Have just returned from 3 week hunt/tour with Alberto Foerster in Corrientes, Chaco, Formosa, and the Ongamira area of Santiago del Estero. Have a thread going on "Hunting Reports--Rest of World" part of AccurateReloading forums, but wanted to post a bit here also.

Game taken: Buffalo (2), scrub bull, viscacha, brocket deer, peccary, and charata(jungle chicken).

We found a very fresh set of tapir tracks, and the tracks of many pumas, but did not have the dogs necessary for close encounters. Also saw Yacare' and amazing bird life.

We also visited many of the old Spanish churches in the area, made a day-long horseback ride in the beautiful hills of Ongamira, and then returned to Santa Fe via Mar Chiquita.

Snake is a false water cobra, I believe. The ray is a long way from salt-water--hundreds of miles, I don't know if they reproduce in fresh-water or not.


palo borracho

partridge

Howler

Howler up close

Opening

Supplies

Gaucho. Horse has chaps for thorns of Impenetrable area

viscacha

scrub bull

Meat

Head will be skinned, cooked in the ground

fresh-water ray

buff

buff #2

Steve: very good pictures. Please tell us more about the guns used for buff. Congrats to Willy.

nainital,
Used a 9.3x74R double Chapuis/Perodeaux and 300 gr A-Frames on the buff and scrub bull. They were very efficient. None of those animals took more than a step.
Am still sorting thru pix, and will get to charata, brocket deer and peccary soon.
Buffalo on alert:

Hey, there's my missing red and white cooler!

As usual, very interesting information and excellent pictures. Always enjoy your posts!

Mr.Graves & Alberto ; Congratulations !!! looks like You had a wonderful trip in the Chaco area, those Buff are very nice trophys, I will go soon to try to hunt my first brocket deers. Thanks for sharing: Guillermo.

Great pictures !!
Thanks for sharing.
That was a very big "raya"

L

Mr. Graves,

That´s a great hunt. Excelent buff horns !

Is that a nothura maculosa in the third picture ?

Our pointers love them !

May I ask how did you hunt the brocket deer and the peccary(dogs or bait) ?

Also, tapir are not very hard to get, while heading down a river at night, or waiting in the night at a good visited fruit tree.


One more time, congrats!

Magnifico!!!! What a wonderful hunt and what a fine time you and Willy must have had. Congratulations ot you. I wish I had been there. Beautiful animals.....and I would have put a hole in the howler.

Tell Nickudu that the cooler may be his, but the case of Quilmes is mine.....

After a week in the Bush, we come into town, and I see some cute young ladies---



but Alberto says "Look-out Stephen, those aren't girls!"

Ha ! I was just going to say you the same thing when I saw Alberto's advice..

Steve, don't worry..we will not tell anyone..what happens in the bush stays in the bush...

L

I'm very jealous as all I did this weekend was mow my yard

Now You know why is so Dangerous the Buff Hunt in Corrientes!!!!

Those male kneecaps will give away a a transvestite every time!

I hope Steve sent Willy up first to check them out.....before he took a gander at the knee caps. And I hear Willy's glasses got unfogged in a hurry Kneecap exam? RIP must be some kind of knee surgeon. Or he just knows his transvestiters when he see em. Maybe it was that they had all their lubricants behind them. ( listo!!!)

Kidding ass ide....Graves has to be THE chief gringo buff killer

Question...what is the squirrel looking critter Willy is holding? And was it shot with the .50 caliber rifle in his other hand?

Bill, that is a viscacha. They live in holes in the ground, and only come out at night. They have all white meat and are excellent eating.
Here are some more photos:
Camp on the Bermejo River


Piranha


Fishbait


river


Getting charatas (chachalacas)


One of my charatas got stuck on a limb. Here is Alberto shooting the limb in two with one shot!




our boat


brocket deer. Reiter, we were checking the edge of a field and saw it.



peccary. We used dogs.

more pix:
riding in to collect scrub bull meat

our hosts for scrub bull


young palo borado

slippery roads

Main town

the fisherman. He had killed a jaguar 37 years ago.

tara

boys with supper


caiman

the upside-down tree

tapir tracks

puma tracks

quote:

Originally posted by Lorenzo:
(....)

Steve, don't worry..we will not tell anyone..what happens in the bush stays in the bush...

L

Congratulations on such a successful hunt, Steve... thanks for sharing this experience and pics !

Willy, that's indeed a vizcachas' special weapon !! (second pic after Nick's cooler - and Bill's beers )

I had the honor to share this wonderful expedition in the company of Stephen Graves; besides being an outstanding hunter and exceptional shot he is an excellent comrade and willing to share god and bad moments as well. Many adventures in this journey and out of the common pictures where taken by him, you can realize in a fine eye for photographs as the ones posted in this forum.
Regarding the “ladiesâ€:
I told Steven; be aware: this “girls†have handles!

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:
After a week in the Bush, we come into town, and I see some cute young ladies---



but Alberto says "Look-out Stephen, those aren't girls!"

Alberto, thank you for your kind comments.

This was really an expedtion with many potential problems and difficulties in arrangment, but is was well planned and executed by you. You have my lasting thanks. It was a once in a lifetime trip, my friend. Thank you.

