ARGENTINA 2010 HUNT REPORT

Outfitter: Algar Safaris

Booking Agent: Wendell Reich, Hunter's Quest International, LLC. Thank you, Wendell!

Airlines: Delta and Aerolineas Argentinas

Location of Hunt: Algar Estancia, Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina

Duration: 5 days

Managers: Tommy Dobie and Paul Wray

Guide: Tito Gonzáles

Rifle: George Gibbs, Farquharson falling block, single shot rifle, caliber 7x57R, a/k/a .275 Flanged

Game Taken: Red stag, a/k/a ciervo rojo (2)

My wife and I have just returned from hunting red stags with Algar Safaris in Neuquén Province, in Patagonia, from 18-24 March. Afterwards, we visited Iguazú Falls in the subtropical north, in Misiones Province. Then we shot doves with Caza y Safaris in Santiago del Estero, in the province of the same name, for a couple of days, and then finished up with a few days in Buenos Aires. Along the way we spent some time in the Patagonian towns of Junín and San Martín de los Andes, and also in Parque Nacional Lanín.

I would like to try to give you a feel for our overall experience, rather than just the hunting, and I hope you enjoy it.

AIRLINES

We flew Delta and Aerolineas Argentinas (AA) and our experience with both was excellent. We had no problems with any of our luggage, including my rifle and ammunition and two over and under shotguns.

My only complaints are that we had to take a total of six internal, domestic flights within Argentina, since AA offers very few direct internal flights, and instead uses Buenos Aires as its hub. And excess baggage charges were very high, because we had at least some of our firearms with us on each flight (our dove shooting outfitter held our shotguns for us in Buenos Aires until we needed them, so that saved some cost).

Another consequence of this extra flying around was that we made the acquaintance of many Argentine airport police officers. At each leg of our trip, they examined our firearms and permits. Although their procedures often differed, I must say that all of the officers we dealt with were courteous, and the process was generally fairly quick.

ALGAR

Algar is a ranch of about 60,000 acres in northern Patagonia. About half of it is high-fenced. There, huge red stags are bred and hunted. The patriarch breeding stag is a monster with antlers scoring 522 total inches. While we were at Algar this year, other hunters killed 16 point, 17 point and 21 point stags within the 30,000 acre high-fenced area. All of these stags had main beams and racks of impressive girth, length and weight.

Outside the high fence, the remainder of the ranch is low-fenced, and therefore, as far as the game is concerned, this portion of the ranch and the adjoining ranches are free range territory. The stags roam freely all over this area, and so that is where I chose to hunt.

Here are a couple of photographs of the main house of the ranch, which includes the kitchen, staff quarters, dining room and a large common room with a pool table, bar and den, and of the vista beyond. As you can see, the view from the ranch is impressive.





Our quarters were in a separate building from the ranch house and were very comfortable. The hunters' quarters featured some lovely taxidermy.



Fallow deer.



We loved the puma mount.



Our guide on this hunt was a fine fellow, superb horseman, master of hounds and excellent hunter named Tito Gonzáles.



Tito speaks little English and we speak little Spanish, but we got along very well for all purposes, including hunting.

THE HUNT

We hunted sometimes on horseback, but also from a truck, as the latter permitted us to cover more ground. Our horses were good, calm and sure-footed animals, which was a good thing given the steep hills we climbed and gullies we crossed.



My wife accompanied Tito and me on every outing, including every stalk. Most of the photographs included in this report are her work.



Four dogs, or perros, as they are called in Spanish, traveled with us when we were on horseback. Here are some photos of us and the perros.







We rode through some beautiful country, day after day.





Patagonia is truly one of the most magnificent lands we have visited. The light and colors are varied and amazing. The hardest part of putting this report together was deciding which of our many photographs to leave out!





We saw a great many stags on each day of our hunt. They were especially active in the mornings and evenings. Their roaring was loud and constant, as each stag was busy gathering and protecting his harem of hinds.



We saw at least a dozen ten, eleven and twelve pointers on the first day alone. Tito rejected each of them as chico or too small. On the evening of the first day, we saw a fine thirteen pointer, deep in a canyon between two winding ridges.

What I should have said is that Tito saw him, as by the time I got my binocular aimed in the right direction, the stag had entered a patch of thick brush along the bed of a stream at the bottom of the canyon, followed by most of his hinds.

Tito looked at me and said "Trece. Grande." I replied, with a question in my voice, "Vamanos?"

Tito shook his head and answered, "No. Manyana." He had concluded that the stag had his harem with him, and would be disinclined to move from such a good spot until morning. And so it would be.

The next morning we returned to the same area. Stags roared throughout the canyon in a nearly unbroken chorus. Challenges roared and were answered from every quarter.

We walked slowly along the same winding ridge from which we had glassed the thirteen pointer the previous evening. We stayed just under the ridgeline so as not to give the stags our profile.

Tito, in the lead, spotted our stag first, and motioned us down. We crawled forward about fifty yards or so, to a good vantage point. Tito set up the sticks and I put my Gibbs on them. My first shot, at 275 yards, was a clean miss. High, over the back of the stag. But he didn't move, as he could not tell where the shot came from.

