Reports

It was very interesting and difficult hunt in the highlands. The guides knew where the animals were but it took time to track down.  All shooting distances start from 350m. The height in my case was 4555m.

After the unsuccessful hunt on the Himalayan Ibex in March, I had to return to Pakistan in December. The friends, who hunted at this time, told me that the hunt must be easy and it might take about 30 minutes. This theme Ibex are in heat: they crowd and go down. Moreover, the snow drives them down, where the grass is still present. Indeed, we have seen a lot of Ibex from the road, however, I was without my rife at that ride, because the Pakistan authorities wasted to much time and didn’t do the permit for the gun import in time. As a result, I was hunting with an old carbine 7mm Remington, kindly given by the organizers. To tell the truth, we have not seen shootable goats from the road. Young males were roaming. The local law prohibits shooting of the males with lengths of horns less than 38 inches. I was shown a group of Ibex, which I should hunt on. I thought, that the distance is not that long and the elevation is not hard. However, it turned different. We started at 3.30 in the morning from the height 2400 m a.s.l, and it took 9 hours for the elevation, which was hard and steep. Besides the steep elevation, we had to walk around the valley for we could reach our Ibex from above. A lot of power was lost for the moving. It is really hard to run at the heights about 3000 meters a.s.l. just right after the plane without acclimatization. And we have reached the height 3600 m a.s.l. The difference of 1200 meters is not easy, we know it as a mountain hunters. As a result, we reached the group of animals from above: the best outcome in the mountain hunt. I shot from the distance 150 meters. It was hard to catch the largest male, because it covered by the younger individuals. At least I noticed an opened back for a second and shot precisely. A wonderful 12-year old male. My friend Sergey Magidov took his own trophy at the first day as well. We had just one day for the hunt, the business called before the New Year.

This hunt was the last one in our combination Austria-Romania- Bulgary and took less an hour. We were lucky with the weather and visibility. The concentration of Chamois there is really high. 

It was hard to get this Carpathian Chamois. We walked about 6 hours in the snowy forest before saw animals not their tracks. I’ve got the record trophy in that hunting area in that season-119 CIC. Personal thanks to Ilya Dmitriev and “Safari and Expeditions”.

I got Alpine Chamois and Ibex easily. Also I’ve managed to improve my result with European mouflon. Personal thanks to Ilya Dmitriev and “Safari and Expeditions”.

I shot the trophy of Kri-Kri Ibex on the Sapiendza Island. Only smoothbore guns are permitted for this hunt. It was restricted three years ago to make hunt video. I shot from 75m distance and wounded it. Then I and my guide Petros chased the animal and took it. It was good 10 years old male. Rifle, caliber 12 with high-speed cartridges (550м/с !! )Remington Slugger. I tested it on 50,70 and 100m. Than we drove to Musaki town on the north of Greece. My guide suggested corral hunting. We climbed not high and I stayed at the narrowest  place of the gorge. There was the cave above me  where animals slept  and the guide started to went down shooting and making noise. The first Ibex showed in 15 minutes. It came to me at the distance 40m and I shot. It stopped and  I shot once again, the goat fell. So I harvested Kri-Kri (Hybrid) Ibex. Thanks a lot for this hunt to the guides Paul and Petrosos.

In mid-November, flew to Gorno-Altaisk for a Capricorn. I was met by Konstantin Nikolaevich Saylankin (Uch-sumer). On the same day we got to Tungur. The next morning, having reached the Akkem gorge on Gas 66, we mounted our horses and moved to the foot of Belukha Mountain. In the evening we reached the Akkem meteorological station. In the morning, rising to the mountains, we saw a group of ibex, among which was a trophy specimen. Approached 320 meters. When I took off the fuse, an involuntary shot occurred ((. I fired several times, but did not hit. On the fourth day we went out in the direction of Belukha. We noticed two groups of ibex on opposite sides. Decided to go left. We climbed, approached 310 meters. They lay. After waiting for the ibex chosen by us to rise, I fired a shot, hit slightly behind the shoulder blade, it ran. The third and fourth shot hit the wrong place. The fifth reached the goal and the ibex rolled down. I got Altai ibex! Carabiner Blazer P 93, caliber 300 VinMag, Akkubond 11.7gr. Bullet, Knightforce 4-16x42 F1 sight. Thanks to Saylankin Konstantin Nikolaevich, rangers Igor and Aidar.

The classical hunt for the classical trophy.

At the end of October Viktor Nikolaevich, Maxim Vorobev (Profi Hunt) and me flied to Kathmandu through Doha.  We arrived at noon and drove to the hotel. The next two days we spend drawing up all papers. On the fourth day we flied to Dhorpatan.  The trek to the last Nepal village Dule took us about three hours.  Next day we were trekking once again and broke down with my companions  on the day six. Viktor went for the Blue Sheep and then for a Tahr and I was going to hunt for Himalayan Tahr because our outfitter couldn’t take the license for a sheep.  Four of us walked about 10 km to the hunting camp. Me and Amrit sat down to have some rest when our guide Bahri ran and said that he had noticed the trophy size Tahr very close. We climbed and I shot it. I was so happy! It was the nice trophy of Himalayan Tahr. The distance was 220m , height 3500m, Blazer P93, WM300.All next day we devoted  to cutting meat. Then we spend 3 days trekking to Dule.  I’ve got small deer like our musk deer. It also has fangs. On the day 13 we met Viktor and Maxim. They had successful but hard hunt. On the day 14th we trek to the chopper base.  It arrived and when we decided to fly back it started on the third attempt. At last we took off and arrived to Kathmandu. Next day we fly home to Moscow. Thanks a lot to Maxim Vorobev and Amrit.

