The hunt took place despite all the difficulties of life. I gave up everything and went hunting, it was good that it was only 650 kilometres to Makhachkala. On Saturday I spent the night in a hotel, on Sunday I moved to the hunting area and from 12 o'clock in the afternoon I hiked to the base camp (shepherd's hut) with all my luggage on my shoulders. In the evening we drank a lot of tea with Dagestani cheese and went to bed to the sound of the stove. In the morning we had a light breakfast and at 8am we started a leisurely ascent. Almost immediately we found Turs on the neighbouring peak, we were not interested in youngsters with goats. By 11am we had climbed to an altitude of 3100m (camp is at 2600m) and the watch showed 5km. We tracked our prey with binoculars and found a small group of horned males with quite good trophy characteristics across the gorge on the slope of the neighbouring peak. They grazed there and then began to descend slowly (there was green grass and a stream in the gorge). We decided to climb even higher to gain the necessary height to track the animal and get a reliable shot. The terrain began to become loose: small stones, sand, pebbles. Almost like mountaineers, we climbed up to 3400 m and started the approach using the relief (although it was more like crawling on our knees on a loose road with a slope of 45 degrees). The most interesting thing started at 16:00, when the distance was reduced to 800 metres, a herd of horned males, 40 heads, came over the ridge and among them were very interesting specimens! I am not a very good shot, so we tried to keep the distance as short as possible. We spent about an hour and a half crawling up the slope towards the turs, but they were grazing and coming straight at us! So we managed to get within 400 metres of them, but the day was fading inexorably and a deep twilight was descending on the mountains. I switched on the scope's backlight, put the rifle on the slope and, half sitting, half lying, I caught the silhouette of a large tur standing sideways to us, its chest turning a little as it moved. Seconds were ticking away, it was getting dark. I took aim, caught my breath, pressed the trigger confidently and smoothly, and with a sixth sense I realised I had hit it! The turs raced up the slope and mine came down, stopping every 50 metres. I couldn't shoot it a second time as it was already dark and I couldn't see it in the gorge. We came to the blood trail, walked 200 metres along the rocks to the grass and lost it.... We went down to camp by flashlight and went to bed. Sleep did not come for a long time, I was worried about the animal and that it had not fallen on the spot, there was some blood on the rocks. We slept through the morning and set out at 8am to look for the wounded animal. We took a horse. The hunter on horseback overtook me and galloped ahead, while I walked to the place where we had lost the animal. The road was difficult, and I was tired and unfit. After 3000 metres, my health began to deteriorate. I had 200 metres to go when I noticed 7 eagles in the sky not far from the place of yesterday's hunt, circling very low and persistently over the same area. I rested for a long time and walked up by willpower alone, but the presence of obvious signs of a trophy gave me strength and drove me forward. How happy I was when I saw a huntsman coming out of the fog, leading a horse with the tur on it! According to the huntsman, he found a blood trail of the tur and followed it for another 200 metres, after which he found a warm trophy in the rocks. After being hit, the tur ran another 400 metres and lay down. The bullet hit the belly. Apparently the tur had taken another step at the moment of the shot. Already without strength, but extremely satisfied, I made my way back. That's how my hunt on the Dagestan tur ended - the first day of the hunt was taken, though not an outstanding, but very hard trophy! I would like to express my special gratitude to huntsman Gadzhi, who accurately guided me to a comfortable distance and found my trophy, as well as to Alibek Khapaev, who introduced me to Gadzhi and organised this hunt! On arrival in Stavropol I had the meat stewed and treated everyone to a delicious meal!
