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Folks, Here are some pics to start with I will post more as I get them and will write a full hunt report shortly. Needless to say my friend Jeff and I had a great hunt and shot a Maral stag each, both of them should fall within the top 10 in the SCI record book. Another hunter took one that is probably No. 1 if not larger, we will never know as he is not a member of SCI and it was not measured but you can see the size from the photo. Renaud the outfitter has taken even larger bulls on previous expeditions!!

Outfitter: Renaud Desgrees du Lou
Booking Agent: Self
Airlines: Lufthansa to Europe and Air Astana to and from Asia to Europe
Animals Hunted: Maral, Roe deer
Trophies shot: Maral stag
Range: 749 yards
Caliber: 300 Remington Ultra Magnum
Rifle: Out of the box SS model 75 Sako
Scope: Conquest Z800 – 4.5-14x44
Bullet: 200 grain Nosler Accubond
Velocity: 2964 fps
Charge: 94.5 grains of Retumbo

It was probably one of the toughest hunts I have been on due to extreme horse riding for me, given that I had never ridden a horse before and walking and climbing in the steep mountains. I took the longest shot I have ever taken at 749 yards, two guides and God are my witness. It was lasered and is on video - you will see the footage one of these days. The animal was well hit and went only a few yards. We lost sight of it and closed the distance to 370+ yards where I dropped it with a final shot.

My friend Jeff wounded and lost a great stag on the first evening of the hunt at 30 yards! More below on how it was found...

View from the chopper of the Altai Mountains

Coming into land at base camp in the Altai Mtns

The old russian helihofter as the translator called it.

Dining room basecamp

View from our tent basecamp

Me with local guides

Renaud holds court at basecamp. He has been doing this for 30 years!

Renaud sights his old custom 300 weatherby - as you can see its been up and down a few mountains!

Fly camp - Nicolas (guide) and me

We had snow, rain and sun. It was cold at nights but warmed up nicely once the sun came out

My Maral trophy

With Renaud

Bullet strike on a big Maral

Glassing

View of the mountains and Valleys - they go on forever

Renaud with a happy client

We crossed several rivers some were more perilous than others! Note Renaud's dog in his saddle bag. She goes everywhere with him.

Returning to basecamp

Renaud and Nicolas with some trophies - Jeffs stag is on the right.

The Monster stag of this season

Another view of it - look at the mass

Hunting for Siberian Roe deer from main camp

Scenery

Main camp

Kazakhstan is a beautiful country

Lots of agriculture on way to main camp

My Notes:
Thankful ending:
Renaud and Nicola called me a week later, still in the mountains they had come upon Jeff’s wounded stag. A brown bear was on the carcass eating it. A European hunter fired and missed the bear! It is a Bolshoi 7x7 Maral stag.

Hunting in Asia
It is for the adventurous, if you are not the type simply put do not go as you will return miserable. It requires a certain state of mind that can be simply put as “when in Rome do as the Romans do”. Applying western timelines and mindset will only frustrate you and ruin your experience. Do not get perturbed, relax and enjoy the overall adventure. Expect a tough hunt, the better shape you are in physically the more you will enjoy your hunt. It can be the difference between outright success and total failure. If you have any desire to do these hunts, do them as soon as you can. It gets tougher with age. My friend Jeff who is 70+ did it, hats off to him.

Language is an issue but one can get by. The local guides know their way around the mountains and the game like no one else, but African PHs they are not. Be ready to make your own decisions and live with them. Hunting in Asia is not for beginners. Expect sun, rain and snow during your hunt. Many European hunters enjoy these hunts each year; American hunters who do not go for the fear of travelling to a foreign alien land are truly missing out. At the end of the day you will return with a trophy that few trophy rooms hold.

Long Range Shots:
For those of you used to shooting running game at 1000 yards I apologize if I bore you. Although I knew where my rifle shot I did not go expecting to make such a long shot, at the time it felt right, I went for it and it worked. I will probably never take another shot like that again; there is a lot that can go wrong at that distance. For those interested in the more technical aspects of that shot, my ballistic program analysis shows:

Range: 750 yards
Caliber: 300 Remington Ultra Magnum
Rifle: Out of the box SS model 75 Sako
Scope: Conquest Z800 – 4.5-14x44
Bullet: 200 grain Nosler Accubond
Velocity: 2964 fps
Charge: 94.5 grains of Retumbo

At 750 yards, the velocity of the bullet had dropped down to 1872 fps, from 2965 at the muzzle! Energy was down to 1557 - the same energy a 95 grain bullet from a 243 has at 120 yards.
Without the Zeiss scope’s Z800 reticule, at 100 yards the rifle would have had to be set to shoot 16.98 inches high to be dead on at 750 yards!
At the highest point ever at 400 yards that bullet was 43.56" high, that’s nearly 4 feet! The TOF (time of flight) of the bullet to 750 yards was .96 of a second, at 100 yards the TOF is only .11 of a second.

Gear:
It is really important to take the right gear. I climbed the mountain in Muck boots which probably accounted for some of my woes! A warm sleeping bag and good mountain climbing gear is the way to go.

Rifle:
Synthetic stocked rifles in a 30 magnum caliber or similar is the only way to go. A good scope, range finder and binoculars are a must. Be proficient to shoot out to 400 yards and know your trajectory. Many of the shots will be way under that range.

The Trophy:
Maral Stags from my understanding have the largest antlers of any of the deer family except probably moose. Some stags have an identical horn configuration to American Elk, although a great many of them have extra points. Truly large monsters have immense mass and palmated antlers. The European method of weighing the antlers and skull in my opinion does not do the trophy full justice. I don’t think the antlers are as dense as say compared to an Indian Sambur stag and what does weight matter when a trophy is on a wall, scoring the antlers using inches is a far better way.

Thank you for reading this report. Feel free to get in touch for information on this hunt.

Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: 845 259 3628
email: arjun@huntersnetworks.com

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Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: 845 259 3628
Email:arjun@huntersnetworks.com