Reports

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.

On October 7, my wife Angela and I flew from Moscow to Khabarovsk. We were lucky with the plane, and flew comfortably in a Boeing 737. Vadim Atroschenko, the head of the Far Eastern Trophy Company, met us at the Khabarovsk airport. He was responsible for the organization a hunt for Ussuri (Amur) moose and an Asiatic black bear. I needed to get those trophies to participate in the new nomination of the "Club of Mountain Hunters" - the Russian Super Slam(RSS). All participants were tasked to get 35 trophies, including several Far Eastern animals within the framework of the Super Slam. In the spring, Vadim has already organized a hunt for the Amur bear for me. The trophy was taken on March 21, 2021 at the den. My trophy took 1st place in the SCI ranking! Now, I lacked the Ussuri moose, the Asiatic black bear and the wolverine to participate in the Russian Super Slam. I had to take those trophies in the Far East. And it wasn't an easy matter, because not everyone managed to include such trophies in their collection A couple of our comrades were already hunting there just a few weeks before our arrival in Khabarovsk, but they failed to get the Ussuri moose. That's why I was looking forward to that hunt with special excitement. Initially, we planned to hunt a bear about 250 km south of Khabarovsk. However, we had to change our plans due to some organizational issues, and we moved in the other direction to get the Ussuri moose first. We drove about 450 km in the direction of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, to the north. The route to the hunting area was asphalt at first, and ran parallel to the railway tracks, then it turned aside, the hard surface ended, and we took quite a long time to get along a dirt road. About 13 hours after landing in Khabarovsk, we arrived at the hunting base, where we were met by Sergey Vasilyevich Kravchuk and his wife Natalia. The base turned out to be very comfortable. It consisted of several houses with stove heating. We were allocated a separate hut, with a good stove, we just needed to throw firewood in time. By the time of our arrival, the previous group had already finished hunting there, which was accompanied by a well-known outfitter from Irkutsk Oleg Shemyakin. My Moscow teammate from the Club of Mountain Hunters Oleg Sazonov in the company of a friend Boris was among them. They had already got two moose and one good izyubr by that time. One day we admired the beauty of the nature of the Khabarovsk Territory because of the overlap with the previous group. A day later, the colleagues had already left and we began to prepare. I made test shooting with my Blaser R8 in the 300 Win caliber Magnum. The next day we woke up at 5 in the morning, had breakfast and left by boat on the Tumnin River. The boat turned out to be very modern with two comfortable chairs. It was necessary to dress at that time of the year taking into account the weather, because it is quite cold on the river. We moved towards the ocean, the river meandered between the hills and low cliffs. We expected to see something interesting around every corner. And indeed, we had been lucky in that repeatedly. At first, we met a moose with a calf, who noticed us, and ran noisily to the side, hoping to distract our attention from the baby.  Then we saw another moose family. They also tried to hide from our eyes faster. Around the next turn, at the confluence of the river and a small tributary, we saw a moose with a calf. When they began to swim closer, they swam across the river 3 meters from our boat But a little further along the tributary, we suddenly saw a running moose. I tried to look at it through binoculars. My main task was to count carefully the appendages on its horns. And it seemed to me that there were four appendages on the right and five on the left. The fact is that a horned moose with five appendages is a very rare and valuable trophy. Sergey Vasilyevich said that such moose were not often found and it was an incredible luck to get it. My first thought was: "Well, we were so lucky, to meet the trophy in the first hours of our river trip" However, it crossed the stream quickly and disappeared. We didn't want to miss such a trophy and stopped on the opposite shore. It turned out that the beast was too lazy to run far away. It stood a little further in a bay about 70 meters wide. The moose was chewing its favorite delicacy - river grass shamrock. As I was later told, that herb was used in folk medicine, it had tonic properties, and its decoction was useful for the stomach. So the beast appreciated it. Now I had the opportunity to examine the moose more closely. It really had 5 appendages on each horn. We set on a rifle and a video camera. Angela turned on the recording and I decided to shoot at the moment when the beast turned to us left side diagonally. The cartridge was assembled with a Hornady 208gr bullet. The ammunition worked