How my dream has become my profession (the interview with Dmitry Vstovsky to the regional paper Priziv 2009)
Dmitry Vstovsky is an interesting interlocutor and has a very rare profession. He is a host of the programs on TV, makes doc movies and publishes articles in such magazines as “Five Hunts”, “Safari”, “Hunting and Fishing XXI” and hunts. Hunting has become his style life. His trophy of the moose, taken in Yakutia got the second place in the world and his Kuban Tur became number seventeenth. He has great health and steel nerves. How did you become the outfitter? - It didn’t depend on me. I was three years old when began to go to the forest with my parents. I even had my own backpack. My first memories were about nature, fishing and how we slept in the tent. I always liked it. Then Russian scouts taught me how to survive in the nature. First time when I arrived USA in 1989, I visited the scout's camps and was impressed and liked how their staff taught kids how to treat and to respect our nature. (I didn’t know much about them at that time. That's why their movement didn't influence to my development. We should use this experience when training young generations in our county or in the world) Or you can delete this sentence. I dreamed to be a hunter from my childhood. I studied in the school #23 in Vladimir and took part in shooting competitions with the usage of rifles and pneumatics. As long as I can remember, I've been playing sports all my life - football, volleyball, skiing, running, karate, handball. Later it helped my much. All school years I was fond of reading and literature was one of my favorite subjects - especially poetry. Also I liked history, languages. I translated a lot. I graduated the faculty of foreign languages in my town and studied German language as the second one. Before the Army I worked in the Intourist agency where got the invaluable experience how to organize touristic trips and learnt the concept of national psychology. Each nation no matter if we talk about Norwegians, Americans, Germans or Austrians has the its own psychological features and the outfitter has to know about it. It's very important to be polite and diplomatic when you communicate with the representatives of different nationalities on the territory of Russia or in other countries of CIS. It’s much easier to work when you know the local traditions and respect the history and spiritual values of the people with whom you work. It also helps to find the mutual understanding in the most difficult situations. My colleagues from Northern Ossetia really appreciated it. It was not an easy matter to become a hunter in the Soviet time. Fortunately, I became the member of the Hunting community when was in the Army. I served in the motorized rifle troops and had studied how to shoot from all kinds of small arms. I am a reserve officer. But I didn’t have the opportunity to hunt there. Thus, I became a real hunter when came back home to my motherland Transbaikalia in 1984. - What should the outfitter know and be able to do? - Nobody will teach you how to become the outfitter. All people who work by this specialty can be anyone- the helicopter’s engineers, financial analysts or teachers. But you have to know a lot before you'll start to work. I always say that the horse health and nerves of steel are very important when you work in this sphere. The outfitter has to be endurance, in a good physical condition and smart who knows the base of management, taxidermy can speak one or better two foreign languages, and understands in firearms and cold weapons. He has to know the Russian and foreign legislation and be good in psychology. Just imagine what you should feel when change different time zones each week and constant air travel or experience maximum physical exertions on the heights from 1000 to 5000masl. All these activities take place in a short period of time from August to December. - Not to everyone? - Everybody can make it if he has a desire. I use everything what have studied in my life before. I dreamed about hunting but couldn't imagine that would become the outfitter in the full meaning of this word. Real outfitters can be counted on your fingers. - How many of them are in Russia? - Not many professionals. The fingers of two arms are enough to count all of them. There is a shortage of responsible people with high professional skills in Russia. There are only a few of them who can substitute the any specialist in the chain of hunting tourism, starting from the guest meeting to the hunting process. There are the emergency situations when the client has already crossed the ocean to get the trophy but the local outfitter can't get the license because of personal conflict, for example. What should they do? It damages my reputation and the business suffers. I have to change everything on the go to find the solution. - Do the professional outfitters know each other? - Of course, we know. We meet, communicate and have even decided to establish the Federation of Hunting and Fishing tourism (FHFT)and invited other people who are interested in it to join us. We invite the owners of hunting farms to join us. But they are interested in it because think that we decide all questions without them. We defend the interests of all sides and our goal is the profitable business for all. It’s better for all. - Your authority among outfitters and among clients is indisputable. How many years did you work to create it? - You earn the reputation for decades, and you can lose it overnight. That’s why it more expensive more than any profit. Sometimes we work without any profit just to save the reputation because of somebody’s failure, mistake or arrogance. I should do my best to provide the trophy for the hunter- client with the reasonable trophy features and to leave the best impressions from the trip and from the host. I often fix bugs of my partners using my physical or moral strengths and time because I have responsibility before the client who crossed thousands km to Moscow and then to the hunting land just to make the only shot. And if the trip organization is poor it won't happen. I’m waiting for the group now which has been in such situation. I know that many