Hunting the Southern Hemisphere's September | Stories from Argentina

Foreign.

To the Hunt west podcast, here's your host, Jaden Bales. Okay. Recording is in process.

Progress.

I did it again. Anyway, welcome to the Hunt west podcast. Hayden Richens. Thank you for hopping on. This is my second to last day in Argentina, so we needed to take a second to just recap what all is gone down and this whole trip, because I think everyone was like, oh, yeah, Jaden's just gonna go hunt for himself. And it wasn't really clear that I was just going down here to hang out with you too. And, like, there was a lot of unsureness because this whole trip was. I wouldn't say it definitely wasn't spur of the moment. We planned it for, like, a year, but it also wasn't something that I necessarily had on my radar for a long time. That started because you came down here a few years ago.

So.

So fill me in. Like, how did you end up down here the first time? And how did we kind of get to this point?

So I was brought down as a photographer for a different group of hunters that were coming down, and I was just coming down to, you know, help translate a little bit and then do photos of their whole hunt and fell in love with the place while I was down here. So got to go out hunting, got to go hang out with the guides and then befriended Remy, who's you guys have probably met already, but chatted his ear off for, you know, the better part of two years to figure out how to get back down here. And no, came back down to work the ranch and do some guiding and some photo work for him. And then once I figured out I was coming down, I was on you about getting down here as well, just to see the place.

So, yeah, at first you were like, dude, you need to come down for three months or two months. And I was like, okay, Hayden, let's just reel it in. But you've been down here since December. Like, why? Why'd you come down here so early? And, like, what were you guys up to?

Well, when we first got down here, we were just working cattle, so we were working the ranch, and then I was running the camera. So they have a little bit of tourism that goes on even outside of the hunting season. They have a great lodge and just a great place to be. So being able to get that on video and put that together for them was kind of part of what I was doing. And then also, I just got to have a heck of a time with all the boys and all the cows and all the horses. So we came down because we wanted to be down here a little bit longer term. And that's when we were free enough to go from hunting season back home. So that's when we decided to come on down.

Yeah. You basically were like, hey, what time of year is hunting not happening back home? Let's go.

Yeah. You know, chasing fall is always a good idea. Yeah.

And so for people who don't know, like, March is South America's September. Right. And, like, that's why we were here this month in particular, because the red stag, the free range red stag roar is going off right now. It's just like September back home, it feels like.

Yeah, it's great. Especially where we're staying. So there's the lodge, and we're out in the middle of nowhere, really. So they keep us up at night roaring. Just like if you were in the middle of the mountains in your tent during a rut fest, you know, they're just roaring all around where we stay in the lodge. It's just an experience that. Yeah. Hard to get anywhere else where you can just sit out on the porch and listen to red stags just roaring their heads off.

Yeah. And when you invited me down, it was kind of like, well, we should just hang out and go, like, see what it's all about. Then we also were like, well, we maybe overestimated my ability to understand Spanish, but it was like, we can translate for people and all this other stuff. And then we got down here and it was just like, okay, let's just go see. See all the different hunts. And they kind of let us go just tag along on hunts. And you got to obviously, like, lead some. Some trips primarily, I think, you know, they trust your knowledge of the area. And while Onyx does download, like, the. The imagery, the satellite imagery, we don't exactly have any landmarks to go off of, so.

And no topo or anything like that? No.

There's some windmills you can kind of see on the horizon. Like, in some places, they always say.

Go towards the Molino, which is the windmill. You're just never quite sure of the three that you can see which one they were talking about. So.

And they don't use, like, cardinal directions very well. Right. Like, we were talking about it. One of the guides, Maxi, was telling you, go towards the sun. You're like, what? It's the middle of the day.

The ranch itself is. Oh. Like, I pretty sure over 85,000 acres. It's a large place. And we run groups of hunters around, drop them off, and then they hunt and we come pick them up. There's enough people going that, you know, we spread everyone around. But I was trying to pick Maxi up. They had just shot a really nice antelope or a black buck. They call him antelope, so really nice black buck. And I knew where I dropped him off. And he's like, okay, so go to where you dropped me off and then go towards the sun. Keep in mind it was like 10:30 or 11 in the afternoon. I was just like, I ended up burning a quarter tank of gas just driving in circles around where I dropped them off.

That is one of the biggest challenges, I think, like, coming out here was. It's totally different in how flat it is and. And how thick there's sections of it that's just flat and thick. And hunting it is pretty dang tough. Like, I don't know about you, but that's the place. Those are the places I feel most uncomfortable.

Yeah. Especially coming from the mountains and in Wyoming, you know, like, there you get some thick peckerpool timber, things like that. But it's not the same level of thick as here. Like, you can still walk around. There's stuff at your feet, but there's points here where you have no option but to kind of hands and knees crawl. You can avoid those areas, but the idea is the stag like, those as well. So, like, a lot of the shots that guys are getting are. You know, some guys end up getting longer shots, but most are hundred yard shots and sub hundred yard shots. You're just in them tight and they're just roaring all around you, which.

Okay, so let's dive into the free range stag stuff. Because when we got here that first week, like, literally, we walk, we rolled in, and you're like, hey, let's go say hi to the guys. And I think it was Ani and Marcos are sitting out at the corrals listening to the stags roar at night with a beer that they're passing around. And I was like, this is my kind of place. Like, we just rolled up and, like, the stags are already running. But the important thing was that was like the first week of March, which just like September back home is like, they're roaring at night. Like, it was very much either end of the spectrum when there was activity. And then later that week, we went to go try to like, chase down a pig to cook over the fire, basically. And we realized, like, oh, that thick, nasty stuff is hard to hunt.

Thick and nasty. Yeah.

Yeah.

So the area that we went into too, the the trees down here are called Calden and they just have these thorns that just go through everything. We ended up calling it South American dry needling because you'll just be. The only thing that you can do is just go through it. You can kind of crawl around some or kind of maybe bend over and walk through it. But the idea is like, you're not, you're just going through it. Like.

Yeah, one doesn't really grab you.

Yeah.

I pulled one out of my knee this morning in the shower. That was long. I was like, oh, how did that stay there that long? But they, yeah, they. I still have them in my hands too. I mean, it's one of those places I would imagine is similar to like some of the mesquite country in like Texas.

Yeah.

You've been in some of that stuff, right?

Yeah. And I would, I'd put it really similar, but I just. Everything has thorns. They have these things. They're just like goat heads and they just, anytime you crawl, they just stick to you and pin your pants to your knees or pin your pants to your butt anytime you sit down the glass. But yeah, in a good way.

Yeah.

And it's a very fun way, especially.

When you're black buck hunting. Like, it's just like pronghorn where you kind of have to crawl or like get down on your hands and knees to like figure out where, how to sneak up on them. And you're just putting your hands and feet and knees in the middle of those little Rosettas the whole time.

Yeah. So I, it's. We've just been talking about a lot. So comparing the black buck to pronghorn and the, the red stag to elk, the behavior is very similar.

It's uncannily the same. Yeah.

And even the country they live in, the ranch offers just a pretty vast array of different terrain to hunt. You know, we have lagoon areas, we have really open plains, and then we have some, they call it the Monte or El Susio. The dirty areas where a lot of the stags hang out. That's like kind of our, some of our most fruitful hunting for stags just because it is so thick. But the idea is like you can hunt them in a bunch of different stuff, but the behavior that you see. But with the pronghorn back home, most of the antelope are in that surface of the moon looking country. Yep. And then just like elk back home, the big boys are hanging out in the thick, nasty, thick, nasty, dark stuff. Yep. So it's just interesting to see that, you know, they're different species and there are differences, but, man, the behavior is pretty spot on.