wonderfully. The moose made several jumps after the first hit then bounced 5 meters, stood up, turned sideways. I fired one more shot and the animal collapsed. Emotions were overflowing. Ussuri moose with 5 appendages – it was super! Sergey Vasilyevich went to the place where the moose fell in the bogs, and it was in the water, and confirmed with signs that there were five appendages! All we had to do was pull my trophy out of the water. Therefore, Sergey Vasilyevich went to the base for an assistant and additional boot. Two hours later, we were pulling my moose out of the water almost like boatmen on the Volga. Then we had a photo shoot and returned to the base happy. That day was very cloudy, it was raining. We were wearing waterproof suits Sergey said that animals didn't like to move around the forest in such weather, so we were lucky twice. The first time was when that male went to the river, and the second time was when we came across the owner of 5 appendages. On the same day we went to the hide, which was located not far from the camp. Earlier, the hunters saw a bear and another small animal there, but they could not see it in detail with a thermal imager. We stayed at the hide, hoping to get a bear or a wolverine. But our luck had already run out there, we waited until about 9:30 pm, saw a fox, a hare, mice, but could not see anything interesting. The next day we decided to try to get a Manchurian wapiti and took a ride along the Tumnin River once again, but the weather deteriorated, a strong wind rose and we did not meet anything. The main part of our plans had already been implemented and we decided to return to Khabarovsk. The second stage of the hunting expedition was ahead- a journey for an Asiatic black bear. We followed towards Vladivostok, not far from the settlement of Yuzhny to get the Asiatic black bear. Vadim made a bait there. A female bear and a cub went there in September. But when we arrived there, the barrel with the fish remained unopened, the bear did not come. According to Vadim's explanations, the all bears were eating pines at that time. After waiting six days, we decided to fly to Vladivostok for spotted deer and Manchurian roe deer. Spotted deer hunting. We went to Vladivostok from Khabarovsk. The flight took us just 1.5 hours with comfort on an Aeroflot plane. At the airport of the capital of Primorsky Krai, we were met by a local hunting organizer, Alexander Korneev. He loaded all our possessions into the car and we set off. The final point of our drive was a hunting farm, which was located 248 km from Vladivostok in the southeastern part of Primorsky Krai not far from the village of Lazo. Most of our way was on an asphalt highway, which turned into a dirt road. After 4 and a half hours we were already at the hunting farm. We had lunch there and were offered to conduct an initial observation of the beast. The hunting farm had a specially converted SUV For such raids, whose aft part of the cabin was cut off so that the man could stand there in full height. They suggested to go on a explore trip at night. Our goal was to navigate the terrain, and look at the deer. We estimated the number of animals during that raid. There was a feeling that the deer were roaring around us without ceasing. We saw dozens of them in every clearing. The secret of such abundance was simple. The owner of the hunting farm made an excellent feeding base. Every year, He sows several fields with winter crops: wheat mixed with oats. There were so many ungulates there that it seemed that the deer didn't allow the grains to ripen, they ate their juicy shoots almost at the root. In addition, in winter, they fed deer with the so-called "mixed salad" there. It was a mixture of potatoes, beets and carrots bought from the nearest farmer. But this is not all! They harvested hay specially for deer, in some seasons up to 2 thousand rolls. That year they managed to prepare only 200. That was the reason why the local population of spotted deer was breaking all records both in the number of animals and in the quality of individual individuals. Some males weighed more than 100 kg, what was 2 times larger than the park spotted deer. The hunting farm had a very favorable geographical position, the valley was limited by mountain ranges. It borders the National Park "Call of the Tiger" on the one side, and on the other is the Lazovsky State Reserve named after. L.G.Kaplanova. In fact, neighboring territories are donor territories. The animals are constantly migrating and they do not find such a food base in any reserve that the owner of the hunting farm has managed to provide. The day after our arrival, we woke up early and went to the place where we most clearly heard the roaring bulls. Magnificent landscapes opened up to us in the light of day. Autumn in Primorsky Krai had a special charm. There were deciduous forests there. The hills were covered with birches and oaks. The foliage had mostly fallen off at the end of October