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Stag Hunting
Mike Malek shares his experience hunting Red Stag in Argentina. If you've ever considered hunting abroad, or you just like a good hunting story, this is a must-read!
 If you’re a hunter like me you probably enjoy watching hunting shows in the off season and dreaming about exotic hunts in far away places. After watching an “Advantage Outdoors” show on bow hunting for red stag in New Zeeland many years ago, my dream was to go there some day and do the same. That is, until I was talking with an associate of mine at the company that we both worked for at lunch one day. He’s an avid hunter and has hunted all over the world. We were swapping hunting stories and I told him about my dream to hunt red stag in New Zeeland with a bow. He asked, “Do you know how much that costs?” I told him that I figured the biggest cost would be to get there since New Zeeland is on the other side of the world, but that the actual hunt itself was probably reasonable. Boy was I mistaken! He later gave me all of the info he had received from outfitters in New Zeeland while looking into the possibility of going on a hunt there. I was floored by how much it cost. The cost to take the kind of trophy stag you see on the hunting shows can easily run as high as $30,000. There went my dream of taking a trophy stag with a bow; or so I thought.
He then told me his hunting buddy had taken advantage of a cancellation to hunt for stag in Argentina. The price at the time was around $4,000, which included one trophy stag, one management stag and one wild boar. He gave me the name of the outfitter and the rest is history. Luckily for me the ranch that the outfitter had leased that year was the Poitahue Hunting Ranch, one of the best places to hunt red stag in Argentina. My hunting buddy and I ended up going the following spring. The nice thing about hunting in South America is that the seasons are reversed, so you don’t have to give up any time hunting in North America to go down there.
 The Poitahue Hunting Ranch is located on 50,000 acres in La Pampa province in the heart of north central Argentina approximately 400 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. The hunting was free range and fair chase. It was an hour by commercial airline from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa and then an hour drive to the ranch. The staff was very attentive and assisted with transfers at the airports, gun importation paperwork and providing transportation to and from the ranch. This was very comforting when you’re in an unfamiliar country with a different language and customs.
The ranch was a historic, 100-year-old working cattle ranch that had been completely refurbished and updated with all the modern conveniences. The rooms were clean and comfortable with their own private bath. The food was out of this world. There’s nothing like coming back from your hunt and sitting down to a five star meal. Come to find out, they bring in a professional chef each year for the season to manage the kitchen. It just doesn’t get any better than this!
The typical hunting day at the ranch starts at 5:00 AM with a breakfast of bacon or sausage and eggs made to order including a large selection of cereals, pastries, fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee and milk. After breakfast, we would meet up with our guides and head off to our assigned sections via four wheel drive vehicles. Normally we were out in the field about a half hour before first light. We would stand outside the vehicle and listen for the sound of roaring stags. The guides can pretty much tell by the sound of the roar the age and size of the animal as well as how far away it is. If your guide doesn’t like what he hears he will move on until he finds a suitable stag to pursue.
On my first trip to the ranch I met a retired army colonel who had hunted all over the world and had taken the big five in Africa. He said that the roar of a stag sounded just like the roar of an African lion. I can personally tell you that it will make your hair stand on end the first time you hear it, especially if one happens to be really close.
 You may only hear one or two roaring or as many as eight to ten, as I have on occasion. As soon as it was light enough to see, the guide selected the one he thought was best and then we would head off on foot to intercept it. If you are from a populated area in the US, you can’t imagine the number of stars in the sky you can see in the remote lands of Argentina. The Milky Way can be seen on almost any morning or night. The light from the stars helps you navigate your way through the brush and around the armadillo holes as you move in to intercept a roaring stag. The stags could be anywhere from 50 to 400 yards away and we generally started the pursuit at a pretty good pace, but things would slow down as we got closer. For me, as a bow hunter, close is sixty yards or less. It was not uncommon for my guide and I to make four or five stalks during a morning’s hunt.
During the roar (rut), red deer stags act very similarly to our elk. They collect harems of females know as hinds to breed and try to prevent them from being taken by other stags. I’ve seen stags with harems as few as only one or two hinds and large harems with up to fifteen hinds. So many eyes and noses make for a challenging stalk. The senses of a stag rank right up there with that of a whitetail deer, so you will be checking the wind often and staying by any cover that is present. Last year I was hunting at the beginning of the rut and almost scored on a stag that would have easily scored over 400 inches. This monster only had one hind with him at the time. We stalked to within fifty yards before the wind shifted on us and ended things in a hurry.
My guide and I normally got back to the ranch by around 10:00 AM depending how the hunt went. We were able to relax, interact with the other hunters and check out the trophies that were taken that morning. Hot and cold hors d’oeuvres were served around noon in the community lounge area before a big lunch around one o’clock. After lunch there was plenty of time for relaxing with a good book, checking e-mail on the internet or taking a siesta until the evening hunt, which started around five o’clock.
The evening hunt is interesting and offers some options that most of us here are not familiar with in the US. You can choose your typical hunt either on stand or spot and stalk until sundown. You can also choose to hunt in the European style after dark for both stag and wild boar. Hunting after dark entails sitting with the guide in a blind over a food plot or water hole. When the guide hears movement he shines a light and the hunter has a split second to make the shot. The wild boar is primarily a nocturnal animal and this is the primary way that they are hunted in Europe and South America.
A hunter going to Poitahue during the rut can expect to see lots of good red stags in the SCI gold medal range along with a fair amount of true monster animals. I am a bow hunter who enjoys the extra challenge that comes with getting up close and personal with an animal, but many times that means not scoring on animals that could have been easily taken with a rifle. Bow hunting for red stag is not an easy proposition, but it is definitely doable. I did take a nice 5X5 at 30 yards on the last day of the hunt two years ago. It had a very tall and wide rack and they estimated that it was 8 or 9 years old. On both of my trips to Poitahue I could have easily taken animals in the 350+ range if I had chosen to hunt with a rifle.
 Earlier that week, while hunting with an extra person video taping the action, we came upon two big stags fighting about 100 yards up a slight rise from us. We took advantage of the commotion to stalk to within 40 yards through the low scrub and brush. After the 7X7 drove off the 6X6 and turned broadside I took what I thought was a perfect shot, only to see the stag take off and go about 15 yards and then slowly walk away. I couldn’t believe my eyes, because it appeared that the arrow was on track for a perfect hit. We went to where the stag was standing and found my arrow without a trace of blood on it. Later, viewing the video in slow motion, we could see that the arrow hit one tiny shrub branch in front of the stag and deflected downward right below the boiler room.Whatever your choice of weapon, Poitahue offers something for everyone. Rifle hunters can easily expect to take their trophy and management stags as well as wild boar and other exotics if they choose. Bow hunters can expect to get multiple shot opportunities at nice stags and see many more animals up close and personal. For those who would like to try bow hunting for these magnificent animals, but want to ensure that they bring home a nice trophy, the ranch also has rifles for rent by the day. You can hunt the first four days with your bow and then if things don’t seem to be going your way you can always switch over and make sure you bring home a trophy.
Although not as well know as New Zeeland for red stag, the hunting can be every bit as exciting, challenging and productive at a much more reasonable price. The ranch is located in an area where the terrain is a mix of rolling hills of mature forest interspersed with open grass lands where even older hunters or those who are not in good shape can get out and enjoy stalking these magnificent animals on foot.
My experience at the Poitahue Hunting Ranch was one that I will remember for the rest of my life. This is truly a first class operation. I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about an international big game hunt for red stag. For more information on the Poitahue Hunting Ranch feel free to contact me at memalek@hotmail.com or check out their website at www.poitahue-hunting.com.ar.
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