The two main Indian tribes in the area were the Toba and the Wichi. The Toba seemed to have become dependent on gov't checks and grocery stores, while the Wichi were more self reliant. These are Wichi:
women


children spot a highflying jet


old woman(but likely younger than Willy or me)

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:
The two main Indian tribes in the area were the Toba and the Wichi. The Toba seemed to have become dependent on gov't checks and grocery stores, while the Wichi were more self reliant. These are Wichi:
women


children spot a highflying jet


old woman(but likely younger than Willy or me)

Wichi women is wicked indeed - damn tough looking bunch. The last one is the lady Willy tried to fix me up with. The age was OK but her estate was a bit meager.

Sounds like you had a great, and as you say, once in a lifetime experience.

Steve,

Enjoyed reading your hunt report on said forum. I always greatly enjoy your photographs. You have a keen eye behind the camera. You have brought the country and it's people to life for us viewers.

Bill, I saw you were looking for such a gal on the other forum. Was going to bring this gal to your attention, didn't realize you were looking for a 'sugar mama'!

Kind regards,
Mary

thanks, Mary.
Last few picts:
old Nazi hotel on Inland Sea of Mar Chiquita at Miramar




Sunset at Miramar


Palo Borado in Miramar

Steve: again, great pictures. Just a little correction in the last one: the tree is a "palo borracho" (something like "drunkard").

Nainital,
You just beat me for some minutes, I was going to say the same thing !!

Palo Borracho something like "drunken stick"

Great pictures.

I think I will be following your path in a couple of weeks....

L

Steve:

A fantastic adventure, and I envy you for experiencing it.

I'm curious about a couple of things, though.

Is that false water cobra poisonous?

Are there also white-lipped and Chocoan (giant) peccaries in addition to the collared variety where you hunted?

Is there a reason you called it "the old Nazi hotel?"

And finally, this is for BillintheWild:

The damndest thing happened yesterday. A woman with an old, crackling voice called me looking for you, Bill. Hope you don't mind but I gave her your number and address in Pinetop.

Bill Quimby

Bill,
The false water cobra is a rear-fanged mildly poisonous snake (like our hog-nose-snake). Nigel Marvin (of TV fame) let one chew on him for a while, and his hand swelled hugely, but no systemic toxicity.
This snake, which I couldn't initially identify, was out sunning when we spotted it from horseback. I dismounted and took some pictures while trying to decide if it was poisonous. It was about 6 ft long, and when it decided to dart into a hole, I grabbed it. It had about 2 ft in the hole, and 4 ft wrapped around my arm. I debated on pulling it out, but figured two things--1)it might harm the snake, and 2)it would probably bite me, so I released it. Alberto got it on video, as he was assurring me that it didn't appear to him to be poisonous.
That area is reputed to have all three types of peccary, but the collared is all I saw.
Alberto told me that the old hotel was built by the Nazis before the war. The sign on the hotel said "Gran Vienna", but I do not know if that has always been its name.

Thanks, Steve.

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Hilliard-Krueger:
Bill, I saw you were looking for such a gal on the other forum. Was going to bring this gal to your attention, didn't realize you were looking for a 'sugar mama'!

Kind regards,
Mary

Kind regards!!!! I would have to be a totally loaded borrachin to even come close to calling her a "sugar mama."

Bill Q. I am waiting for the call....

quote:

Originally posted by billinthewild:

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Hilliard-Krueger:
Bill, I saw you were looking for such a gal on the other forum. Was going to bring this gal to your attention, didn't realize you were looking for a 'sugar mama'!

Kind regards,
Mary

Kind regards!!!! I would have to be a totally loaded borrachin to even come close to calling her a "sugar mama."

Bill Q. I am waiting for the call....

quote:

Originally posted by Lorenzo:
Nainital,
You just beat me for some minutes, I was going to say the same thing !!

Palo Borracho something like "drunken stick"

Great pictures.

I think I will be following your path in a couple of weeks....

L

Lorenzo,
What are your plans? A hunt?

Great report !

Hunting pecarry with dogs can be real danger - for the dogs. If they run into a big herd of pigs, could be devastating.

Here are some Tapir tracks, found under a Mango tree.




Old folks used to get them with dogs. I´ve heard stories about how agressive tapir are, when bayed in a small pond or river. But mostly they are hunted in blinds, near fruit tree´s or fresh tracks.

Thanks Steve !

Wonderful tracks...later today I will try to take some picture of my footprints and send them on. Like the tapir and peccary I too can be dangerous when cornered. How were the mangos? I have tapired off on eating them....

Reiter, thanks. The tracks of the tapir are similiar to the tracks of a carpincho--only much bigger. Do you hunt North of Argentina? It sounds as though you are in a very primitive area. Tell us a bit about it.

Bill, if you should get shot, would you rather be mounted as a shoulder mount, a front-half-charging mount, or some other position?

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:
Bill, if you should get shot, would you rather be mounted as a shoulder mount, a front-half-charging mount, or some other position?

2 choices....front half charging with my cuchillo in hand, and my pinchila in the other hand or mounting Salma Hayek.

Bill, your last option could be prohibitively expensive, but I am willing to check for available forms for Salma. Course my identification of gender-types is obviously impaired.

Steve. Made reservations to return March through most of April, 2009. Guillermo told me he knows Salma and taxidermy mounting is out of the questions. That leaves other options open, unless she brings Antonio Banderas (Desperado) and his damn loaded guitar case with.