Let's get this started. Got to the lodge @11:30 last night after 9 hours of driving SW.

Borrowed Shirt, Vest, Socks and boots as my luggage is arriving at Santa Rosa airport tomorrow afternoon (no plan on Saturday). 7 hunting groups here (1 or 2 people in them; a couple just husband hunting and wife tagging along). Toyota rules...but there is one Ford Ranger.

80k acres. Massive place....the 7 trucks leave and you see everyone when folks come back for dinner.

The guides

In!

Badass man get a big one!

My buddies and I went to Patagonia two weeks ago and loved every minute of it

jmm said:

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I'll be there right after you. From EZE, flying to El Monte and staying a few days doing decoyed pigeon shooting. Then flying down to Tipiliuke for fishing, boar, quail and red stag. It will be lots of fun.

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Who are you hunting decoying pigeons with? We are going in '27 to do that.

For anyone hunting out of Cordoba, look at the flight with a layover that flies into COR. Its longer than going to EZE, but you don't have to change airports. Ie, into EZE, then AER, then COR.

For our '27 trip, we will land in COR around midnight, then get a hotel and be picked up around 8 AM by the outfitter. Then when we leave, our flight is LATE, like 2 AM, but that gives us all day on the last day to hunt, eat, shower, and get to the airport without any real rush.

If you are going to Tipiliuke Lodge, have you been before? That is where we just came back from.

Ah, nope. We are going to santiago del estero lodge.

Drundel said:

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jmm said:

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I'll be there right after you. From EZE, flying to El Monte and staying a few days doing decoyed pigeon shooting. Then flying down to Tipiliuke for fishing, boar, quail and red stag. It will be lots of fun.

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Who are you hunting decoying pigeons with? We are going in '27 to do that.

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We are hunting with our friends Juan and Maria Alberdi. They own El Monte lodge, just outside of Yacanta. Been many times. Great family and excellent pigeons.

gonemaroon said:

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If you are going to Tipiliuke Lodge, have you been before? That is where we just came back from.

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Yes, I have been to Tipiliuke before. We love the people and the lodge.

You're a blessed man. You do the coolest hunts I've ever seen. I was fortunate enough to go to Argentina for a dove hunt. If the world ever melts down they'll be fine down there. So much food. So little extravagance.

This is probably a stupid question , but what do yall do with the meat? Yall can't transport it home correct? I've always been curious about these types of hunts but I want to be able to enjoy and share my bounty with friends and family.

For my Patagonia hunt, they cook it. We ate Red Stag, Pere David which was my favorite, and Oryx. Never had beef at the lodge I think. Brought in fish from Chile.
NWT hunt we were allowed to bring 43# of meat. That plus 7# ice chest and it was at 50#. The outfitter donated what they didn't eat to a First Nation orphanage relatively near camp.

OK, this hunt turned out pretty different than my expectations...and I'd say for most here based on our dinner/breakfast time discussions.

Four things stand out now that I'm on the last leg:

• The days are very long. Out in the dark, back in the dark, dinner at 9'ish...zero time for anything other than taking care of the hunt
• Level of difficulty...no bow hunter took a stag with a bow. All converted to rifle.
• The buffalo hunts are more demanding than any cape buffalo hunt I have done...in the end, I did not get a buffalo after 3, 14 hour hunting days. One hunter (we hunted together for 3 days) has been successful on buffalo. He took his on day 4. I had to move on to other animals to meet my goals given only 2 days left in the hunt.
• Game quality is outstanding...I was not looking for "big trophy" animals in general. My hunt was more about eight animals from the SCI Animals of South America list for some of their qualifications. They have absolutely MONSTER animals in every category. The one buffalo taken is likely an SCI Top 10.

Conclusion...I'm coming back to get a buffalo. Very nice people, absolutely beautiful and challenging land (80k acres), good and plentiful food. We've eaten Stag, Buffalo, Axis, BBQs, great pasta's, empanada's, huge desserts and endless beer and wine pours (which I mostly avoided).

