Отчеты охотников

I hunted for Tian Shan Argali in Kyrgyzstan in October, 2008. The trip was organized by RORS and the local outfitter. We accommodated on the mountain base "Moskovsky Komsomolets" located at an altitude of 3200 masl. The hunt took place at the height of 4200m. Most transfers were by horses. We spotted the group of  ten males which were stepping up gracefully along the ridge. Our team walked parallel to them by the gorge. In 800 m the sheep laid to rest. I and my guide checked the wind’s direction and decided how we could approach them. We moved slowly, merging with the snow-stony relief of the mountains, we descended as close as possible to the herd, but it took us about an hour or more. We always were in plain view of the sheep but the usage of camouflage coveralls and what we moved slow, hid us and animals were calm. I damage my foot while going down, it took me about a year to recover. It was stuck between the stones as the body were moving down by inertia and I tore the ligament of the knee. I thought I heard a crunch and could barely keep from screaming. But I found the strength and crawled on. I missed the first shot from the distance 580m, as it was before. It seemed that it happened because of so- called effect of the “cold shot”, when to the cold barrel, the bullet changed its calculated trajectory. I got the trophy by the second and third shots from the distance 600-620m. It was rated to the Bronze Medal.

I was going to take part in that expedition a long time ago and was burning to do it. First of all, I wanted to harvest the most prestigious sheep trophy in the world –Marco Polo Sheep. The current world record has the size of 178 cm and belongs to the famous American hunter of Iranian origin Hussein Golabchi. The second reason was that I loved mountain hunts and had never been on Pamir before. The third was that I booked that trip in a year before and counted days before the departure. The plane of Sibir Airlines delivered me and my fellow Sergey Uspensky to the town Osh in Kyrgyzstan, from there we flew by helicopter to the Karakul Lake in Tadzhikistan. Our base camp was located on the height 4200 masl on the shore of the salted mountain lake. The base, used for acclimatization, consisted of comfortable cabins with warm batteries and toilets. Then we were going to separate in two groups and move to the different gorges where the trophy males had been seen. The organizer of that hunt in Tadzhikistan was Yuri Matison, very interesting and extraordinary person. I hunted in lots of regions and different countries, met many good people, talented and not talented hunters but Yuri made the lasting impression on me. He organizes hunts in that faraway land from the end of 80th years and has achieved tremendous success in it the organization of foreign hunts instead of the difficult conditions of the local mentality and the general mess. Someone considers him to be an experienced poacher, the other acknowledges his organizational skills but we all can say with confidence that Yuri Matison is a Brand in Tadzhikistan. All outfitters, who send their clients to that country, know him well. His name is spread by the hundreds, or probably thousands of hunters who have visited these harsh places during the last 20 years. Yuri lived with his parents in Tashkent. After the graduation from the Leningrad Medical Institute he voluntarily distributed to Tajikistan. Having a basic education of a neurosurgeon, due to the lack of professional staff, he mastered many other medical specialties. But the major love of his life were and still is the Pamir Mountains. He is fond of fascinating hunts in that region. The years have passed, The USSR doesn’t exist anymore but Matison stays faithful soul and body to Pamir. He spends there from six to seven months per year, organizing hunts for different species which inhabit there. He managed to create a wide net of hunting camps, to gather the group of professional guides, most of them worked with him all 20 years. Being very modest and calm person he manages to arrange lots questions and problems, which appear because of the local instability, to settle problems with the governors and grabbers of all colors. I am sure that his balanced character helps to find a sober and rational solutions in these difficult situations. Yuri is 53 years old but he is in great physical condition and can make long hiking when looking for the trophy males of Marco Polo. By the way, he is the owner of the biggest trophy of Marco Polo in the world with the size 182sm. I saw its picture and it’s something incredible. I asked him why didn’t he declare for the record but he replied that he hadn’t such ambitious and not needed it. But I think there is another reason. There is the List of the Best 10 sheep trophies of the world, and six from it belong to Hussein Golabchi. He hunted in that area many times. There were years when he flew several time in the one year and Yuri and Hussein became real friends. Hussein is 74 years old and I think that Yuri doesn’t want to upset him and to push up from the first place. But in any case the sheep taken by Yuri is unique. The first day we spend in the base camp and next one separated and drove with our guides to the opposite sides, to test our hunting luck. Yuri drove with me. The driver of our tuned UAZ was his closest ally