Roberto Cortazar (MX) completed his Ovis World Slam and Triple Slam #254 on one trip, which even he admits was something of a challenge:
Four years ago I was planning a tur hunt in Russia, and everyone told me that I was crazy if I thought hunting three turs in one trip was possible. September 2023 finally arrived and tur hunting in Russia was finally here, after three years of postponing the hunt. After a stop at Istanbul airport I departed to Moscow and then to Makhachkala to arrive at the first of the hunts, the Dagestan tur. After setting up camp we started glassing for turs and it was not very long before we spotted a group of six turs at the distance. We devised a plan and started to walk for the stalk that first put us at the distance of 700 meters. Way too long, so we waited for the animals to move and see what the next step was; they managed to move in our direction and stopped at 450 meters from us, so we managed to go up a little closer and finally at 370 meters we decided it was about time to give it a chance. I took the 300 Win Mag out and set the scope at the correct distance and fired. The guys started yelling, "Shoot again, you missed," but I was pretty convinced I hit the animal, so before I was ready to shoot again. The tur started to slow down and rolled downhill. When we got to the tur we noticed he was 13 or 14 years old and a very big trophy of 93.5 cms long.
After a few days in the Dagestan area, we flew to Mineralnye Vody to start the second hunt, the Kuban. We spotted a group of 14 turs very early in the morning but never saw them again after they disappeared in the skyline to the next valley. After all day walking the mountain tops looking for turs, we spotted a group of three lying down and we were able to get 260 meters from them before being seen. I got the rifle ready for a shot at what seemed to be the bigger one of the three, but they all looked very similar to me. I fired and the tur was hit, but ran away almost at the same speed as the others, so I fired again and again but too far for a running shot. Finally, he stopped and started slowing down so we followed for about 800 meters until he went behind a rocky place. When we were at another 170 meters he stood up and started walking away, but I put another round on him and finished the story. The tur was a 10-year-old with heavy bases.
Last we drove back to Mineralnye Vody where we were going to be picked up by a local outfitter for the last tur species, the mid-Caucasian. The morning hunt started at 3 a.m., as they wanted to start climbing the mountain to be at the mountain tops at first light. The first morning it was foggy and no way to hunt in that condition; next morning started the same, but this time with good visibility and we spotted tur at 1000 meters. The closest we could get as the tur was moving up was 630 meters and I tried to make the shot, without any luck. On the next day at 3 a.m. we were up again and spotted tur first light but again moving up at a good enough speed that we could not catch up with them, so I tried a shot at 470 meters. This time I had good luck but the tur was in a very bad spot for recovery. The local guides told me to wait; they were going to try to get the animal rolling down the rocks with a fleece jacket wrapped on its head so as not to damage the horns and face. It was very dangerous to skin the tur up there, so after a while of waiting and hearing the tur rolling but not been able to see it. I could see from my binoculars that they were skinning the tur and just brought the head and of course most of the meat in their backpacks. It was a nine-year-old mid-Caucasian tur, so on September 28 I finish my Slam of turs, my Ovis World Slam and my Triple Slam. I could not be happier.
SlamQuest, Winter 2024, page 139
