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I wear the Kenetrek Everstep Orthopedics. I've had knee and ankle problems over the years and they seem to help keep me going. They are heavy, but if they keep me stable enough to keep hunting I think it's worth it to haul them around.

I reckon a full bag hunt in Tanzania would be my dream hunt.

My dad and I took our Russian brown bears with a .30-06. It was not our preferred caliber for such an endeavor, but it was the rifle that was available to us. The bullets were whatever the outfitter happened to have on hand. With proper shot placement all of the bears were clearly well-hurt with...

Yes, as I recall it was one of the questions on our visa applications, as well as something they asked about during the airport screening upon arrival in Yelizovo. The special investigators also interviewed my dad and I while we were in jail, but the questions were fairly surface-level. I got...

My Warthog is one of my favorite trophies from any hunt I've done. They seem surprisingly hard to come by for many hunters. I do regret not bringing a Springbok home. There is an empty spot on the wall next to my Impala and Blesbok where a Springbok should be. But I would still hunt a Warthog...

My Carpathian Chamois hunt in Romania in 2021 was a wonderful hunt, but the trophy is still with my dad (who lives in Romania) and we are unsure of how to get the mount back to me in the U.S. The scenery is breath-taking. The way the clouds roll in and out of the mountains looks like the world...

My spouse is happy when I have the opportunity to go on hunting trips. She doesn't want to be a part of it and the specifics of hunting bore her to tears. By the same token, when she goes to do something that speaks to her I am happy that she has the opportunity. Sometimes we travel together to...

I think that bullets and broadheads kill in different ways. An archery hunter with a strong enough bow, shooting the right arrow, within the right range, and hitting the right spot at an appropriate angle should be able to put down a buffalo. I would have to shoot many, many more arrows with my...

Got a text from my dad today that Yuri and Alexander have reached some sort of understanding. Of course it will still be some time before they complete the journey to us, but good to hear that there is progress.

We do not have our trophies yet. We do have recent photos of them in which they appear to still be in good condition. There are many complications in the process, compounded by the personalities involved. Alexander wants more money in order to ship the trophies, and lives in a rather remote...

Obviously the situation between the countries is pretty volatile, but I think if we'd gone with a more established outfitter we wouldn't have had any issues. Our guide seemed determined to antagonize everyone who would listen to him, and I think we paid the price for that. It is a pretty good...

We didn't have any problems with getting the trophies back to the US. It was a lot quicker than some of the other international hunts we've done. Having done a few international hunts, I think this is something that gets overlooked a lot. An outfit that is professional will have the logistics...

The world is a big place. It might be helpful in a forum focused on international hunting to know that in Kazakhstan it might be common to buy duty-free alcohol for the baggage handlers to ensure that your rifle case makes it through customs without issue.

I perhaps didn't share the full story in my original post because I was uncertain about the legal ramifications. We ultimately wound up shooting 5 bears in total, two in the 8-foot class and three in the 9-foot class. Because of arguments between Yuri (the outfitter) and Alexander (the guide)...

The interpreter for the Russian police asked us why we didn't just lie and say that Yuri shot the bears while we were on a simple sightseeing tour, but I guess our natural honesty and uncertainty about the situation led us to be truthful. Yuri gave us a lot of bad advice, and I think the police...

I got my first buck this year. My first North American big game animal. I started hunting in 2019 when my dad invited me to South Africa. My first big game animal was a Zebra. I've spent the last few years here at home in Idaho trying to learn the ins and outs of hunting while chasing elk...

I wore TAG Safari on my South Africa hunt. I looked like a park ranger, but it helped me get "in character" for the hunt. You could wear normal hunting clothes and be just fine. I've done most of my recent hunting in merino wool stuff from various sources and/or Kuiu/Sitka gear. It's likely a...

I had good success with a .338 on my South Africa plains game safari. My dad had similar success on the same hunt with a 7mm Rem Mag. Shot placement is the more important factor.

I got the comic book characters my kids were named after on one arm and a tattoo commemorating my military service on the other arm. I thought about it for around ten years before I had it done. No regrets so far.

I didn't ever get the sense that they were really pursuing us on account of our government service. Even the special interview mid-sentence felt like they were training a new guy on interviews with Americans they happened to have on hand. I agree that we were dependent on faulty local advice...

I wore a Tilley LMT5 Airflo on my safari in 2019. It did everything I needed a hat to do. I wore a beanie I bought at the airport for cold mornings.