Well, and I loved being able to go out with Sixto, explain Sixto for people, because I, like, only briefly kind of understood who he is, but we went out with him. I did a little post on social media about him, but explain six, though.

So six, though is kind of the main guide here. Well, not main. There's a lot of guides that do a lot of guiding. But he is what I would. He is the guy.

Yeah.

He is the man when the job needs to get done. He was actually born here on the ranch, so he's lived here his whole life. He knows every nook and cranny. And he also does cowboy in during the off season, and he does a lot with their water systems. But his. He loves to hunt. A lot of the guys really do love to hunt, but they're also cowboys. And just like, cowboys at home, you know, they like hunting, but they're. They also love cowboys.

They also love cowboy and, like, they love the rodeo in and all the other stuff, too. Yeah.

And six, though, just has maybe just a slight shift where he cowboys, but he loves hunting, so it's interesting to see that and be able to go out with him and just see how he. We talk about it all the time. We're not used to the flat and thick country. Like, it's just not what we're used to. And just seeing how he knows when to. When to hammer down, when to just absolutely stop moving. And he just closes the distance on stags like nobody.

It was awesome. We went out with him that first week, and it was pretty slow. Like, the stag roar was pretty slow.

Still pretty hot still.

Yeah, hot outside. And basically, I was just like, six. Oh, I want to go out with you to see how you do this thing. Right? And you were like, obviously, we were running together and you ran the camera, and it was so cool because, like, we heard one and we kind of got close but didn't know exactly where it was. And then he just slammed on the brakes and was like, we're just gonna hang out here instead of, like, trying to push and push and push and try to get in there, like I probably would have done. And as we're sitting there, this, like, I would call it a rag horn back home, like, a younger bull, younger stag, like, came out 25 yards from us, like, stopped there and, like, got our wind, and he busted, right? And then another one came out, like. And I was just like, God, Dang, if we hadn't stopped and just listened, like, we wouldn't have seen those other two.

And what I love about how he just handles himself in the bush, too, is, like, I think a lot of people, we get our skillset, we're either really, really patient, or we're really, really aggressive. And it's paid off both ways. It's really interesting to see him work, because as soon as those two bulls came past us, one got our win, one just walked in a different direction. It was hammer down. Yeah.

To get back in close.

Get back in close to a different bull. That ended up being a nice bull. But the idea was, like, he just knows how to handle the throttle. He's all down, and then all of a sudden stops. It's interesting to see. It feels like he really does master both sides of that spectrum. Where I can find myself way too much on that aggressive side. And then just end up putting myself in a bad situation.

And, like, I was hunting with a guy named Nico, who's great, but Nico is very slow and methodical. And sometimes I was like, brother, we could. We should get going. Like, this is like, yeah, we get hammer down right here and get a lot closer real quick. But everyone, like you said, everyone's got their style. But then when you're hunting with someone who's. He's just like, has both ends of the spectrum and knows how to use it, I think that's where you get fricking deadly.

All the guys say he thinks like a deer. That's why he's so good at it.

Is that what.

Yeah, he thinks like the deer.

It's awesome. I also love this. Like, we have our skill set from how we hunt in. In Wyoming and out west, just in general. And come down here to be able to learn a totally different style from somebody was good because did you know there's always time? It happened to me last year where I was, like, in the thick, nasty stuff, trying to figure something out. And if you don't have his skill set, like, it's not near as effective.

Oh, 100%. And I just think anytime that you're only relying on one skill set, you're kind of like, you're just not progressing as a hunter. Right. Half the fun is learning how to manage yourself in the environment. Yeah. And we all have our honey holes and how we like to hunt things. But it'd be naive to say that that's always the best option. It might be what you're the most comfortable with, but it doesn't make it Always the best.

Yeah, for sure. Now, it was really interesting to watch how the stags went from the thick, nasty stuff and, like, slowly started trickling out into the open country. Um, I was with a guy, I think it was the 12th of March, and he was black, but we were black buck hunting. Uh, me the guide and him the client. And I picked up a nice stag in the spot and scope.

Yeah, nice stag.

It was really. It was a really good stag. I thought it was a. For a second we were talking about it would be a contender for the best of the year, and I think they've killed four or five more that were better than that one, but it's still a stomp. It was a good one.

It was 14 points.

Yeah, that was sweet. But that was out in the open stuff. And we were glassing, and I just had my spotting scope up on this herd, and sure enough, there's a good one with it. And then as time has gone on, it seems like, you know, and they keep talking about it on this place. The reason why the stag hunting is so good here is because they have a whole pile of females. And, like, the stags have slowly filtered into all of them. And now, like, you can go anywhere on the ranch if there's females, there's males, and it's freaking good.

And it's just an incredible place just to be able to look over so many stags. Like, yeah, you and I were out the other night, and we had to have seen better part of a dozen stags, and we were just sitting in one spot.

Yeah.

Yeah. Just watching a move and, like, cruise through and just listening to them roar. It's just like elk like, that gets people's rocks off. Right. Just that hearing a bugle, it's the same with the stags. Like, it just gets you excited.

Yeah.

Like, and just hearing them all pop off and then being able to know you're kind of in the middle of a group of them, even if you are a little bit further away or close in. Like, when we were looking for deer the other week, someone had wounded a deer. We were tracking it. We were in the mid. We were tracking a deer through this quadrant, like, this field, and there had to have been five or six bulls just piping off.

It was intense. Yeah. So, I mean, it's. I still think the elk bugle as a sound itself gets me more excited.

Yeah.

But when you're in the middle of, like, stags roaring and they're, like, getting close, I mean, it still gives you that big adrenaline pump. You're like, oh, heck, yeah, this is going down.

And I would say just, like, how the bushes here. And I also think hunting pressure probably has something to do with it, but. Yeah, it feels like they just sit and. And it could be just a behavior thing that's a little different. Like, elk will get into a rut fast and be going back and forth. But I have never been in a place that they just sit and roar and roar and roar and, like, they're responding to each other, and it just goes and goes. There was one day I was out with my hunter, and we were out, and it was noon, and they were still going berserk. We had to go back to get lunch. Like, there was no reason to stop hunting. Besides, we didn't want to miss lunch. You know.

I almost wonder. And for people who've been in, like, the big New Mexico ranches and stuff, I've heard it can be like that.

Yeah.

But it seems like this place is consistent. Like, it just. But. And the other thing you were kind of talking about, like, well, maybe it's the, like, lack of hunting pressure, et cetera, et cetera. We killed. They killed 13 or 14 stags last week, like, in the last seven days. You know, like, they actually. They do, you know, put the hammer down. But it is cool. Like, there's enough acreage that no one feels like they're on top of each other.

You have so much ground to work. And the guys are really good about. And for guys like us, and they do a really good job at, you know, catering towards whoever is here. But if you want to get out and hunt and feel like not something the truck and cover some countries.

Yeah.

And, like, be out in it. You can walk to your heart's delight as far as you want. Yeah. Cover some country and see tons of stuff. And then if that's not your game.

You know, you do something different.

