars, because the only hunting day would have been lost. if there was one car. I tried to take a nap when we got to the hunting place, but it started to get light after half an hour. Zaire got out of the car and began to explore the surrounding mountains, I had a very bad headache, either from lack of sleep, or from the altitude above sea level. The sensations were very similar to those that I experienced when I got a mountain sickness in Kyrgyzstan, hunting the ibex, Zaire helped me cope with inner anxiety and excitement. There were many animals and I tried to focused my attention on them, unfortunately, there were mainly females and young individuals who were not of interest to me as a trophy. Zaire expressed the opinion that at the beginning of the season, the big males keep to themselves, they come to the females before the rutting season would begin. Zaire promised that we would find one or two males, but we should have to climb a small hill. It was a small hill by Zaire standards, and it was a very big mountain from my point of view. So, we started climbing. Zair. Alim and I went up, and Lamet stayed down to look after the camp. The ascent was very difficult, my head was pounding hard. The general weakness affected from a sleepless night, plus my poor physical fitness before hunting, and most importantly the specific of the landscape: lots of open spaces, the most parts of them were covered with small roots (stone scree) influenced to how I moved, I tried to take a step up, but the feet were falling and rolling down, there was no question of any stability in walking. I took a T3 Warmt Tic in a caliber of 6.5x55 rifle as the experiment with weapons and optics on this trip. It has a very good fight, a heavy barrel gave great stability and stability when shooting at long distances, but the weight of the rifle turned from its dignity into its disadvantage with long hiking, and turns into a very difficult test in the absence of proper physical training, heavy terrain to move, lack of horses. Alim, at the next pass, offered to drink cold tea of some kind of local production, and we drank a bottle of sugary drink for two. Zaire wisely refused, I didn't know how much time passed, I thought more than an hour and a half, but I already cursed this tea, it caused such an unbearable thirst that I didn't want anything but water. I was visited by the idea to stop hunting and go back down a couple dozen times, and even looked subconsciously for reasons to stop hunting and return, but the usual human shame did not allow me to admit my weakness to the guys and moved up, slowly moving my legs. Suddenly I saw a piece of snow almost at the top, where we were going. It affected me like a dope, I immediately told Zaire that I had to reach him. Zaire offered to take a backpack, I gave it without hesitation and rushed to the snow, it felt like wings had grown behind my back, when I got to the snow. I started to eat it, when noticed that a small stream was flowing below, and drank water from it. I made me the happiest person. You won't believe it, but I haven't drunk such delicious water from this not-quite-white snow. Then I noticed that Zaire was already at the top and rushed up. Zaire was already looking at the tur, when I got there. It lain at a distance of 650 meters from us, the male was good and I would have shot, but unfortunately the approximate corrections, written down in my notebook, were to five hundred meters only. I already wanted to start approaching the five hundred meters, but Zaire offered to wait and inspect the area for the presence of more turs, I agreed. I didn't know how much we monitored, but my patience came to an end, Zaire gave up and the plan was as follows. I should have to take a rifle and try to reduce the distance to the most reasonable, in my case about 500 meters. Two factors complicated the task, the first one was an absolutely open area with the stone scree, which I hated. The second was a large group of females who could notice me, but there was no choice, and I took a rifle, a camera and began to move, where in normal way, where crawling. Thus, I practically shortened the distance to the needed range, put the rifle on the bipod and heard Zaire shouted and started waving his arms. I tried to examine him through the optics and saw that he was waving his hands - come back. I looked at the place where the tur was lying in the optics, and did not see it. A large group of females was leaving in the distance on the left side. I had to go back to Zaire. My most terrible fears were confirmed, the females detected me and left, scaring the male. Zaire showed me four males who were lying in the settlement on the opposite side. They were at a distance of 200-300 meters from me, he tried to show me them on the horizon already leaving, I could not see them for a long time with my binoculars. It would be better if I did not succeed, because when I saw them, I had not experienced such a mood swing for a long time. Two from them stood out with very dark coloring and very huge horns. But, unfortunately, they were at an unattainable distance That was the end of my hunt. We began to descend. I promised myself while we was descending. that I would return once again and get a Dagestan tur.
Then there was the road to Makhachkala, where I had to wait for my friend from hunting on the Dagestan tur. By the way, his hunting turned out to be more successful. He got a record tur with horns under 94 cm and with a very good base. It even seemed to me that one of those two turs that I accidentally scared off, ran 300-400 km to him for a shot. Then there was a Caucasian feast and a fun road to home with adventures.
PS: I wanted to thank all the guys who organized the hunt, whom I met in Dagestan. I have a very stable opinion that these are very hospitable, hospitable, friendly and strong people. I will definitely return to these mountains. With great respect, Alexey Shevchenko.