and we could clearly see spotted deer in the gaps between the trees. We were already hunting on foot. In an hour of walking on the mountainside, we found a trophy spotted deer surrounded by females. But it stood behind the trees not the good position. Nevertheless, I decided to try, chose the most convenient position and fired, the deer disappeared. It left diagonally. We suspect that I could wound it and we carefully examined the place. There were no traces of blood - it meant that I missed. Our group spent about 2 hours searching that male just in case, but we did not notice a single trace of blood. Then we had completed the search for a hypothetical "wounded deer" and we went on. We didn’t walk long. There were a lot of fallen leaves in the forest, and each step on such a "flooring" was accompanied by a distinct, treacherously sonorous crunch, especially after frosts. Half an hour later we heard the roar of bulls, the crackling and banging of horns. In anticipation of the prey, We climbed the hill and witnessed a rare sight. Two males staged a duel in the floodplain of the stream. It seemed to us at one of the moments of the fight that they locked horns; the score went by seconds. I set on the rifle, and Alexander found a good position for observation. A moment later, the brawlers noticed us. They didn't immediately realize that we were watching them, because their consciousness was clouded by the fight, they were even more excited than we were. One of the deer turned out to be more intelligent than its rival and ran away headlong, and the second one hesitated, what killed it. It turned around at us, as if checking its first impressions, Alexander appreciated the trophy qualities and told me: “Shoot!”. So, I managed to record another trophy on my account almost on the first day of hunting. Then we had a photo session, returned to the base, had breakfast and rested a little. It was about noon when we decided to walk. We spent about four hours looking for the second male, which ran away from us. But all to no avail. My trophy turned out to be of very good quality and my wife and I decided to continue and to hunt one more deer. We saw and heard several more deer that day, but we never had the opportunity to see the trophy at a safe shot distance. The wind constantly changed direction, the animals quickly noticed us and ran away. The outfitter suggested that we track down the prey from the hunting tower. We agreed with his idea, had lunch, dressed warmly and went hunting again in the evening. The local hunting tower was an iron box at a height of about 6 meters. It was quite a comfortable structure with three windows equipped with a rope net for masking from animals. Not a single animal appeared near us in the daytime. When it got dark, a female with a fawn appeared. Then more and more animals began to appear in a clearing about 700x400 meters in size, it happened about every minute.  First one small male came out, then another deer with two females appeared at a distance of 310 meters. And then we lost count altogether. There were up to 30 animals grazed on the field. One of the largest deer, the one with two females, behaved warily, as if constantly monitoring the situation. I wanted to take it as trophies, and was waiting for the moment when it would come closer to examine its horns more clearly. But I was late. At some moment, all the animals turned abruptly their heads to the left. Then one of the deer got scared, took off quickly and rushed into the forest. Everyone else followed it. We could only wonder what scared the spotted deer so much. According to one of our versions, a tiger was tracking prey near a clearing. Another version was that the deer were scared off by their own brothers, who could arrange another duel there. But the fight never took place, the bull roaring in the distance fell silent and also disappeared. That was the end of our evening hunt. The next morning we found another great bull bull in the forest So, I decided to fire. It turned out to be a super trophy! On the same day we moved to Alexander's base. We hunted several days there. I had got two Manchurian roe deer there. I tried to get Manchurian wapiti, but without success. As a bonus, we saw a harza with a bright lemon color. We tried to hunt from the towers for a Asiatic black bear, but also did not come out. I heard a lot of good things about Tatiana Sergeyevna Aramilev while being in Vladivostok and in hunting farms. All hunting inspectors worked at a very high level. They all are provided with good equipment. Everyone remembers her with great respect. On October 31, we flew to Moscow. Our entire journey took 25 days. Thank you for the fascinating journey of the organizers of the hunt, the company Profi Hunt, personally Artem Veselov, Vadim Atroschenko , Alexander K. and my dear wife Angela, who bravely endured all the hardships of our long journey. P.S. Spotted deer took the first place in the SCI ranking. It's a world record!