You do something different. You slow down. You beat an area pretty hard, but you don't go all that far. But it. There is just so much space with how they have it organized. You just. There's no real limiting factor to how you can hunt.

No. No, there's not. I'm gonna look up how many miles a day. I. We had a couple slow days because it really rained hard, but I think on average, you know, it seemed like in a morning, you'd go four or five miles or so, and then you do that again in the evening. And that's with guys who are not necessarily in the best physical Condition.

Yeah.

So you could definitely do more. You know, it's not like it's hard.

Hiking either, so, like. Yeah, you're not doing big climbs. There's some hills and stuff, but not big hills. So, like, if you really were trying to stack miles, if that was the goal, is like, look, I really want to put boots to dirt and just.

Look at a bunch.

Look at a bunch of them. You could walk for a long time and not get too tuckered.

Yeah, I think it's a good point, too, to maybe talk about this last week's hunt, because things were rocking and rolling and. And we got the perfect client to hunt the style that we like to hunt. So set the stage. Like, what's. Tell us about, like, you know, this client we got and then how we. You. You wanted to approach it because you were the guy, like, leading the. The whole charge here.

Yeah. So got a client came in, and he's been here six, seven times now. So he comes pretty much every year. And he has shot some pretty big stag. He had shot a stag that had escaped from someone's high fence somewhere, but was found in the free range. So the guy has shot everything that you could ask for. Like, there's gonna. It's pretty hard to top what he's. He's done, and he just loves coming down. He always brings a big group of people. There's 12 of them here now. And he. The first day I took him out, and it was just him and I and we.

Did you go to the Susio, the dirty stuff, or did you go to the open country?

The Susio. Okay. So we went into the south end of the ranch, and it's pretty dirty. It's like a broken field. So you get some bigger windows, but you're still in thick. Yeah. And we. Within 30 minutes of first light, he passed his first 12 pointer, which was a good one, which I would recommend most of my hunters shoot.

It feels like 12 pointer, aka a six by six.

Yeah.

Similar to six by six back home where it's like, yeah, that's an elk that's fully matured. Like, you should probably kill that one.

Yeah, it's like, you know, there are bigger ones out here that you can find definitely. But this is a great representation. It's a good one. It's on that upper end of things, maturity wise, but it's maybe not, you know, it's not a record book, but it's.

It's good one.

Like, I would tell almost all hunters to shoot it, and it was great. Because he just sat and watched it and it was right at a. Just over 100 yards off. And he just said, I'm just enjoying this.

Right.

So then that morning progresses, and we ended up getting on a couple pretty big ones that I was working on my patience with. We were at 60 yards from a 13 pointer that was just roaring. Had no idea we were there, and he was just enjoying himself. There's nothing wrong with how he was approaching the hunt. He was just loving it.

Yeah.

But he made it pretty clear like he had no real intentions of shooting unless it was something very, very special. So the game plan from there kind of changed. It's pretty hard just like anywhere to pattern something that when you are only able to see it at 100 yards off. Right. Like, we don't have many trail cameras down here, just the options for patterning things. And we don't hunt water hardly. So the idea was to move to somewhere that I could hunt my style and your style a little bit better out in a little bit more of the open country with some pockets of thick stuff. But. And then we went out and we found something pretty special. So.

Yeah. So I wasn't there the first day that you found him, but explain what happened that first go around.

So the first go around, we're hunting this area and we've been glassing and then pushing into some of the thicker stuff. It's. The roar is great right now. It's still awesome. So we would hear a big roar and then kind of close some of the distance, get within a couple hundred yards, find out what it was. And to my dismay, most of the time it was. Every time it was not something that we. That really got him too heated. Even though they were great stuff, he was having a great time. I don't want to make it sound at all like he wasn't a great client to have. He. He couldn't be happier. But, you know, as a guide, you kind of feel like some of your success is getting something on the ground. So then we were moving through and heard a roar come and come over the hill. And it was the stag. Not. It was not a stag. It was the stag.

Right.

So we watched him move some females up, kind of circled back around on him to get the wind in our favor, and then got him at 80 yards. And we had a missed shot, missed opportunity.

So this is a good point to. To make the shot. Was it standing on sticks?

It was on sticks. That one was on sticks.

I think that that is one of the pieces of hunting out here that I think most people from out west maybe don't think about a lot is because you're basically either standing up or kneeling, and you're using sticks or something to get above the brush because you can't lay prone Unless you're in that weird scenario where that guy out in the middle of the open country was able to lay prone.

But still, I would recommend that'd be, like, one of my best recommendations. If anyone really does want to come hunt down here, and they should, it's great. I would just do some practicing off sticks. Yeah. I've never shot off sticks at home.

And I always do. I have, like, an ARCA plate on the bottom of my rifle, so I just run a tripod ARCA plate attachment, and that's a pretty good combo. But if people aren't bringing their rifles down with that ARCA plate or whatever, then obviously that's not. That's not gonna work for them.

And there's great rifles down here. Good stuff. So, like, it's quite a bit of paperwork if you want to bring your own. It's doable if that's one of your things. Like, if that's somebody's gig that they want to bring their rifle and make it happen. Very doable. Doable. But don't feel like if someone's thinking about making this trip happen that they need to bring their rifle. Like, there's good options here.

Yeah, they've got, like, a Bergara, a couple Bergara B14s. They've got, like, a Seiko, and then a bunch of. Yeah, a couple Seikos, a bunch of Remington 700s, some Ruger. Was it Ruger Americans, One Ruger American, I think.

Yeah, we got a list now. Yeah, we do.

But regardless. Yeah, the rifles are always good. And, you know, we're talking about this guy's missing because I don't want to put too much pressure on that dude because people are missing a lot down here. Now, it might be a combination of lack of practice or also just, like, the nerves or whatever, but the rifles. Every time people are missing, the rifles are freaking on. Yeah, like. Like, so every time people. Not a rifle problem.

We go shoot it, make sure everyone's shooting good. So everything zeroed in with every hunt. It's not like people aren't zeroing in the gun they're using and making sure they're comfortable with it. But I really do think shooting off sticks is a different. Different beast in and of itself, because you feel like you're sturdy, but really, you're still moving quite a lot on those sticks.

Yeah. And I don't think people practice. People practice so much off of benches or shooting prone back home.

Yeah.

That like they have to be rock solid in order to know where their bullets gonna go. Whereas like maybe if you're someone who grew up like probably we did shooting stuff offhand with.22s or big game offhand, whatever the case is. It's a different thing. It's a different skill set.

I. That would be just a huge recommendation if like.

Yeah.

You're wanting to come down and be pretty effective. Just do some practicing. It's not a big deal. Any rifle you got just shooting it off sticks. Just getting comfortable with setting that up.

Yep. So our client, your client, he misses the big. The big boy on day two or three.

It was day. That was day three.

Day three.

Yep.

Of a six day hunt, I think.

Yeah. So he missed. And then that afternoon we knew the general area was a clean miss. We watched where he went, we saw him again. We ended up backing out. The wind was not good and like the timing wasn't right and he was in a thick patch. We were just like, let's back out. We'll come back this afternoon and chase him again. And that's when you got to come out with us.

Yeah. So I think I did some work or something on the computer, slept in, I don't know. But I came out that afternoon and I've got my maven, their S3, like the mid size body scope which kind of was just right for the amount of spotting we do or like the glassing we do because you can't really see that far. But to field check things and whatever. Like it is nice to have a bit bigger optic. The guys wanted to buy it off me and I borrowed it from Maven for this trip. So I was like, I can't, I can't sell it to you.

