It was very interesting and difficult hunt in the highlands. The guides knew where the animals were but it took time to track down. All shooting distances start from 350m. The height in my case was 4555m.
After the unsuccessful hunt on the Himalayan Ibex in March, I had to return to Pakistan in December. The friends, who hunted at this time, told me that the hunt must be easy and it might take about 30 minutes. This theme Ibex are in heat: they crowd and go down. Moreover, the snow drives them down, where the grass is still present. Indeed, we have seen a lot of Ibex from the road, however, I was without my rife at that ride, because the Pakistan authorities wasted to much time and didn’t do the permit for the gun import in time. As a result, I was hunting with an old carbine 7mm Remington, kindly given by the organizers. To tell the truth, we have not seen shootable goats from the road. Young males were roaming. The local law prohibits shooting of the males with lengths of horns less than 38 inches. I was shown a group of Ibex, which I should hunt on. I thought, that the distance is not that long and the elevation is not hard. However, it turned different. We started at 3.30 in the morning from the height 2400 m a.s.l, and it took 9 hours for the elevation, which was hard and steep. Besides the steep elevation, we had to walk around the valley for we could reach our Ibex from above. A lot of power was lost for the moving. It is really hard to run at the heights about 3000 meters a.s.l. just right after the plane without acclimatization. And we have reached the height 3600 m a.s.l. The difference of 1200 meters is not easy, we know it as a mountain hunters. As a result, we reached the group of animals from above: the best outcome in the mountain hunt. I shot from the distance 150 meters. It was hard to catch the largest male, because it covered by the younger individuals. At least I noticed an opened back for a second and shot precisely. A wonderful 12-year old male. My friend Sergey Magidov took his own trophy at the first day as well. We had just one day for the hunt, the business called before the New Year.
This hunt was the last one in our combination Austria-Romania- Bulgary and took less an hour. We were lucky with the weather and visibility. The concentration of Chamois there is really high.
It was hard to get this Carpathian Chamois. We walked about 6 hours in the snowy forest before saw animals not their tracks. I’ve got the record trophy in that hunting area in that season-119 CIC. Personal thanks to Ilya Dmitriev and “Safari and Expeditions”.
I got Alpine Chamois and Ibex easily. Also I’ve managed to improve my result with European mouflon. Personal thanks to Ilya Dmitriev and “Safari and Expeditions”.
I shot the trophy of Kri-Kri Ibex on the Sapiendza Island. Only smoothbore guns are permitted for this hunt. It was restricted three years ago to make hunt video. I shot from 75m distance and wounded it. Then I and my guide Petros chased the animal and took it. It was good 10 years old male. Rifle, caliber 12 with high-speed cartridges (550м/с !! )Remington Slugger. I tested it on 50,70 and 100m. Than we drove to Musaki town on the north of Greece. My guide suggested corral hunting. We climbed not high and I stayed at the narrowest place of the gorge. There was the cave above me where animals slept and the guide started to went down shooting and making noise. The first Ibex showed in 15 minutes. It came to me at the distance 40m and I shot. It stopped and I shot once again, the goat fell. So I harvested Kri-Kri (Hybrid) Ibex. Thanks a lot for this hunt to the guides Paul and Petrosos.
In mid-November, flew to Gorno-Altaisk for a Capricorn. I was met by Konstantin Nikolaevich Saylankin (Uch-sumer). On the same day we got to Tungur. The next morning, having reached the Akkem gorge on Gas 66, we mounted our horses and moved to the foot of Belukha Mountain. In the evening we reached the Akkem meteorological station. In the morning, rising to the mountains, we saw a group of ibex, among which was a trophy specimen. Approached 320 meters. When I took off the fuse, an involuntary shot occurred ((. I fired several times, but did not hit. On the fourth day we went out in the direction of Belukha. We noticed two groups of ibex on opposite sides. Decided to go left. We climbed, approached 310 meters. They lay. After waiting for the ibex chosen by us to rise, I fired a shot, hit slightly behind the shoulder blade, it ran. The third and fourth shot hit the wrong place. The fifth reached the goal and the ibex rolled down. I got Altai ibex! Carabiner Blazer P 93, caliber 300 VinMag, Akkubond 11.7gr. Bullet, Knightforce 4-16x42 F1 sight. Thanks to Saylankin Konstantin Nikolaevich, rangers Igor and Aidar.
