Surprised to know the identity of the Russian missile debris 'hunter'

The Boreal Forest in the Mezensky District of Russia's Arkhangelsk Region is teeming with wild reindeer, wolves and grouse. But on his fifth trip to the forest, photographer Makar Tereshin decided to pursue a more unusual prey : a 65-foot-long Russian Soyuz rocket .

The rocket crashed into a forest covered with pines and birches in 1989, exploding after being launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Mirny, about 200 miles south of the Boreal Forest.

Photo taken by photographer Makar Tereshin.

The Plesetsk facility was built in the late 1950s as the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile base. It carried out more than 1,500 launches between 1966 and 2005, with a frequency of more than 60 launches per year in the 1970s.

Most of the "waste" from launches such as the body of the rocket, fuel tanks or rocket shells falls into the uninhabited forests and swamps of Mezensky district - where "hunters" will look for them.

Contrary to popular belief, the 'hunters' here are not professionally trained Russian forces. In fact, they are scrap collectors , who specialize in searching for metal from missile fragments. Due to strict regulations, they only started doing this work in the late 1980s.

Talking to photographer Tereshin, the "hunters" said that they used to use axes to chop off the metal pieces. Then someone came up with the idea of ​​using a circular saw to make the job a little easier. However, dismantling just one rocket booster stage can take up to a week.

Once the work is done, the 'hunters' will sell the metals they collect – including aluminum, gold, silver, copper and titanium – for cash in Arkhangelsk, or use them to make fences, gutters and even saunas.

Tereshin said that sculptures made from the metal recovered from Russian rocket debris are still scattered in yards and some houses in Mezensky, although the metal collection has gradually decreased. In the 1990s, the number of launches at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome decreased significantly.

Debris from the 2013 launches mainly fell on nearby areas of the Komi Republic and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (both federal subjects of Russia).

'Hunters' are scrap collectors who search for metal from rocket debris. (Photo: Tereshin).

Another reason is that the 'skilled hunters' are getting older. According to Tereshin, those who started collecting metals in the early 1990s have retired and are no longer interested in adventures.

But Alexei – the 'hunter' Tereshin was following to photograph the journey – was different. He was on another adventure. After discovering a rocket booster in the Boreal Forest, he recruited his two older sons to help him dismantle it.

They set off on snowmobiles before dawn, speeding 40 miles through gale-force winds and sub-zero temperatures to reach the forest. The rocket booster was located beneath tall trees, blanketed in a blanket of snow.

Alexi and his father agreed to let Tereshin film their hunting trip, as long as he agreed not to reveal Alexei's true identity, nor the village they lived in.

Tereshin spent four days photographing Alexei and his two sons clearing snow from the rocket's booster stage, then carving metal blocks to tie to a trailer to take them home.

For Alexei and his sons, it's a way to make a living, but for Tereshin, the journey offers a fascinating glimpse into hunting that few have ever witnessed.