The hunt took place in the area of the Khodutka volcano. We were delivered by the helicopter to the hunting area. I'd been hunting since 30-06. The bear lay down on the spot. There was a lot of bear.

It was my first mountain hunt! Our friend of Yuri Gurov, a mountain hunter advised to start our hunting career from the Altai Mountains. We went up on horseback, which facilitated the way greatly. The beauty of nature was incredible, we got such a lot of emotions that hunting in the mountains hooked us very seriously. We had been looking for ibexes for a long time and had almost lost hope, when  we found ibexes  that grazed very close to our tents when were returning to the camp. My brother and I were hunting together. It so happened that we had to shoot at the same time for one two three. Everything went well, two trophies were obtained.

It was my first experience of mountain hunting. and the first time in Altai. I also rode horse for the first time.  and shot at 1-2-3 for the first time too. In general, mountain hunting has forever entered the sphere of my hobbies. The weather was excellent, without precipitation, the temperature was about zero.

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

That hunting brought a lot of positive emotions.  It was difficult to move without horses. But we overcame ourselves. The great physical exertion and achieving the set goal is the reason why we all go to the mountains.

On December 19-21, I hunted Vercors and Chartreuse chamois in the French Grenoble area. Ilya Dmitriev was the organizer of the trip from the Russian side, as always, and Philip Simon organized it from the French side. I want to say that the organization was at a very high level. The guides made the reconnaissance in both hunting areas. On the first day we hunted the Vercors chamois, everything went quite difficult. A lot of snow fell and it was not very convenient to climb the mountain on snowshoes. In total, the hunt took 11 hours and required a lot of physical expenses. We managed to take the chamois in the late afternoon on a completely different, almost snowless slope, shot from 220 m. We went down to the car in the dark.The hunt for the Chartreuse chamois was very simple, it took 15 minutes. We saw the animals low and almost immediately, a short climb and shooting from 250 m. I took it with one shot, thanks for the organization to Philip Simon and Ilya Dmitriev.

One of my previously organized bites had worked out! The huge pig carcass was to the taste of the wolves that lived in that territory. The camera traps reported the time of their arrival at the place. The next evening I was already waiting for them. But three nights in a row the meeting did not take place, and the fourth evening was productive. The she-wolf has been got!

Height- 4400m, distance - 250m, Orsis Alpine, 300WM, Horns 110cm, 29 cm, 11 years

The shooting distance was 170 m, cal. 30-06, Blaser, the  paw width 17 cm, skin length 210 cm, , skull 53cm/32cm

Altitude was 4600m above sea level , 300WM, Orsis Alpine, Marco Polo horns 147cm 40cm, Goat horns 110cm 29cm

