Was there for Red Stags, lack Buck, Axis Deer and some Wing Shooting - what an amazing place!

Nice Stag
Tell a story...

Roo,
Don't be a tease. Give us a hunt report!
Nice stag BTW.

Hi Guys, sorry to tease but I'm new here and didn't want to come in all 'Bertie Big Bananas' and start posting pictures and stories but couldn't find somewhere appropriate to introduce myself.

Tell you what, I'm still sorting through the pictures so once I've done that, I'll post up where I was, what it was like and what I thought of it? How's that sound?

Incidentally, the place I shot the Red Stag was La Colorada in La Pampa and is where Boddington shot Red Stags in Argentina, so it's quite a place....

Thanks folks, more from me ASAP

Cheers, Roo

Nice one Roo!

Just back here in time for the really kick off of roe...

Welome aboard.Details,details ,details!!!!

Who did you hunt with for the stag?

Very nice stag.

OK, so I was invited over to a number of estates o meet them with regard to representation, so it was a business trip :-P

The place I did the most Big Game Hunting was La Colorada in La Pampa, an amazing place, in fact, Craig Boddington hunted here and it has been featured in plenty of books, including Rowland Wards and SCI's....

This was the main hunting environment for Deet and Sheep - very similar to Southern Africa and beyond this is 20km x 20km of unfenced open thorn veldt...


Plenty of multi-horned sheep around, same too Cameroon Goats, Somalia Rams (I kept my distance with those having read about Somalians on the Foreign Office website!)


Examples like this were not uncommon

Environment:

Species:

Facilities:

OK, so the location is 7 hours drive from the airport - I drove and would say it was fine - once. Argentina is a huge country with hardly anyone in it but the scenery is very samey to get from Buenos Aires to La Pampa. This location is 30 miles from where Red Stags and similar exotics were first introduced into Argentina and it also has produced top 10 examples yearly - and I can tell you this, the sag I shot was taken for a Management / Cull animal as it was so much smaller that one which was close to it that we naturally assumed it to be sub-standard (so to speak) and it wasn't until afterwards that we measured it - which gives you a flavour for my perceptions of the beasts!
Fallow bucks were huge too and while I glassed Axis Deer and Blackbuck, I couldn't get a shot although I was being selective having shot the big fella already - money talks folks and I was beginning to squeek a bit - lol.
In addition they have Water Buffalo which seem larger and just as beligerant as their African cousins - not ideal when they live in dense thorn bush which is almost inpenetrable!
Lots of birds too and I had a close-up moment with a Puma too but that's another story....

In terms of stalking, with an estate the size of this you still wouldn't believe the distances that you can hear the beasts during the rut. These were barking their heads off and I had fallow clashing heads all noght one night outside my room, only to awake and find Buffalo about 400m away.

So, pre-dawn start with a light breakfast then out in the truck, stopping to climb and listen for roaring stags.

Once identified the stalk commences on foot although on some stalks we had to drive-stop-listen-wait-drive-stop-listen and so onm after which it's you on foot vrs the beast.

Certainly the roaring season helped get in close and I was able to close in within 60-80 metres on several stags, some closer and others which I just couldn't get near so it's not a gimme by any means.

Sharp grasses and thorny / spiney 'burrs' are everywhere and I was glad I took my putees since they found their way inside my boots once - but that was enough.

One fella took three shots with a 375 to down his stag, I took a 30-06 and one did the job - I was using 180Gr Sako Super Hammerheads although I have found that they can be reluctant to expand on smaller game - in fact, it was only Moose last year that stopped 'em - even a Hartmann Zebra in Kaokoland last year bearly slowed one down and for all I know the bullet's still travelling!

In terms of Guides - excellent and good company too, No body felt under presure to shoot anything they didn't want to although another guest took 2 Water Buffalo - God only knows how big his Office is!
A typical day was a 6.30 start, hunting until circa 11am or until blood was drawn then back to the main lodge for luch and a siesta or maybe just sitting around on the observation deck spotting deer and telling each other lies - certainly I enjoyed it and good fun was had by all!

If you're after a monster trophy, maybe even a top 10 specimine, this is the place. I've said it, Boddingtons said it and the record books show it in black and white, but while the hunting was good, accommodation fabulous and comfortable complimented by excellent food and wines - it was the people that made the difference.

I found the people of Argentina to be 'ladies and gentlemen' - just like us really but with elegance and sophistication - good hunters, worldly but friendly, genuinely warm and great fun.

Not sure if that's how your usual hunt reports look but shout if you've any questions?

I don't want to pump our business here which is why I added pictures from my facebook account but if any of you would like to see the Presidential Palace we got or some of the other trophy or wing-shooting stuff, just let me know.

Thanks again

Boddington was, and still is, one of my favourite writers...but he should have never wrote that book about hunting in Argentina....and I am not alone in this. Many locals think the same way.

The only good chapters of that book are the ones refered about hunting in La Patagonia.

