Just returned from 21 days of hunting and touring with Alberto Foerster in Northern Argentina. On the second day, we hunted Corrientes for buffalo at Esquina. This year, the river was low enough that we could drive to where the buffalo lived, without the long horseback ride of last year. The first buff was in a herd in the open, but the second buff was in the high grass and was excellent sport. We also had opportunities at hogs. Rheas were abundant. We saw Capybara, several brocket deer, flamingos, chajas, parakeets,doves, storks, and many harriers. Rifle used was a Chapuis double rifle, 9.3x74 R. Had 300gr A-frames for the buff, and neither took more than 1 step.
After the buff hunt we would procede to the city of Corrientes and Resistencia.

Huge Freshwater ray caught by others in Parana River at Esquina the day of our arrival.



Rheas--the male hatches the eggs and raises the entire brood.



Don Ruiz-Diaz--with the withered hand from the Yarara' bite

Small buffalo herd


Larger herd of buff


First buff this year


Gaucho cabin. Wooden Wheels. We saw wooden wheeled wagons almost daily. In the cities, we would see old Ford Falcons on almost every street, most still running.


Mud bird nest


Parasitic flower


2nd buff with Alberto and Don
Ruiz-Diaz, taken in the tall grass.



me and 1st buff


little girl at gaucho cabin


Flowers at Esquina, it was their winter.



Parana River at Esquina


The above photos were of the first day of the hunt. We then travelled by car to various localities in Chaco and Formosa Provinces to continue the excursion/hunt.
More photos will follow, as time permits, of scrub bull, Howler monkeys, viscacha, charatas, Tapir and puma tracks, and brocket deer, and Javelina.

After the hunt, we visited the beautiful Ongamira mountains, and the inland sea of Mar Chiquita. Plan is to add photos gradually.

Great pictures and story,thankyou for scharing it with us Bill

More Pix:

Surubi and Sabalo for sale

Corrientes


Horse and wagon

Selecting horses


Stuck Steer


Large snake. C. gigas, False water cobra.

Hawk

Along the river



Big Howler Monkey in the wild

What a magnificent adventure !! Bravo !!!! This is so much more interesting than reading of someone whacking a white tail deer or turkey ...

Again, I'm very jealous. What a trip!

Great Photos and nice Buffalo

Great pics!

What is a "Yarara"

- mike

mike, a yarara (pronounced jaw-raw-RAW') is the Argentine name for a type of fer-de-lance viper.
We encountered one last year:


Here is a link to last year's hunt:
http://forums.accuratereloadin...=582109117#582109117

For those interested, more photos of this hunt are posted on the South American AR forum. will get around to posting them here soon.

Toba Indian women

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:
Rifle used was a Chapuis double rifle, 9.3x74 R. Had 300gr Noslers for the buff, and neither took more than 1 step.

Weidmannsheil - good shooting there

Steve what are the feelings about 9,3x74R now?

mouse, Weidmannsdanke, the 9.3x74R is now my favorite. What are your thoughts on that caliber?

Buffalo on alert:

it is the only one (beside 9,3x62) that I carry lately (to be honest I try to summon up the courage to tease your buff's Cape cousins with it soon ) and I guess there isn't better way for gaining a confidence than smack some big critters with it (even reading about it helps - Thank you Sir ).

How did those Noslers performed (shooting angles, hits, penetration, weight retention...) - did you get any from the dead buffs?

Sorry, we marked the locations of the buffalo for the gauchos, and I forgot to ask them to look for the bullets. On the scrub bull, they reported exiting of both shots on the shoulder, but I am not completely confident in their report. Both buffalo fell entrance side down, and I did not see exits. The bull fell entrance side up. The 300 gr bullets seem to have noticeably more impact than the 286 gr, but the loss of velocity would obviously affect longer range shooting.

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:
mike, a yarara (pronounced Jaw-raw-raw') is the Argentine name for a type of fer-de-lance viper.
We encountered one last year:

Ooohh, nasty looking customer. Thanks Steve, very educational!
- mike

Wonderful hunt, wonderful pictures....Steve Graves is the jefe when it comes to gringos killing buffalo. I will look forward with interest to his using that double on Cape Buffs. And the way he shoots it should work just fine.

We then went to Rio Bermejito, and hunted viscachas and went to a criollo ranch to hunt "scrub bull". They had their good cattle in the corral, so I am not sure if the bull was one they couldn't round-up, or was just one they were willing to allow to be shot. The bull was with a group of cows in the brush, and I stalked him as if he were wild, but I'll never know. We had to ride thru some rough places that required good chaps and tough hat to get to where we could dismount and hunt on foot.
viscacha

criollo Benito Salazar with old balance scales

preparing

scrub bull

Good cattle were penned

retreiving meat

The head will be skinned and cooked in the ground

A good supper

Brocket deer

Blood is from thorns

Javelina

camp on Rio Teuco/Bermejo

River

Charatas (chachalacas)

Great hunt, great report, great caliber.
My best compliments.
Thank you for sharing the experience.


Only one question: what bullets do you used?
Have a great day.
Ciao

El Dodexe
300gr A-Frames(corrected) on the buff and bull, 286 Nosler partitions for the rest. I really liked the 300gr a little better than the 286, but I have not tried them at more than 75 yards, and they are only going about 2100fps, so they are gonna have a drop at much distance.

Wichi Indian woman. Resembles Apache?

kids see jet


entrance to main town

camp


supper

criollo home

tapir tracks

caiman

puma tracks

On horseback in Ongamira

End of the Day

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SGraves155:
Good cattle were penned


Good cattle ??? For what ??

Good cattle to throw them to the caimans

What a bunch of ugly cows !!!!!

Nice pictures and great story, thanks for sharing it with us

L

What is most amazing that after how many thousands or millions of years how little this differs in flora and fauna from southern Africa.

With the bad luck that diamonds and elephants stay on the "other side" of the property..

L

Lorenzo,
These are the two animals we didn't see that I was hoping we might see. (we did find fresh tapir tracks, and lots of puma tracks, but we did not find any jaguar sign)




If there were more of each, it would seem more like Africa!
Argentina is still a great destination for US Hunters!

Lorenzo,
In the 4 or 5 miles of river-front in Formosa Province on which we walked, the puma tracks were very prevalent. If you go there, a dog or two could likely bay a puma withing an hour!

Steve,

What a grand adventure. I love a long trip with multiple camps. Lovely!

Mark

Steve,
In 10 or 15 days I wll be hunting in the chaco region, is tapir hunting allowed or I will need to hide the pictures ?

My friend's farm has lots of pumas, tapirs and taguás

L

Really cool trip to Argentina, Steve. Is this your second or third big-game adventure to South America? Your getting quite abit of experience down there!

Broke down and booked a trip to Argentina the first week of April '09 during the red stag roar for a couple of stags and a wild boar at Poitahue... looking forward to hunting this part of the world. Any advice for a newbie?

Russell, you will be going to a part that I haven't visited, yet, but sounds real good. The only advice I would offer is to spend a day or two with a bilingual guide (and who has a car) in Buenos Aires. If your outfitter isn't getting your rifle entry permit, the forms are avaiable on-line, and need to be done in triplicate.

hi
very nice hunting and trophies.
thanks for sharing it with us.
best regards
yes