For the hunt for the Dagestan or Mid-Caucasus Tur I flew with my old friends Mushfig, Arzu and Viktor Nikolaevich Kim. We prepared for this trip for several month and at last arrived to Baku on June 21. The local outfitters met us at the Geidar Aliev airport. We quickly finished all customs procedures. You just need come to the computer, enter you name and passport number and push one-two buttons and the document is ready. All papers for guns were prepared before by the hunting company. Then we drove about 4 hours to small village Isticy (what is translated from Azerbaijani means "hot water") and located near the boundary with Dagestan. The locals can’t transfer people four hours and don’t feed them. That’s why we made a stop in a small village for breakfast. The recipe of the Azerbaijani scrambled eggs can seem a little strange to a Russian person: several large tomatoes are poured with boiling water and peeled, then the flesh is fried for a long time (or rather boils) in the butter. The Azerbaijani cook only with butterAfter it they add some eggs to tomatoes. You have to eat it by flat bread or by hands only. After that hearty breakfast we drove some hours to the point on the height 800m where changed cars to Kamaz and drove further to the heigh 1400m where we had to have the rest in the temporary camp. It took us 3.5 hours more. The dinner was already ready when we arrived to the base. The local cook prepared national soup, potatoes, meat, chicken and the compote. We unpack the thing for the night. Next morning at 8.30 am we rode by horse to the base camp. We had to climb from 1400m to 2900m. There were four hunters and 7 guides, each horse was loaded by many bags. Only two guides didn’t have horses and walked behind us. I got envy for the endurance of these people. It was difficult for me even to rode but they walked all the way, 6 hours.We climbed by the shores of the mountains rivers, crossed several watersheds and one mountain pass on the height 2200m then we rode down to 1800m crossed some rivers and the pass on the height 3000m and down in 100m. The road ran through amazing places. I couldn’t put into words the beauty of the local scenery – bright green grass was adjacent to the bright blue cloudless sky and bright white sun. It is better to see once! We arrived to the camp at 2.30 pm very tired. In an hour our guide Sadyk decided that Mushfig and Viktor Nikolaevich would scout first. Me and Arzu started to camp. In 30-40 minutes we receive the new info by the radio set, to go towards the scouts who noticed the animals. It was thought that if they shot the animals would run up to our side and it'd be better to make an ambush at that place. In an hour Arzu received the same information. Meanwhile our comrades tried to approach animals on the height 3200m. They managed to come at 328m to the group of goats which lay and rest. After the discussion Sadyk suggested to come even closer. Mushfig sat on the one side of the pass and Viktor Nikolayevich from another. Mushfig fired from the distance 150m and got the first trophy. The animals started to run. Viktor chose the aim and shot to the running animal. The hit was in the back of the animal, and the exit wound was later found in the chest area.Mushfig got old Tur with horns-80 sm, He used Sauer 202, cal. 7mm Rem Mag. Viktor Nikolayevich harvested average trophy, he used his favorite Blaser 300Win Mag, cartridge Norma Nosler Accubont 11,7Next day me and Arzu went for the hunt. The guide waked up Arzu at 5am and suggested to make a stop and wait in one hour walk from the camp.As soon as he took the firing position, the group of the goats appeared on the slope. He made the successful shot and got the third trophy. My hunt started at 8am. Me and two my guides (Sadyk and the outfitter Elnur- local guide who knew this area as his fingertips) overtook Arzu and his guide and we went all together. Pretty soon we found the group of animals which pastured in 1800m from us but on the opposite slope. If we wanted to reach them we would have to went down to the bottom of the gorge and then climb to the mountains. It could be difficult and we decided to continue our scouting. We went up and down few hours but didn’t find worthy trophies. At 4.30 pm we decided to discuss how to come to the opposite slope. Telling the truth my guides warned me several times that it’d be hard but I didn’t imagine how hard it’d be and agreed to try. We had to finish till 5.30 to be in time to come to the camp. The slope below us was too steep for the descent, so we went forward a few meters and then began to descend from a height of 2600 meters about 500 meters down. When we reached the bottom of the gorge we had to go up on 160m. I managed to do it just thanks to Elnur. The man who hasn’t such experience can decide that 160m isn’t too high but it is about 50 floors and you have to rise not by stairs. In forty meters even the man in the good physical condition would feel not well. I rose with the help of the elevator. Elnur held out the stick and dragged me up each few meters. So we went upstairs. Though we rose not in the right place and had to walk few hundred meters on the slope. At last we approached the herd and stopped in 80m from it. We stayed there for a while looking to the animals and discussed. Then Sadyk showed me the right male,I leaned out from behind the slope and shot. The male lay down. The sound from the shot filled the entire gorge. Tours rushed to escape. The huge herd was running in 50m under my feet and suddenly I saw the male which was different from the rest. It was the Monster Tur, it had such the huge horns which I never saw before. The crazy thought came to my mind. This animal was much bigger then the previous one. I tried to accounted how much it could cost but the hunting excitement took me up and I fired. The trophy fell down. We had to go down for the trophy. I went down slow. Elnur descended with the trophy faster than me and arrived first. Sadyk ran down by the vertical slope as if he ran by the escalator in the sub way. He shouted in a few minutes that the horns were one metre and 3sm. It was the record trophy size. The average horns in that area were about 92sm. We measured both trophies. After we made pictures we took skin and horn and covered the meat by stones to take it next day. But we have to rise back to the camp, from 2100m up to 900m. We started at 6-6.30pm. The only way to reach the base was by foot, it was dangerous to use horses on such steep slopes. You could fall and the horse could be damaged. After a while I was exhausted again but we had the horse. The guides suggested me to take its tail and follow it. I went in such way the most part of the road. We came back at 23.30. I couldn’t eat or sleep after such adventures. I wanted just Coca-Cola. Later I asked doctors about it and they told me that Cola seemed attractive because it contains caffeine and sugar. I drank Coca (the guides took some bottles to the height), then five cups of tea and fell asleep dead. The next day the hunting Council was held. During the night the weather changed to rain with snow and we all had trophies so we decided not to wait and go down at 10am. We quickly turned down our camp and began to descend. It was much more difficult to walk back because of the weather but we managed to do it in 6 hours. We didn’t change our tickets and stay in Baku for a couple of days. The city made great impression on us. We liked all country and especially is its cuisine. As guests are treated in Azerbaijan, they are not treated anywhere else in the world. In the final evening we were invited to dinner at the Baku restaurant Firyuza. We were treated to unusually tasty Azerbaijani potatoes, meat, dolma, kebabs, kutab. It seemed that the dishes no end. We were full when the waiter brought pilaf. I thought that tasted it and not once and agreed to try only out of politeness – but I stopped when I had already eaten the second portion. And after it the waiter who knew no pity brought the Sach. Hospitality and quality of Azerbaijani cuisine are certainly worthy of many compliments. Thank you very much to Global Safari and personally to Asif Ilyzov, who organized this trip. Everything was done at the highest level – we hunted in beautiful area, there were many animals, trophies were good, people worked professionally.
After three day of search we walked to the car when met the herd of sheep. The shot to the biggest one gave me the trophy which took the second place in the SCI international rate.
