Folks,

When I get my pix together I'll make a full report on our UK and Spain adventure. To say the least it was way better than I expected and I think both of the outfitters I hunted with were some of the best I've ever used anywhere.

Stay tuned!

Mark

Folks,

I'm going to do this report in stages as there are several parts to this that should be of interest.

GETTING TO LONDON HEATHROW: Chapter 1

We left Las Vegas on Nov 3 with BA but on an American Airlines airplane. No hassles at all. We arrived Dallas pretty much on time and here's were it starts to get interesting. On the way to our gate for the Heathrow leg we witnessed the escalator stop and drop a few inches when it was loaded with passengers. No one appeared to be hurt and people were able to climb with some difficulty to the next floor. Sadie and I were at the bottom of the escalator and right in front of an elevator. BING! let's take elevator and avoid the escalator mess. Wrong! The elevator was out also so we attacked the escalator. Because each step on the escalator had dropped 6 inches it was a little bit of a grunt to get to the top. About half way up we hear someone say "I'm coming" and this big guy comes down the escalator, grabs our carry-ons and whips them to the top for us. This reminded me that there are some nice folks out there.

We arrived London Heathrow T5 on the morning of Nov 4 a little sleep deprived from bad Coach seats but all in one piece. Waited at the baggage carousel for what seemed like forever. Finally the whole thing shutdown. No luggage. A BA rep informed us that over twenty people's bags did not make the flight. Yep! My tracker showed the Pelican Air still in Dallas. Ugh!

We made our lost baggage claim and were assured that we would get our luggage in a day or two. Ok! so off to the Sofitel in T5 for the night. BTW The Sofitel was excellent.

Alex of MJH Hunting met us midday at the Sofitel on Nov 5 and drove us to our hotel THE CARNARVON ARMS in the hunting area. We were out hunting that same evening. Alex was able to coble together some gear for us and we used it for the next two days until we finally got our luggage.


HUNTING THE UK Chapter 2:

First I'd like to say I was blown away by the sheer numbers of game animals living just off the main highways. We literally saw hundreds of Chinese Water Deer and Sika.

The first evening there we went looking for the CWD. We turned off the M4 which is a main highway onto a farm road and started glassing. Not much showed until nearly 5PM but then there was a bloom. Little groups of 2-4 animals were everywhere. We were already set up before the CWD started to pop out so when the right buck showed up we made a little move and took the first trophy. Alex told me to turn around and take the buck that had come in behind us. I followed direction and we had a second buck down. Great way to start things off!



The following morning Alex picked us up at the hotel predawn and we went after a Muntjac. Not far from the hotel we turned off into a series of fields, hedgerows and wooded areas. After a little glassing Alex found a mature male Muntjac in the edge cover. It went into the forest and we moved closer to set up on the sticks. That morning Alex had a thermal telescope on the rifle which was a first for me. Alex called and the Muntjac came out to the edge of the field. It was still very early in the AM and we were down in low place so I could not see the animal but through the thermal he was ablaze. With a touch of the trigger we had our 3rd trophy.


In the afternoon of that same day we took a long ride to another area for Sika deer. We actually hunted with Mark the forester/gamekeeper. Mark oversees about 20,000 acres of land which is a huge chunk in the UK and has a couple of good areas for sika.

We dropped Alex off at one location to look for a good stag and we proceeded to an old overgrown quarry site a little ways down the road. It was a perfect set up overlooking and open area surrounded by bush. As predicted by Mark the Sika started to filter out into the open about 4 PM. We only saw females and young until Alex called Mark saying he had a big Sika stag in front of him. We hustled to get to Alex's position. The stag was there but had us pegged and was only showing his head so no shot. He then left never to be seen again.

On the way back that night we turned off into the entrance to a field a short way from were Alex had been waiting. On the other side of the first hedgerow and through the thermal you could see maybe a hundred Sika with more filtering out of the wood. No shortage of game.

The next afternoon we returned to the same location in hopes a mature Sika stag would present himself. He did just that. Mark made a few calls and pretty as a picture a mature stag popped out completely in the open and we had our 4th animal.


Here I'd like to say that I could not have hoped for two more professional hunters. Both Alex and Mark knew there game intimately and how to most effectively hunt that game. Their equipment was top shelf all the way. Vehicles, rifles, optic etc. were of excellent quality. Finally and most important they were a lot of fun for both Sadie and I to hunt with.

The Carnavon Arms Hotel was exactly what I expected for a small rural pub hotel. It was very comfortable and screamed English country. The staff were all friendly/helpful and the food adequate. Oh! The Scotch and red wine were both very nice.

We'll get into the Blaser rifles and range finding scopes at a later date


HUNTING IN SPAIN Chapter 3:

On Nov 8 Alex set us up with cab to Heathrow from our hotel. We arrived 3 hours early and checked on with Iberia to Madrid with no line and no hassle. Security was a breeze and after a leisurely breakfast we boarded our flight. Spanish customs and security on arrival in Madrid were efficient and quick.

This time our baggage arrived. Dani our outfitter and his lovely wife Paola met us just outside the door and we were on our way to Siles and the CRUZ hotel where we would stay for our hunt.

The hotel in Siles

We had our dinner fireside each night we were there.

A local boar trophy in the dining room.

Red deer trophies in the hotel.

Dinner L to R Sadie, Crazy waiter, Dani and his wife Paola
Day 1 Dani drove us up into the mountains where he has an exclusive lease to hunt the Gredos ibex. This was a total washout as the cliffs that we needed to glass were completely covered in a deep fog that would continue throughout our hunt.

