Hunting red stags in the roar in Argentina

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Yo !

My wife and I came back about a week ago from a hunting trip to La Pampa in far off Argentina. We went with our great friend, Lorenzo of Montevideo who I have now hunted with five times in three countries ... If the chap wanted me to hunt wild guinea pigs in Peru - I'd show up.:) He is that nice of a man.

We flew from Calgary to Dallas (4 hours), Dallas to Miami (3+ hours), Miami to Montevideo ( 8+ hours) ... drove two hours to Colonia ... took a one hour ferry ride to Buenos Aires .. and then drove another 600 kms to ourt hunting area ... (Whew !) Most of that drive was through heavy rain and almost non stop lightning ... I wasn't equipped for monsoons but we drove out of what they call the wet Pampas and we never saw another rain drop.

The airfare cost my wife and I about $2,000 each return.

Our guides were Pato, Jose', and Mario with Pato being the outfitters son. He is back in Buenos Aires right now .. 5th year law school.

The food was plain (asados ... barbeques with beef and sausages and such) along with the regular meals one might expect in a hunting camp. It was all good and I was more than happy with it. Don't expect too much for salads however ...

It was full moon and these stags were very vocal all night. They told me that the roar wasn't intense ..with the roaring (just like lions !!!!:eek:) starting up around sundown and going on all night ... maybe ending around 8:00 a.m. In the full roar they barely shut down for a couple of hours during the middle of the day.

These animals are wilder than snakes and any time they caught a glimpse of a man - they vamoosed instantly. Much spookier than the white tails and mulies I'm used to hunting.

The stags weigh about 400-450 pounds ...

We hunted on 34,000 acres and they take 5 trophy stags and 5 management stags each year ... On the five day hunt Lorenzo and I shot three stags ... two Russian wild boars, a puma, and a couple of odd varmints that I whacked ... (Ever eat a mara ??? The guide refused as he said that he didn't eat anything that looked liked it came from Chenobyl !!! I thought it was fine - if a bit chewy. Lorenzo took one bite and said that it stunk!:()

Although I have heard about red deer all of my life .. I doubt if I would have ever hunted them if my amigo hadn't invited me ... And I would have been the poorer for it !!! What a magnifient hunt and animal !!!

I don't know how to post photos .. but if anyone is interested - I can e mail them half of a dozen in two e mails and they can post them here ... That would be very kind ...

Thanks and good hunting !:wave:

Richard
 
It"s odd to think of them roaring at this time of year. The peak of the rut here is early/mid October. I hope to be over to Lethbridge in the Summer and back here in time for the first week of the rut in County Fermanagh(Northern Ireland) and the 2nd week in Scotland(if I can get away with it!)
I"m practising my "roar" with a peice of 2" pvc waste pipe!
Were your stags hard to stop? In the rut they don"t seem to register being hit
which can be a bit worrying when they just turn and trot off without flinching, only to stagger and fall in a few seconds.
They are a very worthy big game animal!
I"ll meet you in "The Keg" when I get the chance, wonder if we could get that dark haired waitress again!?
 
Hard to knock down ?

One stag took two hits to put him down .. the other two had shoulder shots so the game, for them, was over very quickly. I must admit that they were very difficult to hunt and very impressive animals to look at. I told Lorenzo that his stag should be in a castle ... I was struck by how wary they were. Is that a common trait or was it just a combination of puma predation along with every farm :sniper: at them.... ??? Mario used such a pipe and his roars sounded amazing ... We didn't have anything come to us ... but they sounded off ... plus my stag, which was walking very quickly, stopped short and stared at its destiny ... The Keg and the Fox sound about right to me.
 
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I found that Reds will spot you, or smell you way sooner than other deer species. Unbelievable eyesight and sense of smell alert them quickly, and more often than not they just throw up the head and trot away.
I feel about Reds in Scotland the way you feel about Africa!
 
Roaring is like bugling elk. If you have a stag with a harem and you roar too aggresively, stamp your feet and thrash a tree, he might decide to play it safe and take his "girls" away from the challenger. You are more likely to attract smaller stags who come for a look, unless you get a good stag early enough when he"s still looking for hinds.
 
good for you m8 your very lucky to get such a experience, i got a friend in the UK and will be heading to England for a deer hunt, but realy hope to get to Africa sometime, I will be living in New Zealand in a couple years if all goes well i here that place is a deer hunter's mecca

congrats and good for you i am so jelouse
 
I've sent the photos to a fellow who is going to post them. They came back once (not enough space) so I sent fewer ... I offered to fly to Buenos Aires first, but Lorenzo thought it would be easier (and safer) for us just to go to Montevideo instead. At one stage on that stormy night as we drove through the 'edges' of Buenos Aires he told us to lock the door in case of kidnapping ... but then he glanced at me and said that if I was taken - they'd give me back.:) He also later felt that God had given him his great stag because he had had to put up with me for seven days ... :) I'm not sure how dangerous Buenos Aires is .. compared to any big city... ??? The one guide who goes to University there isn't concerned ...
 
Here are two pictures:
Redstag2IMG_0296.jpg

RedstagIMG_0192.jpg

Beautiful stags !
 
If you don't mind what rifle/cartridge/bullet combo were you using?
What kind of ranges where you shooting? the pics seem to show an open dry grass land type of terrain.

Nice stags BTW.

O.
 
That"s a good symmetrical head, I"ve shot some with a "crown" on one side and tines on the other. Some have big thick beams with few tines, some have upright tines with no "sweep" to the beams. I need to shoot a good one before I leave the UK!:)
 
Guns etc ...

We were lent three rifles ... all Mausers with high end scopes .. I used a 30-06 and Lorenzo used a 300 Mag ... I actually preferred his 300 mag as it had a heavier barrel so was easier to hold steady ..:shotgun: I shot a deer and a Russian wild boar with the 300 mag. They told me that the stags went 400-450 pounds. I noticed that my big stag was getting very thin from his chasing the ladies .. Just before he came out of the thick brush I got a quick glimpse of him running hard .. it looked like in circles ... Probably herding the hinds ... Most of the country there is thick bush with some thorns .. Lorenzo got his stag coming out of a thick patch into an area that had been gone over with a fire some time ago ... He got it on the edges ... when it came out to see another stag that was roaring ..

I'd prefer to take my own rifle .. but by going through the States that is a no no now ... and Argentina was putting restrictions on guns coming in so Lorenzo thought it was much easier just to use theirs ... I shoot left handed - but I managed well enough ... For you guys that love to hunt deer (or elk) ... man oh man would I recommend these guys !!!
 
Allways great food to in eat food in Buenos Aires, beef de lomo with lots of vino tinto, also, no ugly women in Argentina :)

Glad that you had a good time on La Pampa as a gringo Goucho !
 
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