More on all of this later. Let's finally get to the hunting.

First animal on Day 1...hybrid or wild Sheep (in my borrowed clothes). They seem to like it in the thicker areas; well treed; lots of shade. Shot from about 100 yds. My shot placement was just OK and it did the trick; but in general I did not shoot that well until we paired me with a different rifle (just a better fit for me in terms of comb height, eye relief, etc) on Day 4. These make good Euro mounts.

Later on Day 1. Multi horn ram... these guys seem to like the more open spaces. He sensed we were there and kept moving. Wind was just right for us. About a 75 yd shot. He was in a low spot near the top of a low ridge line. He saw us and moved left just as I fired. I hit well back but he buckled. Had to use a finisher.

Thanks for catching us up on things. I wondered why you hadn't posted any updates, but with a schedule like that, it's understandable. Looking forward to more updates.

This next animal was a lot of fun. We were out in the wide open grasslands part of the property. There was a Wild Goat on the top of the ridge line about 100 yds in front of us; relatively steep slope. When he faced us; you could see his chest and head. When he moved down the ridge line, all you could see was the top of his head. He wasn't in any particular hurry; but he knew we were there. He just kept moving to our left.

I got on and off the sticks over the course of about 300 yds 5 times. We were out in the wide open; the day had heated up by this time. Had I been able to see any of his body it would have been a straight forward shot even with him walking. For some reason, rather than continuing moving down this ridge line; he finally tired of us I guess and just disappeared over the ridge line.

We kept moving left and toward a knob that was about 300 yds further to the left to get a vantage point over the hill. Nothing. Didn't see him; just a lot of wide open spaces. This grass ranges from 3-6 ft tall, so no surprise.

We moved down off the high point and over the knob where there were a series of smaller hills back to the right. We hadn't gone 50 yds when our friend appeared coming up one of these small hills toward us. Wind at his back; right in our face. He was 20 yds and about to disappear behind the next knob.

Snap shot. He moved to the right so we had to get to the top of that knob to see where he had gone. He had probably gone 15 yds from where we had seen him. He was standing there kind of weaving facing away from us. We moved to the right and I put a finisher in him. The original had hit him in the crease just behind the shoulder. So he wasn't going anywhere. This dance with him was about an hour from the time we first saw him.

Then the buffalo hunting started. Generally inhospitable land with everything with stickers. One set of these things caught you about knee high and the other chest to head high. Rob and I are both cut up. It looks like Mom took a forsythia switch to me (not that that used to happen when I was a kid).

We had three days of steamy weather and averaged about 6 hours of stalking each day. Well, on day one, there was no actual stalking. We didn't see a buffalo. It was more like wandering around the crappy ground looking for buffalo.

Day 2 was maximum frustration. No luck in the morning. Just hot and soaking wet.

In the afternoon, we did about an hour and half of similar wanderings. Spent some time on the truck looking for another place; and went into the brush at a spot that looked like all the other. After two ours, Nando gave up on our direction of March and decided to head back to the trail to pick up the truck.

We'd gone about 30 minutes and saw a fallow...well, it was on the list, not a top priority for me; but it works on the SCI list and it was there. So we started moving around to get in position for a shot. As we moved right and were 100% focused on the fallow; Rob saw a buffalo that was on our right. We froze; it was facing away from us unaware of us at about 30 yds.

Nando made some minor adjustments and we got the sticks up. Nando signaled for me to wait until he turned. Of course I have no idea how much time elapsed; it always seems longer. Now the frustrating part.

Out of the blue and from further right, a cow burst thru the brush. In this part of the property, cattle roam around as well; and they herd up with the buffalo. Of course Mr Buffalo's head popped up and he ran. In that thick stuff, he disappeared in an instance.

We took off after him at a trot. Nando had his trail; but he had taken his clue from the cow. After about 5 minutes, we reacquired him. Moving to our left; in no particular hurry. Excellent!!!! I thought. Nando steered us around to get in position. Got on the sticks. Dejavu.

