LCH
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Gorgeous country!
Am I crazy??? Would you go? (ARGENTINA RED DEER)
- Thread starter Elkwhisper
- Start date
Elkwhisper
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Wonderful dinner and conversation with the lady of the house tonight.... and while I tend to lean more toward Bud Light, the wine down here has got it going on!
Got the Sig BDX system all dialed in for tomorrow and gear ready to pack on the horses.... so here we go. I'll catch up with you fellas in a few days!
Got the Sig BDX system all dialed in for tomorrow and gear ready to pack on the horses.... so here we go. I'll catch up with you fellas in a few days!
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bowhuntmontana
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This is awesome. You made the right call going. Good luck tomorrow!
SaskHunter
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Given the opportunity and at the right price, heck yeah I would!
"You only live once" are words to live by, it's all about the story my friend. I keep busy, I like to explore and go on adventures either by myself or with my family. I have a very supportive wife and awesome kids who follow us wherever we go!
"You only live once" are words to live by, it's all about the story my friend. I keep busy, I like to explore and go on adventures either by myself or with my family. I have a very supportive wife and awesome kids who follow us wherever we go!
Elkwhisper
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bowhuntmontana
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Sounds like you made the right call!
Elkwhisper
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Sorry for the delay guys... as you can imagine, there was a long of catching up to do, once I got home following such a short notice trip. I will do my best to give you a little bit of a day by day report with some pics and videos.
As my earlier series of pics showed you, the ranch we were staying at was a pretty incredible place. We really only spent the first and last night at the house... the rest of the time we were on horseback in the mountains.
Last Saturday morning, the ranch manager Diego, and his ranch hand Ernesto, picked Ben and I up in the Toyota Hi-Lux (note... need to have one of these) and drove us about 10 miles from the ranch house into a very deep and rugged canyon. There we were met by a half dozen ranch hands, who had the horses rounded up and were in the process of saddling and loading them for our trip into the mountains. Once we left the main house, we had NOBODY that spoke English, and between Ben and I, we would be lucky to order correctly at Taco Bell.
Once the horses were loaded up, we began our long ascent up and out of the valley.
As my earlier series of pics showed you, the ranch we were staying at was a pretty incredible place. We really only spent the first and last night at the house... the rest of the time we were on horseback in the mountains.
Last Saturday morning, the ranch manager Diego, and his ranch hand Ernesto, picked Ben and I up in the Toyota Hi-Lux (note... need to have one of these) and drove us about 10 miles from the ranch house into a very deep and rugged canyon. There we were met by a half dozen ranch hands, who had the horses rounded up and were in the process of saddling and loading them for our trip into the mountains. Once we left the main house, we had NOBODY that spoke English, and between Ben and I, we would be lucky to order correctly at Taco Bell.
Once the horses were loaded up, we began our long ascent up and out of the valley.
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Elkwhisper
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Probably 45 minutes after hitting the trail, we jumped a small stag from some thick brush and grass on the steep hillside in front of us.... He was definitely not a shooter, but it was cool to see one so quickly. This stag didn't waste much time bounding up the hillside and over the top. We continued our ride for another 2 hours until we reached the top, far above timberline.
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300stw
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- Jul 6, 2008
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- 947
any chukars or partridge spotted,,,,
Elkwhisper
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Around noon we neared the "the top" several hundred feet above tree line. Ernesto stopped the pack train just before we crested the ridge, and we all dismounted and slipped up to take a look at the first big opening. It was kind of surprising that we had just spent 2 hours, riding through what looked like great elk habitat..... but we didn't even start looking for red deer until we were way above timberline, in what can only be described as a high mountain tundra. I have spent some time in Alaska, and the whole "waterbed full of bowling balls" analogy fit much of this place very well. The landscape was about a 50 /50 mix of rock /shale/boulders and a spongey tundra.
It quickly became apparent that Diego and Ernesto knew what they were doing, as sure enough, right there in the middle of that wide open basin was a big stag roaring his head off.
