Folks, here's the first installment of our trip down to Argentina last week. I've got photos but need advice/help in posting them...

Argentina Hunting Report

Date: April 12-16 2008
Outfitter: Estancia Alicura
PH / Guide: Pedro Gonzalez

Note: My wife and I had this hunt planned for last year but had to scrub the trip at almost the last minute due to a family emergency. Charles Snider at the Estancia Alicura office in Dallas was completely understanding about the situation and graciously allowed us to re-book without penalty. Not bad for the start of a business relationship!

Day Zero – Getting There

Jane and I flew from New Orleans to Miami, then hopped an overnight flight to Buenos Aires. Once in B.A., we transferred to the domestic airport for the flight down to Bariloche. Once on the ground we were met by Pedro Gonzalez, our hunting guide. Pedro is a handsome, strapping 28 year-old with a quick wit and a winning personality…the kind of guy that is easy to be afield with.

After collecting our baggage, we piled into Pedro’s Mitsubishi Monterro and headed toward Alicura. Paralleling the Limay River, we stopped for coffee at Confluencia (the juncture of the Traful and Limay rivers), then finished the rest of the drive (+/- 2 hrs total). I’d read that this part of the world was like “Montana on steroidsâ€, and I’ll have to agree. It’s big. Rugged and beautiful, to be sure…and big.

Driving into the large stand of poplars that shelter the entire Alicura complex, we got a photo op of a nice red stag, a promising youngster. Rolling up to the cabin we’d be calling home for the next six nights, we were welcomed by Daniel Guillen, the Hospitality Manager. Danny is ex-Argentine military who runs the facilities like a crack regiment: the kind of polished efficiency that looks so easy but is so hard to achieve. Harder still to do it and have every one of the staff smiling…and yet that’s the case!

Our cabin was anything but spartan; with polished hardwood floors, a cheery fireplace and a coffee table groaning under the weight of the “snacks†prepared for our arrival. A quick wash and a change of clothes, and it was off to dinner. And what a dinner. I’ve grilled a lot of meat over a lot of fires over the years, and these guys know their stuff. Three types of sausages for appetizers, salad and a whopping chunk of steak (that I could only manage half), overlaid w/ a full-bodied Andeluna Malbec and followed by a chocolate mousse. Gorged almost beyond human endurance, we said our good-nights and waddled off to bed.

Day 1 – Where Cowboys, Cowgirls and Gauchos Meet

Despite the late dinner, I was up before daylight on Saturday morning. Standing on the porch in the sharp, cool air with just a breath of breeze rustling the towering poplars overhead, a single stag roaring off toward the Caleufu River. I had understood that the rut was all but over, a condition to which this particular stag was taking acception.
When the She-Wolf was suitably scrubbed and dressed, we strolled down to meet Danny for breakfast. Fortified with a couple of cups of coffee, we met Pedro for a trip to the rifle range…and a “first†for me. I’ve always taken my own firearms when hunting in the past but opted to borrow a rifle from Estancia Alicura for this trip, a Beretta Mato in .30-‘06. Two rounds downrange at 150 yards, a quick scope adjustment followed by a third “confirmation†shot, and I was officially out of excuses (at least as far as the rifle was concerned!).

Heading down to the barn, we met Paco who already had three sturdy horses saddled and ready to go. Since Jane and I both grew up riding, it was simply a matter of adjusting stirrup length and we headed off into the hills.

We spent the morning riding the hills above the Caleufu, glassing the country below. We spotted a small group of stags on the far side so we dropped down and forded the river. Close enough now to see that none of them were big enough, we spotted another stag upriver with a small harem of hinds. Hobbling the horses, we wound our way through the large clumps of pampas grass to within 150 yards of the group. Our quarry turned out to be a nice 6x6, but not a “first morning†shooting opportunity. Swinging back up into the saddles, we worked our way back to the ranch house for lunch and a siesta.

