Hunt Dates: April 1 - 7, 2009
Game taken: 2 red stag (1 trophy and 1 management) 1 trophy blackbuck
Game hunted but not taken: wild boar
Area: Poitahue Hunting Estancia, Las Pampas Province, Argentina
Guide: Alec aka VesCaCha
Rifle: Hill Country Rifles .300 Weatherby using Weatherby factory ammo 180 grain spire points

Just now posting a report on our big game and bird hunt the first week of April in Argentina. This was a fun hunt during the peak of the stag roar in the Las Pampas province close to the town of Victorica on a 50,000 acre free range ranch. We flew into Buenos Aires direct from Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. This was easy and the ranch had personnel in the airport to meet us and to make sure our guns made it through customs and were registered with no issues.

We opted for a charter flight into Santa Rosa which took about an hour and a half and we then boarded a bus for the hour drive to the ranch. Needless to say, we were glad to arrive at the estancia and unload our gear, check our rifles and settle in to meet the other hunters over a cold drink in the bar.


We had some great folks in camp and I enjoyed getting to know just about everyone. I think hunting camps are great crucibles for really getting acquainted with folks and I always make friends I stay in touch with. This trip was no exception.

Accomodations and meals at the ranch were good. Our group of three (myself, john e who also posts here and a good friend, Blanton made up our group) had a two bedroom bunkhouse assigned to us with ensuite bathroom and shower facilities.


Meals were leisurely and enjoyable. For the most part the food was ample and good. The Malbec red wines were outstanding and we developed a true appreciation for them over the course of the hunt!




This was a true working ranch with over 2000 head of Angus and Hereford cattle and gauchos out and about everyday. This added to a true Argentinian experience!



Hunting began every morning after a big breakfast and the eight hunters and their guides rotated though the diffent pastures to give everyone a chance to hunt different areas of the ranch. One thing the ranch could improve on is to have more vehicles available for the hunts. We had three trucks for eight hunters and their guides so it could get crowded in the mornings! However in spite of that we always got to and from the fields none the worse for wear.


Mornings were the most exciting as the stags would be roaring as we were dropped off and we would listen intently in the pre-dawn darkness trying to decide which stag sounded the most mature and dominant. As soon as we got enough light we were picking our way through the bush trying to get close. The terrain is very much like south Texas with lots of Mesquite and Huisache trees with pampas grass and sandy soil underfoot. There was very little elevation except for some dunes so the stalks were close affairs trying to get a look at the stag before he or the hinds spotted us. The hunting is very sporty and I would guess we probably spotted about 60% of the stags we heard. We had shot opportunities about 20 to 30% of the time. Red deer are like whitetail with great eyes, ears and noses and to get close enough to evaluate a stag was a challenge.



The first evening I killed my descarte or management stag. We worked him from about a mile away and set up on him as he moved trying to find his hinds. He was a mature stag that had one side of his antler broke off about halfway up the right beam. I shot him in the neck at 50 yards as he moved toward us and he dropped to the shot.

The hunt was for one trophy and one management stag. I still had my trophy to go so I looked forward to the rest of the hunt. John e took a great stag the first morning that ended up being the best trophy taken by the hunters that week. He was a very solid 6x7 with thick beams. Hopefully he will post his hunt report also.


I took my trophy stag midway through the hunt. Most of the stags we had stalked were 5x5's and I was looking for a stag with crown points. We caught a late morning bull roaring and after a few hundred yards caught him as he doubled back to pick up a hind and calf that left his harem. I took him with a quartering front shoulder shot. Again, straight down and a few kicks later and he was in the salt.


I also decided to hunt a blackbuck ram on this trip. Though there are more blackbuck in Texas than in their home range of India, I have never taken one until this trip. The first encounter with them was humbling and had me second-guessing myself and my rifle, but late one evening on the trip in to the ranch house we caught a ram standing under a tree about a 125 yards away. He tarried a bit too long and I had a fine blackbuck to add to my Argentina big game bag!


Blanton ended up having a nice trip as well. He took three stags, one trophy and two descarte stags... the last with the longest shot any of us had on the trip, 300 yards. Seemed he caught a descarte chasing females in an opening while he was on a dune. Most of our shots were close in thick cover but Blanton used this opportunity to air one out!


