MONEY-GROWING: Where to Go on Safari near Moscow

The Peculiarities of Hunting near Moscow

Apart from certain well-known peculiarities inherent in the Russian tradition of hunting in general – some hunters deliberately skip the early days of the hunting season saying they cannot handle so much drinking – hunting in the Moscow Region still has its own unique traits.

Woodlands account for some 40 percent of the entire territory of the Moskovskaya Oblast (Moscow Region) that comprises the territory surrounding the city of Moscow. The largest woodlands have been preserved in the western and eastern areas beyond the city limits.

Unique steppe flora and coniferous and deciduous forests are preserved in the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve. Even bison are found here.

At the same time, the area outside Moscow is densely inhabited, which means special caution is required from a man with a hunting rifle. It may well happen that a hunter sees an elk entering bushes and aims at the beast waiting for it to re-emerge from the undergrowth, but instead he sees a mushroom-gatherer wandering out of the shrubbery….

There is nothing extraordinary in this; it is just one of a number of holiday-makers, spending their vacation at their country houses, commonly known as dachas. The population density in the Moscow Region, which exceeds 300 people per square meter, is among the highest in the country.

And nonetheless, wild animals survive and even increase in numbers here, in particular because over the past decade people have curtailed farming in the area.

“For a beast to survive even in such a densely populated region as the Moscow Region two conditions must suffice: they need a territory where they can dwell more or less undisturbed and forage,” says Valery Lyushkov, a spokesman for the Moscow hunting club Safari.

Their stock is sufficient enough for at least 20 percent to be shot by hunters in guarded game reserves, where the animals are given fodder.

Fortunately for the animals, far from all hunters are skilled. Recent years have seen an increasing number of people with hunting rifles and hunting licenses, i.e. those who can formally be referred to as hunters, but who go hunting scarcely more often than a couple of times a year, turning the noble pastime into a common picnic and leaving shattered glass and heaps of rubbish behind them.

The Further from Moscow the Richer the Prey

“Hunting in the Moscow Region – for it to be real hunting, with wolves, wild boars – is possible only at considerable distance, 100 kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road, because serious beasts are not found closer than that. It is not really profitable to build country houses that far, and, most importantly, for the time being the demand is not very high,” holds Vyacheslav Sosinsky, director general of Novoye Vremya Development.

Sosinsky sees the solution lying in the development of special settlements where hunters can rent country houses for a few days. But calculations are still necessary to establish how profitable such projects would be for developers and the managing companies that would run such projects.

“As an alternative, there are dacha areas such as Novoye Vremya (situated 52 km from the Moscow Ring Road on Pyatniskoye Shosse [highway]) and Rezidentsia Volna (48 km, projects of Novoye Vremya Development). People staying there for a couple of months must already be familiar with the surroundings and it wouldn’t take them more than a couple of hours to get to the nearest hunting ground and return to their dachas.

“Such operations really exist. As for hunting houses in the Moscow Region, I have so far heard nothing of the kind, and even if they do exist, they are closed clubs not known to the wider public,” says Sosinsky.

The company Sapsan offers a similar solution for sportsmen who live in the country but not far from Moscow. “Muzhskoy Klub” (Men’s Club) was set up in the Knyazhye Ozero settlement (24 km, Novorizhskoye Shosse), which arranges hunting tours to the so-called “European taiga” at the juncture of the Tver, Pskov and Novgorod regions.

In that area the company operates a game reserve of 30,000 hectares. Unlike the environs of the Novorizhskoye Shosse, this area is not populated and there are no public roads, which is why wood-grouse abound, as well as brown bears, elks, wild boars, beavers, otters, lynxes, wolves and foxes.

Sergei Lavrinenko, director of the Slavyansky Trofei hunting club, is convinced that the Moscow Region is not the best hunting ground by far, because the natural habitats of the wildlife shrink as the construction of country houses expands throughout the area.

That is why Lavrinenko’s club arranges hunting tours to more remote areas in the Novgorod, Yaroslavl, and Smolensk regions where hunters can track wild beasts living in their natural habitat, and not semi-domesticated animals.

“Most people who can afford an expensive country house have good cars and it is not really a problem for them to travel 300-400 kilometers from Moscow,” he says.

Yevgeny Rodionov and Pyotr Ovdienko, top executives at the Stroimontazhservis group, believe that many people would like to run their own hunting grounds or indulge in equestrian sport on their own territory.

Such plans, however, are hardly feasible given the scarcity of land, which brings about a growing demand for larger land plots comprising river banks and forest areas. Most of these kinds of plots are located 80-120 kilometers away from Moscow.

