There is such a long history of hunting culture throughout South America. It’s no secret that Argentina is a destination for many hunters looking to harvest some of the world’s most prestigious game. Many of these hunts take place during the traditional off-season for most North American big game species.
Patagonia is a huge region of South America that is shared by more than half of southern Argentina and Chile. This region encompasses a large majority of the southern portion of the Andes Mountains. Here, you can find heavily timbered mountainsides, glaciers, volcanos, and mountain lakes on its western half, in addition to dry deserts, many buttes, and dry grasslands towards the east.
In the early 1900s, the Red deer was introduced from the Carpathian Mountains of Central Europe to the rich land of Argentina. They immediately began to thrive throughout the lush landscape of the La Pampa region, eventually working their way south to the Patagonia region years later. The Red deer have flourished so much that the population is now estimated to have exceeded 100,000 animals and contains some of the largest herds in the world.
When March rolls around, you can typically find me preparing for the spring turkey season. However, this year was a bit different. As I was making travel plans for a trip to hunt Gould’s turkey in Mexico, my phone rang. It was my good friend, Steve, letting me know that there was an opening to go hunt Red stag in Argentina, but the catch was that I had to commit now and we would be leaving in just a couple of weeks. It only took me a split second to decide that I was in and had no problem pushing back the turkey hunting trip another year.
With the cool weather of fall just beginning in Patagonia, Steve let me know that the Roar, which is the rut for Red deer, should be in full swing by the time we arrived the last week of March. Having such a short window to make my travel arrangements, I elected to use a travel agency to handle my international flights and transportation bookings. This would take a little bit of the pressure off and allow me to focus on preparing my gear.
Having hunted elk during the September rut in many states throughout the West, I had an idea of what I would plan to pack. It was going to resemble my early season elk kit. Knowing that this hunt would be based out of a lodge, some would find this a great opportunity to take a truck bed full of extra gear, just in case. After having done that for many years and realizing how unnecessary it was, I narrowed down my gear selection to just what I needed and nothing else. Once you find what works best for you, there is no point in traveling with extra gear that doesn’t get used.
Temperatures were expected to vary from the low 40s in the mornings to the upper 80s during the peak of the day, so layering would be the key to comfort on this hunt. I started with my KUIU Ultra 125 Merino Crew-T and then went to the Peloton 200 Zip-T Hoodie and followed that up with the Kenai Vest for those cool mornings and evenings on the mountain. This combination typically takes care of most of my needs on any given trip within that temperature range. As I do with nearly every other hunt, I elected to wear the KUIU Attack pants due to their sheer ability to adapt in just about every situation I have ever put them through.
Selecting a rifle is typically one of the most difficult decisions for me as I work for Bergara Rifles and have some pretty phenomenal options to choose from. Lately, my choice has been an easy one with the Bergara MgLite. I chose this rifle because I knew that we would be hiking 8-10+ miles each day up and down the foothills of the Andes Mountains. The rifle comes in at just 6.5 pounds with an XLR Industries magnesium chassis, carbon folding buttstock, and a Bergara CURE carbon barrel. This has been an ideal setup for me over the past year, and having it chambered in the 6.5 PRC, I knew it would more than sufficient for taking a big-bodied Red stag.
The first leg of the trip kicked off with a flight from my hometown airport in Atlanta, Georgia to Buenos Aires, Argentina. There, I met up with Steve and several others who would be staying in the same camp. Together, we jumped on the next flight to our final destination at the base of the Andes Mountains, San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Our guide and outfitter, Andres, met us at the Bariloche airport, helped us with the firearms paperwork, and led us to base camp.
The camp was quite nice, and to my surprise, it sat right on the shores of the Nahuel Huapi Lake, which was picturesque to say the least. We settled into camp, arranged our packs, and verified the zero on our rifles. After signing our hunting licenses, we set off to begin what would turn out to be the hunt-of-a-lifetime.