Though none of our party lucked into any wild boar, a great group of new-found friends, John, Jean and Jim celebrated John's excellent running shot on the biggest pig of the trip! Most of the pigs are hunted from blinds at night over water but he surprised this boar and made a great shot with his wildcat 7mm-.300 Weatherby during the morning hours! And stags can be legally shot at night also if you choose. I saw my best stag in the moonlight coming to water but prefered to take a stag by stalking him while roaring. To each his own...


All in all we had a great trip and explored a new country, met new friends and hunted red stag during the roar. We finished things up with an afternoon of hot barrel bird shooting for dove and pigeon. A succesful adventure and a fun hunt in a unique part of the world!

Congratulations on your hunt success. Your group did very well indeed. That is such beautiful country and to have good fortune and take beautiful stags and blackbuck free range is the best. It looks like you picked an excellent outfitter.

PM sent.

Finally !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha, good to see your report, I patiently was waiting for it. Nice trophies.

What a nice way to spend a week with all that people sharing the Estancia.

I can imagine the nights with a good malbec exchanging the experiences of every day with fellow hunters...that is as good as it gets

I hope next time you will be able to cross the river and visit me, no red stags here but you must see the size of our armadillos....

Regards
Lorenzo

Thanks for sharing it !!! , Good to know that You enjoyed the Hunt in Our country and found nice the Malbec wines,Our favorite.
Nice trophies !!! Congratulations !!!Guille

Way to go, Russell! Glad you had such a good time.

We're heading down to Patagonia next year to hunt free range red stag during the roar, and wild boar as well. We booked the hunt with the folks at Algar when we were at SCI in Reno earlier this year. Wendell Reich handled it for us. (I'm hoping for a better experience than I had in Scotland, which, as you know, was very weird and disappointing for me.)

We're also going to do some bird shooting. Did you bring your own shotgun?

I feel as though I'm following you around!

Well done.
Waidmannsheil

Seloushunter

La Pampa is one of our favourites provinces ,congratulations ,as a matter of fact do you know that in the province of la pampa there are more guns that people ,everybody carries a gun and a big knife.Juan

Russell,
congrats on a fun trip and fine trophies. Argentina is a huge country, full of different kinds of game, great food, and lots of fine people.

Russell: congrats on a fine hunt. I´m glad that you and your group liked our country.

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments... it was truly an enjoyable laid back trip that many of you, Bill, Steve and others have already discovered!

Special thanks to Lorenzo for his help and guidance... I appreciate the lengths fellow hunters go to in order to help their hunting brethren with advice no matter what country they are from!

And Mike... I think we think alike and have the same taste in hunting adventures, my friend! As the old saying goes "brothers from another mother" may apply here.

Seriously though Mike, if you are going to spend much time birdhunting I would bring your own shotgun. My deal included a case of shells and the rent of a gun but the guns were a bit sad. I used a Winnie 1400 autoloader that had 1000's of rounds put through her and had some issues. Also used a Remington 1100 that had a crack in the forend and a 13" LOP... and I am 6'4". I had a great time regardless and shot my case in three hours with about a 60% hit ratio so no real complaints... but how I missed my little Benelli 20 gauge! One other tip, light leather gloves for the hot barrel and to protect your thumb from shoving shells in the semiauto!

Good luck my friend, I know you will have fun!

Thanks for the tips, Russell. We will bring our guns and shooting gloves.

We definitely seem to gravitate toward the same kind of hunting trips.

I could do a helluva lot worse than following your lead, that's for sure!

Just saw this thread, Russ.. I don't usually check in on the South American forum..
Looks like ya'll had a great hunt and everyone was successful!

Just a note to those of you who will soon be heading off to hunt red stag!

I have had nothing but problems in getting my shipment of trophies back from Argentina. Almost a year later they show up and guess what? My blackbuck horns are not in the cargo box even though the exporter (Fredrico Testa) shows them on the listing. I paid more to get the crate in from Argentina than I have paid for shipments from Africa with many more animals. So beware guys. Ask alot of questions about shipping. As you might imagine, I am not happy about this!

Bwana-
That is one reason, why I am extremely hesistant to going on a hunt down there. I've heard too many stories of people not getting their stuff back. And thats BS...in my book.

