Отчеты

This was my second attempt to hunt Himalayan bear. The first time I hunted in Primorsky territory in 2022. But then a female bear with a cub came to the bait and I, of course, did not shoot. This time I hunted in Khabarovsk region. Everything went quickly enough. The hunt took place on a high tower. There was a lot of space and three of us with huntsman and operator were comfortably accommodated. We went up somewhere around 17.00 and at 23.15 the bear came to the bait. The animal behaved very cautiously, apparently he heard all our preparations and was on the alert. A few shots of 30-06 calibre stopped the bear.

The size of the horns: left - 81 cm, right - 83 cm. The girth of the horns at the base is 34 cm. Once again, beginners are in luck!

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!

Three days were allotted for the hunt. Karachay-Cherkessia met us with beautiful weather. On the first day we climbed to an altitude of 3500 metres. We watched a group of good turs for a very long time! Practically at the end of the day the group started to descend to the pasture. Within 15-20 minutes the turs descended, reducing the distance to 100 metres. Immediately, I shot one of the males with good trophy qualities! KUBAN'S TUR had been taken! I have a new replenishment in the trophy room! Patience is rewarded!

In early August, my friend and I hunted a sheep in Central Kamchatka. All days, except the day of arrival and departure, there was fog and rain. Every day we did not leave the camp before 10 a.m., waiting for good weather. And two days we did not leave the camp at all. The whole time we were in the mountains we were accompanied by hordes of mosquitoes, which disappeared only in strong winds. BUT, nevertheless, we managed to get each a ram. Both my friend and I had shots at 120 meters. Often, poor visibility simply did not allow shooting from a longer distance. I got my sheep on the last day of my stay in the mountains. Many thanks to the organizers Evgeny Valentinovich and Semyon from "Ipuin", the guide Volodya and the cook Vasily. And the dog Bretta, who kept the bears away from us.

Carpathian chamois.

After last year's successful hunt for the Okhotsk snow sheep, I immediately wanted to take the Kolyma snow sheep in the 2023 season. As a result, I managed to quickly contact a proven organizer (Alexander Klyatsyn) and book the tour. For me, the unusual format of the hunt was of particular interest - I had to travel and live on a boat and hunt along the coast of the Okhotsk Sea. For the first few days of the hunt, it either rained or there were no trophy specimens. The first few days of the hunt either it rained or no trophy specimens were caught. On the 5th day of the tour the sun shone in the morning and we started to explore one promising place from the boat and almost immediately saw trophy specimens. I decided to shoot. The sheep (9 years old) lay down with the first shot and practically rolled to my feet. I shot from 375 metres, angle +30 ° (Blaser R8, 300 Win Mag, 210 Berger VLD Hunting).

Since 2023 the hunting season in Kazakhstan opens from 15 July.  The weather did not favour us, it rained every day. The hunt took place at an altitude of 3700-3800 meters above sea level in the Bayankol hunting farm. On the second day of the hunt, after lying in the rain for more than an hour, I missed from a distance of 480 meters, angle +27 °. The bullet went a little to the left, I didn't take the wind into account. Then there were two more attempts. Once, frightened by a fox, the ibexes did not come down to the shooting distance. Another time, when we started our approach and made a big circle, a wolf appeared and chased several herds of ibexes up to the glaciers. Only on the 5th day of the hunt, after standing under heavy rain for about 2 hours, in the fog we came face to face with a herd of 11 ibexes. While I was getting the rifle out of the case and the rangefinder, the ibexes had gone far away. When we reached a distance of 500 metres, +25 °, we managed to shoot and get a 9 year old ibex. Three times we changed camp. Rode horses, walked quite a lot. The guides did a professional work.

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!

I got a European roe deer in the Mtsensk district of the Oryol region. I lacked one trophy for the nomination "Russian Super Cup 30" of the Mountain Hunters Club. I shot from 276 m, the first two times I missed. The ibex kept grazing. After the third shot the ibex fell down. Great hunt! Thanks for the organization to Alexander Borisovich!