Today, we are visiting the Doctor of Economics, professor, deputy of the State Duma of three convocations – Yuri Viktorovich Vasiliev.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Yuri Viktorovich, our first question is traditional: how and why did you become a hunter?
Y.V.: I became a hunter because my father was a hunter. He was a military fighter pilot, fought through in the whole war. He shot down, was shot down himself but he remained alive and returned from the front. My Dad, like most military men related to weapons, was a hunter. The military societies were very solid organizations at that time. That hobby was welcomed. The most of the commanders–in-chief - generals, marshals were hunters. Since the war, officers were allowed to bring trophies, and my father brought a gun. I still have it. It's interesting, but it is not 16 or 12 caliber, but somewhere around 14. Damascus trunks, Lefoche locking lever. Unfortunately, modern gunpowder cannot be used for it, only smoky one.
I was 14, and we lived in Armavir at that time, when my father took me hunting for the first time. We hunted for the pheasant. It turned out that Dad shot the chicken pretty quickly and handed the gun to me – now it's your turn. We were walking along a forest path, I was all attention. I expected the bird to appear every minute, but it still turned out to be unexpected. Something rustled, clucked, flapped its wings ahead in the bushes, and a firebird showed before my eyes. The pheasant was incredibly beautiful! I raised my gun – the first shot, then the second and ... the pheasant flew away. But I didn't miss, I hit myself in the heart and since then I became a hunter.
Unfortunately, it was not always possible to hunt. It took a lot of time to study, then to work. I studied a lot. After school I entered the Rostov University, then I worked in Novocherkassk at the Polytechnic University then I did postgraduate studies in Leningrad and finally got to Pyatigorsk. When I started working as a teacher there, I fully returned to hunting. I bought my first gun - IZH-27. I still remember the price. It cost 27 rubles.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Did you prefer hunting alone or in company?
Y.V.: There we formed a team of friends-hunters. We could go to Kalmykia for a duck, for example. We gathered at someone's house beforehand of time and started to prepare cartridges. Someone knocks out an old capsule, someone cuts felt wads, someone fills with gunpowder, and so on. We did cartridges for ourselves. We even poured the pellets by themselves. We collected old batteries, looked for pieces of cables and smelted lead. The pellets turned out to be somewhat teardrop-shaped, but good enough for the duck hunting
We hunted mainly in the foothills for wild boar, birds, and deer. Sometimes, there were wolves, jackals, badgers and even Caucasian bears. I traveled to Kalmykia for goose hunting. Saiga was often hunted, in those days there were a lot of those animals, there were even special hunting brigades.
Then, by the will of fate, I got to Moscow. As far as my work allows, I regularly engage a in hunting here.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: When have you began to be interested in trophy hunting? What trophies do you have?
Y.V.: Trophy hunting is a sing. Nobody collected trophies in the past. Someone could make a hanger out of horns, and no one evaluated the extracted horns-fangs according to any rating systems. Telling the truth, there is no trophy hunting in Russia. Trophy hunting involves organization, large financial costs, the opportunity to show your trophies. There are very few people here who have devoted themselves to trophy hunting. All our hunting is for meat.
I didn't even think about the trophy characteristic of the beast when I hunted in the past. My biggest experience is roe deer hunting. I got about a hundred of them. I started hunting it when I lived in the south, in Pyatigorsk. There are a lot of roe deer there. I didn’t' want to throw away the beautiful horns, and began to collect the horns of males "in reserve". When I moved to Moscow and got acquainted with trophy hunters, that "stock" acquired a completely different meaning. Therefore, we can say that my first trophy is a European roe deer. Then I got Siberian, Altai roe deer. I was the first one in Russia, in Primorye, who took a Manchurian roe deer. Then I began to get trophies quite consciously. I joined the International Safari Club (SCI). I have always focused not on quantity, but on quality. Almost all of my trophies are gold, some silver. I hunted a lot of bears, there are trophies of Kamchatka, Koryak, and Amur, European, but I don't have Siberian one. This year, a trip to the Irkutsk region is planned to fill this gap.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Have you collected the Great Seven?
