I'm on Twitter!

Just signed up for Twitter...I'm such a techno troglodyte. Guess I'll figure out what all the # and @ mean eventually......feel free to follow me @tjschwanky but be gentle :)

Bore Sighting

Sometimes you get really lucky bore sighting a new rifle. Check out this video of me bore sighting my new 375. http://youtu.be/UfT_ift77xo

A Couple new mounts home

We met up up with Curtis from Silver Willow Taxidermy today and picked up my Mid Asian ibex and my red stag....man they look awesome. Curtis is a real artist!

Back in Canada

Just waiting in Toronto for our final flight of this journey. Air Canada hit a new low on the flight from BA to Toronto. Food was inedible, televisions worked sporatically, flight attendants made non-stop announcements all through the night making sleeping impossible. This was the worst international flight I've ever been on. No wonder they are going broke. The ABAC rule still applies...anybody but Air Canada! Sadly it was our only practical choice for this trip.

This was our first time entering Canada post C-19 and not having to show a registration certificate was liberating. Canada feels a bit freer than when we left.

Arrived in BA

We arrived in Buenos Aires at 7:00 this morning. We both slept pretty good on the bus so it's a quick shower and then off to see the sights.

On the Way to Buenos Aires....kind of!

While we hunted hard for the last couple days, we were unable to close the deal on an axis deer. We got some great video of two bucks fighting today but neither was quite big enough so I passed on them. We did see a really good buck this morning but at about 20 yards but in the thick cover there was no chance for a shot.

After we finished hunting this morning, we made our way to Santa Rosa to catch our flight to Buenos Aires only to find out it was cancelled until tomorrow. We really wanted to spend a day in BA so we are taking the bus tonight at 11:00pm. We get in at 6:00 am so at least we'll have a day to see the sights. It's all part of the adventure. Alejandro from TGB Outfitters has gone out of his way to make sure we had a room in Santa Rosa till the bus leaves and then a driver will pick us up in BA and take us to the hotel so it should be pretty seamless.

Big Boar Down

We hunted hard yesterday morning but despite putting on lots of miles, we only got one brief glimpse of an axis buck. In the afternoon we had a terrible storm that saw winds well over 100kph and 2 inches of rain fell in about 30 minutes. Getting around in the afternoon on the flooded roads was interesting.

This morning we headed out early and we snuck in on a water hole and saw a huge wild boar. Vanessa shot him at about 30 yards and he hit the ground quickly. These Europen boars here are massive and extremely tough to hunt so we were really lucky to cross paths with this one. Vanessa says he's going on the wall so Curtis at Silver Willow Taxidermy is going to be busy.

Hopefully the cooler temperatures get the animals moving a bit more this afternoon.

Hot Day

Wow, what a brutally hot afternoon. It was well above 30 degrees. We walked for several hours in the heavy cover but game was scarce. We passed up a decent stag early in the afternoon and other than that we only saw a few fallow deer. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit cooler! I've eaten flan for desert for three days in a row now so life is good!

Big Fallow Buck Down

We started the morning slowly walking through some very heavy cover on the ranch and it wasn't long before we heard a fallow buck grunting. We played hide and seek with him for well over an hour, often with him only 30 yards away but the cover was too thick to see him. Then, just as we were closing in, he ran off with a doe. We thought the morning was done but suddenly spotted an even bigger buck and with a little positioning I was able to put him down at about 60 yards. What an awesome morning it was.

 

 

Hot Day

With temperatures above 30 degrees today not much was moving so we decided to sit at a waterhole this evening. We had one really nice fallow buck snorting and grunting around us for about 30 minutes. It was really cool! We also had two stags having a roaring contest right beside us. While nothing was quite worthy of shooting it was an incredible evening.

Arrived at TGB

We arrived at TGB late last night and were treated to an incredible meal and some fine wine. We slept in a bit this morning and are just going to have breakfast, then we head off in search of a big fallow buck for me. It sounds like they have some monster wild boars patterned as well so Vanessa is pretty pumped about that!

