17 January 2021, 23:43
larryshoresPakistan with Indus Safaris-some pics added
OUTFITTER- I used Danish Ali of Indus Safaris . I have known him for years . It is a fantastic company .DATES- January 2021
RIFLE- I was advised that it was very time consuming and difficult but not impossible to get one’s own rifle into Pakistan. I decided to utilize one of Danish’s rifles. It was a Blaser in 7 MM topped with a Swarovski scope . The gun shot well. It had an amazing trigger . I find the safety to be awkward. Very awkward. I won’t be replacing my rifles with Blasers any time soon.
GUIDE- I was supposed to hunt with Danish . He, unfortunately, became ill with COVID while we were in transit . Instead, we had a gentleman named Mir. Very nice guy. Although Danish was not physically with us, he checked in every day making sure that all was good. I appreciated this very much . It shows that he cares about his clients .
TRAVEL BEFORE THE HUNT - I flew Emirates for the first time. All I can say is WOW! Emirates is an incredible airline . It may be the best I have ever flown and I have flown a hell of a lot in my life .
I visited Dubai for the first time in my life . What an impressive and amazing city. I did not regret my visit there . In fact, I am fairly certain that I will make more trips there .
The best part of visiting Dubai was visiting Saeed for several hours . He was gracious enough to show me the desert, his various shooting related facilities and had me to dinner at his house . I throughly enjoyed my visit with him . He is a very nice guy.
SAFETY AND SECURITY- my friends and family expressed a lot of concern about these matters before I left . Candidly, I was very apprehensive.
For the most part , there was nothing to give me any concern. I felt perfectly safe. The people were quite friendly and were happy to have me there .
I did get quite concerned at the airport. We were definitely attracting attention which i didn’t want . I could not wait to get out of the airport . This was magnified by the fact that I could not understand what anyone was saying . It was a combination of accent, speaking quietly, lots of background noise, masks and a divider that made it difficult to hear .
Karachi is a massive big city . I am
told over 20 million people . That, in and of itself made me nervous. Nothing happened but I was still nervous.
We had multiple armed guards with us just about everywhere. One could tell they meant business.
IN COUNTRY TRAVEL-Given that I was going after a variety of animals, it was not surprising that I had to go to different areas. There was a fair amount of windshield time. At times this was over rough, very dusty roads. The picture below is of my bags after we shook them off. My wife would have lost her mind!
LODGING- we stayed at a variety of different places. These places ranged from adequate to quite nice . Actually, incredibly nice in some cases.
INTERESTING NON-HUNTING MATTERS- needless to say, the culture is far different than the US. This added some interesting things to the trip. Let me list a few:
1-Prayers- A couple of times a day, we could hear the prayers over what I believe to be loud speakers . While I have no idea what they were saying , it was quite beautiful and soothing . I have heard it before but it has been a long time .
2-Truck art- we saw hundreds if not thousands of large trucks . They have these incredible, very colorful, ornate decorations. I have never seen anything like it anywhere before.
3- the land. Where we hunted the urial, I looked out across the land. I could not help but think how it looked like much of the American west. Other places could have been in the eastern cape in the RSA. Some places reminded me of Utah or Nevada.
4-snake charmers. We got to see snake charmers before we left the forest area. Damn it was incredible. Those cobras were striking at these guys who appeared to care less. They were close close close to the snakes . They were way too lackadaisical about the cobras for me .
It was also interesting to see the response the locals had toward us. When I got out of the truck, everyone was taking my picture on their phones . I have seen anything like this before.
5- different cultures. One of things that fascinated me was that the guide could tell the religion of someone based upon how they dressed. Further , he could tell whether a woman was married or not based upon how she was dressed.
Women are definitely treated differently . Some cultural things were obvious. For example , if we drove by women, most would turn their backs to the vehicle . If one waved to a woman while passing , they never waved back .
Not saying it is right or wrong , just different.
6- religion. While Pakistan is a
largely Muslim country, there are definitely other religions . Notably Hindu, Judaism and Christian. I was quite surprised.
One of the little towns we were close to had all four mentioned above . I inquired about conflict , violence , etc. I was told there was absolutely none. They all tolerated and respected one another.
I am going to discuss the hunting on an animal by animal basis.
BLANFORD URIAL
Our first animal we sought was the Blanford urial. We drove a couple of hours out of Karachi. We met some locals who were waiting for us . Almost immediately, we saw several urials. Off we go to have a look.
We walked a mile or so . Walking was rough due to loose rocks. I was wondering if these guys had a clue what to do. I needn’t have worried . This was one of the most masterful stalks I have ever seen. Pure genius.
We got to a ledge we could hide behind and started trying to sort things out. It was 240 yards away. After waiting patiently over an hour , the largest one gave me a shot. He was dead before he hit the ground .
Magnificent animal.
SINDH IBEX
We made our first attempt the first day . It was fairly late afternoon as we drove from where we shot the urial. This is when I learned that the ibex was going to be a driven hunt .
Our first attempt was a failure . However, we did see several billies. One was absolutely enormous. At about 500 yards, I estimated 48. Once we got to the place we were staying , they had some mounts. One of which was 52. I think the one we saw was bigger. This really got my attention.
The next morning we moved to a different location. We set up for a drive . We had waited a long time.
I was told there were two billies. Both shooters. We waited a very long time. Suddenly a
billy appeared. I asked whether to shoot . I heard nothing . Remembering what I heard before , I made a great shot and drilled him running at 157 yards . Then I saw others. A lot of others . I had not shot one of the big ones.