I had never hunted Red stag before, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. The only knowledge that I had was from what I had seen on YouTube. Yes, I did watch just about every Red stag hunting video on the internet leading up to this hunt. I’m not sure that I learned much from them, but they sure got me fired up for the trip. Heck, that’s half the fun.
The ranch is a contiguous 120,000+ acres of free-range, fair chase, pristine land that is home to thousands of red deer during the roar. After looking over the terrain that we would be hunting, it was clear that gaining elevation to suitable glassing points would provide us with the best opportunity to spot a stag. As we pulled up to the gate of the ranch that first afternoon, I could hear the roars of Patagonia erupting from stags in all directions. It was at this point that I knew I had made the right decision to postpone that turkey hunt in Mexico.
Red deer females, or hinds, typically reside in the foothills of the Andes year-round while the stags migrate many miles from the high country to the meadows down low in search of hinds during the roar. My guide, Andres, let me know that we would need to be patient as we would likely find new stags moving into the low country each day, so there was no rush to make a move on one too soon. That was a difficult task for me as we saw several mature stags that first afternoon that I would have been more than willing to put my tag on. Many of these mature stags had large 6x6 frames, while some had heavy 7x7 frames with gorgeous crowns.
The next morning of the hunt, we were headed up the mountain to look over one of the largest areas on the ranch. Before the sun could even begin to lighten the horizon, I could hear that we were fully surrounded by roaring stags and were in for an exciting day. We slowly began working our way down the main ridge to a glassing point that would open our view to the large meadow below. Keeping the wind in our faces, we slowly picked our way through the patches of brush and eventually moved onto our hands and knees for better cover. After settling into a good vantage point, we got to work with our glass and began to pick apart each of the herds.
After sitting there for about 30 minutes in complete awe of what was transpiring in front of me, Steve said, “There are some great stags out here, but you might want to have a look at this guy.” There were in fact several great looking stags chasing hinds in nearly every direction but nothing that caught my attention or warranted a second look. Once I finally saw the stag that Steve was talking about, it didn’t take me long to let Andres know that this was the stag I was going after, no matter how long it took.
With every passing minute, the sun began to climb and expose the face of the hill that we had begun making our move down. Using the moments that the sun would go behind the clouds to make each position change was key as the area below literally had hundreds of eyes that could blow our cover at any time. After closing the gap from 1,200 yards to 450 yards, we had completely run out of cover to get any closer and the odds of getting busted would increase drastically. While belly crawling with my head buried in the sand and rocks for the past hour, I had not been able to keep my eyes on the stag or get a closer look to see what size he truly was.
After locating him once again, bedded at the base of the hill on the meadow’s edge, I slowly slid my pack on one of the many small shrubs full of extremely large thorns and got my rifle in position. This was the first time during the stalk that I was able get a solid look at him, and I was blown away by the amount of character that this mature stag had. With a solid rest and a very minor crosswind, I was more than confident in taking the shot at that distance. Although he was at 450 yards, I knew that the extreme downward angle needed to be taken into consideration, so I made the decision to dial the turret on my scope to 400 yards. It was a waiting game at this point for him to stand up and provide me with a broadside shot.
In typical fashion, the wait ended up being significantly longer than anticipated, but just before noon, the stag stood up and let out a few last roars to the surrounding hinds. With a slight tremble from adrenaline in my hands, I sent a round downrange, dropping him where he stood. Andres, Steve, and I instantly erupted with excitement. After several minutes of hugs and high fives, we made our way down the remainder of the mountain. As I put my hands on the stag, I realized what a mature trophy he truly was.
Several other hunters in camp ended up harvesting great stags over the next few days of the trip. I even had the opportunity to take an extremely old and scarred up management stag on the last morning of the trip. With the continuation of strict management practices on this ranch, I can only imagine how extraordinary the hunting is going to be when I make my next trip south of the equator.
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