and my namesake Ed. It took us 4 hours’ drive and two hours hike while we reached the end of the gorge where we stopped and camp. I set my single tent and got out the new sleeping bag for -20C. It was November and the night temperature was 18 degrees below zero. My sleeping bag passed the test, and I slept quite comfortably from 7pm to 7 am, without getting out of the tent. In the morning we all went up to the mountains. At first we spotted the group of mountain goats which consisted of 20 animals. Some of them had trophy size and we decide to get one. I could approach from the leeward 100m and got it by the first shot. Fortunately I didn’t need to make other shots because couldn't do it. The inflated cartridge stuck in the chamber and there was no way to knock it out. Yuri, who went ahead us, told us that detected the big herd of sheep and there were trophy males. The guys monitored this group from the June and checked from time to time if wolfs dispersed it or not. We saw the one wolf when ascended by the rivers’ bed. Yuri gave us the direction and we started to climb. It was the grueling ascend to the level 4800 masl. We met some goats, males and females, but the wind was on our side, and they didn’t interfere us. At last we noticed the group of twenty males which had rest in 900 m but couldn’t move further because there was one more group of females between us and they could easily to frighten off a group of males in case of danger. We had to wait. While waiting we watched some more groups of sheep which grazed on the snow slopes. An hour passed, the females left their place and we could go on our moving but while we were waiting the wind started to changed its direction to the negative to us. We succeeded to crawl to 550 m to males and it suited me. I was confused by the fact that would fire not from my gun but I tested it and it worked well. I took comfortable position using the landscape and put stones under my cubits. The fact is that I try not to shoot to the laying sheep because of different reasons. We waited when they’d stand up for the evening feeding. I laid in that position about an hour and a half and got cold. It was the beginning of 6 pm but they still lay. I had enough time to review my trophy. One sheep in that group clearly stood out, though, it lay back to me. Everybody in our group, including Yuri who was somewhere in the valley and watching through the scope, marked that sheep as a trophy. At last they started to stand up one by one, all group already stood and waited for my sheep who was still laying. It was the leader who didn’t pay attention to the fact that whole group was ready to go. But the time had come and it stood up. I waited just seconds while it took the position which is good for shooting and then the rumble of a shot tore the whole valley. I made the accurate shot, the sheep fell and swept down, making a few turns. But sheep are known as very strong animals. It stood up and went up bleeding; soon it disappeared behind the rocks. Yuri, from his position, saw the wide bloody track. But the sheep managed to climb the gorge and joined the group. It was about 6 pm and we didn’t have time to storm the top, that’s why we decided to go down and continue next day. The descend took us 2 hours and last forty minutes we hiked in the darkness. Yuri suggested the plan to leave two guides on the place who had to go on searching in the morning, the rest of the group came back to the base camp and next morning we would move to the opposite gorge just in case if the sheep cross the gorge with the group. I was sure that the sheep would pass away at that night and not leave the place. The behavior of the wounded sheep is similar, they all try to rise up to the maximum height and lay there. It wouldn’t cross the gorge but stay on our side. Taking into account how much blood he lost and how cold was that time I guessed that we’d take it in the morning. At 7.30am the guides called us by satellite and told that the sheep died and fell to the bottom of the gorge. It was the nice trophy – 156 sm. So, I has successful hunt and took two trophies in one day. Sergey also got his trophy -153sm. At the camp we had know that Hussein Golabchi also arrived to the hunt in that region but was in the other camp, located closer to the boundary with China. It was a pity because I wanted to see him and talk. I met him at the first time when we both flew from Moscow to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. I didn’t know who he was but we realized that we both were hunters and talked about it all flight. The hunters from all over the world are the separated nationality. They always know what to talk about, most of them know or heard about each other and always ready to help. Lots of things have changed in my hunting biography from our first meeting in the plane. I hope that many hunters heard about me from that time and I’m proud of it. I met tree French hunters in our base camp and one of them recognized me because he is a member of the French delegation of ICI and knows my friend Bernard Loze. That's how small the hunting world is. Once again I want to say thank you to Yuri Matison and his team for a warm welcome. I decided to visit Tadzhikistan once again in February and hunt for one more species which inhabits there but this is another story which I’ll tell you later.