Later that afternoon, we once again stepped into the saddles to ride out the Caleufu riverbottom, seeing any number of good stags but nothing to goad us into taking a shot. At one point we spotted a young stag feeding alone in the high pampas not a hundred yards from us. As he was occupied with feeding, and a strong cross-breeze would both cover our approach and keep our stink out of his nose, Pedro and I left the horses with Jane and walked to within 25 yards. Taking advantage of the conditions, I slipped forward until only one big bunch of pampas separated me from the stag. Of course the stag bolted when I poked my old Stetson from around pampas but hey, these things happen at tag-you’re-it distances! Laughing, I told Pedro that if we could do this consistently, we might forego the rifle and go afield with cuchillo crillos (the big Argentine knives used by the old gauchos)!

As we were fast losing the light and the ranchhouse was one river and a couple of hours behind us, we turned the horses and headed back. We rode the last hour by the light of a waxing moon reflecting off the Caleufu, with the occasional spark as one of the horse’s shoes knocked fire from a rock. Topping the last hill and seeing the lights of the ranch below winking from the grove of poplars was a fitting end to our first day hunting in Argentina.

Day 2 – Good Things Come to Those Who Wait…and Wait

With no chores (sight-in, saddles, etc.) to take care of early, we were free to get started right after breakfast. Today we rode Pedro’s Monterro, as he had designs to work our way well up the Alicura Creek drainage. This we did for some way, passing through a dense poplar grove that they refer to as “The Sanctuaryâ€, so named because the interior is dark, free from the usual winds and favored by both red and fallow deer.

Further upstream we parked the Monterro close to the remains of an old gaucho’s post; a crumbling bit of stonework the only reminder of the old home. As the morning was pretty brisk, Jane opted to stay in the truck while Pedro and I climbed the adjoining ridge to see what was moving in the creek bottom upstream. Sitting down to glass, we soon picked out several stags and hinds below us, as well as a Russian boar along with a sow and a sounder of pigs. At least three stags were roaring within earshot, with only a light breeze and distance to diminish the sound. Movement close to the base of our ridge caught our eye; a dandy stag with his harem 180 yards below us. By the time that he’d moved into the light enough to allow Pedro a decent appraisal of his antlers, he was crowding his harem further from our ridge and out into a pampas covered flat. With good mass, adequate beam length and only one broken tine visible, Pedro pronounced him to be a shooter. And 340 yards away, according to his laser.

Now there was a time when I did a lot of game shooting on the wrong side of 400 yards, but I outgrew that and have limited the bulk of my hunting these past years to +/- 200 yards. So we waited, convinced that he’d circle back closer to us…especially as he had another stag that he was keeping at bay as well as trying to corral his wandering hinds. A wise plan, except that over the next two hours he never got closer than the 340 yard mark…

Finally, he broke off from his hinds and drifted over to the streambed to water and graze a bit. The laser read 300 yards on the nose. I’d pulled off my Carhartt coat and rolled it into a steady rest as I now lay behind the rifle. With the chamber empty, I set the crosshairs high on the stag’s chest and broke the trigger…rock steady. Chambering a round, I told Pedro “Well, let’s do this…â€. Sight picture, trigger squeeze, the recoil jarring that last image of the crosshairs where they needed to be. A sodden thump came back to us from the creekbed. The stag rocked back onto his hind legs, his forelegs stiff and close together as if he was hobbled. Two abortive jumps put him across the stream, and a last lunge piled him into the top of a dry gravel bar. Done.

Pulling my coat back on, we started down the side of the ridge and met Jane on the way up to us. She’d waited at the truck as long as her predatory patience would allow, then stepped out and begun glassing the area while she waited. As it turned out, she could see my stag from her position and had it in her glasses when the shot went off! The three of us climbed down into the creekbed and walked out to where my stag should be. A brief search ended when I spotted the ivory tips of one beam jutting above the vegetation.

Eight by eight if you count the big stub of a broken crown tine, 8x7 if you don’t. Personally I could care less either way. He’s a grand animal and a warrior; and his cape bears the scars of his battles with others of his kind. This old cowboy will take him, and grateful…

quote:

Originally posted by 218 Bee:
(....)

Eight by eight if you count the big stub of a broken crown tine, 8x7 if you don’t. Personally I could care less either way. He’s a grand animal and a warrior; and his cape bears the scars of his battles with others of his kind. This old cowboy will take him, and grateful…

Excellent report, very well written !!