I wish I could sell it.

I can't. And then I've got that capture. The other thing. Their minds are blown by digiscoping. Like with that capture.

They love it.

They love it so much.

They're still doing the old school. Like you hold your phone and most of them don't run tripods with their binos either. So they're holding their phone at just the right distance from their binos to try to get a video. And like they do a stellar job.

They do a very good job.

But the idea of an attachment form, that it would be absolute game changer for them.

Yeah, it would exactly I hope that they pick up some of that too. I got them set up with a Maven discount, so hopefully some of that stuff will trickle its way down south.

I think it will. And yeah, I just think it is.

One of the things, like we can talk to the ends of the earth about how damn good they are in the thick stuff, but then they have a lot of country on this ranch that is not quite being like you could hunt it. Like we hunt western style.

Yeah.

And be very effective. Which we found out.

Oh, yeah. So then that night we went out with that mid range spotter that Maven makes and we decided, and I say we, but the client was that I'm not going to shoot a bull unless it's that A grande. Yeah, yeah. It's like that was the target bull at that point. So we go in there and we find the biggest hills around and we just set up shop. Yep.

Just post up. And I loved it. It was fun because Doug's a client. Hayden and Doug are sitting there with their binos and Hayden's got his on the tripod. And you guys are like scanning. You'll find a new one that pops up that's rutting, you know, and like moving through, like, all right, Jaden, check this one out. And I move the Eye of Sauron over there. What is it? What is it? Oh, dang it.

It was like the supply chain, right. We were finding them and then you were just refining what. We didn't know exactly what it was. It was like, there's a stag right there.

Yep.

Tell me what it is.

Yeah.

Is that ours?

And by the time I, like had it figured out what it was, then I'd move. You'd be like, all right, we found another one. And I'd move to the other one. I don't know how many times I said, ah, he's decent, but he's not our guy.

You know, like a couple times where we were both biting our lips going.

That'S a good one.

But it wasn't the one. But that night he ended up giving us the slip too.

Yeah. I don't even have a clue because basically we were all just sitting up there and then he pops out at 550, 600 yards and we're like, oh, shit, there he is. And then you guys went to make a move and he slipped into the creek bottom. And I don't know where he went after that.

Yeah. So he could only really have gone. He could have made a loop to the left or a line to the right. Basically of where we came up. And we're still not sure because we closed that distance. We didn't blow any deer out, which.

Is impressive in that kind of country because there's so many deer.

Oh, yeah. I was just waiting for him to be like, watch him run away, because we blew him out. We kind of picked our way up there slow. And then all of a sudden, he wasn't there. Every other stag that we had seen and knew was in that little section was still there roaring at us.

Yep.

And he was gone.

And there was a couple, like, studs in there.

There was one slammer that we didn't shoot.

Yeah. The one with the big fronts or that. Yeah, yeah.

That was just roaring right in front of us.

Yeah. He was a good one. And he just didn't have the crowns, you know, like, he didn't have the special factor that the guy was looking for. But he was great. Yeah. So he gave us a slip. I ran down there, fell twice on the way. And of course, we had told our guy a couple of stories of Jaden and Hayden hot dig. And he was like. And then I come after it covered in grass and weeds, dirt and sand. And he's like, I am I really hunting with professionals here? He was giving us a hard time. We're like, no, we promise we know what we're doing.

At least we think we know.

Yeah.

But so then that night, we sat down in that bottom, just hoping he'd come out. Never did. Waited till dark. Just never found him again. And then was it the next morning that.

So the next morning we went back out.

Yeah.

Didn't. Didn't see him.

Didn't see him at all.

And then Doug wanted to do something different. We went riding horses for black bucks.

Yep.

In the afternoon.

And we got close, stalking those black bucks. Just add a side quest to the story here.

Yeah.

It's just like pronghorn back home, you.

Know, like, they can't see you otherwise you're screwed.

They can't see you, or you're screwed. And there's always way more topo than it looks like. So you'll be like, oh, they're right there. I'm a pop up. And they'll be like, kind of right out in front of me. And you pop up and you have no idea where they went. And it looks like there's not even a hill.

Yeah.

And there's just some type of role that they just. They disappear in. We were teeny, so.

And, yeah, we were riding across the grassy section like a Taller grassy section. And then all of a sudden, like a herd of 10 of them just stood up out of the grass. We're like, oh, my God. I had no idea they were there. They were just bedded down.

They just hide in there.

How heavy do you think one of those little black books is?

It's like £80.

Like a big mature male.

Big mature male would be like 80 pounds.

Yeah. Females are probably 40 or 50.

Yeah. Their shanks don't have any meat. It's just straight bone and tendon.

Yeah. It's pretty wild. It's cool. Like there, I think, like, I mean, the stags and the roaring is awesome. It's badass. But hunting those things is fun too.

Oh, and the fact, I think it also relates back home. Judging Pronghorn can be hard. Judging these guys, oh my God. Can be so hard because you're judging, you know, a good. Good stack or not stagger good. Black book out here is 50 centimeters and 19.6 inches.

Yeah, yeah.

Americans, 19.6. Jaden's right. I believe you.

But I had to look it up.

It's like. And you know, as a guide, there's a.

If you break 20 inches, you're doing.

Something, you're doing something. But if you shoot a 48 centimeter versus a 50 on the dot, like, the happiness of everyone is quite a bit different, but man, I'll take.

But that's a one inch difference.

Yeah, that's a one inch difference at over 200 yards. That's hard to judge.

Yes, it is. The other thing that they like to point out is, like, how many curls, how many times around it is. And like 4 curl is kind of the standard they're looking for. And that can be hard to tell too. They have to get the right angle and, like, show their head the perfect way so you can count the bumps. Yeah. It was pretty fun, though. I kind of like that aspect of it is because you have to be really discerning. Like, you can't just be like, oh, there's one, let's go. Yeah.

And it is fun. The same thing. Pronghorn, back home, it feels. And if that was your main goal, you probably wouldn't feel that way. But a little bit lower stakes. Like, you can feel like you're blowing two or three stocks. And it's not like, my day is ruined. It's more like, okay, we'll get on another one.

Yeah, exactly.

Around this bend, so.

And you can hunt them all day long. Cuz they're out in the open. Like, they're not. Yeah, they're not super tied to movement in the evenings and mornings.

No, not as bad.

Okay. So after we rode horses and didn't kill a black buck that night, we went back out.

We went back out in the morning. Didn't. Didn't see him. Still saw a bunch of.

Saw. Saw some good ones.

Saw some good ones, but not. He kept saying, is it his saying was, is it him? So we were chasing the stag. The stag. And we had photos and videos, so it was going to be pretty easy to tell if we got found him in the scope. So.

Yeah.

Then come back in for lunch, go back out the afternoon, same kind of general area, switched where we were sitting just a little bit, got back out there and Jaden picked up some that. And these quadrants can be pretty. Pretty damn big.

Well, they're usually like, they're more than a mile wide. Right. Two or three miles, like depending.

Yeah. And we're sitting on the far fence line of one glassing the other way, just where the hills are lined up and where we can see the most. And Jaden picks up what looks to be a slammer. And we're kind of talking a little bit with our client Doug to see if he wants to maybe switch to this one. Because it was a pig.

Just looking. I think it was like a little over a mile and a half. Mile and a quarter or something like that.

