Travelling across the Siberian Wilderness in search of a Musk Deer! | theHunter: Call of the Wild

theHunter Call of the Wild is one of the best hunting simulation games out there as it features a lot of maps depicting various landscapes from many places around the world with their native species to hunt on that map. There are more than a dozen maps each with their unique species of animals to hunt and each offering some spectacular views of the natural beauty.

One such map is the Medved-Taiga, a harsh and frozen Siberian Winterland with a variety of animals to hunt. However, I was surprised by the main campaign where I was tasked to find a lost teammate. I talked about him in my last post.

To recap, Gunther, our lost teammate was found dead in one of his camps where we also found some dead animals who died due to Anthrax disease and Gunther consumed the contaminated meat and died from symptoms related to Anthrax.

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Well, the authority has been informed and they will take over and while they come to investigate more we were tasked to go and check out some water monitoring sites to see if the contamination has spread to those areas as well.

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There are three monitoring stations and we need to go and check each of them. I took out my ATV as this was not a hunting mission and I wouldn't mind scaring off animals with the loud noise it makes.

While I was travelling to this location, the warden of this reserve told me about the sources of Anthrax and why there is a risk of that in these parts of the world.

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I checked them one after the other and all of them were clean with no indication of Anthrax here. That was a positive news for sure. This was a very linear mission after the last puzzling one where we had to find Gunther.

These monitoring stations were not that far apart too and ATV helped me cover ground quickly.

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This mission just unlocked more side missions. Dr. Anatoly Barnyashev is a biologist who wants to keep track of this contamination in animals so he gave me a quest to go to Lesnye Lands, the south-western part of the reserve and hunt a musk deer. But the lungs should be intact so I cannot shoot at the lungs.

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The map is huge and it takes a lot of time to go from one part of the map to the other on foot so I decided to ride in my ATV for the most part and then walk the last part to avoid spooking deer.

I had to pass close to an outpost so I decided to go there and unlock it while I could. That gives the ability to quick travel and use the bed to rest and change time. Also, there is a store in each outpost so you can restock bullets etc.

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I reached the outpost after riding for a few minutes during a snowstorm. I unlocked it and continued my long journey to the other side of the map. I found some old railway tracks and used them as my road for some time. Driving through the forest is not easy, especially during a snowstorm.

After some time the snowfall stopped and the sun came out. I hopped out of the vehicle and started taking a few shots. I spent too much time with the in-game camera and took a lot of pictures. Here is an example.

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Anyway, I drove for some more time and finally, I was in the Lesnye Lands area. This was a huge area. I left the ATV and started walking in search of footmarks and other clues. Kept searching and found some Moose tracks but I was looking for Musk deer.

They are some of the smallest deer and can hide well inside the thick forests. After some time of searching, I found a track.

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The graphics showed the size estimate to be 12-14 kg which is not big and they can run fast too. I followed the tracks which led me to a good hunting spot with a lot of other footmarks from different animals; wild boars, Moose, Musk deer all passed through this area and no doubt there was a hunting stand.

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I completed the construction of that stand and got on top of it to see if I could see some animals but the forest was dense after this point and it was not easy to spot animals even from this high.

Naturally, I went down and just started following the tracks again. I started hearing some mating calls but I had no musk deer caller on me to lure them in. I kept walking slowly towards them, crossing some shrubs and that's when they heard me and fled from the area.

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I walked slowly again and when I heard some warning calls I just laid down on the ground and crawled. Crawling makes the least amount of noise and will be best to hide from animals but it is super slow and takes a lot of patience and to become a good hunter you need some patience...right?

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Finally, my patience paid off as I saw a small female Siberian Musk Deer eating calmly. She was facing away from me and I needed to not damage the lungs to complete this quest. There are few options left if you don't want to damage the lungs and get the full rewards from your harvest. One option is to aim at the neck which is not an easy task, especially for a small animal and I didn't have a good angle for that.

The second option is to go for a liver shot which is super risky as you can accidentally hit the lung or the bullet penetrates too deep and get to the lungs so my safest bet was to just get a non-vital kill here.

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I shot at the back far from the lungs, I just wanted to complete the mission and not worry about getting the most rewards from this kill. And I used the 7mm rifle shot just to be precise with my shot.

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It weighed just over 12 kg and didn't even give me any trophy but most importantly its lungs were intact which completed this lengthy mission. The distance I travelled to get this shot and the patience I showed when hunting it was phenomenal. The task looked simple but it wasn't.

Both me and Sheru celebrated this completion with a picture.

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Looking at the map I could see a watch tower nearby so I decided to climb and unlock it. They show the points of interest in the nearby area by marking them on your map. So, I moved towards it.

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I saw some Bear footprints near the watch tower. They seem to be more afraid of me than wolves. Wolves are just horrific on this map and can attack you with their pack and take you down instantly. I have been hunted by them a couple of times already and every time I hear wolves growl I check my shotgun to see if it is filled with the right shells. xD

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Anyway, I climbed the watch tower and surveyed the area. All I could see was a thick dense forest with a couple of lakes in between. I will continue to do more campaign missions. I have been hooked to this map for some time, maybe because I love the snow or the thrill of getting attacked by wolves. One thing is clear I am enjoying this map a lot more than others!

Thanks for reading...

Until next hunt...