… After 20 days after or so, I decided to watch the video on my laptop and now I remember to had done that over and over again, little by little, cm by cm, trying to see how much did the animal moved that second that took the arrow to hit him. I was so surprised to see that the shot could have been perfect; half height from the back, but the stag, on that second, without being able to know or even see what was happening, had crouched down 30 or 40 cm before start running away.

After following some traces like blood on the ground, broken branches, and even foot prints, we heard on Franco’s radio that Royce had caught another stag with bow and arrow, but that sadly, it had run away too. Clearly, the plans for that afternoon were to go out and try to find those rebel and injured stags, and so we did.

Right after taking a nap for some energy recover, we left the lodge looking for that huge stag. This time, Robby, who had already hunted and antelope and a stag, decided to help and so he came with us too. We, the four of us, walked on horizontal line, separated 25 mts one another, but after a long period of time, nothing seemed to be giving us tips of where our target was. We kept looking for a little while and, when we thought that entire walk was worthless, I heard the sound of the horns hitting the branches just 40 mt away and in front of me. 

With my heart beating faster and faster I shouted to Franco: “Right there, Franquito! It’s running towards you! The second one! ” the two male stags were running together, but I noticed that the one that was running behind, had the arrow still! 

At that very moment, as Franco saw them running to the north, he started running too! He stopped at certain distance, tried to place the gun, and made the first shot but nothing happened. Then, he decided to run for another 30 mt but this time with the gun on his hands ready to shoot. He stops, places himself and, after not many seconds, I hear 2 shots while I was watching the stags running downhill, so I went where Franco was and asked him what happened. He told me that the second was a nice shot but that he didn’t know where the shot did hit the stag.

We waited for Robby and Jake to get closer to where we were and, after telling them what happened, we continued up with the searching. We thought that, after this, we would be lucky, but after looking for this animal even with a flashlight, we all agreed that it was time for us to go back to the lodge to meet the rest of the group and grab a beer and eat a tasty appetizer.

Once we got to the lodge, Royce told us that he, like us, didn’t have any luck at all with his stag and that Tim saw a couple of buffalos but that they couldn’t get close enough, same as Todd and his stag.

The third day, Jake and Royce searched for them stag separately, but of course, each one was accompanied by his guide. The same morning, Tim did an incredible shot; after following his buffalo for a long time, he managed to be at an interesting distance, close enough to make that shot happen.

Unfortunately, the first shot goes just wide and fails to hit the animal, but scared him for sure. 

The animal turned and started running away but, at the same time, another male buffalo came and was trying to fight Tim’s stag, so this one stopped and started to fight! 

You should never give Tim a second chance. He was surprised of what he was watching, but he was convinced that I was his animal, so he quickly took another arrow, tensed his bow, held his breathe, pointed his victim and let the arrow hit it.

As he expected to be, it was a perfect shot; the arrow hit the animal right in the middle of his chest, knocking him down immediately. So that was how Tim, with a smile as big as his pride, got closer to his new hunted beast.

On the afternoon of that same day, Tim went with Jake to keep on with the stag searching, while I decided to stay at the lodge and enjoy Robby’s company.

Todd, in the other hand, had the chance to shoot a stag but he couldn’t hit him.

That same night, while we were all having dinner, Nico told us that, in general, summer heat makes the searching easier because birds start flying around the dead animal, but in winter whis hardly happens so that could be the reason why we were not founding it. 

After an incredible dinner, we went to the living room and, from drink to drink, Jake was encouraged to try our traditional “fernet con coca” made from Fernet Branca and the one and only Coca-Cola. Of course, at the beginning he felt it a little bit to sour, but at the end, I remember he said “While you drink it, you get used to the flavor! Actually, I think I like it very much!”, and that was how, after uncountable moments of laugher and many drinks, was time for us to go to get some rest. I still remember that night! So fun!

Finally, we made it to the last day and it was time to make some decisions; shall we keep looking for the stags or shall we go for new victims? After a long shat with Nico, we decided to let them behind and go for new adventures! But, we said that if on the next day someone sees the injured animals, there was one more option; to send them to the US with the European method of European taxidermy.

So there they were; Todd and Royce, a gun each, looking for stags while Jake was going for a fallow deer with his bow and arrow. Robby, in the other hand, stayed at the lodge enjoying everything at that beautiful and cozy place, and I did that too, I stayed at the lodge waiting for the guys to call me so I can pick them up and see what they have hunted!

And there they were! As soon as I sat down on the couch, Nicolas came and said to me and Robby “I’ve been just notified that Royce hit a huge one!” so we woke up and run directly to the truck. 

Then, while I was taking a photo of Royce, we all heard a strong shot from far away. I thought “is it Todd?” I placed my camera again to take the picture and BANG! Another shot! We knew it! Everyone was so happy because just after that the guide told us that Todd killed a huge stag! We quickly put Royce’s trophy on the truck and went right away to where Todd was.

Me and the guys carried the stag for 40 mt to the truck and put it inside it with Royce’s one. We drove to the lodge with the guides and when we got there, we relaxed and started drinking and celebrating the trophies!

While everything was laugher, cool drinks and some tasty appetizer, we were told that Jake had caught a fallow deer and that he needed us to come find them.

That night we had dinner, had a great toast celebrating the great hunt and those four amazing days together in La Pampa and, even though we went to bed early because we knew that the next day we would have to wake up early, nobody could take the last moments of happiness together away.

Hope to see you next time!

Juan Aguilo

Host & Media

Pointer Outfitters