Y.V.: I need to take two trophies – the Yakut moose and lynx according to the "Seven". I didn't hunt the moose intentionally. I have no place where I can put it. I don’t have special trophy rooms. The part of my trophies is stored at home, part in the summer house. I wasn’t lucky with lynx hunting. I would say that the hunt for it is very random. You can't plan a hunt, go and get it. But I'm still going to hunt it in Irkutsk this year.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Have you forgotten about our traditional hunting after you are interested in trophy hunting?
Y.V.: Unlike some hunters who go for trophies only, I like different kinds of hunting - both for the beast and for birds. I like to hunt goose, duck, quail, woodcock. I love to hunt for the capercaillie. And try to do it every year.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: What is the geography of your trips?
Y.V.: As for Russia, I hunted almost everywhere - from Kolguev Island, I went there for geese hunting, to Kabardino-Balkaria and Cherkessia. And from Smolensk to Primorsky Krai. I hunted abroad in South America, in New Zealand. My goal is to get all the deer. I went to Africa, but I didn't really like it. I'm a good shot, and it's not difficult for me to hit game at a distance of two hundred meters. I didn't find anything interesting for myself there. But I wasn't in Asia yet.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: And where do you prefer to hunt in Russia?
Y.V.: I like to go to the Vologda region. They organize everything quite well there. Once I hunted a bear there. They immediately agreed with the processing plant. The specialists checked the meat and made a stew, smoked. There are problems all the time in other places.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: As far as I know, you are also passionate about mountain hunting…
Y.V.: When I was young, I hunted a lot in the Caucasus I got the Central Caucasus tur there. Now I want to assemble the Grand Slam of the Chamois of the World I have two. I got one in New Zealand, the other one in the Pyrenees. I agreed to hunt Cantabrian chamois in the fall there. Then I'm going to Macedonia for the Balkan one. After that I'll go to Serbia to hunt for Transcarpathian chamois. And the last one is the trophy of Alpine chamois, in Slovenia. I am 66 years old, and many mountain hunts are already too heavy. But I felt that I could do something after hunting for the Pyrenean chamois. Although I won't go for the Caucasian chamois hunting. I also refused from hunting ibex in Slovenia. Probably if everything is well, I'll try to get it in the Austrian Alps next year. It's easier to hunt there. I've already had all the European ibexes- Beceite, Southeastern, Rondo, Gredos, Kri-Kri. I only need to get the trophy of the Alpine ibex to completely close the list completely. And I need a Cantabrian chamois to close the Spanish seven.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Yuri, were there any dangerous situations on the hunt during your hunting career? How did you manage to come out of them as a winner?
Y.V.: I was always lucky in the mountains, but in general there were some situations. Once when I was on Kamchatka, a bear rushed at me. The guides frighted it down, and it jumped into the lake. I fired and pierced through the abdominal cavity. It attacked me immediately. The guide, who stood near me to protect, quickly ran away, and a huge, under three meters, the beast ran toward me. I remembered my childhood at that moment. How we visited our Grandma. There were steam locomotives that had steam flying out on the sides. The streams of blood flowed out from the wounds on its sides, it was a frosty morning, and the blood was steaming. I said to myself: “ Aim, Yuri”. I don't know why, but I've not been afraid. I was completely confident in myself. I took aim and shot under the head, into the heart. It fell at the same moment. I always hit to the place. I used to experiment long time ago and wanted to get into the head, into the eye, and then I realized that it was pampering. The hunter has to shoot to the “definite place” not to torment the animal. Otherwise, it leads to the situations when the hunters have to chase the wounded animal. Although there were cases when I shot boars, and then they ran two hundred meters with a broken heart. There was even a wild pig running after me. I was running around the trees from it until another hunter came to the rescue and got it.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: What kind of weapons do you use now?
Y.V.: After 1990, when it was allowed to have rifled weapons, I purchased a Tiger carbine. And now I mostly hunt with a "Blazer". I like it because it is possible to have five barrels of different calibers for one unit of weapons. So, I get a simplified registration of the whole arsenal for ammunition .222 , .30-06 Spring, 6.5-284???, .300 WinMag and 9,3x62. It means that I can hunt for any animal - from a groundhog to a bear.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Are you fond of varminting?
