Quite a coincidence you posted this hunt but this has been on my wish list for many years now. Not only to see Mongolia but to take the two ibex and roe deer.
It did take two full days driving to arrive at our Gobi camp. We spent the night in a Yurt/Ger which you see everywhere over here. They are basically a little house with an actual bed. Now the Gobi camp is actually no where near where we are to hunt. We pick up 3 guys and they drive an old, old Russian jeep that the windows do not roll down on. It’s nearly 90 degrees in the day so that’s a Russian oven for me! We drive 2 hours or so and begin the hunt. Beautiful mountains in the Gobi but not as tall or high altitude as the Altai mountains. We see no ibex until very late evening but did see Argali sheep that are really beautiful. As late evening arrived we all climbed to the top of a hill by our fly camp and began to glass. We broke out the vodka and did the good luck ritual. My cook had supper ready for me so I headed down to a fine little camp meal. No sooner had I finished and thought “well we are done for the night time to start relaxing” the guides excitedly insisted I get back up there! They had my swaro spotting scope trained on a very nice mature billy far away on top of a rugged mountain. We get in the little Russian keep and head over to that area. My young guide, who doesn’t seem to understand distance very well, hurriedly gets us behind the right mountains and up and in position. Not the way I would have gone but it’s Asia! He gets me set up and it’s 500 years and steep uphill shot. The wind is good but that billy knows something’s up and is on alert. I figure this is it so I range him and get the Kestrel. Dial and try to get comfortable on what is getting out of my comfort zone. I fire and see no reaction, I fire again and I see not hear anything. The guide insists I hit it in the leg. Hmmmm what to do. We head up and then I realize that large meal was I’ll timed. My stomach aches and my legs get a bit weak. We get up and find blood. Well here we go I’ve wounded something Miscommuncation as the guide finds him. We are on top of a very rugged mountain as this is all unfolding. I am looking across the canyon for the ibex as it’s getting very dark. He bolts from OUR side of the canyon. Miscommunication and I am not a happy camper. We lose him in the dark and come back early the next morning. He wasn’t 100 yards away dead as a hammer. My ill placed Barnes bullet severed his femur bone in two and the second show was a gut shot. Two hits a 500 yards, well at least I didn’t miss! Frustrating and half sleepless night but I got a very nice trophy Gobi Ibex.
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