Federico Testa is one of the best guys taking off or getting into the country any kind of trophys, maybe the problem are with the people ranch, outtfitters or PH, some State guys had serious issues to get into USA Blackbuck horns (USA Sanitary autorities are very strict with those items, and maybe they take off from the shipment) very common here, look for a seriuos outfitter or hunting ranch.But shit happens.G

quote:

Federico Testa is one of the best guys taking off or getting into the country any kind of trophys,

G.
Maybe he is maybe he isn't. I don't know. All I do know is I paid a lot of money to get trophies shipped. The shipping paperwork showed the blackbuck horns were in the crate. The cape was, the horns were not. If the USF&WS confiscates, they usually let you know... I contacted Michael Malek who is the US agent for the Poitahue... says the ranch got them to Frederico. Thats all I know!

Sorry to hear that...USF&WS almost become me crazy when I tried to take off from your country a Bison cape & horn due Madcow dissease, blue tongue etc (forbiding interstate travel of the skin) ...Millions of paper work with nonsense. I had to ask a taxidermist that taned the skin and then import to my country (one year later) and another nightmare waiting at Fauna y Flora in my country.
Federico save my ass, same with My 14 Namibian trophys. K.R. G

The moral of the story..........photos travel well.....but that said, they never can re-kindle the memories as can a beautiful mounted trophy that you can see every time you walk in the room.....

It’s too bad that a situation like this has take away from what was a great experience. I’ve been hunting in Argentina for the past five years and the hunt experience always seems to be diminished by the experience with the exportation of the trophies, both in price and timeliness. I’ve been trying to look for a viable alternative to Testa, but it seems that he exports about 95% of all the animal trophies from Argentina. I’m in Argentina right now and have hunted at several ranches here in La Pampa and I get the same response from every ranch owner that I talk to when I ask him about exportation. Every one of them says that they’re not happy with Testa and that they’ve had many problems with him, but they’re stuck because he is essentially to only person who exports animals. Finding someone who is knowledgeable and can make a financial go of it is proving difficult.

As far as the issue with Russell’s blackbuck is concerned Testa does not claim that he did not receive the complete blackbuck trophy from the ranch. He agrees that he did, but claims that it was included in the shipment. The importer who received the shipment is experienced, well known, and reputable. They say that the crate was not opened until it arrived at their warehouse and that the blackbuck skull was not in the crate. So who knows…

We had several other occurrences of missing trophies with Testa this past season, which luckily were all resolved, because Testa found the trophies in his (quote) warehouse, which by the way is an old dilapidated house in a very bad section of BA. The ranch owner’s son went there to try to find some missing trophies and had his car almost stolen in the first five minutes he was there. He had to go back to his car for something and interrupted the thief, but not before he had already smashed the steering column in an attempt to hot wire the car. Testa’s record keeping is atrocious and his process for tracking the trophies through the “warehouse” is not much better. Even the importer that he has a business relationship with him here in the States has tried to get him to keep better records, but he still refuses.

The bottom line is that Testa might be a good guy, good father, husband or whatever, but he doesn’t appear to be a very good businessman and seems to be taking advantage of his near monopoly situation. The ranch owner is also upset by this, because even though he has no control of the process once the trophies arrive at the exporter’s facility, he knows that he is still painted with the same tainted brush. It’s too bad, because it seems that left unchecked Testa will single handedly damage the reputation of Argentina as the great hunting destination that it is.

If any of you guys from Argentina know of anyone who might be a viable alternative to Testa for exportation please let me know so that I can investigate. Maybe if Testa has some real competition he might clean up his act a little bit.

Guauuu!!!! You almost let me frozened, all this info is absolutly new for me,sorry to ear about this too, I was lucky? Jesus Christ!!!,Thanks for all the info, if I found somebody than can do the job in better way I will let You know, Thanks for sharing Your info and experience, I really apreciatteit.I will send this post to "the guy", to see what he has to say. Kind Regards: Guille

This post has been informative, particularly since I'll be hunting the same ranch in 10 days.The trophy hassle might be the push that I need to shift to only taking trophy pictures and leaving everything.

Same here. Snapping pictures is looking better all the time! Just sad to pay a trophy fee and walk away from it. Would be cheaper to shoot two rag bulls.

Ski+3

Leaveing antlers and horns would be hard for me, but immediately booking another hunt somewhere with the savings would go a long ways to making it easier. This may be a blessing in disguise.

