In August 2017 when the hunting season for the mountain’s ungulates just started I put the ambitious goal to take five trophies of the Snow Sheep, permitted in Russia.
I’ve got the trophy of Kamchatka Snow Sheep a year before and need to take others.
Number 3
It took us 8 hours to drive 70 km by a four-wheeler to the habitat of the Koryak Snow Sheep.
I and Alexey Kim arrived to that camp in the second turn. Viktor Kim had arrived earlier and got his trophy of the Koryak Snow sheep already.
Alex and I still had to do it. Next morning our team, which included me, the outfitter and guides, went for the hunt. We divided into several groups and each started to examine the definite hill. In 15 minutes one of us had detected the lonely sheep. The only demand to the future trophy was that it had to be not less than 10 years old because we didn’t have much time for the hunt. I and Vladimir (my guide) started to approach the male while another guide monitored it staying in the bed of the river. We climbed 400 meters and I started to look for the comfortable shooting position when the thick fog covered the hills and the rain started. I tried to find the male through the scope but lost it. It moved to three meters aside and we had to go down and ascended to the next hill once again. I approached it 460 meters. It stood near the rock like the aim in the shooting range. The only problem was that its blended with the natural relief thanks to its color. I made one but accurate shot and did the second one just to be sure.
Then we made some pictures, took the genetic analyses and went back to the camp. There I knew that Alexey had got his trophy too.
Number 4
Last time I hunted in Okhotsk and managed to get only the trophy of the Kolyma Snow Sheep but the plan was to take two trophies. I couldn’t take the Okhotsk Snow Sheep. So I returned once again to finish what had started.
Next time I visited the Khabarovsk region was October, 2017. I arranged everything with Alexander Malkov and we (I and my cameraman Alexander) arrived to Okhotsk. The weather was good and we could immediately fly to the Base camp. The flight by chopper took us 40 minutes. We spent two day there examining the territory but found just few tracks. It was clear that our chances to find a good trophy at that place were not high. So we asked for the helicopter once again and moved to another region.
The traces of sheep presence had been noticed from the chopper while we were flying and it gave us hope. We landed in 60 km from Okhotsk.
The camp was set in the very unusual place. The huge forest fire at the beginning of the last century had burned miles and miles trees. They died but remainded stand, amazing natural spectacle of the Apocalypse.
We found lots of sheep tracks and dungs and even the places where they had rest. The first animal, it was female with a baby, we met at the end of the day. Later we detected several males but it became dark and we had to delay the hunt for the next day.
It was hurtful to watch just females and young males on the Day#4. I full of thoughts that it was a mistake to hunt in that place and the best way out to leave it.
Day #5. I stayed in the camp because wanted to have rest while the guides examined the mountains. At 8.30 am one of them –Sergey, told us by radio that detected the group of 7 males and some of them had trophy size. Our group marched 6 km with the climb 700 meters while he guided us by radio.
We looked for the group about 15 minutes but they were out of our sight but fortunately we did it! The shooting distance was 680m. I fired and all group ran up to the mountains but one of them halted and stopped. In a few minutes another one stopped near it. What had happened? Could I wounded two males by the one shot? Probably the bullet went through the male and ricocheted. Later we knew that another male stopped because was very curious and wanted to understand what had happened with the leader. Than it followed the others. Thus, I got 13 years old male with the horns 82 sm.
Number 5
I had to change my hunting schedule because of the second visit to Okhotsk. At the beginning I was going to hunt in Yakutia in October but could arrive there just in November which was considered to be not the easiest time for hunting. I and my cameraman arrived to Yakutsk on November 17th and were informed that the average temperature was -30 centigrade. One more difficulties was that I could hunt just 8 days from twelve which we planned before.
Yakutia is the coldest region on our planet and more than 40% of its territory located beyond the Arctic Circle. There are some places where the temperature could drop to -70 degrees Celsius. You one thing to know the theory and another one to feel it yourself.
The local outfitter Alexander Motorin met me in Yakutsk. We needed to drive about 750 km by LandCruiser to the hunting area where he and his brother Konstantin organized hunting trips for the foreign hunters. They started to cooperated with our Club from 2017. The Route P504 is known as the Kolyma highway. That huge transport artery with a total length of 2032 km, stretches through the permafrost from Yakutsk to Magadan. It crosses lots of rivers and lakes. In winter the cars travel by ice and sometimes it ends very tragically. Some cars which couldn’t get out of ice and stayed there till summer. But the most part of the road has soil-crushed stone cover. The construction of the road began in 1932 by the prisoners of Gulag and used for the transportation of gold and coal from the local mines. The construction didn’t stop in summer or winter and thousands of people died there. In the conditions of permafrost all dead bodies were laid under the road’s cover and now that was is also known as the Road of Bones.
The first night we spent in the village Handyga. All next day drove to the small village Nezhadnskoe, build near the big golden mine.
The "filthy lucre" was found in 1951 and it became the point after which the village started to grow. At the nineties its population was about 2000 people but then the economy ruined and most of the people left it. It’s still active but resembles the ghost town.
The last part of the road we were going to drive by GAZ -66 and Ural which belonged to the local guy Peter. The last 80 km we would have to move up the riverbed. That way was full of ice hummocks and it was dangerous to drive alone. The jammed car would frost in a minute and if it wasn’t pulled out immediately it wouldn’t drive further. Thus, we used three cars for safety. The locals suggested to start at early morning and spend the night in the village. It was the right decision because all next day we spent pulling out the cars from ice. By the way , that Ural hadn’t brakes because the brake pads would freeze to the disks and you could stop is just using the engine. And even that monster stuck few times.
It took us 7 hours to cross the final part of the way. It was the late evening when we arrived to the camp, totally tired after the long and exhausted road. The total transfer time was about 40 hours. It was a pleasure to spent that night in the warm and comfortable cabin.
Hunting in November is very effective because sheep used to go down from the mountains. But not all people can appreciate it because the average temperature is -35 -45C. The only positive moment is that air is dry and it seems warmer than it is.
We spent daylight hours for the road and I had just one day for the hunt. And don’t forget how tired I was.
We started at early morning and I was impressed by the number of animals! I had never seen such high population density of the mountain ungulates. Probably I saw something like that in the North Ossetia but not so. We detected some groups of animals which grazed on the hills just sitting in the camp. We drove about 3-4 km from the camp and spotted 4-5 small groups of animals. There were some trophy size sheep but we detected the definite group while driving to the camp and wanted to find it. The group which we saw, was in 5 km from the camp last time and we drove to that destination. We were lucky because the animals were on the same place. Four big males stood on the top of the hill. We decided to go around the hill and climb. The temperature was -37C and we had to ascend to 600 meters. My feet were cold but after the climb I was wet under the warm cloth.
I detected the group of 4 males which moved up to the mountains. The distance between us was 535 meters.
The breech bolt of the gun froze and I had to warm it. But I got my trophy from the first accurate shot.
I had to note that mountain hunting in the frost -37C isn’t same like hunting in the normal temperature.
Each mountain hunting is extreme but if you need to feel new emotions or increase the extreme level, I suggest to make it in -40C degrees. It'll be double extreme. I promise. Thank you very much to Alexander Motorin for the organization of this hunt. Everything was organized on the high level . The only complexity was in the logistic which took us 40 hours driving to the camp. But It worth it!