Yeah, about. It was a ways. It was deep and, you know, we're talking about it. I haven't decided anything. And then our. The stag we were chasing walks through the bottom corner of, like the frame.

Like we're. We've got the. Yeah, we've got the phone. Like the phone digiscoping with a capture deal on the spotty scope, looking at this bull or stag, trying to determine whether or not we should kill him. And then all of a sudden, they're just at the bottom of the frame is the. The guy walks through and we're like, oh, we gotta go.

And it was just between like some of the thick stuff. So like we gotta see him for maybe three or four steps. And it very clearly the guy we were looking for. So Jaden and I get in the tizzy, load everything up without probably talking about what our plan was at this point.

And it's like, Doug, we're going.

Yeah, Doug, slide your rifle on. We're going. So we cruise across and then decided to get on this kind of ridge in between these areas because of how the. They call it the solitrol it's kind of like.

Like a salt bed.

A salt bed?

Yeah, like a lake bed.

And it fills up with water when it rains, and then it'll be dry. It kind of. Yeah. Gets a little marshy in there. And we get. And then there's a roll in front of it and a roll behind it. So we haul over there and then get set up on it. Looked like they were going to be coming to water, or if we were in this spot, we might not have a shot, but we'd at least be able to pick up which direction they were moving. Yeah. So we get set up, get glassing. We're picking up deer all over the place, and we're not sure which group he's with, and we're just trying to find them. And then just off to our right, maybe 150 yards, 50 yards or so, we hear a roar. And it was pathetic. It was pretty interesting.

Yeah.

It's pretty wimpy in comparison with the roars that you, you know, tend to want to chase. And Jaden's like, I'm just gonna pop over here and look and see. I was like, okay, great. I'll keep picking this area apart. So Jaden kind of goes over the roll, and then he sits down. We're sitting glassing. More stags are coming out, more deer. Jaden's like, guys, he's right below us. You might as well just come look at him.

Yeah. Just see what he is. Yeah.

Like, it'll be fun because he's gonna pop out at under 100 yards. We're like, okay, like that. We might as well. We're in no rush. We're thinking that these deer aren't even near us yet because they're gonna be coming out. And lo and behold, we get sat down. That thing was raking a tree. We couldn't see him yet. Letting out some. What I would say were really. Yeah. Just not impressive. Roars.

Very light. Yeah.

Yeah. Kind of sounded like a calf.

Yeah.

And he walks out at about 70.

Yards, more or less. Yeah. He also. We didn't talk about this part. He also came out downwind, and he was headed straight for our wind column. And I was just like, oh, buddy. No. And so it takes. You know, I'm like, hayden, I think that's the guy. And Hayden's like, I think that's the guy, too. And then the client goes, guys, is that the guy? And then Hayden, like, yeah, shoot him about that quick, too. It didn't take hardly any time.

And one of the things that really set this bull apart is he had on both sides, symmetrical split G4s, and they're big split G4s up towards that crown. So I'm looking at him in the scope as he's. Or in my binos as he's walking through the trees, and I. I see a split G4. And that's when I'm like, yeah, shoot him. Take him. Like, are you ready? Yeah. And he made a great shot. 70, 60. 70 yards or so.

And. Yeah. Which is funny because he didn't even have a support. He was just shooting off his knee.

Not even off his knee. I think he was crisscross applesauce. I think he was just on his tush and he smoked it.

He did. Which is so funny coming from, like, I mean, a similar style shot on that same bull.

Yeah.

Two days before. Yeah.

Yeah.

Downed him. And boy, that was exciting. That was like a feeling that it's so hard to describe. You get one spike of emotion when you find the one you're looking for in the optics. You get a whole different spike of emotion when he's actually down on the ground. Here's like, holy cow.

When you and I talk about this, especially, we love hunting mule deer, so I love chasing just deer. You know, it can be any. You know, just a good day. I'm seeing a bunch of bucks. But there's a difference between chasing good bucks and then chasing the buck. Like.

Yep.

There's some type of relationship that happens when you're trying to learn their behavior. We noticed this one. Although the biggest stag around was pretty wimpy, like he was getting kicked out of all of the herds, he wasn't.

He didn't have any. Yeah, he didn't have any Heinz with him.

And the only time I saw him with Heinz, he only had two.

Oh, really?

Yeah. And, like, I just. You get to know them a little bit. There's something about that that just really.

That makes it special.

Yeah. Sure. Feels like you're. Like you're a part of it. Not just taking part. You're a part of nature. Just taking part of nature.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

There's also a thread that you could pull. Like, it's so interesting that the biggest stag score wise out there wasn't the most dominant. The really nice bull we killed in September last year, we watched him lose his cows to a smaller bull, technically. Smaller bull, obviously, more aggressive, more mature. But there's. I. I don't know. I'm just gonna be paying attention to this and seeing if there's a trend here going on because I don't think the biggest ones always have the cows.

And I do think there's a lesson to be learned. This specifically for me, who I chase a lot more deer than elk. But, you know, you hear one of those bugles and you're just like, oh, it's. It has to be a monster. Or hear one of these roars and you're like, oh, yeah, that's a big one. That's a big one.

Yeah.

Then you show up in it a lot of times it's good, but it might not be as big as you thought. But then also just chasing bugles that are nearby and that you think you have a good opportunity at because. Or roars. Because this one, it sounded like it was a two year old. It really had no depth to its roar. Yeah. Was unconvincing. And then it was him.

Yeah, it was the guy.

I think there's a lesson in that.

And it's super cool. It wasn't like he was a young one either. Like, we had a hard time with four guys putting him in the back of that hilux.

Yeah. Like, what happened when we got him in the back?

I may or may not have fell.

Out of the back of the straight backwards.

I tucked and rolled. We were fine. No trips to the er.

We were good. Good thing it's sand, not rock.

Well, that's. I guess that was. The point is, like, he was so big, there wasn't enough room for me to also stand in the back of the truck. Yeah.

And we were, you know, I had told Remy and Remy was pretty excited about the stag I was talking about just because one Doug was excited about it. And obviously that gets Remy excited. But I don't think it was understood how big this stag was until it showed up.

Well, we showed. You showed somebody a video and he was like, he's kind of short.

Yeah. And so, like, it's good, but I don't think it's as big as you think it is.

Yeah, exactly.

And then it showed up.

And then it showed up and we had a full peanut gallery of people ogling over it. It was pretty cool.

Yeah, it's definitely.

It was a good one.

It's. It's a. I'm sure if anyone's listening and is interested, pull up Jaden's Instagram.

Yeah, I'll have it shared. I'll have it shared here with this episode.

Yeah. So it's a. It's a 15 pointer with a whale tail on one side. It is Just a.

And his time length is just silly. He's kind of spidery.

Yeah.

So just for people who are interested in score and like to give this kind of some, some you know, measuring sticks so you understand so we can talk about how big he is related to others. Like a 260 to 280 stag is usually a stomper. Like that's a good one. That's like, that's like really good.

Not the. Probably gonna be your best in the, the season but that's like if you're a good one, like if you see one and you're here for five, six days, you should take that opportunity.

Yeah.

And run with it.

I bet you what. So in four weeks of being here where we've probably seen five or six that were in that 260 and up. Yeah. And that's with 10 hunters each week. Yeah. You know like there's been 40 or so stags hit the ground. Yeah.