A group of cows moved in from the right, saw us; and the chase was on again. For the next 1.5 hours we never saw him again as the sun was setting. It took a while to get back to the truck. I was gassed; like everyone else.

We got back to the truck; into camp after dark as usual; and the head guide (the only one who could really speak much English at all); said "you want to go get boar". Now he did this while I was taking my boots off. I of course said and enthusiastic "YES" (OK, you be the judge of my enthusiasm at that point.

The boar hunting was from an elevated blind with a thermal scope. Still not sure what the rifle was chambered in. Smaller caliber. Only two came into the water hole we were on; at about the two hour mark; this guy came in.

Day 3; more buffalo frustration. We were on the ground all but about 2 hours. My ass was dragging. Nando was determined to find a buffalo; but it was not in the cards. After lunch, we went back up and after about 30 minutes split into 2 groups. Both would make a wide loop; us West and down and Rob East; and come out on the trail at the bottom of the hunting area. At about 5:55pm, we finally came out of the brush to wait there on Rob and his guide.

We sat down about 10 ft apart; no particular rhyme or reason to where we sat. At 6:10, Nando looked at me, pointed to his ear and said "buffalo". He jumped up and went to the other side of the trail and placed up against a tree while waiving at me to join him. As soon as he had moved I grabbed the rifle and was in the process of joining him. About 10 seconds after I joined him, 2 bulls, at full sprint, burst out of the brush, crossed the trail about 5 yds from where I had been and ~3 from where Nando had been sitting; and they never slowed down.

I was glad I was wearing the brown pants that day.

We stayed there for a couple of minutes and then crossed back over and sat where we had originally been. I turned, grounded the rifle butt, and started to squat down. 10 feet to my left, another bull burst thru the brush on the far side, and never slowed down; gone before I could sit.

At about 6:15; Rob and his guide came out of the same brush the bulls had come from. They had gotten on their trail about an hour before; and had been pushing them our way. The bulls had gotten tired of it and bolted off.

We did our usual driving to try to find something but ended in the dark and buffalo-less.

The last 2 days were focused on trying to get "the 8" that I had gone there for. The list of targets at this point was:

Mouflon, Fallow, Axis, Stag, Black Buck, of course buffalo in the unlikely even we came across one.

We were out about 30 minutes on Day 5 in a well treed and watered area. Nando pointed and said Mouflon. I couldn't see anything in the high grass. He set the sticks up and I looked thru the scope and saw it. 100 yards...



After this, we got on the trail of a Stag; but after an hour he outsmarted us.

This post makes me think of this song.


If the buffalo you're hunting are the same as up here where I'm at (Bolivia), there are ranches that raise them commercially like cattle. They have a lot less problems with jaguar predation and disease resistance.

They don't do anything for the buffalo here. Put them out in this area and they live off the land.

They are VERY skittish and just won't congregate out in the open like a Cape Buffalo.

And we love VEGGIE TALES in our house...already playing them for the new granddaughter

They look pretty tasty. If you ever get a chance to get a brocket deer, get one! I don't know if they live down there where you're hunting, but they live around me. They're a little bigger than a small dog and very skittish. The pastor of our church here procured one and he grilled it for us. The flavor was very good. It's up there with elk meat. Zero gamey flavor. I have a couple people that work for me on our property that are from up in the Amazon part of the country. The abundance of hunting and fishing opportunities where they live are eye opening. The fishing up there is unbelievable.

I enjoy reading your posts. Keep 'em coming!

"If you ever get a chance"??

Pretty sure my man can "get a chance" at whatever tickles his fancy, hunting wise respectfully.

No offense to JT on his pickup game… he's a family man no doubt.

We drove around, got out a few times; but then generally were moving back toward the camp at about 11:15. We got to one of the open areas and about 500 yds out we saw a group of Black Buck...with 4 bulls all moving generally NE and away from us. They weren't going fast, just grazing and nearing the top of a ridge line. We drove roughly parallel to them in an attempt to move ahead. We were maybe 50 yds ahead when we moved in and used a massive tree in the field as a screen. We reached the tree and they were about 225 yds and most of the group started disappearing over the ridge line. The group in front were still moseying; from out Left to Right.