The view in the mountains throughout our hunt
Day 2 Very low clouds and dense fog again. Dani picked us up from the hotel and we drove out to a huge estate in the country looking for a mouflon or fallow deer.

Here I should say the hunting area is fenced but part of the fence is down and the numerous gates are open to the surrounding agricultural land. We did see quite bit of game outside the fence.

The mouflon were in the rut so we saw quite a few lone males looking for love. Getting up on one was another story. This was no zoo and mostly the terrain was straight up or down. We drove from one vantage point to another to glass. There is a lot of oak forest on the estate and often you would see a glimpse of an animal and then he would disappear.

Eventually in the afternoon we found a suitable male mouflon who was totally enamored with the females and hung around long enough me to shoot him. First trophy in the salt.



Day 3 was foggy again so we returned to the estate. We played hide and seek with the fallow all day and late in the day a shooter stood still in an opening in the oaks long enough for me to shoot him. Now for the ibex with time growing short.




Day 4 more fog but predicted clearing in the PM. We drove into the mountains again but not up on the peaks as they were completely obscured by fog. We started still hunting the ibex in the forest. Huh! We could see about 150 yards in all directions and we did find ibex and quite a few ibex with a young male walking right up to us as we stood motionless under a tree. I had told Dani I was also interested in taking a female and a male Gredos. Eventually we found an old female that offered a shot and we had everything except our top prize the male Gredos.



About the time the weather started to clear a little at the end of the day Dani received a call from Jose who was helping us. Jose had spotted a good ibex male lying up in the rocks at a different location. We all jumped in the vehicle and drove like Hell to get there.

When we arrived at Jose's location the the fog descended right onto the area where Jose had seen the ibex. Jose who I came to believe is psychic said we should try to stalk into where he had seen the ibex. Yeah! Right. Off we went with me stumbling over all the boulders. We started to go very slowly once we got near where Jose thought the ibex was and boom there he was laying on top of a rock. It was getting very dark but I found him in the scope and fired. With the muzzle flash I couldn't see anything but Jose was positive he had seen the bullet impact. That night we found only a few drops of blood and it was getting too dark to be stumbling around the cliff so we gave it up.

The next morning and the day we were supposed to leave we again looked for the ibex. Jose had brought his dog but it had rained in the night so the dog was of no use as the scent had washed away. Jose was still convinced the ibex was dead.

We left for Madrid that afternoon. I was a little disheartened but I've hunted long enough to know that shit happens sometimes to everybody if you hunt enough.

The plan was for Jose to first look for birds circling above the carcass or if there were no birds he would take some friends and scour the area. A couple days went by and I got a WhatsApp from Dani and a picture of the ibex below. It had died only 200 yards from where I shot him. The skin was ruined from time and the wild boar and foxes feasting on it but the horns were saved. I was very happy.



One of the open gates on the Estate we hunted. Game went in and out pretty much as they pleased.


This overall was a fantastic trip and the days we spent in Madrid as tourists were a nice way to end our adventure. the Spanish people were very friendly and helpful everywhere we were. We'll be back.

Hotel Jardin De Recoletos (very nice) Madrid

This restaurant was just around the corner from our hotel. OMG! Food and particularly seafood was outstanding.

I said I'd get back to the Blazers. I used three different ones on the hunt from 243 to 8x68. They all had large range finding telescopes and lighted reticles. For what we were doing I thought they were the perfect tool. Yeah! There are a couple of quirky things about them but they were perfectly fine plus the straight pull is faster and takes less gross body movement to manipulate. For loaner guns I thought they were the cat's ass.

I'll be putting up adds for both of these operations. Call me if you're interested in any of this. It was a ball!

Cheers!

Mark

Mark, thanks for starting this report and looking forward to the rest.

UK pix added.

Excellent report.
Amazing to see how much hunting is available in the UK.

JCHB

Good to read your story. Very interested to speak to you directly. Hope your thanksgiving day is enjoyable. MTGunner

quote:

Reply

Glad you had a great time, interesting hunt.

Yeah! This was very different from anything I've done before. Once again I was totally amazed at the amount of totally free range game I saw in the UK.

The Spanish part of the hunt was the end result of my initial booking with Martin Rodrigues two years ago. Martin tragically died just before our hunt. To make a long story short his wife made everything right and I ended up hunting with Dani Higurera who actually holds the leases that Martin was selling hunts on.

Although Dani and I had corresponded quite a bit before our arrival in Spain I really didn't know what to expect. When he picked us up in a new Land Rover with his wife following in a brand new 4x4 hunting vehicle I got the idea we were hunting with the right people and I was correct. Everything was nearly perfect. We got far more out of the total experience than I ever expected.

Mark

Totally cool!

You two don't look a day over45.

Outstanding Mark! I'll be in touch at some point for the UK hunt.

Bull Sprig,

One of the many cool things about the UK hunt was it is priced in USD. When you'd like to look at pricing let me know.

Mark

Scott

One for each of us!

Mark & Sadie

Looked like a great hunt Mark. I really enjoy hunting in Europe and think it is one of the "best deals" in international hunting right now. Great food, wonderful accommodations and fun, productive hunting! Well done.

Spain is a wonderful place to hunt. For anyone that's looking to do a combined hunting/touring trip with the wife, Spain should be one of your top choices. Barcelona is a must see as are a number of other places in Spain.

gsganzer,

I couldn't agree more. The hunting was great and in surprisingly wild places. The touring was easy and you really don't need a guide. We'll be back for sure.

Hope everybody had a great Christmas.

Mark