The plan for this hunt was to get five trophies. The mouflon hunt took place in the continental part of Croatia. The first day of our search for a worthy trophy was unsuccessful. We saw several groups of animals, but there were no old males among them. The next day we decided to change the search tactics. In the morning we immediately climbed to the top of the mountain ridge and searched, moving along the very top. Luck smiled on us. Below we noticed three males, one of which had very good trophy qualities. I had to shoot from a very uncomfortable position: the distance was 500 meters and the angle was -34 °. The mouflon was captured with one shot. Further hunting took place on the island of Dugi-Otok. Hunting on the island was not difficult. Small heights, gentle slopes, shooting distances from 100 to 250 meters. There I managed to get four trophies in three days. One of the trophies was a Black Dalmatian wild sheep, which after measuring turned out to be a new world record !!!! Many thanks for the organisation of this hunt to Alexey (Profi-Hunt company) who accompanied me on this trip and to the local organiser Yosif.
In October 2008 my friend from Germany - Andreas Trode and I went hunting. This time for a Kuban tur to Karachay-Cherkessia. In Mineralnye Vody we were met by an old friend, Mudalif, the head of the Karachayevsky State Hunting Centre. Through his house in Storozhevaya village we got to the hunting lands at the junction of 2 districts - Zelenchuksky and Urupsky. For a couple of days we explored the situation on the ground. We didn't find any goats of suitable size. As a result, on the 3rd day we managed to find a large group of goats stretching along the slope in a deep "cirque" at the far end of the gorge. We could not get closer than 400 meters. Having given the right of the first shot to the German guest, I asked whether, if everything went well, I would be allowed to shoot after him. It was clear that I would have to shoot at the running turs, but I had to do it. Andreas didn't mind. I properly set up the camera and started shooting. It was clear that we couldn't get any closer, so I suggested that Andreas shoot when he was ready and sure of the shot. After the shot, I could clearly see in the camera's viewfinder that Andreas had missed, the bullet flew right under the nose of a grazing tur. But the echo of the shot must have worked to our advantage: the turs started to run in an arc through the "circus", not moving away, but even coming closer to us. Andreas was given the command to shoot! But all his shots at the running tours were missed. At some point I still couldn't stand it, grabbed my Tikka 300 Vin Mag and fell on the snow. Then I chose the one I thought was the most worthy (Andreas's tour was running ahead and had already disappeared) from the running turs that were hiding behind the rocks one by one and pulled the trigger. Almost immediately, without taking my eyes off the scope, I heard a pop and saw the front leg of the tur soar up! I was convinced that I had hit it! But the tur continued on and almost immediately disappeared behind a rock. At this time, the other turs started to skip one by one into the small - only 10 meters - gap between the rocks directly above us. I told Andreas to wait for the big one to appear in the gap and shoot at it immediately. And, oh wonder! - Andreas fulfilled the task 100%! What he failed to do just a few minutes ago, now he did very well! He took the tur (the very first one) with a single shot. Some of the huntsmen stayed down below, away from us, near the horses. They saw how everything was going on and had a good view of how the group of turs gradually rose up and disappeared behind the ridge. Meeting these huntsmen at the tur Andreas had taken, I asked if they had seen an injured male limping on one leg. They clearly answered that they had not seen such a thing. That's how I knew my tour was left among the rocks. Where I had last seen it. I climbed up with my weapon, checked again with the herd's tracks that there was no blood on it. Then I went back to the cliff, where I had a view of the whole place where the herd was running. And right below me, under the cliff, only about 70 meters away, I saw my tur trying to hide under the slope of the steep cliff overhanging it. Hanging down almost vertically I made the final shot. That's how my Kuban tur was taken! By the way in terms of size - both tours turned out to be almost the same, adult, 10-year-old males! Many thanks to my friend Mudalif! And of course, a great respect to Makhsad Taranchiev, without him there is no place!
In October 2005 we decided to combine a trip of German hunters to East Caucasian tur in Dagestan and our own hunting together with Igor Grigorenko. This was the first experience of commercial trophy hunting in Dagestan. No private lands and camps existed at that time. And at that time the 2nd Chechen campaign was still going on. We managed to negotiate in a mountain village in the Tsunta district to rent a couple of horses to lift our luggage to the hunting place. But it was not possible to use the horses on the hunt itself. As a result, it was very difficult for the German hunters to climb the mountains. We could hardly lift them up and put them on the "numbers" for the hunt.... But as a result they did not manage to get their turs. The herd of tours, after the huntsman showed his presence in the gorge, eventually pulled in my direction and came right at me - I climbed higher than the Germans. As a result - I got my first Dagestan tur! Igor hunted separately from us and also got 2 turs. His friend and hunter Alexander Bilyukov, who accompanied him as a cameraman, made a video about it: https://youtu.be/YFzNopO_Vgw Many thanks to Makhsad Taranchiev - without him, as always, I would hardly have managed to get this wonderful trophy!