My dad and I have discussed the closing of parts of the world over the last few years. There are a lot of places we've visited in the past that are now too risky or closed altogether to Americans. This trip was pretty high on the risk scale, and we got off pretty lightly all things considered...

Our military service was one of the factors in our risk assessment for this trip. My dad is a retired Colonel, and I am a retired Sergeant First Class and currently work for the military as a federal civilian employee. We did get interviewed about our government connections. It definitely adds a...

When we were first detained we asked if we could just plead guilty, pay the fine, and walk away to avoid the court process. The police informed us that would be considered a bribe, and that bribes are not okay. All of the police and guards we dealt with were very professional. I did wind up...

That sounds pretty scary, a lot scarier than my experience. You have to be careful on foreign hunts. It's a whole other world out there. It's easy to get caught up over something relatively small, and then you're deep in the political/bureaucratic world of a culture you're not used to operating...

I would probably do it again. An Alaskan bear hunt is unattainable for me unless I hit the lottery. I felt like this was my one realistic shot at a big bear, given my life situation. I might make different choices while I'm there, or choose a different outfitter. It might be difficult to...

I think it's harder to post about the hunts that don't go well, especially if the poster made choices that contributed to the bad experience, like us going along with Yuri's plan to try flying out instead of keeping our appointment with the police. I've got a 2021 trip to Romania that I've...

The rifle was a .30-06, which we were nervous about as we'd have liked to be shooting a .338 or .375 at such big bears. It put them down quickly, though, without any tracking or chasing needed. Average range was pretty close, within 50-75 yards on all shots.

The police didn't seem to have much interest in the fate of our trophies, so as long as Alexander has that paperwork in order we should get our skins and skulls eventually. It might take a year or two to get them.

Yuri has some additional legal issues he will have to clear up, but he was released from jail with us and allowed to escort us to Moscow.

When we landed in Yelizovo, the police and an interpreter were there to meet us. They asked to interview us again, and took us into the police station in the airport. They asked us questions about which rifle we used and who owned it. We had borrowed Yuri’s rifle because we’d heard horror...

The hunting part of the trip was pretty straightforward. Bears don’t wake up early, so we also didn’t have to wake up early. That’s the kind of hunting I like. After breakfast we’d load up on the sleds, cross the river, and ride around looking for big tracks and big bears. Sometimes we’d follow...

While my dad and I were getting the taxidermy done from our 2019 South Africa trip, we noticed that that Yuri, the taxidermist, had a lot of hunting pictures on his wall of large brown bears. A Russian native, Yuri told us that he took clients on hunts in Kamchatka from time to time. My dad...

Looking forward to the rest of your report. This is a hunt my dad and I are looking at doing in the next couple of years.

I also want to say that the lodge staff and guides were very good. Once early in the hunt my dad mentioned that he would love to have a Coke with dinner, and from the next meal on we each had a bottle of Coke placed by our plates. The groundskeeper set up the sauna and also made sure our lodge's...

Honestly a lot of it was just psychological. Part of hunting for me is about pushing my boundaries and exploring my limitations, and climbing mountains on horseback is just right about at the edge of my own individual limits. Being more familiar with horses could have helped, but even my dad who...

Day 5 we went up a different valley and ran into some Ibex around 1,000 yards away. They moved and we stalked in, but were still 500-600 yards away when I tried shooting. I was hitting low. My dad borrowed the rifle and found that he was also hitting low. I reckoned that in all the excitement...

Day 4 was sunny, so the hunt was on. We rode up the mountain for a couple of hours, and got into a nice group of Ibex with some big billies up a cliff with a range of about 600 yards and gaining. Assan was calling out ranges and positions and we tried shooting at the same time, but it was too...

In the morning we saddled up on the horses to go stag hunting. My dad wasn’t sure if he wanted to take a Maral Stag, but we decided to go and look at them to see what they looked like. I don’t much like horses or heights, but here I was riding a horse in the mountains. I never got used to the...

Country: Kazakhstan Dates: 10-18 October 2023 Type of Hunt: Spot and Stalk, Rifle Method of Hunting: Rifle, 7mm Rem Mag and 7mm PRC Outfitter: Arcqos Safaris PH/Interpreter: Assan Abdrasilov Agent: PWP Travel Locations Hunted: Kazakhstan Species Hunted: Maral Stag, Mid-Asian Ibex Trophy...

I wore dark green clothing from TAG Safari. I don't think it mattered to the animals. I looked like a park ranger, but it helped me to "get in character" for the hunt. My dad mostly wore his Sitka gear. Again, I don't think it made a difference in the hunting. I agree with the poster who...