At the end of October Viktor Nikolaevich, Maxim Vorobev (Profi Hunt) and me flied to Kathmandu through Doha. We arrived at noon and drove to the hotel. The next two days we spend drawing up all papers. On the fourth day we flied to Dhorpatan. The trek to the last Nepal village Dule took us about three hours. Next day we were trekking once again and broke down with my companions on the day six. Viktor went for the Blue Sheep and then for a Tahr and I was going to hunt for Himalayan Tahr because our outfitter couldn’t take the license for a sheep. Four of us walked about 10 km to the hunting camp. Me and Amrit sat down to have some rest when our guide Bahri ran and said that he had noticed the trophy size Tahr very close. We climbed and I shot it. I was so happy! It was the nice trophy of Himalayan Tahr. The distance was 220m , height 3500m, Blazer P93, WM300.All next day we devoted to cutting meat. Then we spend 3 days trekking to Dule. I’ve got small deer like our musk deer. It also has fangs. On the day 13 we met Viktor and Maxim. They had successful but hard hunt. On the day 14th we trek to the chopper base. It arrived and when we decided to fly back it started on the third attempt. At last we took off and arrived to Kathmandu. Next day we fly home to Moscow. Thanks a lot to Maxim Vorobev and Amrit.
I hunted in the Sonora region not far from the town Caborca which is located in three hours to the north from Esmorilio. The local landlord Segio Garibai, on the ranch of whom we stayed, can get just one license for the Desert Bighorn per year. He organizes hunts for the wild pigeons and turkey also there are coyotes, wilds cats, pumas, mule deers and peccaries. Our guide Jorge had found few groups of sheep beforehand. There weren’t the direct road from the ranch to the hunting place and it took us three hours to drive there. When we arrived Jorge led us to the southern slope though the sheep were noticed on the northern one. He thought that the animals would come but it didn’t happen. It’s evidently that animals prefer to stay in shadow when it’s hot and there are much more food for them. We waited for three hours when I convinced Jorge to come to the northern side where two guides were observing sheep. They saw two different groups, the first one consists of four females and two males in 600m from us and the second bigger one was in 1.5 km from us. Sheep had day rest and we had to wait. At 2 pm I insisted on moving to the first group. They wouldn’t come to us in any case. The females were alarmed, although they did not leave, but began to behave cautiously. I didn’t notice any males there. Sergio by walkie talkie suggested to come to the second group. Jorge weighed about 110 kg and I guessed that he disliked the idea to walk so far but the decision was taken. The wind was blowing into our backs, which could not help but worry, because the sheep could smell us and ran away. Trekking took about an hour. Jorge was far behind me and I decided not to wait him and went on. After climbing up I saw the groups of sheep. Most of them were females, I found just one male in the bush. The distance was 300m. Sergio has the rifle 300 wm which is accurate bus has one feature very easy trigger release. It’s good for mountain hunts but you have to know how to work with it or can make a random shot. I was laying and watching for the only ram which was closed by females. At last it got up on the open rocks and I made the only but accurate shot. The ram fell. Other animals had ran but not far, it meant that the bighorn was died and they didn’t understand the reason. At that moment me and the operator noticed three more males and even bigger but the permit was closed. I got the trophy. It was my 37th sheep from the MHC list. Next day we decided to hunt for the mule deer because had enough time before the departure. We started early morning and drove till 3 pm, met two young males and lots of females but didn’t find trophy size deer. I received pleasure from that hunt in any case. Hunting is the process and it’s not always finished by the shot.
This hunt impressed me so much that one day I’d write the article not only report. Hope to do it. I’ll try to be short. It took us three days to reach the hunting area and the last two days we treked. After 4 hours sleep we started climbing up. I fired a short at 7.30 am to the nice argali from the 508 m distance and missed. The bullet didn’t reach one meter to the animal. I checked the gun. Zero jumped up/down on 5/4 sm, left/right on 2/1sm. I supposed it happened because of cold and low pressure. The different bullets speed confirmed this idea but I had to check it once again. I took the magazine to the sleeping bag and kept it warm till the next hunt which happened in a day.Next time I shot realizing where Zero could be and used the cartridge which kept warm for it. The shot was done from the distance 545 m, and hit to its the shoulder. The sheep separated from the herd, rose up to 300m and lay down. It became darker, weather changed and we knew that the leopard walked around that’s why we couldn’t wait and got the trophy . It took us an hour. It was my 40th trophy from the MHC list. My deep appreciation to Stalker Group and personally to Evgeny Haritonov who accompanied my in this unforgettable trip. Thanks a lot to Radza Mehmud and his team. Also thank you very much to Seifull Hum for his support.
