Date: May 19-23, 2008
Outfitter: Algar Safaris
Game Hunted: Free Range Red Stag and Game Ranch Fallow Deer
Camera: Cannon Rebel EOS Digital with 75mm-300mm zoom for the long shots.

In a nutshell, The hunt was great, despite the fact that Mother Nature was out to get me from the beginning. Rain wind and volcanoes all came together to make the travel and the hunting a bit difficult.

A few days before departure, I get an email from Liliana in Argentina that the Llaima volcano in Chaiten, Chile had erupted sending ash into the atmosphere over Chili and Argentina. They had cancelled all flights to and from Bariloche, the airport we were to fly to after arriving in Buenos Aires.

Volcano in Chili -  http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/08/volcano.chili/index.html

So, we made a plan to overnight in Buenos Aires on arrival and see the city that day and the next morning.

Arrival Day

On Arrival we were met by two of their representatives. They took us to a new hotel that had just opened 15 days earlier. This was the only hotel they could find for us al the last minute because the World Cardiology Conference was set to start in a couple of days. All hotels in BA were booked. The hotel was nice, good English speaking staff. It was located in a good area for walking and shopping. 

We met The owners of Algar for dinner and drinks that night. We went to a local steakhouse close to Alberto and Liliana's home. After appetizers, wine, salad, wine, sausage, wine, a mixture of ham, eggs and potatoes, they brought out a tenderloin and cut it with a spoon into four pieces large enough to choke a Lion. Unbelievable. It was excellent.

Day After Arrival Day

Good night's sleep. Up and walk around and visit a restaurant that we saw the day before. Good prices on food and wine! We ate and drank and paid $20, with a tip the day before and $15 today. 

Since all flights were canceled, we had two options. Bus or car. We took the bus.

Day 1 of 5

In Argentina they have bed busses. The seats are the size of a business class seat on an airline and fold completely flat for sleeping. It was not as fast as a plane, but more comfortable than a car. The bus actually dropped us off at the ranch where we met Paul, who took us to the lodge.

We had a quick breakfast of bacon and eggs & coffee. Went back to the room and unpacked and got ready for a short morning hunt.

My guide for the week was going to be Emilio, but this morning, I went out with Tomas Dobie, the ranch manager, a native Argentine, who spoke English as his first language. First we sighted in the gun. I borrowed the rifle from Algar. It was a Ruger 30-06 with a Swarovski on top. All their guns for rent had either Swarovski or Zeiss scopes.

We drove around this morning (in the rain) and he told me about the ranch and we talked about the hunt. My goal was to hunt Red Stag on horseback, free range. 

He told me that it has not rained since October, until three days ago, and it has not stopped. It has rained on and off for the last 3 days. I am not a meteorologist, but this kind of activity, I suspect may have something to do with all the ash high in the atmosphere. You could not see the ash, it was not a problem, except for grounding the planes. All in all, for the time we were there, it rained more than it did all last year. It is not common to rain on the hunts, since they conduct them in the dry season. If it does rain, usually it is only for a day or maybe just a shower.  

(Not ash, these are just low rain clouds)

Tommy explained to me that the part of the ranch that held the best chances for Stag at this time of the year was very difficult to access if it is wet. If it stops raining now, hunting off horseback may not be a viable option for a few days, we would have to use the truck. We would need to wait for it to dry a bit before attempting to hunt there, or hunt areas that were more sandy and hope for the best, or hunt in the fenced area for a day or two.

No problem as my second goal was Fallow Deer. The Fallow are hunted in the fenced area. They have 10,000 acres under high fence where they have Red Stag, Pere David Deer, Fallow, Mouflon, Blackbuck among others.

So, this first day, I hunted Fallow Deer. It rained on and off all day. I saw many Fallow, but only one that was a good trophy. He was across a large valley and was gone when we got to the other side.

As we were looking at the Fallow we saw a Stag that I can not soon forget. He was a 6x6, but was an exceptional Deer. He was on the other side of a small ridge, and since my goal was to hunt free range Stag, I was not going to hunt him ...but, I wanted his picture.

This would have been an easy shot! But, I opted to use the camera instead. (the quality of the photo is ok, I had to crop out 90% of the picture and zoom to get a good image, but you get the idea.)

What a deer!

Back to the lodge for lunch and then directly back out again. No siesta today!

The rain let up a bit and allowed us to get out and glass some. Light rain seemed to fall all day though.

Emilio and I glassing a large creek bottom where Fallow like to hang out.

No luck this afternoon. So, back to the lodge for dinner and much needed rest.

Day 2 of 5

Sometime during the night I woke up and noticed that I did not hear rain on the metal roof. Well, that is because you can't hear snow. Most of the ranch had from 3-4" of snow. Nice wet sloppy snow, too.

It is a lot easier to spot the animals in the snow! But they can also see you better as well.

We had breakfast and left for the morning hunt. We came across a herd of Fallow with one toad in the group. (See him in the center?) This photo was taken as we crested the hill. The next photo is blurry because they all ran off. No catching up to this guy today.

We made a short drive through part of the ranch that was not fenced to see if there were any Stag in the area. This area was a part that was more sandy and easier to get around if it was wet. We did see two stags, one small 6x6 that was a definite LDB - "Last Day Bull". But being only the second day, we didn't even consider him. The weather will get better.

That afternoon, the majority of the snow had melted and  we attempted to hunt Stag free range again. I am starting to see what they mean about it being difficult to get around in. It was like soup.

 Emilio worked for an hour to get us unstuck, but in the end we had to call for another truck to pull us out. He almost got stuck as well, but in the end he pulled us out. We drove away and didn't turn around to see that our rescue truck was stuck now. They managed to get it unstuck in an hour or so.