I hunted for Kamchatka Snow Sheep two times. The first hunt was organized by Alexey Kulakov (local outfitter) near the Icha River. I got acquaintance with him in September, 2005 on the bear hunt. He is the professional and efficient man who managed to gather a good team of guides ( Pashka and Genka) and the camp’s staff. That’ why I decided to come to Kamchatka in a year and try my hunting luck in the snow sheep hunt. The second attempt was in 2011 but as you could see in my video report we found just young male and I decided not to shoot. It’s one of the main rules of the mature hunter to make only meaningful shot to the desired trophy. Nevertheless, I got great pleasure communicating with the local guide Igor and being in the mountains.Let’s come back to the hunt 2006. I shared the camp with Sasha and Konstantin and we went to the mountains together. In the first day we hiked a little and made the reconnaissance, detected some females in the mountain massif where would go on to hunt next day. Next day I spotted two males on the slope and we tried to approach them but they put such position that we could crawl to the animals just to 540m. We made the decision to fire with Konstantin at the same time to different aims and asked Sasha by radio, who was behind us, to stand up. The sheep would see him and stand from the bed what was more comfortable for shooting. We both calculated the shot and simultaneously fired. My sheep ran to the right, Konstantin's to the left. But we both missed the first shot. I stopped my trophy by the second one and the guide told me about hitting. I made 6-8 shots more, (can’t say the correct number), but the last one I did at a great angle at a distance of not less than 600 meters and clearly hit the back of the trunk, the sheep noticeably sat down. I didn’t have cartridges and I and the guide followed the wounded sheep without the gun. We easily found the bloody track and followed it. The sheep was found behind the ridge. I hit it 5 times but it still stand. We tired the knife to the stick and stab it to the heart. It fell and rolled down. It was my first trophy of the sheep which I got from such distance and took by such unusual way. The sheep had tasty meat which we kept in the mountain river at a temperature of five degrees.

Hunt for Gobi Argali was organized by “Profi Hunt” company and the Turkish outfitter Kannom Karakay. I don’t know how but this guy has managed to monopolize hunting market in Mongolia and  has lifted prices. The direct outfitter in the country was the Mongolian guy Tukso, I met him in Ulan Bator. He is very positive and responsible man. Tukso explained me that Kana bought most of licenses and paid by cash to the local outfitters though they can sell the hunts by their own. That’s why I booked my next hunt in Mongolia directly with Tukso. Let’s come back to the hunt. After arrival I had 3 hours rest in the hotel and then we drove 700 km to the south of the country close to the boundary with China. We crossed the real desert with sands, dunes and boundless plateaus. It took us 13 hours. During the way we repaired the car, disinterred it from sand and arrive to the camp at night. There we had dinner and went to bed. We all woke up at 5 am, had light breakfast and drove to the mountains. The guides made scouting beforehand and detected two trophy size males in the 30- minutes’ drive from the camp. We saw lots of herd of black-tailed gazelles and wild asses while driving. After arrival to the place we ascended to the slope, it was easy, and started to monitor the surroundings. There were some young males and females but nothing what we needed. That’ why we decided to change the location and drove around the mountain’s massif. We spotted the running group of 8 or 9 males there, two of them had trophy size. Argali crossed the valley, stopped to take the breathe and watched us. Following the instinct of self- preservation they rose to the lonely mountain and disliked that situation. We took the maneuver to went around the mountain from the leeward and approach them. According to Tukso’s opinion the old males would separate from the herd on the top and it happened. First of all we noticed the rest of the group which consisted of the young males and females and then found three old males which stood separately.  I fired from 300m and revealed some blood on the place when followed the wounded animal. To take it was the technical procedure. I got 12 or 13 years old male with horns, damaged in the fights with other males. It decorated my collection. We made pictures and then took samples of  molecular genetic material in the framework of the program for the study of mountain animals, developed on the initiative of the Russian club of mountain hunters together with The Institute of ecology and evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This hunt took place in the region Dornogov, not far from Hatanbulag. Coordinates:  N43`04.767 и E108`25.388.