La Colorada not fenced ?

L

Wow. Don't look like there's much to do in Argentina besides great Red Stag hunting, black buck hunting, wing shooting and great accommodations and company. No real reason to go there. LOL! Great picts.

There is part of the estate with a high fence but a further 20km x 10km which is unfenced at La Colorada and as far as I could see, there was little if anything between this estate and the next and the Outfitter had access ad hunting rights over much of it.

I'm no book critic, just a hunter and as such thoroughly enjoyed my time in Argentina with La Pampa and Entre Rios being exceptional in many ways.....

Great pics and a great story.Thanks for sharing!!!

Great pics, thanks for posting them.

Roo,

It's ok with me. It was not my intention to be rude or nothing similar. It' just that after so many years here I developed some feeling for AR members and I like to take care of them when I see that the info posted on some webpages are not complete clear.

Argentina is a fantastic place to hunt and I am sure that for a trophy collector La Colorada can be a good place to visit. But axis, fallows, rams, etc are not free roaming animals in La Pampa province.

Regarding Boddington, he is a fantastic writer, is just that I think that hunting tahr (for example)in small enclosures is not something to write about. But the man worth his weight in gold !!

L

No offence taken Lorenzo, I post to about 18 different forums and similar and get a fair amount of ill-informed flaming but did not consider your comments as such, no problem.

La Colorada is about 30 miles from where Red Deer and other exotics were first introduced to Argentina in 1909 (I believe but please forgive me for any inaccuracies) and as such I appreciate the difference between an indigenous free-roaming animal from a captive one. This place, in my opinion, is a trophy hunter's paradise and the Outfitter has numerous estates in La Pampa, Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Entre Rios Provinces and some land in Pategonia which I didn't have time to get to, more's the pity!

That said, to be presented with an area of say 7000Ha (aprox 17000 acres) to hunt over, while there are fences and fire breaks, the actual task of locating and stalking is just as hard - in fact I didn't even get a shooting chance at either Axis or Black Buck duing my time - actually, that's not entirely true, I could have shot both species but they were very obviously outside my price range and I'm not wealthy enough to run the risk of embarrassing myself and my host for the sake of a trophy....

I loved Argentina and more to the point I was made to feel very welcome by most everyone I met - and that's what makes the difference for me!

Incidentally, this is me in Croatia last December with a couple of Boar shot during a driven hunt over unfenced forests:


Me with a pretty decent Springbok taken last September in Namibia's Damaraland where we enjoy over 1.5 million Ha of unfenced hunting grounds:


Me with a Hartmann Mountain Zebra taken in the Hartmann Valley in Namibia's Kaokoland in October where we have 5 hunting conservancies stretching from the Kunene River south 285 miles x 95 miles across - all unfenced and again this is out hunting area:


Me again, this time in Newfoundland in a place so remote you are 'choppered in, dropped and collected a week later. Not the biggest Moose in the world, but it was the Rut and we called him in from maybe 5 miles away, the first I saw of him was when he poked his head through the forest about 20 metres away from me:


I wouldn't want you Guys to think I didn't know the difference between a fenced area and an unfenced one.....

Have a great day!

Final note on Boddington and 'that book' on Argentina.

It was a commercial enterprise and while I've seen it, i got as far as seeing pictures of Mr B shooting a Puma out of a tree. It seemed from the photographs that dogs had been used to drive the cat up there when our intrepid American hero shot it.


I've no issue with dealing with 'problem animals' and such but do not personally think that shooting cats off branches is especially sporting or respectful of the quarry. If it's a problem lepard eating your livestock then that's a different thing from a trophy hunter looking for a flat skin and when I saw that section I cursed, put the book down and will never pick it up again. If that's hunting, I'll quit doing it.

Not a slight on Craig boddington, not a snipe at those who hunt with dogs, just my personal belief - after all, the only bloke any of us has to be honest with is the guy we look back at in the mirrow while cleaning our teeth in the mornings and for me, this isn't fair chase, neither is it something I personally agree with - each to their own.

I love that picture with the moose !!!!!

One animal that I hope someday to hunt.

Regarding axis they are very wary animals !!! With or without fence !!!

And I mayself have hunted inside a fenced area in RSA and I enjoyed the experience very much. If the area is big some animals can be very difficult to hunt. I think that one has to be open minded and enjoy all type of hunting or shooting experiences (meanwhile they are legal)we will prefer some more than others but all of them are better than sitting at the office.

Regards
L

The moose hunt was quite challenging although the shot itself was only from circa 20 metres away, such is the density of the folliage there.
Black Buck and Axis both ran rings around me if I'm honest and you're right, sometimes an animal within an enclosed area, albeit a very large one, gets used to being stalked and develops a certain invisibility when it comes to being shot at - fun though, great fun and once again I must stress that it was the people that made the difference for me.
I loved Argentina and can't wait to get back there!
Best regards