Hi, My name is Osman Kındır. I am a professional hunting guide in Turkey. Hunting is my lifestyle. I would like to share a story about myself with you, how come l am interested in hunting.
I started my hunting adventures at a very early age by hunting birds with a slingshot. My Grandfathers' contribution was also tremendous in my hunting background. l even take my name (Osman) after him as well as his hunting skills. İn my childhood, I used to dream about hunting by looking at my grandfather's stuffed rifle which is hung on the wall. My father and my mother used to tell me about my grandfather Osman's goat hunting in the Taurus Mountains. I grew up listening to his hunting stories and adventures.
I still cannot forget the stories, which I like most, of my grandfather Osman. All these stories are about his hunting adventures when he left the village for high mountains to hunt Goat.
My grandfather stayed in the mountains for a long time. Nobody knew about the caves where he stayed. His best friend was Donkey in these hunting grounds.
The donkey is an important animal because it is so clever that it can determine the best way and find the shortest paths on its own. So, people used to use Donkey in road construction in the old times when there was no technology.
My grandfather Osman also trained his donkey. When he ran out of supplies, he sent his donkey to the village. When My grandmother sees the donkey coming to the village, she would understand the situation and load the necessary provisions on the donkey and send it back to the cave where my grandfather was staying.
The work of carrying Goads (We call it TEKE) shot by Grandpa Osman naturally belonged to the Donkey. My grandfather would sent his lighter to grandma, as a sign of call, in the secret compartment in the donkey's saddle. My grandmother, who saw the lighter, would follow the donkey to see my grandfather on the hunting ground.
Growing up with such stories, I became interested in hunting and followed his paths. His experiences and knowledge today made me a very successful hunter and hunt organization agency. I welcome many hunters and guide them here in the mountains of Turkey
When it comes to my first hunting experience to speak of, this hunt was in the northern part of the Giden Gelmez mountains of Antalya.
On this hunt, I was the guide of the reputable Agent. Our hunters were American who was working in a big Oil Company and they were rewarded with this trip for all their successful work. Goat hunting in Turkey was their gifts and they were so excited to be here.
After getting out of the vehicle, walking for a while and observing the surroundings, I understood the reason why they called this region the Giden Gelmez mountains.
The land was unlike the places they have ever seen. The sharp limestone rocks rose like castle bastions around very large deep pits. These large deep Pits were connected like a Bee Honeycomb.
After a while, we found ourselves walking on the thin ridges between these depths. Whenever I looked to my right I saw these deep cliffs, I got excited and a little scared.
The hunters' excitement was also visible on their faces. Thank God, our professional hunter Hasan was with us there. He spent all his childhood as a shepherd in the Taurus Mountains, was doing hunting as a profession. He knew the Mountains, Wildlife and Hunting very well and was very experienced. lucky me l learned a lot from him and today l was practising it by remembering his teachings.
It was the fourth day of our hunt. For the past 3 days, we hunted on the south and west sides of the Giden Gelmez Mountains, made very long and arduous hikes, found the Goats we targeted, but unfortunately, we were not successful due to our hunters who could not shoot correctly.
After passing the Bee Honeycomb field with Deep Pits, we reached a relatively flat valley, a little bit rough. Although there was snow on the peaks, the region was unprofitable.
We checked the area with our binoculars for a long time, but unfortunately, we could not find any goats we could hunt. It was already noon. We took out the provisions that we brought with us, and we had our lunch by brewing tea in a secluded place.
One of the most important reasons why I love Hunting Tourism is that everyone is in this paradise-like nature in its most natural form. In these hunts, all participants on the hunt get rid of all their social status in their civil life and come together for a single purpose. All conversations are very sincere.
Now it is nap time for goats and rest time for us. By the way, l did not realize that Hasan had left us while chatting with our guest hunter about our lives.
After the rest, we started walking and my grandfather Hasan appeared again. He was talking to me. Look!
- A very nice goat, a very nice goat, get ready with the hunter right away, let's get closer to the goat as soon as possible.
Even now, I cannot forget the warm smile on the hunters' face that appeared when l said that My grandfather is guiding us here and we are following him. Because here is one of the special places that he can find goat always.
While thinking about how he could walk such a long distance in such a short time, we came to the front of a small hill. He explained the situation to us very quietly. During this period, something unusual happened and Hasan had seen a goat lying down alone behind the hill.
He even examined the goat and saw that it was a very mature goat in terms of age and horn length. I explained in very quiet words that the distance to our guest hunter was around 200 meters, that he could comfortably shoot.
Slowly, we crept a little further and came to the edge of a rock. We very calmly stretched our heads forward and started to look through our binoculars, in the direction that Hasan told me.
The Teke was indeed lying a little below in front of us, sunbathing and ruminating. Slowly, one of the hunters held out and fixed his gun over the Hunter backpack towards the Teke. While I was saying that he should be calm on his right side, I was preparing a cabin on a terrace to take a nice shot. My camera was also ready.
Breaths were held. I said to the hunter that you can shoot when you are ready. Because the Teke was just lying there, sunbathing and ruminating. It was not possible for him to hear, see or smell us in any way.
In that indescribable feeling that the adrenaline was at its peak, while controlling my camera's record button on the one hand and focused on the Goat on the other, with the Explosion of the Gun, the Goat jumped up and fell back to the ground at the same time almost in the blink of an eye.
Seeing that the Goat had fallen to the ground, Hunter turned towards me, stood up, stretched out both hands in the air and shouted "TEKEEE" (in Turkish) and jumped into the air. Roses bloomed on all of our faces. We were embracing and congratulating each other out of joy... (Note; I'm ending this story here, for now, I'll continue later)
This story is one of my Goat Hunt memories I Can't Keep forgetting. lt also tells the story of why l am successful and very well experienced in hunting.