Guys,
To be fair in my reporting, Mike and the ranch have found a set of blackbuck horns they are sending to me without additional shipping charges. Though not my original horns, the situation is beyond their control and I thank them for their help in this matter which I consider resolved.

I am no longer trophy hunting, and the pleasure of the hunt has increased ten fold. I am not saying that I would pass on a trophy animal, but I have no desire to pursue hunting for that reason.

I can now more fully appreciate the words of Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset:

"One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted...If one were to present the sportsman with the death of the animal as a gift he would refuse it. What he is after is having to win it, to conquer the surly brute through his own effort and skill with all the extras that this carries with it: the immersion in the countryside, the healthfulness of the exercise, the distraction from his job."

We've come and gone, and held to our plan of leaving everything behind. It's a freeing experience.

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Guys,To be fair in my reporting, Mike and the ranch have found a set of blackbuck horns they are sending to me without additional shipping charges. Though not my original horns, the situation is beyond their control and I thank them for their help in this matter which I consider resolved.

Guille

quote:

Originally posted by Guillermo Amestoy:

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Guys,To be fair in my reporting, Mike and the ranch have found a set of blackbuck horns they are sending to me without additional shipping charges. Though not my original horns, the situation is beyond their control and I thank them for their help in this matter which I consider resolved.

Guille

Someone else's horns? How charitable of them.
Your decision to leave all behind is an excellent one.

Actually I think it was rather nice of the owner to replace the horns since he was in no way responsible for them getting lost in the first place. The man could have just washed his hands of it and said “not my problem”, but he is a gentleman and a real class act.

I was giving serious consideration to a hunt of some type in Argentina next year. I have a really hard time going off and leaving trophies. Problems in this area might be enough to keep me from going forward.

I also had problems with Testa. He emailed me the bill for one red stag horns and cape and it was so high I emailed him back and told him to keep them. He emailed me back with a figure that was about $300 cheaper and although still to high I wired him the money. He said he would ship them right out but it was still 3 months before they got to the States. The people and the hunting are great in Argintina but they really need a better shipper over there. Jim

Russell congratulations on a great hunt.
I have had many troubles to bring back some withtetails from USA and in a recent hunt in Poland i brougth tusks in my bag and left capes.
I use Federico Testa too.

We are experimenting problems exporting trophies with Federico Testa ,sadly this problem can ruin a good safari .

I hunted in March of this year and it is always "next week, next week". The reports in this thread are not leaving me with a lot of hope.

Hard to believe someone would not step in and compete with this guy. Surely there has to be someone in Argentina who can DI a better job!

A previous post mentioned that it was not the Outfitters fault and it was the Export company.

I'd disagree. They hired the guy. To me, they are part of the problem.

This post is from 2009. Is the guy still trying to get his trophies back?? Just wondering.

Larry Sellers
SCI(International)Life Member
R8 Blaser

No I am not Larry. If you read through the string you will see the outcome. It was resurrected by someone who had a similar problem while hunting in Argentina...

quote:

Originally posted by Jason P:
Hard to believe someone would not step in and compete with this guy. Surely there has to be someone in Argentina who can DI a better job!

A previous post mentioned that it was not the Outfitters fault and it was the Export company.

I'd disagree. They hired the guy. To me, they are part of the problem.

We agree 100%. The ranch has to provide a reliable broker to get back the trophies in time at a reasonable price. trophies are part of the hunt.. an important part !!

We are working with Proar Broker. there are other posts mentioning their good services.
So far, Poitahue has achieve a very good service level by using/referencing proar guys.
Just mail me at info@poitahue-hunting.com for more details... we have developed a flawless process at reasonable cost.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

quote:

Originally posted by Santiago_DM:

quote:

Originally posted by Jason P:
Hard to believe someone would not step in and compete with this guy. Surely there has to be someone in Argentina who can DI a better job!

A previous post mentioned that it was not the Outfitters fault and it was the Export company.

I'd disagree. They hired the guy. To me, they are part of the problem.

We agree 100%. The ranch has to provide a reliable broker to get back the trophies in time at a reasonable price. trophies are part of the hunt.. an important part !!

We are working with Proar Broker. there are other posts mentioning their good services.
So far, Poitahue has achieve a very good service level by using/referencing proar guys.
Just mail me at info@poitahue-hunting.com for more details... we have developed a flawless process at reasonable cost.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!