I continue to tell about mountain hunting in Texas. I got there one more trophy of the Barbary sheep which didn’t plan before because I took it in Spain already. But Roudy assured me in the excellent hunting parameters of the local Barbary sheep and I'd decided to hunt for the species which already had. We immediately drove for the hunt. It took us and hour and a half to reach the elevation 1600-1700 masl. We examined the surroundings about 3 hours and didn’t detect any male just females with babies. That’s why we had to make the decision to stay at this region and go on looking for the trophy or drive to the next place where we had seen some sheep while hunted for the Armenian Mouflon. We didn’t have much time because our flight to Russia would be next day. In thirty minutes Roudy spotted the sheep in 1,5 km from us. It wasn’t huge but had trophy size. I decided not to lose the opportunity. We drove by buggy 700m to it and hid behind the bush. Suddenly we noticed one more sheep with more outstanding parameters. It was bigger and its horns were more massive and its’ beard had while color. Roudy and I started to approach them. The sheep didn’t smell us and were moving towards us. I made the first shot when there was 250 meters between us. You can see by video that I hit the aim but it wasn’t the fatal one and the sheep went on moving. I fired once again and hit to its’ neck. The male fall but Roudy suggested to shoot once again just to be sure, because these animals were very strong and it could ran away from us even being badly hurted. I followed his advice. It had the impressive size. Its’ weight was more than 100 kg. The trophy had very interesting color. According its horns it was more than 10 years old. We made pictures and went back to the camp. Next morning we had to fly home because the hunt was over already. We spent 2 days and got three trophies. Thank you very much to Roudy and John for their professional skills, hospitality and interest in the job. We were very successful because all team worked well. I’d got positive experience and ready to go back to Texas.
We got the trophy of the Red Sheep and went back to the camp where we had lunch and decided that the hunting day was over. But our guide Rowdy had other plans. I and my cameraman were tired because of the time difference and didn’t understood each other well. We were going to take rest when Rowdy came and said to prepare for the next hunt. We had to plan to take two trophies but has taken just one. That’s not in my rule book to refuse from such suggestions. I arrived to Texas not to have rest but to take trophies. We drove by buggy about forty minutes when detected the group of barbary sheep and Rowdy offered to take notes of them. But my priority was to get an Armenian mouflon and we decided to concentrate on it, though I promised to think about a Barbary Sheep later. Fortunately Rowdy spotted the males of the Armenian mouflons but couldn’t measure the distance. Something was wrong with the rangefinder. He did it by his own binocular but said the distance in feet. While he converted feet to meters, the males gathered in one group, males and females, and we couldn’t fire because there was the chance to wound the second animal. We had enough time and I decided not to hurry and enjoyed our stay there. We continued to move and tried to solve the problem with the rangefinder. We changed the battery but it didn’t help. It was dusk when Rowdy noticed four males which could have the trophy size. The distance was 900 meters. We approached them from the left. Our guide expressed concern that sheep could reveal us on the open place and so it happened. When it was 300 m to the group they smelled us and ran to the opposite side. We turned out to be on the opposite slope and decided to fire. The topography of the slope wasn’t comfortable for shooting and it took time to find the place and aim. I spent about 2-3 minutes to find the aim. It was too much in such situation. I shot ahead. We all followed the bullet by eyes and saw how it came a little bit higher, though according my calculation it would have to hit the goal. When I arrived back to Ekaterinburg and analyzed the video, we saw that the bullet went before the male’s breast. We think that the wind’s changed its trajectory. It’s an experience which I’ll use in future. So, let’s come back to Texas. I missed the shot and we drove back to the ranch. We had dinner and went to bed because Rowdy promised to wake up us before the sunrise. The weather changed and it became cold. Our PH explained that the wind which prevented us to hit the male yesterday , brought this cold. But the sun rose and it became warmer. In a half an hour after we left the ranch, Rowdy detected the herd of males in 350m from us. I was picking the place to shoot when mouflons disappeared from the sight. We couldn’t understand what had happened but decided to drive around the slope and did it. I spotted two males which were running and made the signal to Rowdy. He nodded and pointed to shoot the left one because it had the trophy size. I couldn’t time to think it over and fired from the shoulder. Nobody noticed whether I hit it or not. We reached the place where the males were before and found the blood. It was a good sign but the bloody track leaded parallel to the slope. When the animal is badly injured it runs down, not parallel . Fortunately in thirty meters the tracks led down and in ten metes down we found the male. It was my second American trophy- Armenian Mouflon. It was the interesting animal, bigger a little bit than the Red Sheep though they looked similar. The main difference between these two species is in the end of the horns. Now we were ready to take the third trophy.
It was the exhausting but very interesting hunt which began from the hospitable meeting and talk. Then we drove to the hunting area and it took us 17 hours’ drive. The road passed near the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan and resembled the roller coaster. We drove up and down with steep turns. Our team arrived to the camp in the late evening we had dinner and went to bed. Next morning we got up very early and moved to the mountains. The guides who were very experienced found the animals pretty soon but we could not approach them.. Fortunately there was one more group in 1500 meters from us and we tried to come to them. We came as close as we could, I did all sets and fired. I got that desired trophy and achieved some goals. It was the first time when I hunted on the altitude 4486 masl, and shot from the distance 663 meters. I got one of the most beautiful trophies who gave its life and presented me the memory lanes which I’d never forget.