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on such a wonderful hunt

Great report! Great hunt! But man, we NEED pictures, where are the pictures????

Don't get your knickers in a twist...I'm working on it. Old dogs can be taught new tricks, but you gotta be patient.

Ok, let's try this:


Stalking along the Caleufu River with Pedro.



Horseback in Patagonia. It's a cowboy / gaucho world!



A decent "starter" stag?



The She-Wolf, the stag, and a happy cowboy!

218 Bee: Nice report, Nice Hunt, Nice Trophy !!!, and Beatifull wife Congratulation , Regards Guille.

Way cool, 218! Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure with us - nice pics and good writing. Weidmannsheil on a great hunt with a satisfying conclusion!

On the Estancia Alicura website, an "enclosure" is mentioned. I take it you hunted the free range?? Did you see/experience the enclosure as well??

We are looking forward to the rest of the story, we still have one pig, some fishing and what-not to go...

- mike

FYI I also book for Alicura, and have advertised these neat horseback hunts in the AR classified..

It is a great hunt and some great people.

MHO,

We (and I expect alot of others) think alike. I read the same thing when I was doing my initial research and immediately discounted the idea of hunting any "enclosure". Since Alicura's total holdings cover 200,000 acres, who would want to "hunt" in a pen?

Well, as it turns out, I do!

After getting there, seeing (some of) the property, and asking a few questions, I came to conclusion that they REALLY need to change that word on their website! What they have "enclosed" (and only with a perimeter high fence, no cross fencing) is right at 20,000 acres! That's 30 square miles where I come from; even my puritanical ethics couldn't find fault with that situation.

So yes, I'm proud to say that I took this stag in their "enclosure"! Truth be told, I didn't see any significant difference in trophy quality "inside" vs "outside". My hunt might have ended the evening previously on the upper part of the Caleufu River, but a big stag we bumped while on horseback never would turn his head to let us judge beam length. If he had, he might have gotten a bullet for his troubles!

Hang in there: the pig hammerin', trout lashin', and rhea and guanaco viewing is still to come! Not to mention watching Jane "power-shop" in San Martin de los Andes (although writing about that memory may be too painful!).

Thanks to everyone for all the kind words...

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by 218 Bee:
After getting there, seeing (some of) the property, and asking a few questions, I came to conclusion that they REALLY need to change that word on their website! What they have "enclosed" (and only with a perimeter high fence, no cross fencing) is right at 20,000 acres! That's 30 square miles where I come from; even my puritanical ethics couldn't find fault with that situation.

So yes, I'm proud to say that I took this stag in their "enclosure"! Truth be told, I didn't see any significant difference in trophy quality "inside" vs "outside"....
Mark

Mark, thanks a lot for your honest reply. I can certainly see what you mean - an enclosure the size of 20'000 acres is hardly a pen!

In the end, what made you change your mind and choose to hunt the enclosure?? Did the Estancia suggest this option, suggest better trophy quality that way, or perhaps better chances of success???

Did your hunting the enclosure change the price, or was it as advertized on the website??

Thanks again for your time and effort in sharing this with us.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
FYI I also book for Alicura, and have advertised these neat horseback hunts in the AR classified..

Ray, I looked, but I can't seem to find your post in Classifieds. Did I search incorrectly, or is the post no longer available??

- mike

MHO,

Quite frankly, I had to recalibrate my head during this hunt due to the sheer size of the entire property. Likewise with the "enclosure"...from a hunting perspective I can't ethically differentiate "enclosed" from "free range" in an area that size!

No change in price, and no suggestions of better success chances. I don't know what the rest of Argentina looks like, but we saw stags almost constantly everywhere we went. Between the total size of the property and the quantity of game seen, my mind is still a little bit boggled...

Hope that helps,

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by 218 Bee:
Hope that helps,

Mark

It does, thanks Mate!
- mike

Congrats!, that's a beautiful trophy.

I certainly want to go back again someday. The people down there are wonderful, and the overall experience is second-to-none!