Stroimontazhservis, for instance, sells plots of over 10 hectares for building private ranchos or organizing hunting grounds that operate all-year-round on the banks of the Mozhaiskoye reservoir. Forests in that area were a popular hunting ground among princes and tsars as far back as the 14th century. Rare maral, dappled deer, roes and badgers are still found there.

Modern preserves and centers of the Moscow Society of Hunters and Fishermen operate in the area, including one of the most luxurious – and hence most expensive – preserves as Krasnovidovo, where efforts are taken to preserve and increase the population of valuable species of fish and wild animals.

The initial cost of such a project is estimated at $2 million, which includes registration of ownership of the land, design, water and power supplies, and the construction of the main building.

For that money the buyer is free to dispose of the area at his own discretion, relaxing, fishing and hunting all year around.

Others may confine themselves to buying an inconspicuous cottage somewhere in a village outside the boundaries of the Moscow Region, or renting such a house with no amenities at a rate of 50 to 100 rubles per hunter during the hunting season.

According to Valery Lyushkov, firms offering such services charge more, from 300-400 rubles to several hundreds of dollars per person depending on the type of accommodation.

At the same time, hunting outside Moscow is possible even without traveling too far from the capital. Safari Club, for instance, arranges collective hunting, and, considering that members of the club are, for the most part, busy people, the club organizes one-day hunting trips to areas within 50km of the capital.

Natalya Fashchilenko, director of the exhibitions “Hunting and Fishing in Russia” and “Fishing and Hunting Paradise” that are regularly held by the firm Ekspodizain at the VVTs All-Russian Exhibition Center (in August the company holds its 16th Fishing and Hunting Paradise exhibition), agrees that Muscovites are showing more and more interest in going hunting on weekends together with their families, unwilling to waste much time on the road.

According to Fashchilenko, nearly all males are potential hunters of fishermen. Yet, not all of them are willing to sleep in tents; people seek the amenities they are used to: a sauna, a house with a fire-place. In response to the growing demand the supply is growing, albeit slowly.

Upon hunting through the offers on the Web you can familiarize yourself with the rules of hunting and make your choice.

Things Every Hunter Must Know…

To hunt outside Moscow all you need is a hunting license, to get permission from the Interior Ministry and to buy a gun, which in turn needs a license for its storage, as well as for carrying and using it, and to study the rules of hunting (the Law of the Moscow Region on Hunting).

By law a hunter has to obtain a one-time hunting license to take ungulates, bears, badgers, beavers, otters, martens, with each animal requiring a separate license. Separate licenses are obtained for hunting fur-bearing animals and fowl.

Each district has its own hunting society, financed from membership fees. In the Moscow Region those societies are for most part registered with the Moscow Society of Hunters and Fishermen (MOOIR) that controls over 3 million hectares of hunting grounds in the area.

A hunting license, along with a trip to a game-preserve may be obtained through MOOIR. Upon purchasing a trip a hunter thus enters into an agreement with the agency, whereby the agency undertakes to render the necessary services to him, and, at the minimum, to ensure protection of the hunting ground from poachers.

For an additional payment hunting centers can provide the services of a professional hunter, a boat, dogs and accommodation.

At the same time, hunters can confine themselves to obtaining a hunting license and to abstain from being a member of any society.

Formally, a pre-booked trip for hunting is not mandatory. A person with a valid hunting license and a gun license who observes all the written and unwritten rules of hunting can hardly be held liable for not having obtained a booking and entered into an agreement with the local hunting society.

But, explains Lyushkov, hunting is, after all, a process of unification with nature, entertainment, and who wants to worry unnecessarily, to look around warily to make sure there are no forest-guards around, and to argue with them, should they get in your way. It is much easier to contact a local hunting society, obtain a license there, book a trip and hunt where hunting is allowed.

The hunting season in the Moscow Region begins in mid-April, says Valery Lyushkov. During the 10-day spring season hunters shoot wood-grouse, black grouse, drake, woodcock, and ducks.

The first summer season begins in mid-July. Hunters go shooting with gun dogs, which is a particularly beautiful sight.

Beginning in mid-August the hunting season for waterfowl opens. In September hunting for hares, and a month later for foxes begins. During the autumn-winter season (October to January-February) it is possible to shoot elk, wild boar or deer, as well as foxes and hares.

Where the Prey Hides

The Moscow Region has about a hundred hunting centers offering services and comforts of various standards – some hunting cottages have no inside toilets while others are furnished with saunas and a fire-place.

Travel agents offer about a dozen recreational centers and holiday homes as conforming to modern city-dwellers’ ideas of countryside comfort.