And we don't tape all of them. But the. I would agree it's, you know, it's not going to be. It's not like a 200 inch mule deer as in once in a lifetime.

But it is like a 260 and up is like dang good.

Oh, like it's dang good. You should be clicking your heels.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so they taped this one out. The, the Doug and the rest of the guys that he brought with him are having a little bit of a competition to find the biggest one.

Yeah. There's I think some money that they've all put on the table for it.

Yeah. And this guy went, would you say.

320, 320 and change. Yeah.

Which as as far as I, you know, was told and Hayden and I had kind of heard is possibly like the biggest stag they've ever taken. Free range off this place.

Yeah. And it's be kind of in the running, you know, in Argentina and La Pampa for free range stags.

Yeah.

So.

So that's. It's a stomper.

So the gringos down here.

The gringos did pretty good. Yeah. The important thing too though, I think this is like here's the caveat in this because someone's going to go to the Instagram or whatever and see this thing on the Internet and be like, oh well that's the kind of caliber they have down there. It's like we found an outlier. Like he was way outlier, 100%. Like you wouldn't expect to come find one like that every year.

And I Think you can see those gu that are hunters that kill big stuff all the time. There's a difference with the hunt one time. So like if you're coming down here for so say your stay is a week. Weather happens, things happen. So let's say you get a hunt five days. Yeah, you have five days to shoot one. You don't have the month of September. Yeah, you don't have all this time of scouting. Right. Like you don't know what's running around. So the idea is also like, if you're trying to shoot that bigger age class, it doesn't matter what animal one, you got to be a lot more okay with tag soup. And you also got to be way more willing to hold out even when something is, you know, like that 260 class bull. Like, yeah, there's a couple times I was kicking dirt just saying like, yeah, we should shoot this one. But I think there's a lesson in that too. Like if you want to kill anything, any animal, that's that class. Unless you just get outright lucky.

Like it just.

You gotta play the time game.

Yeah. And that was the best part. And I kept driving this home to talking to the other guides too. I was like, I mean you got to have the right client or like be hunting for yourself and have the right mindset to be that picky or like that prepared to be patient, you know, because otherwise like we were talking about this, I was like, man, I've had a lot of them get away. Like a lot of big ones that were special that we were chasing, that got away, that never ended up getting down. So like that feels really special when you do get him.

And I think you just got to be okay with that. That's the game you're playing at that point is you got to be okay with eating the tag or eating the trip, which for most guys coming down to Argentina, no way in hell you're going home without a stag. Right. Especially when there stags around. It's not like you couldn't shoot one if you wanted to.

Yeah.

But I think it just like in everything you've got to be, you're either gonna shoot the one or you're not gonna shoot any. Because otherwise you'll pull the trigger on something that's really nice. You'll still get a great trophy, but.

It'S not gonna be the one.

Yeah, it's not gonna be that. That staggered, that deer, that elk.

Now all of that said though, I think if someone like this is where I this place and hunting in Argentina stands out from hunting in the States. Once you shoot your stag, if you are just like you want to have the experience of what it's like being in Argentina, you can shoot your stag on day one, two, three or whatever and then use the second half of your week to go hunt other species and see other critters and like have other experiences when you agree.

Yeah, 100%. So like say you just came down for a stag hunt and luckily I not like I do any of the money stuff. So that all goes through Remy and Martin. But a lot of the time guys will kill one the first day and then decide, hey, I actually do want to chase antelope. I wasn't planning on it. So you can add that on. Or some guys shot a stag and then you know, they may have. Might have been a little trigger happy the first day and shot something that although good isn't exactly what they want. And they can add another stag on as long as our numbers and our tags and all that stuff is in order. Yep. A lot of the time they can add another either a management stag. So say they just want to go be out in the roar.

They can go do that.

They can add a management stag or they can add another trophy stag or hell, the water buffalo are a hoot.

Yeah, the water buffalo. That's it too. We should. Yeah, we'll open that can of worms in a sec. But just piggybacking like that one really nice one we killed in the first group of hunters. Like I said, he had killed one before that was like a medium sized stag. And then we were out black buck hunting and came upon that big one and he was like, I'll just add it to my bill. You know, like it's really unique, especially coming from a place where we draw tags or buy landowner tags or whatever. You only get one. Yeah. It's pretty cool that you get to keep having those hunts after you've filled out.

Oh yeah. It definitely adds a different experience. And I think you know how many animals you want to take home is limited by your pocketbook mostly. You know, there's still some license restrictions, things like that. That's. But there's.

And they'll take care of all that.

They, they manage all that. So it's not really a concern that anyone else needs to have. But yeah, like your pocketbook's gonna be your only limiting factor to.

Yeah. But you know, for the price of. And this is one of the things I've will get into Details with if people want more information. But for the price of a guided elk hunt in the States, you could have a black buck stag in a water buffalo. Like.

Yeah.

Essentially all in one. And that includes your stay at a five star hotel. Best food.

Let's talk about this. The food real quick. So the morning just. In Argentina in general, breakfast isn't a big deal. Up at the hotel or the lodge here they, you know, eggs and bacon. So for me, it's pretty good breakfast.

Yeah.

But every other meal is a three course meal. Yeah.

There's an appetizer, a main dish and a dessert. Every meal.

Every meal.

Lunch. So good.

And dinner. And they are delicious.

Yeah.

Like actually the. The chef is six though's wife. So that's kind of cool. Like a lot of the family kind of dynamic here at. At the. At Terra Pampa. So the main chef is the wife.

Of the main hunter.

The main hunter or one of the main hunter. The. The guy. The dude.

Yeah. The other cool thing, I mean, they've got a pool, they've got freaking horseback riding. People can just go do. Like we kind of did that this morning. Bikes.

Yeah.

Yeah. That was also kind of fun to watch. This group, like, this group added in different elements. They were like, we're going to go black buck hunt off of horses. And we were like, this isn't very effective, but okay, it's still a hoot. And we. And then, you know, our guy, or your guy, Doug, he got one. And then we figured out a way to just drape it over the saddle, you know, and like, we just put.

It in Jaden's lap.

It was.

Then, like, there's also things like, you know, the dove hunting, it's not like northern Argentina, but it's very good. It's pretty darn good. You can go out and shoot as many doves as you want. There's only limits. As much as your shoulder can take for shooting.

Yeah. And I think they charge by the box. Yeah, the box. You'd be like, okay, well, do I want to spend $100 on five boxes or whatever today, you know, or do I just want to do two boxes and call it good? You know, you can make those determinations.

Exactly. And then also they go out, you can go shoot biscacho, which is like a raccoon chinchilla.

Yeah, it's like a. Yeah. And they actually taste really good.

Yeah.

That was one of the things I appreciated because, like, obviously, you know, guys do and can. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with shooting prairie dogs. In the states. But out here, when they're shooting biscacho like that, they're actually going and grabbing them and like cooking them up, which is kind of cool.

Yeah.

And they're taste good.

They're pretty darn good. Super white meat, but that's a hoot. You got with spotlights at night. And they make these prairie dogs is probably a good comparison. They're quite a bit bigger, but, like, they're out of the holes.

They pop out of the holes.

And they live in big groups and you go out at night and you spotlight them. Spotlight them and thump them.

Yeah. And there's tons of them. Yeah.

So they'll shoot 20 to 30 in a night.