In Innsbruck, we were met by the local huntsman Gerhard. It took us about an hour to get to the house in the village, in the direction of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I tested my Blazer P8, cal on the same day. I used 300 VinMag.,speedtip cartridges 10.7 gr. The Blazer was very good, with a silencer and Usm Atzl. I tested the gun successfully at 100 m and 305 m . The next day, early in the morning, we went hunting in the mountains. The village was called Pfunds. Two more rangers went with us. In total there were five of us. When we reached the pastures in the mountains, the guys put chains on the wheels. Then we drove a few more kilometers. Then we put on snowshoes and went up to the mountains. One of the huntsmen used cross-country ski despite the fact that snow drifts reached 60-70 cm. We climbed about two hours to the house. We flooded the oven, had a snack and rested a little there It was assumed that a difficult and long way up was ahead of us. But we moved away just about 500 meters, when we saw a group of 8 ibexes on the left on a rock at a distance of 350 m from us. I set a scope, we examined carefully the trophy qualities of ibexes. Gerhard had been constantly watching ibexes for the past few weeks. He said that that was the best trophy specimen. Ibexes were grazing quietly at that moment and the distance was 350 m, but adjusted to 310 m taking into account the angle. That was practically the same distance at which I shot the carbine, I decided that I would shoot. I made a ready and fired a shot. The ibex collapsed as if knocked down high from the mountain to the snow. The rest of the group stood rooted to the spot and looked down until we began to approach them. 7,500 hectares was the area of the local hunting farm. There are lots of people all year around. They are walking, hiking in spring, summer and autumn. Only two ibexes are shoot in these places a year. Apparently, that was why animals felt absolutely safe. So I got an 8 -year-old Alpine ibex with horns - 80 cm. Then we flew to Lyon. Lufthansa managed to lose one of my bags at the transfer in Frankfurt. As a result, we arrived in Lyon without my boots and some hunting things. The French outfitter Jean Francois met us in Lyon. We had nothing to do but to stop on the way to Grenoble to Decathlon to buy shoes. It was dark when we arrived in the mountain village of Gres-en-Vercors , so we could not test a rifle before hunting. The accommodation was in a 2-star apartment. The next day, early in the morning, we went hunting in the mountains. We climbed about two hours in the dark with flashlights. Finally, we saw a group of 6 chamois when dawn broke. They were in 350 meters away from us on the mountain, and 5 minutes later a male chamois came. The rifle was a Mannlicher 243-caliber. Jean Francois said that I would shoot no more than 250 m. and hunting took one day usually. So, I didn't even think about shooting at that moment. They grazed and moved higher up the ridge. We tried to get around them on the left, but when we got to the ridge, there was no one there. It was Saturday. Shots were constantly being fired around in the neighborhood. They have corral hunts on Saturday and Sunday. We went for a hunt later, but we saw only female deer and roe deer. The next day we left early again, there was a heavy fog. We were climbing in the fog for about an hour. The fog was still very strong when we climbed the mountain. We stayed there and waited for about two hours, Jean Francois shivered and offered to light a fire. We all agreed. It was much more comfortable with the fire. So a few more hours passed. The fog did not lift. After a short discussion we decided to go down. The weather forecast lasted the same weather for several more days in that area that's why we decided to move to another hunting area, to the Chartreuse chamois.  And did it the same day. The move took two hours by car. The next day, early in the morning, the huntsman Damier came for us and we went to the mountains with him. The place was called Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse. Damier told us that there was snow there until recently and it was impossible to drive into the mountains by car. We were lucky, there was no snow, we managed to climb high enough into the mountains. Then we walked 40 minutes to the wooden house where the shepherd lives. We saw several groups of chamois on the way to the cabin. We moved a little bit away from the house and began to observe. At one point, Daumier began to show excitedly a lame female chamois on the mountain, who injured its leg seven years ago. All those years the hunters came to hunt it, but each time unsuccessfully. We made a short run up the mountain. The height was 1650m. I began to prepare and wait for it to turn sideways. It turned, I fired, and the chamois fell and tipped over backwards. It took us about two hours to approach it with a rope and crampons to lower the trophy. We were happy. It was extremely fast and successful hunting. That's what good preparation means. Damier was constantly monitoring the situation with chamois in that place. He knew all his chamois "by sight" like a good huntsman. Places were very beautiful there. The view was extraordinary, there was a foggy sea below, and a fascinating panorama of the Chartreuse Mountain range above. Then there was a photo shoot with the 13-year-old Chartreuse chamois, then a descent back.   The same evening, we moved back to the hunting area for the Vercors chamois. We were going to hunt two days, but had to extend it by one more day.  The third day of the hunt for the Vercors chamois started. There was also fog everywhere, it was clear only on the very top and even the sun shone. We found a group of chamois on a nearby mountain and started our approach. We approached them from above, but hey began to run away from us, while we were looking at them. The distance was small, 250 meters, they were running amicably in a string after each other, and I did not take any chances. We were still looking for chamois until the end of the day, but without success.   On the fourth day, the three of us went to the mountain, Jean Francois, my wife Angela and me. There was a heavy fog as in previous days. But when we went up we discovered that there was just a border there, and the fog was lower for our luck. A grazing male was detected on the first rock. We tried to approach it twice and I didn 't have enough time to prepare for a shot. The third time Jean Francois put his shoulder and I fired. Chamois jerked up and jumped behind a rock. Jean Francois found a lot of blood when he came to the place, but there was no chamois, it jumped 15 meters to the next from that rock. It was necessary to go down there only with special equipment. It was 4 pm and we decided to come back to the base. I saw the chamois make a "candle" after being hit, but there was anxiety about the result. Jean Francois calmed me and said that he saw a fox below, most likely it ran to the shot and found our chamois.  The next day, a local climber Jean-Louis went up the mountain with us with special equipment. He tied the ropes and went down to the next rock, but it turned out that our chamois jumped even lower. Jean-Louis went up and walked around our mountain on the other side. He managed to get to the rock on which the chamois jumped. He found it! When we finally saw our trophy, it happened to be a 7-year-old male chamois, it turned out that the fox really got it and chewed off its ear. Then there was a photo session and we drove back to the lodge.  The hunt for the Vercors chamois took five days instead of the planned two days. For some reason, we had different guides for the first three days. In addition, hunting is prohibited in those places 3 days a week. The most important thing was that we got the result! At last, we could fly home! Lufthansa's luggage arrived three days after we arrived home. Thank you for the organized hunts of the company Profi- Hunt, personally Artem Veselov, Gerhard, Jean Francois, Damien and my dear wife Angela, who accompanied me!

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 my first mountain hunt. I spent a week in the saddle, searching for the right trophy, then there was a shot at 280 meters with an angle of 23 degrees. A bullet that didn't work and a good wound. These adventures are forever in my memory!