The Serpukhov district in the southern Moscow Region is a good place for hunting hares and foxes with a dog in winter. The trip costs $50 per person, which includes accommodation in a hunting cottage in the village of Yenino (meals included), $15 for a hunting trip, $35 for the services of a professional hunter with two hounds and $30 for each hare or fox slain.

With minimal shooting skills and considering that after three or four hours of roaming the woods you would hardly want to drive a hundred kilometers home to Moscow, opting for a sauna instead, the cost can run up to $300.

Beginning mid-August pheasant hunting begins in designated areas on the flood lands of the Oka River, in the vicinity of the village of Nikiforovo. Special farms breed pheasants which are released into the hunting ground a couple of weeks before the season begins, so that the fowl can get used to the area and grow slightly wild.

Pheasants rarely survive the frosty and snowy winters, which is why usually all fowl released from the farms are shot before the end of the season.

Fowl which manage to get used to life at large shun people, making the hunting more exciting. But if a hunter is accurate he is highly likely to return home with a kill that will cost him $25 to $35.

Mikhail Smorchkov, who specializes in organizing hunting in the Serpukhov district, says that the area around the Prioksko-Terrasny reserve offers great recreation opportunities. Here you can find clean beaches, forests, and plenty of historical and cultural monuments.

However, apart from one tourist center and a couple of former pioneer camps, there are virtually no accommodation facilities, while construction in the villages of Yenino and Nikifirovo is restricted due to their proximity to the reserve.

Hunters are offered accommodation in local, private cottages, while construction of a small 7-bed hotel is underway.

Apart from hunting guests can choose from a sauna, horse riding, snowmobiling in winter, and boat trips along the Oka.

According to Smorchkov, large crowds of hunters are not expected here. He notes that the construction of small privately-owned recreation centers is currently underway in the region, and popular among Muscovites who like spending their vacation not only abroad but near Moscow, too.

Yelena Nefedyeva, commercial director of the Kolkunovo recreation center, notes that the ever increasing number of people willing to take a break from the city routine in the countryside is brought about, among other things, by the increasing quality of such services.

Hunting is becoming an ever more prestigious pastime for amateurs as well as professionals. “There is a growing tendency for combining corporate events with hunting. Hunting has always been the national Russian pastime. Many tourist bases meet those requirements,” she says.

The Kolkunovo center is located 140 kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road on Dmitrovskoye Shosse, within 15 kilometers of the town of Kimry, on the border between the Moscow and Tver regions. It is styled as a traditional Russian village and has been operating since 2000.

The center offers catering both for corporate clients (VIP class services are offered at the Terem and Vaulino cottages on the banks of the Volga River) and for families (Dom Okhotnika, Dom Rybaka, Teremok, Dom u Ruchya).

In summer accommodation is available on board a floating hotel or in a tent camp. The price of accommodation ranges from 3,100 rubles for a hotel room to 33,000 rubles for a country house per day.

The guarded area of the Kolkunovo center includes a parking lot and a shop. Each country house has its own sauna and there is the themed restaurant Okhotnichiy, a pond with trout and carp for fishermen, clay pigeon shooting and a helipad. And, most importantly, Kolkunovo operates its own game reserve of 40,000 hectares on the banks of the Volga River.

The northern boundary of the hunting grounds is the Medveditsa River, popular among fishermen and hunters. The farm offers waterfowl hunting. Collective and individual trips are organized for hunting elk and wild boar – a pastime, arranged by hunting experts that needs to be specified in advance.

All-year-round pheasant hunting with a setter and a falcon is also catered for. Grouse hunting costs 2,000 rubles per person plus 6,000 rubles for a kill. Black grouse is cheaper, 4,000 rubles. A beast or bird killed without expert approval incurs a fine of 150 percent of the animal’s cost.

The Zavidovo leisure center of the Main Presidential Property Management Directorate (GlavUpDK) has been one of the best known recreation centers in the region since the Soviet era.

Communist leaders, ambassadors and diplomats praised the hunting and fishing at the center located at the junction of the Volga River and the smaller Shosha River. A night in a detached country house costs 1,050 rubles; for 15,000 rubles a person can spend a whole month here.

For those who like shooting but not beautiful white swans and cute little bunnies, there is an alternative – clay pigeon shooting. Just as sporty and environmentalists would approve…

Sporting Club Moskva, established in 1998 by a group of hunting fans who were also successful businessmen, is located at the 31st kilometer along Minskoye Shosse.

Clay pigeon shooting is similar to hunting, taking place in natural surroundings, shooting at plates that fly at various trajectories and speeds that imitate the flight of fowl and running hares.

This sport came to us from Britain and is to some extent akin to golf, as it requires no special skills, but at the same time requires considerable investment.