Yep. The other thing, and you were mentioning it earlier, is all the water buffalo that are running around. Yeah. I still haven't. Now, I'm not necessarily jonesing for this experience, But I haven't seen or heard of one on this trip where they've gotten testy and like, come back at them.

Well, the one you guys killed charged our truck before.

Before they killed it.

Before they killed it.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I had dropped off some hunters to go hunt buffalo. Then was taking my hunter to go to a different area. And this was a different group, but we were kind of driving out of that quadrant, that zone, and the buffalo got testy enough to turn on the truck as I was just trying to drive away. So that was.

So he got a target on his back after that. Yeah.

So he has had a target for a couple weeks. We were just waiting for a hunter that wanted to kill him.

You know, it's kind of funny, though, because the first night I went out with Brendan to try to get that guy, the mean guy.

Yeah.

They gave us a slip.

How can these big black thing.

How do these guys get away? Which is also kind of nice, because then it felt like, okay, so we actually do have to pay attention and hunt for these things. You can't just walk up to them like they're a moocow.

Well. And what did he end up shooting his with? He shot it like five times.

Yeah. I think he had a hard time. He had a hard time making the bullet go where it needed to go.

That's fair.

You know, some people have that challenge. But yeah, he shot like five times and with a.375. H&H. And then I went out a couple days later with a kid, also with the 375. And he put three just dime shots on this. On this buffalo at 80, 100 yards, something like that. And no problem there, you know, just like he didn't really need to shoot the last shot, but when you put them where they're supposed to go, they'll just kind of keep soaking them up and then eventually they tip over.

Yeah, I. We're both the shoot until it's down type. But yeah, those buffalo are tough to get down. Sometimes even with decent shots, they just, yeah, they just take it.

So what is, besides the stag hunting, what is your favorite thing to do out here?

Oh, I. So not to be cliche, but I think hanging out with the people and then like, obviously being on horses, working the cattle is just a hoot, but the people have been, they're fantastic. Yeah. I have just never met a kinder group of people. I feel like I've traveled quite a bit. And here, like, if anyone needs anything, someone has a water bottle. Everyone has a water bottle. Like, yeah, it's. You need a pair of shoes. There's a line of shoes outside your door because they heard about it. Then you're supposed to try them all.

On and figure out the fits. Yeah, yeah.

Like, it is the most incredible group of people that I've ever met.

We're gonna pause real quick. I gotta take a bathroom break. Okay. Back. So you were talking about like how the people are just like the best. And I know I had gotten somebody asking me like, well, could I do it DIY or whatever. And I was like, well, no, like you're always gonna have a local with you, but the local guys that you're running around with are freaking awesome. And they're just good hearted, good natured people.

Yeah. I don't know of any of the hunters that I've been around since I've been here or the time I was here last time, that, that probably wasn't one of their favorite parts of the trip. And it's not that the guys, you know, can communicate with you all that great. So I speak broken English. It's not really an issue. Yeah. But they are just so kind. It is, it's just, it's a good place to be.

Yeah.

Anyone that like has that, you know, they want to do it diy and I get that. I love DIY stuff. The logistics of that here internationally aren't really there. But if you had like a style that you were wanting to do, you know, if you want to do archery, that's an option. If you want that spot and stock feel. If you want going through the dirty, like the dirty, the susio, the thick stuff, it's an Option. You just make that clear when you get here that, like, this is the type of experience I want and they cater to that. So don't think that you're going to.

Have to do it a specific way every time.

Every time. You know, if you were a blind guy, we have blinds all over the ranch. Hardly anyone wants to do that. Because no one likes sitting in a blind. Long term.

No, but it's really effective.

But it's super effective. And if that's your shtick, it's an option.

Yeah.

You can do it, though.

That reminds me, like, we sat, you know, we were talking about chasing pigs in the susio for a little while. Yeah. But then they were like, okay, let's just go get one. Yeah.

One for barbecue.

We basically sat in a tree stand, you know, at night and the moon was out really bright, and basically shot one by moonlight as they were coming.

Into the water, shooting at shadows. He smoked it.

Hayden had the, like, thermal scope thing. Right. And it wasn't on the rifle. He just had it handheld. And he was like, yeah, that one on the left looks pretty good. And I was like, okay, I think I'm going to aim for its shoulder. Like, touched one off. And then we're like, don't know if it fell or not. Like, let's go look. And sure enough, it just kind of toppled over right there. So, yeah, that was super fun. And like, you're talking about, like, is a different style of hunting to get all together.

Yeah. You know, when you first got here, one of the funnest parts was having a buddy and they said they kind of wanted Jaden to get to know the place a little bit. And, you know, let me do some practice and guiding. And they said, here's a rifle. See if you guys can kill a. An antelope. So they just turned the gringos loose and said, what can you do? So that was pretty fun. Yeah.

That didn't take very long, though. No, we were pretty practiced at the whole pronghorn style, like, hunting. And we got up high, picked up a bike, what, 20 or so. And then we're like, ah, that one's the biggest one. Let's go kill that one. Yeah. Stocked in and got him. It was pretty cool. But then Marcos yet, talking about the guys, like, Marcos made me a knife with a handle made out of part of that horn because I wasn't going to pay for the horns to get shipped back.

Yeah.

So that's really cool. I mean, that's. I'm gonna be able to have that. And Kind of remember that the Marcos and the rest of the guys. And also that that hunt, because that was super sweet. It took me by surprise. Fun.

And when you come down, you'll be shocked at the size the knives they use. They know how to use them, but, man, it feels like they're all carrying around butcher's knife. And I got just like the. That little Kershaw pocket knife that I think is plenty, plenty. That's what I've always used. That's fine. And one of the boys just gave me, I'd call it just a kitchen butcher knife recently because he's like, I'm tired of seeing you with such a small knife. This is way better.

I've got one of the iron wheel knives. And they were giving me a hard time too. They're like, why are you using such a small knife? And I'm like, we always use these knives. I don't know.

It's funny. Yeah. They love it.

Yeah. But it's been really cool to get to kind of experience each piece of that and more of all this story, I guess, is if somebody wants to go down, to come down to Argentina, they can get a hold of me and we can set up a trip. I'm trying to put a bunch of guys together in one week, possibly in 26. Probably end up in April a little later, which actually is kind of nice. They say, like, later in the year, the stags will move out to the open stuff. You still have black buck pigs and water buffalo in the free range if you want, and obviously doves and viscatcha.

And everything else and just like back home. So, you know, we know more or less when the rut's gonna be, but that shifts by this year. It's actually was a little bit earlier than. Yeah, it's been in years past. So, you know, even if you're coming in April, the chance that you get some roar action are pretty high. They'll probably be in stuff that you could look over more stags instead of just being like, look, we see a stag here and we can't see anything else. Is this the one you want? You might have the opportunity to you look over multiple stags at a time y and then make your stock and.

Move on that for sure. And if somebody is a planner and wants to plan to 26 or 27 or 28 or beyond, then they obviously can find some better dates in the month of March. I like the, like, 10th onwards was really good. I think earlier it was pretty tough. Yeah, I like hunting earlier like you and I hunted that first week of September and we're in bulls pretty regularly. But it wasn't like that because you can't glass here. So if they're not talking, it's really.

Hard to find if they're not talking here, just because, like, like you said, you can't see anything. So, like, the bulls are there, but you can't get on the opposite ridgeline and find them. So, yeah, hunting here before the roar, when they're. And then so before the roar, they're.

