-- Jr --
AH senior member
This hunt came about at a reunion with hunting friends. Everyone knew that after four trips to Corrientes, two to Entre Ríos and one to Buenos Aires, I still hadn't been able to hunt any axis deer. Of those present, three of them recommended that I coordinate to go to Corrientes with a guide with whom they had all been able to hunt very good males.
Since this year I couldn't organize anything for hunt in the cordillera of Los Andes, I decided to try my luck in Corrientes. After a series of messages and conversations with the guide, where he informed me of the prices and the hunting modality, I decided to set the date of the hunt.
For this trip, I took two rifles. My trusty 1935 Mauser caliber 25-06, with a Smith & Bender 1.5-6x42 scope, and a CZ 550 458 lott. Since Corrientes allowed hunting of 2 males per outing, my idea was to hunt the first one with the 25-06, and if possible, hunt a second male with the 458 lott with open sights.
I arrive in the field a day before the agreed date. The idea was to arrive at the huinting area with the last light of day, to be able to set up the tents and everything we were going to need for the 3 days we had planned to stay in the field, but due to traffic problems on the road and a flat tire on the way to the field, we ended up arriving at night. It was truly a dream come true to be able to sleep that night, and the following ones, with the roar of the axis in the background.
We woke up around 6 in the morning, and at 7 we were already hunting. On this first outing we had no luck. Some roars in the distance, some females, but no males. By midday, we were back in the woods, changing our clothes so they would be dry for the afternoon out, and regaining our strength with some cold beers and a good asado.
After a good nap, we got ready to go out again. Around 6:00 p.m., we were walking along the edge of a trail (it's not the correct term, I don't know it in English, but it's a natural path inside the forest). When we reached the intersection with another trail (which had recently opened), the guide stopped dead, looking to the left. I did the same, and when I turned my head, I saw a very nice male, no more than 60 meters away. The guide told me “Raise the gun slowly and shoot, he’s going away.” Trying not to make any sudden movements, I raised the rifle, took off the safety, centered the reticle on the shoulder and fired.
The axis turned and ran off into the woods. This was the first time I had used the 25-06 with an axis, but I was used to the fact that with a well-placed shot, antelopes would stay where they were, and since I didn't hear the typical sound of the ammunition hitting them, I assumed that I had missed. But the guide was sure that he was hit. We went to where we supposed the male was, but we didn't find any trace of blood.
Head down, we continued the hunt. A half hour later, in a trail next to a 7-wire wire fence, we saw some females with three males about 150 meters away, of which two stood out. We made an approach inside the woods, but when we came out again, they had already left. At that moment, we decided to return to camp.
As has surely happened to many of the readers, one begins to wonder what happened. How could I have missed that shot? Did the scope hit? Why didn't I take a few more seconds to aim?
The next day we repeated the same routine. We followed some bellowing, but none of it was sustained enough to be able to see it. There were some encounters in the woods, but it was impossible to shoot in that thicket. Returning to camp, we decided to test the gun, to be sure that the sight had not gone out of calibration. I fired a shot at about 70 meters, which hit one centimeter above, so there was no problem with the gun.
That afternoon, before going to a new part of the field, we returned to where I fired the shot, and about 10 meters from where the deer was when it was shot, we found it under a tree. I couldn't understand why we hadn't seen it the day before. On the one hand I was happy that the death occurred after a few seconds, but I was very angry not to be able to use the meat, since almost 24 hours had already passed with a temperature of more than 30 celsius degrees. We took the photos and returned to camp, with a somewhat bitter taste. We still had one more day of hunting, but there was a forecast of rain for that day, and I didn't want to risk not being able to leave the field, since we had a long way to go to get to the road, so we broke camp and left the field.
In conclusion, it was a beautiful experience, in which I was able to hunt my first axis, which is approximately 78 cm long, but I still have to hunt one with an open scope. It will be for my next visit to Corrientes.
Since this year I couldn't organize anything for hunt in the cordillera of Los Andes, I decided to try my luck in Corrientes. After a series of messages and conversations with the guide, where he informed me of the prices and the hunting modality, I decided to set the date of the hunt.
For this trip, I took two rifles. My trusty 1935 Mauser caliber 25-06, with a Smith & Bender 1.5-6x42 scope, and a CZ 550 458 lott. Since Corrientes allowed hunting of 2 males per outing, my idea was to hunt the first one with the 25-06, and if possible, hunt a second male with the 458 lott with open sights.
I arrive in the field a day before the agreed date. The idea was to arrive at the huinting area with the last light of day, to be able to set up the tents and everything we were going to need for the 3 days we had planned to stay in the field, but due to traffic problems on the road and a flat tire on the way to the field, we ended up arriving at night. It was truly a dream come true to be able to sleep that night, and the following ones, with the roar of the axis in the background.
We woke up around 6 in the morning, and at 7 we were already hunting. On this first outing we had no luck. Some roars in the distance, some females, but no males. By midday, we were back in the woods, changing our clothes so they would be dry for the afternoon out, and regaining our strength with some cold beers and a good asado.
After a good nap, we got ready to go out again. Around 6:00 p.m., we were walking along the edge of a trail (it's not the correct term, I don't know it in English, but it's a natural path inside the forest). When we reached the intersection with another trail (which had recently opened), the guide stopped dead, looking to the left. I did the same, and when I turned my head, I saw a very nice male, no more than 60 meters away. The guide told me “Raise the gun slowly and shoot, he’s going away.” Trying not to make any sudden movements, I raised the rifle, took off the safety, centered the reticle on the shoulder and fired.
The axis turned and ran off into the woods. This was the first time I had used the 25-06 with an axis, but I was used to the fact that with a well-placed shot, antelopes would stay where they were, and since I didn't hear the typical sound of the ammunition hitting them, I assumed that I had missed. But the guide was sure that he was hit. We went to where we supposed the male was, but we didn't find any trace of blood.
Head down, we continued the hunt. A half hour later, in a trail next to a 7-wire wire fence, we saw some females with three males about 150 meters away, of which two stood out. We made an approach inside the woods, but when we came out again, they had already left. At that moment, we decided to return to camp.
As has surely happened to many of the readers, one begins to wonder what happened. How could I have missed that shot? Did the scope hit? Why didn't I take a few more seconds to aim?
The next day we repeated the same routine. We followed some bellowing, but none of it was sustained enough to be able to see it. There were some encounters in the woods, but it was impossible to shoot in that thicket. Returning to camp, we decided to test the gun, to be sure that the sight had not gone out of calibration. I fired a shot at about 70 meters, which hit one centimeter above, so there was no problem with the gun.
That afternoon, before going to a new part of the field, we returned to where I fired the shot, and about 10 meters from where the deer was when it was shot, we found it under a tree. I couldn't understand why we hadn't seen it the day before. On the one hand I was happy that the death occurred after a few seconds, but I was very angry not to be able to use the meat, since almost 24 hours had already passed with a temperature of more than 30 celsius degrees. We took the photos and returned to camp, with a somewhat bitter taste. We still had one more day of hunting, but there was a forecast of rain for that day, and I didn't want to risk not being able to leave the field, since we had a long way to go to get to the road, so we broke camp and left the field.
In conclusion, it was a beautiful experience, in which I was able to hunt my first axis, which is approximately 78 cm long, but I still have to hunt one with an open scope. It will be for my next visit to Corrientes.
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