owners of hunting lands want to work directly with the clients without us but don’t have all the necessary skills to replace us. They don't realize how difficult it is. And not profitable from the financial side. - Do you have clients who work with you for many years? - One American hunters who recommend me to all friends will hunt with me for the six time. The American hunters don't understand what and how I do at the airport. But I have to fill papers for arms, trophies, to collect lots of docs and to get permissions. They see how I run back and forth, then see the result and respect my work. It's one of the way to get clients' loyalty. - Today I have your own business and a good reputation. Is it time to delegate everything to the others and to rest on your laurels? - It’s a difficult question. I’ve just explained what the man has to know to become the outfitter. One life isn’t enough. Where can I find such man? All my employees only counted how much would they have in cash. Our business isn’t one where you’ll shovel money but have to know and to work a lot. I tried to train a replacement. I employed two guys. They just bit off a big nut. Buy my daughter helps me. She is a diplomat by training but helps me when it’s necessary and organizes everything on the place. Not far ago she’d regulated the very serious problem when the representatives of the authority in Yakutia wanted to take off our clients’ weapon. She called me by satellite and we could manage to regulate the conflict. Then some people wondered how she managed it. - Are you responsible for the arms on the territory of the country? - It's absurd, but it's true. The legal entity is responsible for the weapon delivered to the territory of Russian Federation and you, as the representative of the entity has to accompany the hunter everywhere. It's different abroad. In Kyrgyzstan the hunters gets the permission and he is responsible for his own rifle. Our Federation tries to resolve this question because it's not logical to take responsibility for the private things of an individual. Fair hunting - Do you have time to hunt by your own? What trophies have you got? - I celebrated 50th anniversary in this year and my partners presented me a trip to Kamchatka where I hunted for a bear. The peninsula is known by the high-density population of bears. I hunted after the client who arrived from USA and got his trophy in the first day. I was driving in the sleds hooked the snowmobile. We were crossing the stream when the sledge broke the flimsy ice and I and all equipment including the gun fall into water. The temperature was about zero and water temperature was the same but it didn’t calm me. I stood knee-deep in water and tried to save the backpack where I put camera. Then I went ashore, emptied water from the shoes, wrung out the clothes, and wool socks. The guides were shocked when I fall into water. You can’t even imagine their faces when I asked: “Where is the bear?” I made it clear that was going to hunt after swimming. I knew that everything would be ok while I was moving. I skied about 7 km to the hunting area at that day. I worried that I would get cold if it was needed to seat and to wait. But the bear, we had found, didn't lay for a long and stood up in a half of an hour. I did two accurate shots and got it from 280m shooting distance. When we were going back, I fall into water once again when crossed the stream by the stones and carried the ski in the hands. But I didn't care anymore about it. We made pictures with the trophy, skinned it and went back to the snow machine. I saw two more bears when we were driving back. It was totally dark about 11 pm when we arrived to the camp. It was a real fair and labor hunting! It took me three days to dry everything. Fortunately, I saved the film and the movie camera, which is not true of the camera. I had even filmed the hunting report. I like all my trophies but want to tell you about one which means a lot for me. It's a trophy of moose that I got in Yakutia. I hunted there with three hunters from Hungary. They all got their trophies and when it was my turn to hunt, I’d got the infection from one of our guides. I was sick when went for hunting but couldn’t but that chance. I weren’t sure if I’d be there again. The way to the hunting land took us 6 hours flight to Yakutsk then 3 hours more to the village Zyryanka and two hours to the hunting base. It was twilight when I made a shot from 180 m being absolutely tired and sick. I refused to fire twice during that day by ethical reasons. But the local hunting God Bayan gifted me a moose which got the second place according the SCI system and was listed in the International Book of Records «Safari Club International» (SCI). - How do experts determine that your moose is the second in the world? The experts who do it are certified by the SCI system. - Wild boars are evaluated by the size of their tusks, bears and wolves by their skulls and skins, and there are several parameters for moose such as the span of the horns, the length and thickness of the tips. I received the certificate and a walnut plaque with a gold medal attached to it. But the most important thing is that my name is mention in the Hunting table of ranks on the second place. - Do the horns stay here in Russia? Do you have a special trophy room with a fire place and trophies on the walls? - No, I haven’t. But who knows? May be I’ll do it. I liked to look through the pictures and remembers how I hunted the trophies when I’m in a bad mood and it helps. Each of them is a part of my life. I have really nice trophies of the maral, the ibex and the Kuban and Dagestan turs. They are endemics that dwell on the territory of the Caucasus only. But in addition to trophy hunting I really love birds hunting in all forms: on the duck with the approach and on the flights, on the grouse with the decoy, on the black grouse and on the broods with the cop. I’m fond of hunting for snipe birds with my friends the drathaars. That hunt has the poetry of nature, and harmony when you hunt with a dog and the amazing moment when you shoot. I relax when hunt in such ways and forget about all problems.
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