Отчеты охотников

It is less than 4 hours of drive by car from the Erzrum airport to the Yaylalar village. The elevation from 2000 meters a.s.l, where the village is placed to the height 2800 meters a.s.l.. Here we found a group of Chamois. The first attempt to approach was unsuccessful: the back wind spoiled everything. The animals started to go away from us. Then me and the elder ranger decided to make a detour, make a long way and go to the back ridge elevating to the level of animals reaching the animals from the lee side. It took teo hours. We reached the height 3200 meters a.s.l. and went to the resting Chamois on the distance of about 100 meters. This hunt was fast, but not that easy. The organism had to strain after the restless night due to the elevation of more than 1000 meters.

I hunted in Ossetia for Chamois and got it from the 430m distance, angle 21 degrees. The first shot hit to the stomach and the second one finished it. Rifle Blazer R8, cal 7mm rem mag.

I hunted for the Dagestan Tur in the North Ossetia (Alania).  I prepared for this trip for six month. Of course I imagined how it could be and took part in mountain hunts before but this hunt surpassed all my expectations and ideas about the complexity. It didn’t last long but I’m not sure that any other hunt can compare with this hunt in Ossetia in its complexity.  We started at the morning. There was one more Russian hunter with me in the group- Leonid Kazantsev. We knew that two American hunters were going to chase in the same area. They were elder than we were and not in good physical conditions that’s why  guides decided to track with them by the more gentle slope while our group would climb by the most difficult. We had some food, drank tea and went to bed at 7pm. At 10.30 pm we woke up, collected the backpacks and went. The stars  glittered on the anthracite-black sky, the Gypsy sun slightly showed from behind the mountains and hid. I felt the scattering of boulders under the feet , which constantly touched the socks of mountain shoes. We had lights but didn’t use them because tried to observe the secrecy in case of meeting turs. At last we crossed the valley and the climb had started. Good for us that it was night and we couldn’t see its steepness.  If I saw in in the daylights I couldn’t be sure that it’d be possible to rise by such vertical slope. We two with three guides and our outfitter started at 11 pm and climbed at 6am. We clambered by the stone loose, slippery from the frozen condensate on the surface of the stones, and  sharp rocks. We supported and helped each other each time when the fellow who climbed first rolled back or when stones rolled under our feet.  At 4am we heard  a crash. The part of the glacier broke away and rushed down with the booming roar. It fell to the place where we left our cars. In a few minutes we heard one more crash. I felt Goosebumps. We often stopped to take the breath because sometimes it seemed to me that my heart could break the chest. We went up to 3000masl. At 4.30 the guide who went with the American hunters contacted with us and told very mournful news which made us to think about the sense of life and reality. One of the American hunters died! It happened that according his health he had not even approach  to the mountains. Silence fell, we couldn’t see each other but felt the tension and worried about our college- hunter. We stayed there some time trying to realize what had happened.  We would discuss it later in the camp but at that moment I remember the words of the well know song, written by Vysotsky. l “And others will come and change the warmth For risk and this trial of work They’ll follow the abandoned route of yours” After a pause and  we paid tribute to the departed in the world of "eternal hunt" hunter and continued our hard way. Life goes on and it doesn’t stop when somebody dies and we can’t change it. We went by touch to the top of the gorge Jimara  and soon noticed the lights of Vladikavkaz. The city lived its life, we trekked our way. At the sunrise we estimated what way we overcame yet. Somebody could be dizzy just looking at the way which we has passed already. Close to the top the path became more gentle but the height was 3500 and I felt the oxygen deficiency. We climbed at last. The guides observed the opposite slopes where as they thoughts males could be but didn’t find anyone. We went be the slope and some female turs with cubs ran across in 200m in front of us. We hid behind the huge stone and waited for males. We spent about an hour at that place. Piercing wind used any crack in our cloth and we was cold but suddenly we noticed the herd of males which moved to our side from the opposite ridge. Aslan and Jamal led the other hunters to the shooting positions. In five minutes I made the first shot. The distance was 200m, the angle 35 degrees. It was enough to get it. Leonid made two shots, wounded the animal and it ran away. Unfortunately the male ran down and we couldn't  take it the same day. We made pictures, had short lunch, took the trophy and went back. It was out of the question to come back by the same way and we chose the opposite slope. I couldn’t say that that way was the light walk. It took us 7 hours to rise and  five hours to go down. The guides detected birds which circled in the sky above the spot in the direction where the wounded tur ran. It’s a sign that the animal is over. We calmed Leonid who worried about this shot. Next day the guides found his trophy and took it to the base. Leonid got one more trophy Chamois at the last hunting day.Totally we trekked with backpacks 12 hours.Our experienced outfitter told us that it was the most difficult climb in his life. According the guides reactions we understood that nobody expected that it’d be so hard. The average degree of rise was 50 but sometimes we crawled on all fours by the 70 degree slope. But we did it, we overcame everything and got our honorable trophy!  Thank you very much to Aslan, Jamal, Guy. Great thanks to Sozanov Tzara, Karaev Kazbek and Natalya Sozanov, for their hospitality and help. Special thanks to our outfitter Dmitry Vstovsky.

On the eight day of my travel in Okhotsk sea I got my trophy which is the fifth sheep from the Far East and tenth from the GSCO List. I shot from above , the distance was 76m, after the correction. I used Blazer P93, cal 300 WM, bullet Accubond 11.7gr.Also I got the bear from the 240m distance. It fell from the rock to the elfin wood and we had to worry while fount it. Thank you to Profi Hunt company and personally to Alexander Klyazin for the organization of this hunt. Also I appreciate the work of the guides Sergey and Vasily.