In August 2015, with a group of hunters from the USA and Mexico (great times and opportunities), I went hunting in the Sakha Republic with my long-time friend and partner Innokenty Semenov. We have known each other since the times of Gospromkhoz in 1993. Back then, as a young German translator, I also came to my first mountain hunt in August to accompany a German hunter on his hunt for a Yakutian snow sheep. At that time I had just started working in one of the most famous outfitter companies from Moscow - under the direction of Alexander Nikolaevich Khokhlov. After arriving in Yakutsk we flew almost immediately by helicopter towards the Verkhoyansk ridge. After about 1,5 hours of flying through mountain passes we landed in the already arranged camp in the mountains. Before us 4 American hunters from the first trip in the beginning of August had already hunted here. They got 3 sheep for 4 hunters and some brown bears, I think, also - 3 pieces. The helicopter didn't stay long. We had a few words with the guest hunters and they flew back to Yakutsk. And here we were met by a long familiar team of hunters: Konstantin Orlov - long-time partner and friend of Innokenty, as well as their sons - Mikhail (he works in the Department of Hunting) and Andrey. It's nice to see how the fathers' business is inherited..... We were divided into several groups: I stayed to accompany McLovio, abbreviated to Maco as we all called him, a Mexican hunter who had come to harvest three types of snow sheep in one trip. Looking ahead, I will say that he eventually succeeded. We travelled with him by car to the Stanovy Ridge, where we caught the Okhotsk subspecies of sheep, and further to Magadan, where we also managed to catch the Kolyma snow sheep on the coast. I made a film about all this. So already on the 2nd day of the hunt Mako and I were lucky and from the "fly-camp", a portable tented camp, we found an excellent specimen of sheep - in a group of 4 other sheep. Mako used my gun (as he has done on many hunts). At a distance of about 400 metres he took a great sheep with two shots - the biggest of the season. When we returned to the base camp, it turned out that the Americans were also lucky and each of them got one snow sheep! There was one more day before the helicopter arrived because of the weather. And in the morning I went for a walk. In the gorge not far from the camp I saw a group of 4 rams grazing at the very top of the gorge. When I returned to the camp and got permission from Kesha, I only asked him to contact me on the radio in case of need and to correct me when I would be alone to creep up on the male. I took not only my carbine - the reliable Blazer P-93, 300 Win Mag, with 3.5-18x43 Swarowski Z5i optics - but also all my video equipment for filming. I decided to do some self-creeping and self-shooting, so to speak. Self guiding and self directing..... But I won't go into a long story. All this is in my video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/J5Efh0rinL4В. In the end I managed to approach the group of sheep from above at a distance of about 40 metres! It was good that I had a radio with me and Kostya guided me perfectly to the prey. I even had to go down and round them a bit to get in line with them for a better angle of fire. In the end I just had to show myself to the rams dumbfounded by such a close encounter, give them a chance to run across the ravine and get the biggest of them with 2 shots at a distance of about 100 metres - the second one was just for finishing. Then I waited for the guys from the camp (Misha and Andrey) to come up to me and, having divided the prey into backpacks, helped me to bring it all down to the camp. That's how I got my first snow sheep! Many thanks to all my Yakut friends for their help and support! And, as always, special thanks to Makhsad Taranchiev!
Trophies from Uzbekistan. The hunt was hard, the ascent for Urial was from 1000 to 2000 metres, approximately 28 km of mountain roads were travelled per day. The rest of the trophies were also not easy, heavy descents and ascents, we walked more than 10 km a day for each of them.
Spring bear bait hunting. Preparation had been long since February, but the trophy was taken. Hunting was carried out from a tower at a distance of 40 metres. Carbine Sako 75 308 win.
In early March, I tried my luck on Dougie Otok Island to get my coveted Kri-kri Ibex of hybrid origin trophy and a few other trophies. We leave early in the morning to hunt, the weather is clear, +5 °C, looking for at least a silver medal trophy, we see a herd of Kri-kri Ibex of hybrid origin, the huntsman shows 2 of the largest in the herd, and says, - "pick one!" - one is reddish, the other greyish. I take a shot at the trophy I like better, we approach, take a photo, send the data to SCI and it turns out that this trophy is in the top 10 of the world! I was very sincerely pleased with my outstanding world class trophy.
Hunting in the Pamirs has been my dream for a very long time, and I was able to give it to myself on my 45th birthday. The nature and views of the Pamirs cannot be described in words, you have to see them in person, it is one of the most beautiful places I have been to. In the morning the weather is -50 degrees, in the afternoon -35 degrees, very strong winds. In the morning you wake up in the hunting camp, get dressed, brush your teeth, and you are out of breath from these actions as if you had already run 2 kilometres. There is not enough air, it is very difficult to breathe. At first it was very difficult to walk even around the camp, you walk 20 metres and feel tired, only on the third day or so your body starts to adapt. Hunting turns out to be very hard, we didn't walk very much. For 2 hours approach to the beast, but not always had a chance to shoot. The hunting camp is very good, with a pool with a spring, after heavy hunting you go to this spring for 10 minutes, it takes off all the load and all the heaviness after the hunt! This hunt is suitable only for people with good health and very strong sporting endurance. It is necessary that the body can tolerate mountain sickness, and to have the willpower to win!
The hunting was hard, the excitement was off-scale, I wanted everything at once, but for this ibex it took 3 days, every day we walked more than 10 km in the mountains, with a very steep climb, the weather was cold with fog and very poor visibility, so luckily on the third day I saw my ibex and got it from 250 meters, with a strong wind, rain and temperature +5, although it was late August.
I got Siberian bear in Sayan Mountains on June 8. The distance was 495 meters. I shot 7 times. I have hit 2 times. I shot from uncomfortable position, I had to put a backpack and to shoot from it, but with the first shot I have hit at once. I shot 2,3 meters. All bears were in the spruce forest. There was a big crop of spruce cones last year. The bear did not go on the bait. Thanks to Evgeniy Kim, who helped with the organization of the hunt.
Добыл 30 мая в селении Хнов,Дагестан двух кавказских медведей.Очень быстрая охота.Один день поездка туда, полтора дня охота и один день обратно.Блестящая организация.Всем рекомендую. Организатор охоты Веселов Артём,компания Профихант.На месте организатор-Элсон Махмудов.Спасибо большое всем кто принимал участие в организации и охоте.