Got out and took up position just to the right of the tree. Fired. He simply turned to face us. I wasn't completely sure I hit him at that point. Nando stuck out his fist for a bump. He just stood there and I eventually saw a lot of his insides on his outsides as he faced us. I fired into his bread basket and he went down.

In the afternoon, we went back to the place we had hunted in the back half of the morning. We were basically skirting every tree line looking for something on the list. Found a fallow; but he took off once I got on the sticks. More time pursuing Stag...but again, after an extended amount of time chasing him, gone! After a little more driving, we saw this guy (this is the country we had been looking for everything in most of the day; low ground, heavily treed; a buck cooling it). We had gone out early, so it was still pretty warm.

We drove just past him (he was probably no more than 75 yds) and surprisingly he didn't move. Opened the door and Nando came around with the sticks. He was quartered to my left. He presented a good shoulder so I fired. He rolled onto his side.



Down to one now. It was closing in on 5:00 pm; sunset roughly 7:15; dark just before 8:00.

Great looking Fallow

On Day 2, American Airlines was supposed to fly my suitcase out to the Santa Rosa airport to be picked up. Some hunters were leaving, so the bag would be picked up when delivering the hunter to the airport. We were about 30 minutes out of camp that afternoon. All the vehicles on the hunting concession are Hi Lux's with one exception, the Ranger. We were on one long straight stretch of trail when in the distance we saw a Grey Chevy Malibu coming our way.

They were obviously lost. The Malibu keeps coming and gets near us and the two drivers start talking and the passenger gets out of the car and looks up and calls my name. These were two guys, mid 50's, wearing polo's and slacks. They had driven the 800km or so from Buenos Airies with my bag. I don't know what time they left to get there; or if they had left the day before. Either way it was a heckava drive and pure luck that they found us. And yes, they were lost trying to find the camp. Our guys explained to them how to get back to the main gate and get out. We didn't see them again; so we assume they made it out.

That's how I got my clothes back.

This was on Day 4; we had hunted buffalo all day (Days 2,3,4 with no luck):

It was getting very late in the day. We had abandoned buffalo at this point and had come back down and been on foot for about an hour and got to this position that was opposite a similar hill across a cleared field. The opposite hill had a steep approach and then rose away from us. Visibility was getting poor at that distance but Nando saw a couple of Axis about 50 yds up the rise. I was probably 300 yds from where they were; and we needed to get closer...

We backed down and came down off our hill to our right where the steepness of the far slope gave us cover. We crossed the field very slowly trying to be quiet. When we reached the far approach, we would be ~50yds or less from the Axis. We climbed the steep approach and I stayed down behind Nando. He moved to the right started setting up the sticks and indicated there were two axis and it was the one on the left. As I started to get on the sticks the animals crossed and switched position. They were also out of the shooting lane. We had to move further right and set up again. I confirmed he was now the one of the right and I didn't have much of a window under the tree limbs. I didn't have much light but what was there was enough.

I fired. He moved forward and was out of my view. Nando fist bumped but I didn't see him down. We moved slowly up and to the right to get the angle right to be able to see him. He had moved maybe 5 yds and was down.

Day 6; at this point I now had the 8 I went for. So we headed back up for buffalo. The day was basically a repeat of days 3/4. Long, hot, frustrating covering the same ground as before and buffalo-less.

I mentioned the large buffalo that Rob got. Here's a photo:



I wasn't looking for a big buffalo, just "a" buffalo. These guys were hard to come by while I was there. NEXT TIME!







Travel back was uneventful. Got back Saturday afternoon.

Were you not able to find a stag?

Deerdude said:

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Were you not able to find a stag?

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No, probably pursued at least 8, at least 3 for an hour with no luck.