Y.V.: I go to the varmint hunting every year. It's very interesting. You need to know how to shoot. A good varmint is from seven kilograms and above, and I shot a trophy by thirteen kilograms! It was as big as a ram. Such a "professor" won't let you get closer than two hundred meters.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: How do you manage to maintain a shooting form?
Y.V.: I am a member of the Sporting club "Moscow" on Mozhaika and regularly go there to shoot. I mean, I train in the shooting gallery. We makes bets there, put one hundred rubles on a hundred meters and arrange a competition. I know that there are hunters who lose control over themselves, when they see any animal, and shoot if it's necessary or not. I don't approve of that. You have to go to the shooting gallery if you want to fire. I can't stand it when someone shoots at bottles – then the glasses are lying around. The hunter needs to shoot a lot, but to shoot in the dash, on the stand. I believe that the right eye in hunting is the most important thing. If a God gave you a sharp eye, you'll shoot, if not, no matter how much you train, "everyone is not fit to be a musician.”
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Which hunting agencies do you prefer to deal with?
Y.V.: I consider the Profi Hunt company to be one of the best in Russia. The first time I went goose hunting with them to Iceland and since then I prefer to hunt with them. I knew a number of hunters who traveled with Profihunt, then decided to organize a tour themselves, which should have been cheaper, and as a result they overpaid. Therefore, I've decided that it is better to travel with a "Profihunt" than to waste time, efforts and money on an independent organization of a tour, which often turns out to be a failure – after all, there is no demand from the such guides later.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: The situations can be very different, often dramatic, as in your case with a bear in Kamchatka. And each case can teach the reader of our magazine, to prevent him from a rash act. What cases could you share with us?
Y.V.: There were many of them. Each hunting is different. I remember all trophies. I can look at any of my trophies and tell you where I got it, how and under what circumstances. The longest shot was to the roe deer at 490 meters. It happened in the Krasnodar Territory. I was hunting the North Caucasian roe deer. The goat was standing far away, it was impossible to approach it – there was an open space around. So, I decided to fire. I used bipods. The wind was blowing from the male, and it didn't realize that it was being shot at. The first bullet did not reach fifteen meters., I was aiming at the spine. Then I raised the second one about forty centimeters, and the bullet passed under it. It jerked and went up the slope. Then stopped. I raised a meter the third shot and ... hit exactly in the lung. It ran about fifteen meters and fell into the thick grass. Such shots are certainly remembered.
A similar shot was fired at a European roe deer in Hungary. The hunting was organized in a very good place, I think that the organization of roe deer hunting there was one of the best in the world. Hunters from everywhere come there – from Spain, Scandinavia, England and even from Africa. The guides know personally all goats. You can come and say - I need a goat for gold or bronze, and the guide answers immediately whether there is one or not. If you call wherever in Russia and ask the same question, they say that everything is there, of any dignity. But when you arrive and you find out even without surprise that there is nothing at all. In Europe, they sent you to the territory where the specific specimen that is needed lives.
I suddenly remembered - how I let the beast to go only because I liked it, although he had good trophy qualities. I thought at that moment: "Go, walk with your reindeer girl-friends and produce offspring.” It was in Hungary.
And there was such a curious case. I was hunting for Pyrenean Chamois. On the first day we saw two animals but the huntsman said there were more. The second day we saw nothing. On the third day we found a good male. Then we crawled to it as close as it was possible and I put the carbine on the bipods. Suddenly the chamois began to move. I was leading it with a carbine, then the right moment came, and I shot. The splashes of manure flew in different directions! It turned out that the muzzle rested on a cow manure while I was moving the carbine. The next day, I took a good trophy.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Do you have someone to share your hunting experience with?
Y.V.: I have a grandson. He is 14 years old now, but he has been hunting with me since he has been 9 years old. He shoots well, we go to the shooting range with him to train. He has already hunted for wild boars, roe deer, pheasants. The last time we went to the Pyrenean chamois, and he withstood all the difficulties. We got up at half past three and climbed the mountains. Then we descended back to the camp, had a snack, rested and in the evening repeated that route once again. So he continues my father's hobby and mine.
“The Magic of Real Safari”: Thank you, Yuri Viktorovich, for an interesting conversation. I wish you to get all the trophies you want.