So, I dropped the cross hairs of my scope a bit and my next shot drilled him through the lungs. He fell and I finished him with a shoulder shot at 15 yards, after a quick walk to where he lay.



I am very happy with this stag.



Tommy Dobie, who manages Algar, offered me another stag free of charge (except for trophy-related preparation and clearance fees, if I wanted to keep the trophy), as long is it was ten points or less. I jumped at the chance.

Tommy is a great guy, who is also a very talented and knowledgeable veterinarian. He knows the score when it comes to running a ranch and breeding and managing a red deer herd.



Tommy and his assistant Paul are also terrific hosts. As an aside, Tommy is planning to leave Algar at the end of this year, and move on in order to assist his son in his own hunting operation farther to the north. I am sure that he will be missed, although by the same token, I have no doubts that Algar will continue as a first class operation.

As we hunted for a second stag, we or the dogs would spot and flush all sorts of game, including foxes (or zorros), armadillos, emus, guanacos and many stags.







We couldn't get a photograph of a guanaco, because they were very shy, and would run like the wind as soon as they saw us.

I shot my second stag on the afternoon of the very next day, after a long stalk through a valley to where he was roaring at another, smaller stag. Altogether, the stalk took about one hour and covered nearly a mile.

The ground in this region of Patagonia sometimes seems flat and featureless, but that is extremely deceptive. There are folds and creases everywhere that are deep enough to hide in while standing at full height. We took advantage of these as often as we could.

Near the end of the stalk, we again resorted to crawling. Let me tell you that the plants that grow in Patagonia have plenty of armor against animal molestation!

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Even the grass you see in the last photograph is more likely to stab and splinter you than simply bend or break!

Finally, we set up for a shot on a nice, ten point stag quartering away halfway up a ridge at about 225 yards. My shot raked him from the short ribs on his right flank to deep within his chest cavity.





We wound up our stay at Algar by riding horseback in the mountains, visiting Parque Nacional Lanín in the nearby Andean foothills, and spending an afternoon in the nearby towns of Junín and San Martín de los Andes.

We saw a number of good stags while riding over the ranch.





It was the perfect way to wrap things up.

IGUAZU FALLS

From Patagonia, we traveled to the subtropical north, in Misiones Province, along the border with Brazil, to Iguazú Falls. The falls are a grand spectacle of nature. They are awe-inspiring and beautiful almost beyond belief.

These photographs do not do them justice, but will serve better than words to describe them.









SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO

Finally, before returning to the huge metropolis of Buenos Aires, we spent a couple of days in Santiago del Estero shooting doves. My wife with her 28 gauge over and under, and me with my 12.

Our outfitter for this phase of our trip was Caza y Safaris, run by Jorge Noya. His estancia in Santiago was very close to the shooting grounds and luxuriously appointed. Here is a photograph of the main room of the estancia, including some of Jorge's fine trophy collection.



Here is a photograph of a South American trophy that few are fortunate enough to include in their collections these days. If only we could hunt jaguars again in our lifetimes, but I doubt that we will ever have the chance.



We fired three thousand rounds of ammunition (of which I accounted for two thirds) in two days. I lost count of the number of doves we shot in Santiago on the first afternoon. They were like mosquitoes — everywhere.

We shot doves as fast as we could break open our shotguns and reload. There are tens if not hundreds of millions of them in the north central provinces of Argentina, and they are a plague on the crops. There are no bag limits and the shooting has to be experienced to be believed.

Argentina is truly a wingshooter's Mecca.

My apologies, but we were so tired that we took very few photographs. Here are a couple of me that my wife took, while she rested and rehydrated!





Yes, that is sweat that is drenching me. The temperatures were in the high nineties Fahrenheit, and the humidity was very high.

Nothing that a long mid-afternoon siesta and two showers a day could not cure, however!

We had a wonderful time in Argentina. It was our first trip, but will not be our last, God willing.

Anyone who wants more details on any of this should feel free to send me a private message and I will be happy to provide them.

Adios, amigos!

Stunning landscape and and photography. Congrats on a nice stag.

That country is magnificent. Congrats on the stag.

Outstanding, what a great hunt in beautiful surroundings, and to top it all off you are a very good photographer. Congratulations.

Regards
Aziz

MR
Congratualtions to your wife on the fine photos, and to you on your successful hunt. The first stag had good crowns and the second had excellent length.
Argentina has many different terrains/climates to hunt. When you got to Iguazu, you were into the tapir/water-buffalo/jaguar region. Of course, only the buff can be hunted of those three.
A March hunt in the mountains for Red Stag is on my must-do list.
Thanks for sharing.

MR,
Great report and beatiful pictures !!!
I really liked your second stag !!
Some hunters prefer antlers with many tines, but others, as me, prefer long and thickier antlers with fewer tines.

You hunted two very fine stags.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us

L

MR,

Sounds like you and your wife had a great hunt and enjoyed some beautiful country! Congrats on the two great stags.

CK

Mrlexma;
Congratulations!!!, Thanks for sharing this wonderfull pictures, I will take some of tem for my computer as wall papers. Kind Regards; Guillermo.

Suberb Report.