At first glance, they definitely remind you of elk, but they are surprisingly VERY hard to pick out from the landscape, even though they are in the wide open. After a little looking we spotted 4 bedded hinds and a smaller stag nearby.
It quickly became apparent that Diego and Ernesto knew what they were doing, as sure enough, right there in the middle of that wide open basin was a big stag roaring his head off.
At first glance, they definitely remind you of elk, but they are surprisingly VERY hard to pick out from the landscape, even though they are in the wide open. After a little looking we spotted 4 bedded hinds and a smaller stag nearby.
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Elkwhisper
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After looking over this stag, and doing our best to gauge Diego and Ernesto's opinions.... we started a stalk and closed the distance. Since it was Ben that invited me on the trip.... and to be honest I was for sure there for the experience more than a trophy, he was the first shooter up. The night before we had taken an old Sako rifle in 30-06 that they had at the ranch, and replaced the old Zeiss 1-6x scope with a brand new Sig Sauer Sierra 3 BDX 3.5-10x44mm scope. We were able to get the rifle zeroed with just 3 rounds, and verified our velocity / b.c. with a couple test shots at 400 yards. I will let the video tell the story from here......
Elkwhisper
Well-known member
We were obviously pretty excited to get two stags on the ground so quickly.... and very impressed by how quick and easy it was to range the stags and take our shots using the moving dot in the scope. Hard to argue with those results.
Ben's stag was the one we originally set out after, and was for sure the "herd bull". We were caught completely by surprise when the second big stag appeared out of a fold between us and the first one. A quick swap from camera to gun, and I was able to make a good shot on the second one.
While the one I shot definitely had better tops, more points and tine length... it was definitely the younger of the two. They figured Ben's stag was 8+ years old, while mine was closer to 4 or 5 years old.
Ben's stag was the one we originally set out after, and was for sure the "herd bull". We were caught completely by surprise when the second big stag appeared out of a fold between us and the first one. A quick swap from camera to gun, and I was able to make a good shot on the second one.
While the one I shot definitely had better tops, more points and tine length... it was definitely the younger of the two. They figured Ben's stag was 8+ years old, while mine was closer to 4 or 5 years old.
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BigHornRam
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A friend from Butte was down there fishing and he couldn't stop talking about the Toyota Hilux. Says he wants one too. They must be something else.
Elkwhisper
Well-known member
So there we sat.... Day 1.... on a windswept mountainside in Patagonia..... with two bucket list critters on the ground.
This first day was really warm (65 degrees), and relatively calm for that area. It was pretty cool, checking these critters out. While they share a ton of similarities with an elk, they are only a little over half the size. With two of them on the ground, we had to work fast to get them boned and packed on the horses.
It probably took us an hour and a half to get our pics, bone them and load them on the horses..... then it was time for a celebratory cerveza. They didn't have any Hopzone.... but we made due with what we had, and watched the giant condors pick over the carcasses while we enjoyed a steak sandwich.
Ernesto took the meat and horns down the mountain that evening and met up with another ranch hand for a hand off.... then returned to the top, where we had a nice camp set up. We shared stories (as best we could) around the campfire, watched the sun go down, and fell asleep with the sounds of stags roaring in the darkness.
more tomorrow.....
This first day was really warm (65 degrees), and relatively calm for that area. It was pretty cool, checking these critters out. While they share a ton of similarities with an elk, they are only a little over half the size. With two of them on the ground, we had to work fast to get them boned and packed on the horses.
It probably took us an hour and a half to get our pics, bone them and load them on the horses..... then it was time for a celebratory cerveza. They didn't have any Hopzone.... but we made due with what we had, and watched the giant condors pick over the carcasses while we enjoyed a steak sandwich.
Ernesto took the meat and horns down the mountain that evening and met up with another ranch hand for a hand off.... then returned to the top, where we had a nice camp set up. We shared stories (as best we could) around the campfire, watched the sun go down, and fell asleep with the sounds of stags roaring in the darkness.
more tomorrow.....
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LaSportsman
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Congrats and thanks for the recap!