Doing the thick stuff and before they've gone to the open.

Before they've gone to the open country is a. Is a quite a bit of a tougher hunt.

Yeah.

If you are just on the end of the roar or after the roar, they've moved into more open country and you're pretty good. But if I were to pick one end of that spectrum, I would pick later rather than earlier, for sure.

The other interesting thing that we really haven't talked about is, like, there is the high fence part of, of the estate and obviously there's some, like, genetic freaks in there. There's all sorts of. There's axis deer. What else? What is. What else is in there?

So there's axis fallow. There's Spanish goats, there's multi horn or Jacob's ram, four horns. There's hybrid sheep. Did I say phow?

Yeah, you said phow.

Axis and reds.

Yeah. And then the red deer and mulan. Oh, and muflan and muffin and they're sweet. I mean, like, if someone wants to, like, go check that out and like, let's just say they have a restaurant and they're like, I want a silly big red stag for the restaurant, you know, or something like, like a centerpiece. Right. It'd be a great opportunity to go do that. I wouldn't necessarily call it some challenging hunt, but it is like another thing that's pretty popular that people do here.

And, you know, it's big enough that if you say you wanted one of those genetic freaks, you could still do like, and get a hunting experience. It's obviously like, no one's going to tell you that hunting a high fence is ever going to be as hard as hunting out of it, but you could spend a good amount of time in there with how big it is.

Yeah. And it's not a put and take. That was the other thing. Like, I know there's some places where they'll be like, oh, you want that size? And then they, like, release them from the corrals. Yeah. It's not one of those operations. They're just out there in this thousand acres or whatever it is. Right.

And what's cool now they've. So they have a breeding program that they were working with in the company that owns Terra Pompo, so Remy's family's company. And now all the stags that are here in the reserve are. Are all born here. So like.

Oh, cool.

They were doing genetic projects for a while, making sure the genes were good. And now everything that is all the stags in the reserve are from here. Actually born here. Nothing. They're not being brought in.

They're not shipped in from other parts of the world, which is pretty cool.

Yeah. So they're still, you know, they're native stags. It. It's. They're in even if. So like maybe like Jaden and I1 are not an option if I even wanted to buy one. But even just going to see them is super fun. So like.

Yeah.

Some of the guys that have shot some free range stags knew they weren't gonna be able to hunt the reserve. But everyone wants to see that. We'll go in there for an afternoon and go on. We called the safari. So you get to go out in there and you can take your camera or whatever you want.

Yeah.

And just take a look at stuff. It's pretty fun. Yeah. It's pretty insane what they have running around out there.

It is. It's like just kind of interesting to look around and see stuff.

You see stuff. Your jaw just kind of drops. I just wonder how they could hold their heads up a lot of the time.

But yeah, no kidding. Oh, and then the last commentary we kind of hit on it was the archery hunting. I think if I come down, if I would come down, I'd probably just bring my bow and then use their rifles if it came to doing something like that.

Yeah.

But prong there, hunting the antelope would be just like hunting pronghorn back home. It'd be hard as hell.

Oh, it'd be.

It'd be a blast.

Frustrating. But it would be just like at home. Like you could blow 10 stocks a day.

Yep.

You probably will if you're doing it with your bow.

Yes. There was also, you know, speaking of water buffalo, there was a guy who brought his bow down with like a 750 grain arrow, you know, fixed blade, two, you know, two blade, broadhead. And he. They shot this buffalo with a rifle and for some reason they only had five bullets, so they shot this buffalo four times. And then they were like, well, we only have one bullet left. What if he charges and they had the bow with them? So he shot that buffalo three times with his.

Three times with his bow, with his bow.

And eventually it tipped over. But it was one of those things where I was like, I'm not so sure I really would be interested in using my bow on a buffalo.

I don't think so. I think the idea is neat, but.

I just, in practice, I'm like, I don't know, man. Yeah. And then the other one, obviously like the stags. I think you could, especially if you're used to hunting archery elk in timber. Stag hunting with a bow would be a blast.

Oh, I think. And I think it's very doable. I think just like. And you and I talk about this a lot. Don't come down thinking you're gonna have a 10 yard shot. Like be practiced, be efficient with your bow.

Yeah.

You could make this hunt happen. If you're a good mountain hunter back home or an elk hunter. Hell, even like a good mule deer hunter.

Yeah.

You could make this happen with your bow. You really could.

I think it's funny that you just find most people here are bow hunters who love to hunt from their tree stands out east. Yeah, that's not, that's what I've seen so far.

Yeah.

I haven't seen anybody with western hunting skills come out bow hunting here. But I think someone like, who knows what they're doing would, would do some work. It'd be fun.

And just like back home, you gotta, you know, there's got to be the windows for your shots. There's all sorts of those variables that. Hold on. Treestands are great. They're effective, way more efficient. But there are variables. You know, you're stalking through stuff. When are you gonna put your arrow on the string? What window? Where's the bull actually gonna come from? So it would be a hoot. And I. You close the distance. We've had one this week was shot at 20 yards, so.

Yeah.

And another one was shot at 40, so. And ours are shot at 60, so.

Yeah, that's very much in the archery realm. Yeah, sure. Okay. So final thoughts. Are you coming back?

If I can swing being back, you know, I obviously have to sort out some life stuff. I will. Yeah, I would love to.

Okay.

I would love to even come back just to work as I have. It's. It's a great place. It's really hard to beat.

Well, maybe if someone wants a photographer, videographer for our. For Our group hunt. We can put that together.

Hey, I'll come. I'll even translate.

Dude. It is. I was gonna say, like, another tangent. It is fun to have you as translator. I can communicate in short sentences, and, like, if I'm paying really close attention to what they're saying, I can understand. But it's really nice to have you, like, break through that language barrier.

It kind of just opens fun. And same with the. So there's times that I go with hunters just as a translator. I'm not the guide, but, you know, you like those relationships that you form with hunting buddies, so. And I just go along as a translator, and I just. I just let them talk, and I'm just. I'm the.

Passing it along. Yeah.

So that they can communicate and get to know each other a little bit better, things like that. So, yeah, that's. It's pretty fun to see that, because the boys light up a little bit more, too. You know, they don't speak great English or much English, so when they can actually talk to their hunters, they enjoy it quite a lot more too. Yeah.

And I guess, like, in case someone is nervous about that. The cool thing is, is hunters very much speak a universal language when it comes to hand signals. Knowing what the wind's doing, like, discussing things without really saying words. That was one of the easiest things when we went out with Six toe is I was like, oh, I understand what he's saying, and I think it's all context clues. Yeah.

And, you know, the boys are patient that I have yet to have a hunter be like, oh, like, communications of actual issue.

Yeah.

The only thing that I've heard people say is, like, he seems like a really awesome guy. I just wish I could talk to him more, like, just to learn about him. Yeah. Not even anything to do with being able to hunt more effectively. It's just the man, what is he doing in life? Like, what is it like being born and raised in Argentina?

Yeah, for sure.

Just that type of conversation.

Well, I can tell you I'll be back, so thank you for having me come down and join you this year. This has been a freaking blast, and I think you've. Yeah. You've planted me some roots in a cool part of the world, so I appreciate it, man.

Oh, anytime.

Yeah. All right. That's the pod. Thank you for listening to the Hunt west podcast. If you like what you heard today, the best compliment you can give is to share the show with a friend. We will see you on the next episode, and we hope one day to see you hunt West.