 

 

 

 

A Dream Fulfilled

After two days of tiptoeing through the heavy cover, Vanessa finally connected on a really nice axis buck this afternoon. Man, they are incredibly spooky. We are going to try one more evening for a stag for me and then we are moving over to TGB Outfitters to hunt fallow deer and do some wing shooting.

 

 

What an afternoon!

After a great lunch and a short siesta, we were back in the field this afternoon. They have been having a real drought down here and they are wanting to reduce the number of animals so Vanessa was asked if she'd like to shoot a feral ram. Of course she jumped at the opportunity and while not as spooky as the red deer, the sheep still provided an exciting challenge. Vanessa finally got in position and put a big old ram down. We call it her mini marco polo!

 

After that we went is search of axis deer and found about 20 but there was no way to get on them and last time we saw them, they were headed for cover at high speed. Man are they spooky! We then spent the last hour of the day looking for a management stag but only came across a couple good looking young stags with loads of potential. They are trying to reduce the number of free range stags on the ranch due to the extremely dry conditions.

 

I wonder what adventure tomorrow will hold!

 

Red Stag down....finally!

Well it took three days but Vanessa was finally able to seal the deal on a red stag this morning. These free range red stags in Argentina are without question one of the most challenging animals there is to hunt. We played hide and seek with this one and a small group of hinds for well over 2 hours before we finally got a glimpse of him. She was able to thread a GMX through the heavy cover and the stag ran about 70 yards before piling up. This afternoon we are headed back to the sandhills in search of mouflon.

A Busy Day

Yesterday ended without success but it wasn't for lack of trying. The wind was really strong in the afternoon and not much game was out. We put on many miles in the sandhills looking for blackbuck but only saw a few females. In the evening we headed back into the thick cover in search of stags. We heard one roaring right away and played a game of cat and mouse with him for a couple hours but never did get a look at him despite being very close a few times. We enjoyed a great bbq last night including fresh pizza and a birthday cake for Vanessa.

Today we began the morning looking for stags and saw a decent one about 250 yards away but he slipped over a hill and into cover before we could get him on camera. On the way back to the truck we spotted a huge herd of water buffalo and managed to crawl within 123 yards. While not the ideal rifle for buffalo, Vanessa put the huge bull down with the 7RM. I bet this is the first buffalo ever taken with a 139 grain GMX....lol We recovered one bullet that passed through nearly 4 feet of buffalo and it looked amazing.

In the afternoon we headed back to the sandhills after walking about 5 kilometres, we finally found a small herd of blackbucks. Despite being busted once we managed to find them again and I put a bullet in the biggest buck. Taking a free range blackbuck has always been a dream of mine.

We came very close on a red stag this evening but it wasn't to be. Tomorrow we are off in search of stags again.

Great first morning

What an incredible first morning here at Caza Pampa. We were right in the middle of several roaring stags for several hours but in the thick cover we never did get a look at them. We will give it another go this afternoon. Man, the noise they make is unreal. Hot and windy here so the stags are not as active as they could be so it's pretty much a matter of catching them early in the morning and late in the afternoon.

Arrived Safely

We arrived safely at Caza Pampa today and start our hunt tomorrow. Since it's Vanessa's birthday, she's first up with red stag on the menu. Thing have been totally seamless so far and the fine folks at TGB Outfitters and Caza Pampa have taken care of us from the minute we landed in Buenos Aires. There is a fellow in camp with us that is a parapalegic that killed a red stag earlier in the week and is on the hunt for another one. He's going to show us how he shoots his rifle tomorrow. What an inspirational gentleman. Well, up early tomorrow so off to bed we go!

Made it to Buenos Aries

After nearly 20 hours in airplanes, we finally made it to Buenos Aries. The trip went without a hitch and all of our luggage even showed up...lol. We are checked in to the hotel and are going to enjoy some local fare for dinner tonight and then we head to Santa Rosa tomorrow and our hunt begins.

Mountain Hunting Seminar

If anyone is interested, I'll be talking about mountain hunting in New Zealand and Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday evening, April 3 as part of the Northern Alberta SCI chapter's Speaker Series. The speaker series starts at 7 PM at the Edmonton Cabela’s Store Meeting Room. It's free and you don't have to be an SCI member.