I hunted in the Sonora region not far from the town Caborca which is located in three hours to the north from Esmorilio. The local landlord Segio Garibai, on the ranch of whom we stayed, can get just one license for the Desert Bighorn per year. He organizes hunts for the wild pigeons and turkey also there are coyotes, wilds cats, pumas, mule deers and peccaries. Our guide Jorge had found few groups of sheep beforehand. There weren’t the direct road from the ranch to the hunting place and it took us three hours to drive there. When we arrived Jorge led us to the southern slope though the sheep were noticed on the northern one. He thought that the animals would come but it didn’t happen. It’s evidently that animals prefer to stay in shadow when it’s hot and there are much more food for them. We waited for three hours when I convinced Jorge to come to the northern side where two guides were observing sheep. They saw two different groups, the first one consists of four females and two males in 600m from us and the second bigger one was in 1.5 km from us. Sheep had day rest and we had to wait. At 2 pm I insisted on moving to the first group. They wouldn’t come to us in any case. The females were alarmed, although they did not leave, but began to behave cautiously. I didn’t notice any males there. Sergio by walkie talkie suggested to come to the second group. Jorge weighed about 110 kg and I guessed that he disliked the idea to walk so far but the decision was taken. The wind was blowing into our backs, which could not help but worry, because the sheep could smell us and ran away. Trekking took about an hour. Jorge was far behind me and I decided not to wait him and went on. After climbing up I saw the groups of sheep. Most of them were females, I found just one male in the bush. The distance was 300m. Sergio has the rifle 300 wm which is accurate bus has one feature very easy trigger release. It’s good for mountain hunts but you have to know how to work with it or can make a random shot. I was laying and watching for the only ram which was closed by females. At last it got up on the open rocks and I made the only but accurate shot. The ram fell. Other animals had ran but not far, it meant that the bighorn was died and they didn’t understand the reason. At that moment me and the operator noticed three more males and even bigger but the permit was closed. I got the trophy. It was my 37th sheep from the MHC list. Next day we decided to hunt for the mule deer because had enough time before the departure. We started early morning and drove till 3 pm, met two young males and lots of females but didn’t find trophy size deer. I received pleasure from that hunt in any case. Hunting is the process and it’s not always finished by the shot.

This hunt impressed me so much that one day I’d write the article not only report. Hope to do it. I’ll try to be short. It took us three days to reach the hunting area and the last two days we treked. After 4 hours sleep we started climbing up. I fired a short at 7.30 am to the nice argali from the 508 m distance and missed. The bullet didn’t reach one meter to the animal. I checked the gun. Zero jumped up/down on 5/4 sm, left/right on 2/1sm. I supposed it happened because of cold and low pressure. The different bullets speed confirmed this idea but I had to check it once again. I took the magazine to the sleeping bag and kept it warm till the next hunt which happened in a day.Next time I shot realizing where Zero could be and used the cartridge which kept warm for it. The shot was done from the distance 545 m, and hit to its the shoulder. The sheep separated from the herd, rose up to 300m and lay down. It became darker, weather changed and we knew that the leopard walked around that’s why we couldn’t wait and got the trophy . It took us an hour. It was my 40th trophy from the MHC list. My deep appreciation to Stalker Group and personally to Evgeny Haritonov who accompanied my in this unforgettable trip. Thanks a lot to Radza Mehmud and his team. Also thank you very much to Seifull Hum for his support.

After receiving the offer from Stalker Group to hunt for an Anatolian Chamois  I flied to Trabzon immediately.  We drove about 2.5 hours to the village where stayed for a night. It was snowing all night and in the morning the visibility wasn’t more then 100-150m. We spend four hours in vain waiting  the weather would be better decided to drive to the mountains.  We reached 2400m and started to observe the slopes. Two more hours passed, weather became worse. There was the risk that the road could be closed and we had to take the decision to drive back.  When we were going to leave I noticed the male who ran in 80m from us.  It ran 300m more while I’d prepared for the shot. I hit it to the right place. It was 8 years old male which became my 40th trophy from the MHC list. My thanks to Stalker Group for the organization and personally for Evgeny Haritonov for accompanying me in this trip.

I had negative hunting experience with the rented guns before and when received the information about  the shyness of Corsican mouflons (not allow to come closer than to 300-400m), I decided to fly to France with my own gun. The outfitter told me that there isn’t any need to have special permit for it. The only things which I has to have are the hunting license with the number of the hunter’s ticket and the confirmation that you are the owner of the gun (RHT). It sounded too easy but I trusted the information provided by Stalker Group.I received my gun and cartridges at the Lyon’s airport without any problems but in the oversized luggage stand. Nobody checked it. It took us 3.5 hours’ drive to the place where we spent the night.  Next morning at 6.30 am we started climbing and in two hours  noticed four females with lambs.  In two more hours we saw three trophy size males but very shy. We tried to approach them to 500m, I made my first shot form the distance 700m and missed. Animals ran away. We found them at the sunset and managed to approach to 200m. I got it At the Lyon airport, the representative of  the Aeroflot filled  papers using data from  my hunting ticket and led me to the place where I left it. Then he called to the police and asked them to check but they refused. That’s all. All procedure took us 15 minutes! I told about it on purpose because heard and not once terrible stories about taking personal guns to France. Thank you very much to Stalker Group and personally for Ludmila Baranove for the organizations of this hunt.