Отчеты охотников

In the summer of 2021, I've got the offer from the Stalker company to go to Slovakia to hunt the Lower Tatra chamois.  Two people had to hunt simultaneously from the same base according to the terms of the contract with the company. My Moscow teammate Andrey Zaika booked the participation in that event first, more than six months ago. Accordingly, I was the next. The conditions were specific, but quite acceptable. Usually trophy hunting is carried out individually.  The Low Tatra chamois lives in all parts of the Tatras: The Western Tatras (Slovakia and Poland) and the Eastern Tatras, which consist of the High Tatras (Slovakia and Poland) and the Belyan Tatras (Slovakia), protected by national parks of both countries.  In Budapest, my wife Angela and I were met by the driver Marek. We had a quick lunch and went to the base in the foothill region of Slovakia in the vicinity of the village of Hrabusice, where we got about 4 hours. The road to the hunting place was not easy. Ice formed on the passes, it was very slippery. Rudolf and two guides met us at the base. One of them, his name was Ferry, took us to the mountains the next day. At first we tried to shoot the Blaser R8 carbine in 7 x64 caliber. which I rented. The task was not easy First of all, I put my sight - Nightforce 4-16x50. But it didn't work out to shoot the weapon with it. I had to use the optics, which was there before, though it failed to please me also. As a result, I decided that I would shoot at medium distances - no further than 200 meters. After the shooting, we went to the hunting grounds. Our hunting was allowed on the territory of the Slovak Paradise National Park, which occupies the northern part of the Spissko-Gemersky Karst region. There are many canyons, valleys, caves and waterfalls in the park. The highest point of the park is 1545 m above sea level. The area of the Slovak paradise is almost 200 km2. We were tracking chamois. The trail went along a picturesque gorge, along the bank of the river. The rocks were on the right. Ferry said he saw chamois there a week ago. However, it was not realistic to see that timid wild animal there. The fact was that runners and hiking fans had chosen the park for their activities. Those active people came across us along the way constantly and we saw someone's red blouse even on the rocks above where we were looking for a goat. After lunch we arrived at almost the same place, but on the other side of the mountain. There were lots of people. Therefore, the first day of hunting ended in vain. On the second day, everything had repeated. We were brought to the national park again where people were walking and running.Only after lunch we went to the mountains, where we got stuck in deep snow while climbing higher. It was not possible to get the car out, and soon Rudolf came to us in another, more powerful car. So we managed to get higher into the mountains, where Fidel Castro hunted according to local legends. We have not seen a single chamois. In the morning we were taken to the national park again, "for a walk". A couple of hours later, we've got the news that Andrei, who was hunting high in the mountains, had already taken a good chamois trophy. After that we went to the mountains where Andrey was hunting. I congratulated him on the trophy, and we went hunting. Angela noticed the movement of some black dots there. I examined that direction with binoculars more closely and saw the chamois. We observed a good trophy male through a scope on the opposite mountain, at a distance of about 350 meters. But we decided not to shoot , because our guide said that, it would have been impossible to take it out of that mountain.  We descend lower and saw several more animals, but also at a considerable distance. And as a result, we returned to the car. I had to draw conclusions based on the results of those stories. The organizers assured us that hunting would take one day, but the results were not pleasing. I called the Stalker company and they promised me to find another hunting ground.  In the next morning we moved for the neighboring national park called "Garden Valley". It took us 2 hours to get there, the guide Martin had been already waitng for us there and we went to the mountains.  A lonely chamois was scared off on the way to the place, we continued our way along the snow-covered path higher and higher Animals began to come across more often. We saw 2 groups of goats, but the distance was too big for my carbine - 350-400 meters. We decided to wait. After about 2 hours, one of the chamois began to move in our direction. I decided to shoot when the distance was reduced to 210 meters. The goat collapsed and rolled down the snowy mountain.   It took us some more time to descend to the place where the trophy fell It fell almost to our path. I examined the trophy in more detail. It turned out to be an 11-year-old chamois - a very good trophy.  My hunting experience confirms the idea that the result of hunting depends not only on luck, but on the professionalism of the host party too. Martin's professionalism, a great desire to get a trophy, and the energy with which he did his job led us to an amazing result. We did a photo shoot and went back home.   That evening Mark drove us to Budapest and the next day we flew to Moscow. That's how I got my 29th CAPRA trophy. I thank the Stalker company for organizing that hunt, the guide Martin and my dear wife Angela, who accompanied me.

It was my fastest decision, which I made about hunting. I took in in the last autumn, against the background of heated discussions about the closure of the hunt for the Altai ibex in Russia. I decided not to risk and close that position in my trophy list. It was cold.  Hunting took place the very end of November. The temperature at night was up to -28C, during the day -15C. A long road to the hunting area. It was difficult. But, the trophy is taken. I shot at 475m angle 11⁰. 10-year-old trophy.

Возраст животного 10 лет, Винтовка Blaser r8 (6,5*55) , рассатояние до цели 360м.

On November 1 - 4, 2021 and January 26 - February 2, 2022, I hunted the Red sheep and Armenian mouflon in Texas, USA. The hunting took place in 70 km from Alpine. I got a Red sheep at a distance of 150 yards on the first day of hunting. The Armenian mouflon has managed to get only in 2022 on the second hunt. I shot it  on the first  hunting day at a distance of 300 yards. In 2022, it was possible to get a mountain lion according to the hunting program. The hunt was led by Rocky McBride (the older brother of Roadie McBride), a well-known hereditary specialist in hunting and trapping cougars and jaguars in the West. The cougar hunting in Texas is notable for the fact that there is no snow there and finding tracks and reading them by dogs is difficult. The female cougar (mountain lion ) was captured only on the sixth last day of the hunt.

In December 2021, I hunted a Barbary sheep in South Africa.

It happened so that I did not have a chance to get a bear in traditional hunts for this beast  at the time of the beginning of my carreer in mountain hunting. Nevertheless, the desire to get that predator remained. Last year I made an attempt to get a bear in the mountains. But as a result of the search was that we found only the female bear.  There were bears when hunting turs , but we didn't chase them before the main trophy was taken.  And after that,  there was no meeting. In the fall of 2021, it was decided to organize a bear hunt only and hunt purposefully. I traveled to hunting  with my son traditionally. The hunt turned out to be very hard. Traces of the bear's presence were everywhere: in the forest zone, on the southern slopes, at the crossings of streams, but it was not possible to see the animal. As a result, on day 4, a worthy trophy was found 1.5 kilometers away on the slope in the very rocks.  When we had risen to the viewpoint the beast was no longer there. It started raining and snowing. It was gettign dark and we had to go down. The next day we went to the other side of that circus and found our trophy 240 m away from us at an altitude of 3100 m.  One shot completed this fascinating and very difficult hunt.