Shi
t happens. What can I say.HOG DEER
We moved to another area to hunt forest species. As driving in, I noted the bush was THICK. REALLY THICK! I wondered how we were going to hunt them. I got my answer before long . We were going to hunt at night .
I have never seen a hog deer much less shot one . I didn’t know a good one from a bad one . I was totally at the mercy of the guide.
After an hour or so, we spotted one which they got all excited about . I shot it at the extreme long range of 40 yards . They say it is a great one . A gold medal size. I have no clue.
I was the first hunter of the year. They have a tradition. The first hunter to kill a hog deer or a boar gets a Tanzanian style kabube. I was the first . I got the kabube. It was quite interesting . However, it made for a late night.
PARTRIDGES
We were going to do a driven partridge shoot complete with lines of beaters . I love bird shooting . This had an unusual aspect . They brought out 4 different side by side 12 gauges. Holland & Holland. William Evans. Westley-Richards . Churchill. I was quite excited to shoot these magnificent old shotguns. That wore off quickly .
After a small number of shots, my middle finger on my trigger hand was getting banged to hell and back. I couldn’t hit anything with those guns . I had enough of my finger being slammed. I told them I had enough and was going to quit.
We got in the shade and ate lunch . I was asked if I would like a single trigger shotgun. Yes, of course I would . In short order, a Beretta semi-auto appeared .
The world was a different place when I shot the Beretta. I just hammered the birds with it. It was fun but we only got something in the low 20’s.
NILGAI
After the bird hunt , I started to feel bad . I went to bed about 7:30. We got up early the next morning. I felt better .
We slipped up on a food plot. A nilgai bull was there. I hammered him at about 50 yards. He was clearly hit and hit hard. I remembered some stories of losing wounded nilgai in Texas. I decided to shoot again .
I am told it was a gold medal animal . I have no clue nor do I care. Those type of things are not for me.
We had fresh ground nilgai burgers for lunch . Nilgai back strap for dinner. Excellent table fare.
We are having extraordinary luck.
ASIATIC WILD BOAR
This place has insane numbers of hogs . It is nothing to see 100 in an outing . Most, however, are females and juveniles. They don’t seem particularly scared. Boars on the other hand, are skittish .
We walked up to a food plot and got in a blind. We sat there for quite a while . Numerous hogs came in. We passed one boar which was a mistake . I was told to shoot another as it was leaving . It took me 3 tries to get the safety off . F’ing Blaser. He was disappearing when I finally managed to get the safety off. I passed .
Just before dark another boar came in. I drilled him. He was way smaller than the first that I passed.
They are much smaller than I anticipated. Not sure why I though they would be bigger .
BLACK BUCK
After we finished in the forest area , we drove back to Karachi. This basically took the rest of the day . There was no hunting .
After breakfast the next morning, we took off for the black buck area. On the way, I learned that this was also supposed to be a driven hunt . We made it to a village to meet the locals. Off we went.
We walked a good way up this valley. Walking was difficult for me
due to all the rocks . There are few
rocks where I come from.
We walked a good way up this valley and climbed to a great vantage point . I figured this was going to be a bust due to the wind direction. Unfortunately, I was right.
We walked out and got the truck. We made a bit of a move. Off we go walking through the rocks. Again, the rocks were tough on me.
As we climbed to a vantage point , one of the locals spotted a lone male black buck. He seemed to be pretty far away. I had a horrendous place to shoot from. I held as appropriate and fired. I shot high.
It occurred to me that given the small size of a black buck, perhaps I was over estimating the range . I held lower and fired . He went down. No muss, no fuss.
I asked the cameraman who is a Zim PH what he thought the distance was? 250-275 was the answer . Personally, I estimated 250. I got out my binos and ranged it . 147. No wonder i shot high .
There is an interesting side note to this hunt . I vividly remember Aaron Neilson’s TV show made in Pakistan. We hunted the exact same valley that was in Aaron’s show. There are some very unique things in that valley that cannot be mistaken.
One critter left!
KENNIONS GAZELLE
Prior to booking this trip, I had never heard of a Kennions gazelle. It is hard to get a permit. They are very limited. I got one .
These are very small. About size of a duiker. This is a small target .
As we were eating lunch, word came in that one of the locals had spotted a Kennions gazelle. Off we go.
We get out of the truck and walk a good way. We came to a ledge with a valley below . Across the valley, was the quarry . This was a tiny target at good distance.
I shot it at 174 yards. He was down . Adventure over.
CONSERVATION
Hunting plays an important role
In conservation in Pakistan. An incredibly important role.
The guide advised us that Muslims
are required to provide meat at each “festival.” Rather than kill a head of their livestock, they would often go poach an animal. This depleted the game animals over a long period of time.
Now they have a community based program. Under this arrangement, the community gets 80% of the cost of the tags. The government keeps the other 20%. This generates a lot of money for the communities. It is now to their benefit to protect the animals . This program has been widely credited for drastically increasing the markhor population.
GENERAL COMMENTS
This trip was so interesting in so many ways.
Let me make a few closing comments:
1- Parts of the trip can be a bit nerve wracking given the driving customs.
2-In the rural areas , the people are all quite pleasant and welcoming. Nothing like what the MSM would have us believe .
3-Hunting is good even great .
4-Pakistan has a lot of varied terrain and elevations. Should one ever go, do NOT rely on general advice . Get info on the specific area . It may be hot and dry in the southern areas while it is very cold and snowy further north.
My good friend and cameraman Murray expressing his appreciation for working with me
A few images I thought were interesting
post image online
Larry, I appreciate your candid remarks on everything. Makes a hunt report so much better.