Congrats for the 2 very fine stags.


Seloushunter

Great report, amazing photography. I hope you get to go again.

Thanks for sharing

Great report,Congratulations on your stag,and thank your wife for the wonderful pictures!

Beautiful trophies and beautiful country. Congratulations on a great hunt!

That looks similar to an area we hunted in not too far from Esquel years ago. We hunted hares on a ranch much like that one. Those giant sponge looking low growing plant clumps with the thorns are called neonas IIRC, great cover for hares running between them.

Very nice report. The pictures are exceptional, although, with a lady that will travel that well with you, there really ought to be a few more of her! Congratulations to you both on a wonderful trip.

What a wonderful hunt and experience. Congratulations. Beautiful stags taken in
beautiful country, with good folks to make the trip truly memorable.

MR,
Well done, my friend, well done! Those are two magnificent stags. And the Patagonia area is absolutely beautiful... a perfect reason for a return trip. Perchance, was trout fishing available within a reasonable days trip to the Algar property?

Gato,

Those plants are called neneos.

bwanamrm,

Indeed the area has many fine waters for trout fishing. As everything, there are better places than others in a same river,it's just a matter of having good contacts to open the correct gates...

It will be a pleasure...as always

L

Mr: fantastic report and beautiful pictures. Congrats to you and your wife.

Excellent report and wonderful pictures. This is a trip that I'll probably never have an opportunity to take, and I appreciate you taking the time to capture the essence of the land and the people. Congrat's to you and the Mrs!

What a great report! Really good photos! Seems you had a blast. Would love to go there some time.. Excellent stag!

Thanks, guys (and thanks from my wife, too).

I highly recommend the free range stag hunting that Algar offers in Patagonia - obviously!

bwana - as Lorenzo says, there is plenty of trout fishing in the surrounding area. I understand that November is the best time to go fishing in this region, as that is when the season starts.

But on our trip to and from Junín and San Martín de los Andes, and as we passed through Parque Nacional Lanín, we saw several anglers plying the waters, trying to entice the trout with their flies.

Paul Wray, who helps run Algar, is an avid fisherman, and tells me that the fishing can be excellent - and he knows the best local spots!

Great report and beautiful trophies. Like Lorenzo, I prefer the looks of the second stag.

The area is just breathtaking. It is one of the places on my must visit list.

Spectacular report and pictures. My wife has been hinting that she wants to visit South America for a hunting vacation. I think I'll leave your report up on the computer!

Superb report and pics (as usual), and thanks for sharing. That is some stunning real estate you shared, and great animals.

Watch out Aziz, you may have some competition for best hunts and reports on AR!

Well done, MrLexma !

Beautiful pictures !

So good you had such a wonderful trip down here

FANTASTIC report and STUNNING photography

Thanks for sharing the pictures are magnificent. Can you share what photographic equipment your wife used?

Both stags are really nice specimens. How will you be displaying them?

Best
Gabriel

Thanks, gentlemen.

Gabriel, we used our old Nikon D70. We used Nikon lenses, a 28-80mm f2.8 and a 70-200mm f2.8.

We also used a relatively new Sea & Sea DX-1G compact camera. The camera is made for underwater use, so it has a very wide angle lens. It has a 3x optical zoom and works as well on land as it does under the waves.

I plan to have a full head and shoulder mount made of the 13 pointer, and a European shield mount of the 10 pointer.

Looks like an amazing trip. Thanks for sharing!

ALGAR IS ONE OF THE BEST TROPHY STAGS PRODUCERS OF ARGENTINA .CONGRATULATIONS .THANKS FOR SHARING WITH US AND I HOPE YOU VISIT OUR COUNTRY MANY TIMES MORE.

MR, that is a fantastic report with so many beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing with us. I've got to get Argentina back in my plans. I absolutely love that country.

What a fantastic report with stunning pictures! Thank you for taking us along.

Thanks for the fantastic report and wonderful pics. Congrates on that stag. This is a trip I also would like take--but wife says NO to South America. ? ? ?
Great report!!

Thanks MR for the great report and pics. Too bad Tommy is leaving Algar, I hoped to hunt with him again.

My pleasure. Argentina and Algar are a great trip, no doubt about it.

I just got a call from Fauna & Flora letting me know that my stag trophies have already arrived in New York!

A guy could get used to this kind of treatment!

there's a bucket lister!

Looks like a great hunt and trip to take a wife along. Thanks for the pictures.

Any poison snakes?

Allen, this is a great trip for a couple - there are many things for a wife to do, including horse back riding (while hunting or not) and sight-seeing.

I don't know about poisonous snakes. We didn't see any snakes at all, even in the subtropical north.

I would not expect that there are any in Patagonia, but I stand to be corrected by those in the know.

Jeff, I agree. Although I must admit to having a subliminal bucket list that keeps getting longer and longer the longer I don't think about it!

Beautiful pics MR, and congrats on the hunt!
David

MR,
These pictures are so good, they should be made into a coffee-table picture book. Beautiful.

That was the MOST awesome Argentinian hunt report I've ever read & really enjoyed the fine photography! Thanks for taking the time to write such majestic report.