No success on the Fallow this evening.

Day 3 of 5

It had stopped raining sometime in the night and the sun was out and the wind was picking up. Today Anne drove to Bariloche with Silvia to do some shopping and see the town.

Bariloche is a small ski resort town, like Breckenridge or Vail. 

We glassed from the ridges all morning. Saw many Stag and Fallow. Later in the morning, the wind picked up and he animals all started to bed in the draws that come off the main valley. This made the glassing easy as we would drive close to the ridge, get out and walk up and glass the draws. Most of the game we saw after mid morning was bedded in the draws. 

I started around one ridge and bumped two Tahr at about 50 yards. I did not know they had Tahr here.

Emilio whistled at me and motioned for me to come see. There were two Fallow in a draw below him. One was a very respectable chocolate Fallow. I like Chocolate. Chocolate is good!

I thought he was nice, but Emilio was very hesitant to give me the thumbs up. I had them at 128 yards on the rangefinder. The sticks were up and I just wanted to hear "Si."  The Deer saw us and ran down the draw to the main valley.

We drove to the bottom and glassed them as they were walking up an opposite draw at about 800 yards away. We saw them both bed down, and decided that we should try another stalk since they probably wouldn't get up for a while.

The situation was quite good as we had the wind at our face and we knew where they had bedded down. We went up the opposite side of the hill that formed the draw. When we reached the top, peeking over the crest of the hill, I could see the White Fallows horns in the grass. The rangefinder said 132 yards.

I knew the Chocolate was just below him. I folded out the sticks to the full length for a standing shot, pointed them in front of me, crawled forward and put the points of the sticks in the ground ahead of me. I rested the stock of the gun in the crook of the sticks, I slowly stood up, walking forward until the sticks were upright.

The Fallow was asleep and all I could see was his head. I Whispered to Emilio "Listo."

I am not sure what he did, but it got the deer's attention and they were up and running in an instant. They covered about 50 yards in no time, then, like Mule Deer will sometimes do, he stopped and looked back, but only for a second. I started the squeeze as he turned to run, I followed him and led him a bit and hit him low in the back as he climbed closer to the crest of the hill.

He fell instantly and died quickly.

A beautiful Chocolate Fallow on a very good stalk. (The Andes in the background)

Emilio with the Fallow. This is one of only a few shots that I have of Emilio.

You can see Emilio on the right dragging the Fallow down to flatter ground. Someplace we can get the truck into. Not too difficult as it was quite steep. On the left you can see the truck, where we started the stalk. I would like to say that I ran up the hill, but we all know it isn't true.  

The entire experience with the Fallow was very rewarding. A 2 1/2 day hunt that ended about noon on the third day.

Back to the lodge for lunch and a discussion with Javier, the ranch manager from the other ranch that Algar has.

The other ranch is similar to Algar in that it is very difficult to hunt if it is muddy. However, at this time of the year, my odds for a big Stag were better at the other ranch. The other ranch is completely free range.

The rain had stopped, so we figured that if it did not start again, the other ranch might be huntable tomorrow. We made a plan to get up the next morning and have breakfast and drive to the other ranch.

We finished lunch, had a small siesta, (30 minutes) and went out for my first real afternoon of free range Stag hunting. This is what I came for and I was not disappointed.

Emilio drove to a canyon on the far edge of the ranch. We got out and approached the edge of the hill. There were three younger stags grazing in the bottom that appeared to be a natural spring. It was very green and lush.

All three were "chico" (small).

I spotted a Red Deer in the thick brush just below us.

"Aqui" I said.

"Muerte" Emilio muttered. He was dead. Probably a casualty of the roar which had been over for about a month. This was the second dead Stag I had seen. They are known for their fierce fighting during their roar, which is their rut. 

We heard some splashing, something walking in the water below us. Emilio said "Javelin." Pigs, wild Boar that were imported from Europe many years ago. They are the same size as our Feral pigs, but these are all the same color. They looked silver to me.

We drove down the crest of the hill that led to the bottom. When we reached the bottom and rounded the hill, Emilio saw a Stag bedded on the hillside, just under where we had been minutes earlier.

He was an ancient 5x5 that I liked very much. His beams were extremely long and heavy and Emilio estimated him at 8 or 9 years old. A beautiful Stag.

He took one look at us and was gone.

Since my photographer (my wife Anne) was shopping, I do not have too many pictures of today's hunt.

We glassed a lot of country and put a good stalk on a group of 3 Stags. When we got close enough, it was determined that they were all too young, and "chico". Plus, they saw us and ran.

The Stags are all in groups now. I saw groups of 8 and 12 today, plus some singles and pairs. When we see Hinds, there are only very young spikes with them, if any Stags at all.

Over the course of the evening hunt, I counted 21 Stags. two of them were good shooters. The big ancient 5x5 and the last Stag we saw.

Ah, yes, the last Stag of the day. I knew I would regret my decision, but I couldn't bring myself to shoot him. After all, tomorrow I was going to the better ranch, and this was the first evening I had a chance to hunt free range Stag. I am only a few hours into my hunt. I have seen 21 Stags today. Plus, Anne wasn't here. She likes to hunt with me (or is it that I like her to hunt with me?) I couldn't shoot both of my animals on the day that she is shopping. How can I end it now? I was really enjoying this kind of hunting. It was true wild huting. The weather has just turned nice. Besides, this stalk was too easy. He is right here at about 100 yards, no clue I am here. Ok, so he is a 6x7 that has incredibly long points and heavy beams ... We left with Emilio trying to understand exactly why I came to Argentina. 

You should have heard the rain that night.

Patagonia Red Stag Hunt Part 2