Отчеты

As one of the actors sang in a movie about a babysitter: "Changes in nature occur from year to year!". He's sung about bad weather but, now we all talk global warming. It's a new trend. Otherwise, how else could we explain the July heat that settled in mid-September 2020, in the Altai Mountains, and the temperature at noon sometimes reached the thirty-degree mark? And that was in the conditions of the middle mountains, where the altimeter showed heights from one and a half to two and a half thousand meters.  That was the reason why the deer, which has already gathered a harem of females, did not show its nose from the foliage. It stood in the shade, scratching its trophy horns and looking at the females with an erotic haze in deer eyes, but refused to bring out love roulades. It happened all eight days of my mountain safari. Therefore I had to concentrate on the Altai ibex hunting, which did not run along the roads. All ibexes climbed on the rocks, on which there was practically no snow left.  It was then that the real mining work began with daily horizontal exceedances from six hundred to a thousand meters, liters of sweat and a pound of salt. By the evening of the fourth day, I was able to get close to this powerful old male at a distance of three hundred and seventy meters and made a shot. Telling the truth, I fired three times and got it only with the third shot finally. The goat was eleven years old according to the annual growths of horns and its body looked like a dwarf hippopotamus. So, we had to work when laying it out for a short photo session because it was getting late, and none of us was inspiring the prospect of descending at night. Moreover, all of the above happened on the very eve of Rosh Hashanah, the next one, for 5781 years since the moment when the Eternal creation of the Universe and the Sublunary world with a man in addition. Then he finished, and sat down to rest under the Altai cedar, or maybe under a fir. Nobody knows! All rabbis forbid categorically to light candles later than eighteen minutes before sunset on holidays and Shabbat, but I ignored that instructions when we returned to the hut deep after the evening dawn and had lit the candles, pronounced traditional blessings over them. Then I poured red wine for himself and the guys who accompanied me, dipped an apple slice in honey and wished everyone gathered in koshar a good and sweet New Year.

In 2015, I got a moose  in Prechisty, Yaroslavl region.

On December 1st, 2021, Ilya Dmitriev and I arrived in Mexico to hunt for a Desert bighorn in Southern Baja and Sonora.   After an 18-hour flight we arrived in the city of La Paz, where  were met by a hunting outfitter Armando Klein.  It took an hour to get from the airport to the hunting area.  We left our belongings at the intermediate base and moved into the mountains. We spent a night there and then at 6 o'clock in the morning, we went out to hunt.  In an hour we detected   a pair of males and began to watch them.  The rams are in the rut now and that pair  has been actively fighting  to control the grazing females.  After a short  decision, we began to approach them.  The guide did a good job and we approached them  350 m.  But then I made the "favorite" mistake of many hunters, I shot from an uncomfortable and unstable position As a result, I wounded the ram in the stomach and it went up the slope quickly .  It took more than two hours in the thirty-degree heat and surrounded by cacti to chase and finish it. But luck eventually turned to face us.  We found a wounded male lying on the ledge and took him from 200 m. It turned out to be a very good nine-year-old male. Many thanks to the organizers.

It was hunting for a Dagestani Tour in its homeland. The whole process took one day. At 8 am we started climbing at 9 pm we went down with flashlights. The shot was  done almost under the ridge of the November mountains at a distance of 564 meters, the angle was 13 degrees. I did the accurate shot, the trophy lay down on the spot.

It was unforgettable hunting in the mountains of Dagestan. I shot from 460 meters, the angle was + 21 degrees.

I got the Central Asian ibex in Uzbekistan. The trohpy had 110 centimeters horns and was 9 years old. We took it in the first huning day, but it was a very difficult one. I managed to sneak up close enough - the beast was taken with one shot from only 220 meters, though from a very uncomfortable position. Thanks to Behruz Abdushukurov and his entire team! The hunt turned out to be extremely interesting and laborious.

Last November I got out to Kyrgyzstan. I wanted to get the trophy of the Tien Shan argali (Karelini) in the Issyk-Kul region. The hunt took place at an altitude of about 4000 m .  I used caliber of 300mm, the shooting distance was 480 meters. Everything worked out.

The hunt for the Armenian mouflon took two days. A shot from a distance of 200 meters brought me the trophy of the old mouflon.

I spent my New Year's holidays searching of deer on the hills of Sikhote-Alin. A shot was done at 350 m and put an end to the hunting of spotted deer in its ancestral homeland.

It was my first mountain trophy Aoudad sheep! I got on this hunt by a lucky chance for me. The hunter who booked those days was injured and could not come. I called Roadie an hour after another hunter canceled the hunt. The trophy  was hunted on the first day of the hunt. The distance was 150 meters. I used a rented rifle. Caliber 300 WSM. I would like to thank Rowdy McBright, who accompanied me on that wonderful hunt. I also thank Sergey Vladimirovich Yastrzhembsky and Viktor Nikolaevich Kim, who helped in organizing this adventure!

Two years ago I tried to get the trophy of Aoudad sheep in Sudan. But it was unsuccessful. But this year I've done it and took it. It became possible in the Kingdom of Morocco."Audad" was hunted (that's how the Barbary sheep is called by the Berbers). Taking into account the fact that nature conservation hunting* for it is open only from this hunting season, the extraction process was extremely emotional. I would like to thank Erich Muller and Renaud Degrees du Lou for organizing and conducting this very important hunt for me.I thank Yevgeny Kharitonov for his support. .* Hunting within the framework of the project to restore the population of the Barbary sheep within the boundaries of the historical area with the support of King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

From March 11 to March 14, 2022, I hunted in Pakistan, Balochistan province, near the city of Quetta on Suleiman. My goal was to get trophies of Markhor and Afghan urial. Ilya Dmitriev - my constant hunting companion, organized the hunt. Everything was extremely well organized. We traveled to Islamabad through Qatar and it took us almost 10 hours. Then, there was a helicopter flight with a crew already familiar from a trip to Sust. It took us three hours more. And finally, we arrived to the hunting territory.  As always, there was a very large number of people who provided the hunting process. Accommodation was very well established, there was even hot water (!) which was very rare for the wild areas of Pakistan. At 6 am in the morning we left the camp and drove for the hunting area. The car drive lasted for about 45 minutes, and then the search began, which took about nine hours in 30-degree heat.  We saw several markhors, but they all were not the size and age that we were looking for. It was quite a difficult walking, plus the Sun was mercilessly scorching.  Finally, the right animal was found, I shot from a very uncomfortable position from a distance of 360 m, without an angle . The bullet hit to its spine and I fired a second shot in the neck in order not to torment the animal.  It was my last, the fifth markhor from the CMH list.  The next day, we hunted an Afghan urial in the same area where the hunt for Markhor took place.   That hunt turned out to be even more difficult than the previous day.  It took 11 hours of continuous searching and approaches, there were three misses on my part, and the temperature reached 35 degrees. As a result, the animal managed to be taken already at dusk, with a shot from 300 m.  Many thanks for the organization to Ilya Dmitriev and the Pakistani side, which very quickly solved issues and formalities and also excellently built logistics.