A rifle costs from $2,500 to $140,000 or more. Accommodation is available at Berloga, a small hotel with seven rooms, each furnished in the hunting style.

But if someone wants some real hunting, it is arranged at a hunting farm near Ruza, where guests can shoot pheasants, quails and wild boards from a tower and then relax in the Fazan-Sporting hotel.

It’s Such Hard Work…

Valery Lyushkov believes that making a hunting farm profitable is a difficult job. To begin with, hunting for wild beasts means, at the very least, those beasts must be available. That requires guarding the hunting grounds from poachers, as well as bio-engineering measures, and salaries to hunting experts.

Hunters need normal service, which requires equipment, facilities and trained personnel. At the same time, the price of services will be determined not by the amount of investment and effort injected in the project but by solvent demand.

Viktor Konov, director of the Lesnaya Derevnya tourist agency, says that he has been looking for those willing to acquire several plots to invest in the creation of fishing and hunting centers for quite a while.

One example of just such a plot is a 16.6-hectare area in the Taldomsky district, near the Khotcha River, not far from a crane reserve. The area includes a group of lakes attractive for fishermen, and within 5 kilometers of the village of Nikitino, there is an aerodrome for light planes.

One hectare is designated for construction of a tourist center, while the rest is to be used for leisure facilities. The center has received the regional authorities’ consent to the use of the area and arranged a long-term lease agreement.

According to Konov’s estimates, an amount of some $500,000 is required to build a 3-4-star leisure center here, although he does not rule out that the plot may be acquire by someone for personal use.

Lesnaya Derevnya offers trips to the banks of the Oka River, with accommodation at the hunting and fishing farm Beloomut, 160 kilometers from Moscow along Yegoryevskoye Shosse.

The services of a hunting expert at the Beloomut hunting reserve cost 350 rubles per hour, per person plus a wildlife tax of 55 rubles per day.

Accommodation is available at 6-bed country houses at $100 for a house; at the hotel for $40 for a night or in a summer cottage for two without amenities but with a kitchenette.

Additional services include horse riding, catering for picnics, and there is a shop, a playground, and, of course, a sauna.

“The demand for hunting services is enormous,” says Sergei Lavrinenko. “Of course, not all hunting fans seek the services of outfitters [companies arranging hunting trips]. Residents of the region hunt quietly in their neighborhood, and also there are hunters acquainted with hunting experts of some hunting reserve and agree to hunt privately. But all that, as they say, offers no guarantees. Ordering a hunting trip through a firm suggests that the firm undertakes to provide accommodation, board, transport, and most importantly, prey”.

A hunting trip arranged through a firm may cost at least $80-90. Lavrinenko refused to name the upper price limit, for certain hunting areas whose memories of the enormous amounts foreign tourists used to be charged several years ago are still fresh, and they tend to charge incredibly high prices. Prices also vary depending on the type of hunting. In Lavrinenko’s opinion, a daily price of $100 to $150 for hunting, accommodation and board is a reasonable amount to charge.

Today hunting grounds owned by public organizations are often leased out and gradually they become privately-owned, with the terms of services and prices changing accordingly. However, Lavrinenko agrees that making a hunting reserve profitable is impossible, and there is world experience to prove that.

Hunting is a seasonal pastime that cannot yield profit all year round. He sees a solution in creating multifunctional tourist centers, fit for family vacations, corporate and sport events, provided of course, that the quality of services, including the hunting services, is high.

“Additional services are necessary for creating a profitable hunting center,” says Yelena Nefedyeva. “Apart from organizing licensed hunting trips proper efforts should be applied to provide clients with the services of experienced hunting experts, transportation to the hunting ground and back, handling and packing the kill.”

“If hunting farms were unprofitable they would simply close down,” says the director general of a tourist agency, an experienced hunter who would rather not have his name disclosed.

In his opinion, hunting centers, both governmental and privately-owned, survive and some even succeed owing to, among other things, the great variety of services offered. However, their owners don’t always seek publicity.

What’s that Fowl You’re Carrying?

Hares are the most widespread quarry in forests near Moscow, says the spokesman for Safari Club, Valery Lyushkov. A hare may not seem such a noble trophy, but hunting it, especially hare-coursing is very beautiful and, the hare itself, especially stewed in sour cream, is particularly good.

The largest and most expensive trophies are elk (up to $1,000) and wild boar ($300). The price depends on the size of the beast, on how long it took the hunter to travel in search for him, and on the demands of the hunting farm where it was shot.

Bears have not been hunted in the Moscow Region for a long time, although some reserves keep bears for training their dogs.