The hunt for Altai Argali was organize by “Profi Hunt” company in Mongolia in July, 2012. This is the only country where you can legally hunt for this species. There is the stable population of this species in Russia but the hunt is prohibited. Altai Argali belongs to the group of the biggest sheep which consists of Marco Polo Argali (Tadzhikistan), Hume Argali ( Kyrgyzstan) and Altai Argali. The record trophy, found not hunted, by my guide Sultan Aga is 68 inches or 173 sm. I saw it in the Hunt Museum. The sheep hunt is Mongolia is strictly regulated. There are only 50 licenses per year for all three species which inhabit there: Hangay, Gobi and Altai argali. The terms are from 20th of August to 30th of September. From Ula-Bator we flew by plane to the the settlement Eugui and then drove 5 hours by car. The camp was a traditional Mongolian Yurt, quite spacious and cozy. Ethnic Kazakhs lived in that area and there were some numerous clay houses, typical for this people. My major guide was Sultan Aga- 67 years old. He was the head of the Kazakhs diaspora. This mature man who limped and used stick while walking, moved very easily in the mountains when looking for a sheep.At the first day we climbed the mountain to the height 3330 masl and detected the group of sheep on the top, the distance to them was about 1500m. Those was a big herd not less than 30 animals including 3 old males. Males at that period preferred to stay separately from females but it was difficult to approach them because there were so many eyes which watched us. So we couldn’t come close and the weather became worse. It started rain with snow and visibility dropped to 50 meters. It took us 4 hours to descend to the camp. Next day the weather was normal and we went up back to that place. We reached the top of the ridge in 3 hours. At the same time my fellow Viktor Nikolayevich drove by car to the mountain from the opposite side and spotted the herd of sheep on the top of the neighbor mountain. Probably it was the group which we met before. The another attempt to approach it failed. My guide Baisa stumbled upon argali on the top and scared them off. Sultan Aga was extremely dissatisfied with this slowness of Baisa, but calmly said that knew where the herd went. He read fortune by stones from time to time and told us that sheep were somewhere close.We rode by horses to the next ridge through the stone placers and arrived to the place in 50 minutes. It was the place where mountains gorges made long valley with lots of springs and meadows. The old guide said that sheep would come there. We tried to find them but the valley had the curve shape and I and two other guides were sent to check the unvisitable part. We got under a terrible hail which beat to pain, it was necessary to take cover under large stones and to wait until it didn’t pass. In 40 minutes, the sky brightened and we went to the edge of the ridge, where we immediately found the sheep. Two big males were distinguished in the head and the end of the herd, the young males were between them. It was the first time when we managed to reach them above. That position allowed me to choose the trophy, being invisible. The herd went up along the valley to Sultan Aga. We decided to leave the one guide with the radio to monitor the situation and come back to the original position to discuss it with the old man. We discussed several variants: to ambush on the spot, because the sheep path was not far or try to approach them. The final decision was made when our scout told us that the sheep laid to have rest. It was 6 pm. We started to went down using the landscape. You had to see how our old guide with stick jumped on the stones. I didn’t imagine how we could organize the hunt without him. The descend took us 25 minutes and we took the comfortable position behind the big, flat stone. The distance was 400m. The best position is when you above the animal and can estimate the conditions how to fire and choose the animal. The horns of old males were darker and they were bigger and had dark gray wool. Young males had horn light color, which were thin with sharp, not broken tips. I made the necessary correction on the sight and fired. Then was the thing which happened with me several times, I called it “ Cold Shot”. I missed not once when shot the first time to the long distance. Probable the gun fired by another algorithm when was cold. The sheep stood up, went ten meters and stopped at a loss. Probable they didn’t realized what the roar it was because the storm finished just in a half an hour before. The second shot was accurate I hit to the front shoulder blade and everybody saw it. The kill shot I made from the distance 500m and hit its back, the sheep fell. Any hunter knows that is the best moment of the hunt why we go to the mountains. It got nice trophy – 52 inches or 133sm with the base – 21 inches or 53sm. It was a good trophy of the Altai Argali.

I spent 8 days looking for that trophy. I’d got into a blizzard, fogs and rains but reached the goal. I got 17 years old male!