Outfitter: Athina Hunting Tours

Dates of hunt: 14th October 2012 to 19th October 2012

Country: Portugal

Firearms used: Sauer 202 take-down in .308W and a Verney Carron B/A in .30-06 (plus an assortment of open sight 1940/50s 8mm Mausers)

Quarry species: Iberian Red stags (Cervus Elaphus Hispanicus)

I have recently returned from a week of hunting and filming in the beautiful eastern Portuguese hill country, right on the Spanish border. We were there with Athina Hunting Tours to check out the quality of the Iberian red deer stalking, enable our client to hunt some nice trophy stags and for me to get some good film footage to encourage more hunters to try a hunt that is little known outside the western European hunting community.

We flew out of Heathrow with the Portuguese airline TAP on the 08:45 flight. This was very painless, with the rifles being checked in efficiently by the TAP check-in desk staff and quickly cleared through customs, leaving us with plenty of time for the important business of perusing the single malt whisky and post-hunt Cuban cigars in duty-free before boarding. On arrival in Portugal less than 3 hours later, clearing customs and retrieving our firearms was equally painless and trouble free. Our transfers from Lisbon airport to the hunting grounds were flawless and the 200km drive gave us an opportunity to see the Portuguese countryside as we traveled across the country through vineyards, citrus plantations, eucalyptus forests and steep hillside olive groves.





Following the 2 1/2 hour drive northeast, we met up with our guides Edgar Cordeiro & Dr Manuel Vassalo, and with Steve Robinson (of Shakari Connection fame and now resident in Portugal) in the small village of Ladoeiros and sat down to the first of many excellent meals at the local cafe / bar. Don't bother hunting here if you are on any form of diet or, God forbid, if you are a vegetarian - the food (and the red wine) is fantastic, plentiful and almost an obsession with the Portuguese. Breakfast was an opportunity to discuss what would be for lunch, and a lengthy lunch was also a planning session for what would be eaten at dinnertime... Manfully we stepped up to the plate and did the food justice, on the understanding that running around the hills chasing deer would offset the excess calorie intake.



Following lunch, we checked into the Hotel Natura. This place is worth a mention as it is run almost exclusively for hunters - how many decent hotels have their own cold store especially for deer carcasses and individual freezers for small game such as hare and partridge? Unfortunately, we nearly got off to a slightly rocky start in this conservative Roman Catholic country when Kiri announced at check-in that it was essential for him to have a room with a double bed. He was entirely oblivious to the looks of horror on our host's faces caused by the fact that this had been interpreted as a request for him and me to share a room with a double bed... However, once the Greek's sexual preferences had been explained - and with him trying to look resolutely heterosexual - and single rooms allocated to my great relief, we pulled our boots on, unpacked rifles and set off to the nearest hunting area for an initial look at the ground and for our client F- to have a chance at a first Red stag.

The hunting grounds are spread over a number of estates, comprising of agricultural land (arable and livestock) , olive groves, cork plantations and open hill country. Much of the land has been fenced in the past but the boundaries haven't been maintained for the last 20 or so years and the wild deer are free-ranging through multiple breaches and across the Spanish-Portuguese border formed by the River Tejo. Any of the areas where the cover is dense also have thriving populations of wild boar, although these are rarely seen in daylight in the open. The first area we hunted was part of a large estancia, covering several thousand hectares, made up of low hills and small gullies, covered with lavender plants and thickets of dense cover, between large open areas of coarse grassland.

Within a few minutes of leaving the vehicles, we had glassed a couple of small groups of deer, each holding a good representative stag; our Portuguese guides had been checking much of this area over the days preceding this hunt and had spotted a number of deer that were in the medal grade, each with 14-16 points and weighing in at up to 8kg, giving considerable mass. Although this was supposed to be a short acclimatisation outing before dinner, Vasallo immediately made it clear he was keen to get F into his first Portuguese deer, on the basis that he could then relax and concentrate on stalking the trophy stags he was after for the rest of the trip.

Due to the undulating terrain and many folds and gullies, it was quite difficult to work the wind to our advantage. It probably didn’t help that there were six or seven of us, including Lorenzo the keeper, trotting along behind F & Vassalo, crunching twigs and generally getting in the way…



Having spotted a group of three stags and needing to get a move on as we were in danger of losing the light, Vassalo told most of the group to stay behind whilst he, F and I (as the designated cameraman for this trip) began to stalk in for a shot. Moving quickly across the hillside, using the bushes to shield us from the deer, we worked our way 2-300 hundred metres upwind as the deer walked slowly along the bottom of the gully. As usual, by the time we’d got to what we thought was a good vantage point for a shot, the deer had moved over a slight rise into open ground and we had about 10 minutes of shootable light left, so Vassalo pulled the old ‘telegraph pole trick’, as we walked out into the open using only a small scrubby bush directly between us and the stag we wanted. To his credit, F didn’t hesitate when, on reaching said bush, Vassalo whipped up the shooting sticks - F placed the rifle on the sticks and took the shot, despite the fact that the stag was a dark silhouette of a slightly less dark background at 150 metres. The rifle boomed and there was the clear thud sound of a strike.







After a bit of a search in the rapidly fading light, there was F’s first Portuguese Red stag lying concealed in a deep ditch. Shot placement was excellent, with the stag having taken a low heart shot from the .30-06 at 153 metres standing off sticks. A quick inspection by Vassalo showed the stag to be a good representative 12 point beast, with the distinctive dark, almost black antler coloration that seems to be common in these animals in Portugal.

Inspection complete, it was congratulations all round for F, while Lorenzo went off to get the truck and load up the stag. Photos taken, backs slapped and then off to the restaurant for the first of many lengthy postprandial Portuguese dinners and a well earned dram of Balvennie.

Interesting!
Who is the beggar on the left, in the last picture with the funny head-gear. I know the face but cannot recall the name.

He calls himself Juan Ball and is apparently a well known exotic dancer in Portugal...by all accounts, what he can do with two balloons and a python has to be seen to be believed!

If you think my balloon and python tricks are good just wait till you see what I can do with half a dozen golf balls!

Joking aside, a bloody good hunt report so far Adam and I look forward to reading more.

quote:

Scriptus
one of us
Picture of Scriptus

Posted 17 December 2012 23:00 Hide Post

great report nice stag. i have heard some great things about hunting Portugal maybe some day i will get there. but only if bawana ugly hat is there

Mate, I'm not sure I could let you loose on the guides if I wasn't alongside you to keep them safe from your sense of humour!

Joking aside, the hunting in this part of the world is right up your street and I know you'd have a ball here....... or perhaps that should be I know we'd have a ball!

quote:

Originally posted by ddrhook:

quote:

Scriptus
one of us
Picture of Scriptus

Posted 17 December 2012 23:00 Hide Post

great report nice stag. i have heard some great things about hunting Portugal maybe some day i will get there. but only if bawana ugly hat is there

You would have to promise to leave the piggies alone, and leave the hat at home, otherwise you could find yourself confined to a padded cell.

Nah..... they'd just give him a pair of knee pads & a tube of oinkment for where he gets chafed spots.

Nothing could be worse than digs zebra trilby!?!?!?

K

I think it's sweet that Dig' is so 'out and proud' - he's like a one man gay mardis gras in that hat... Soon he'll be in the shooting line dressed as a motorcycle cop or a camp construction worker.