Kazakhstan

Dates – 9/6 to 9/16

Hunters - Myself, brother and my father

Hunt Area – Southeast Kazakhstan near Chinese border

Safari Operator – Pro Hunt Kazakhstan

Agent – Hunters Networks, Arjun Reddy

Travel Agent – TWG travel

Weapons and Optics Used - All 3 of us took 7mm Rem Mag. Two remington 700's and one Ruger Mark II. 160 Grain Barnes TSX hand loads. All 3 with Leica Geovid 10x42 rangefinding binoculars.

Executive Summary (for if you do not want to read all the text)- Think high country horseback elk hunting in Colorado, with really big mountain goats. I would recommend this hunt. No major hiccups. If you want a really good ibex, I would go on a dedicated hunt for them. The areas for the combo hunts seem to be a bit of a compromise on the maral quality or the ibex quality. We ended up in an area with more maral and less ibex.

What would I do differently: Treat clothing with permethrin. There are ticks and I removed 1-2 per day, luckily I always felt them crawling and none had latched on. It is cold, so not too fun to pull off clothing and look for the blood suckers. Bring a second set of good mid-grade binoculars for the guide. Theirs were not very good and they were always borrowing mine, leaving me with nothing.


I am mostly just a lurker on these forums, but I enjoy people posting their hunt reports and wish that there were more of them. So here is my first hunt report on Accurate.

We flew out of NM to Dallas, then Houston on American airlines. Switched over to Turkish airlines there, then on to Istanbul. I had last been to that airport 6 years ago and it was pretty bad at that point. Think LAX with very poorly working air conditioning. The airport this time was new and is massive. It is now one of my favorite airports. Lots of shops, food and even some designated napping areas. A few hours layover then on to Almaty, Kazakhstan. At this point we were halfway around the world with a 12 hour time difference between there and home.
At the airport we were met by Almira, the representative from Pro Hunt. She was very well organized and we were whisked through the gun and ammo permit process. She had set up a flight for us later that day to Usharal, so she had gotten us a hotel room right next to the airport to catch a few hours of sleep.



She met us 2 hours before our next flight and we got checked in for that. We had to check the guns and ammo back in with police and this went smoothly thanks to her help and preparation. At this point we met our interpreter, Dennis, who would fly with us and then accompany us to the main camp where he would stay for the duration of the hunt. His English was very good and he was a hunter, so we had a lot to talk about. Flight to Usharal on Scat airlines with a small regional jet was short and quick.



Then about a 6 hour drive to camp. Started in the flats, through the foothills and finally ended on a super long dirt road into camp. We had to check in at a military checkpoint because we were heading into the buffer zone with China. It was dark at arrival and the camp cook had dinner waiting. The food was good and there 3-courses with soup, dinner and dessert. The base camp was new and had just been built last year and finished this summer. Half was for the guides and kitchen and the other half was set up for meals and a 4 bunk sleeping area for clients and interpreter. It had a wood stove heater and electric generator that they ran intermittently. The Banya (russian sauna) was still in construction when we arrived, but finished when we left.





Next AM checked rifle zeroes and nothing had moved. We then met the guides/wranglers and packed up our gear into saddle panniers. The guides did not speak much english at all. They spoke Russian and Kazakh and one spoke a little bit of German. The translator would stay in the main camp. My brother and I were going to go together on about a 5 hour ride to a better spot for Ibex and my dad was going to hunt closer to the main camp for Maral.




My dad ended up killing a maral the next day right at dark.



My brother and I saw a few maral the first evening, but nothing too big. They were bugling, but not really fully in rut and not with the cows yet. Most would bugle at us from thick spruce forest and were impossible to see. Next AM we glassed up a herd of ibex and 2 single males all in one basin. One male joined the herd and the herd moved up the basin towards the other male. At that point we hiked back to camp, which was between us and the ibex. We had a quick lunch and then crossed the river to head up the other side. Our stalk worked and we ended up bumping into the herd at 200 yards. One saw us and they were moving out slowly. My brother was up first and he nailed the biggest one at 220 yards with 1 shot. At that point the guides were yelling at me to shoot and indicating it was a good one for this area. They were now at 300 yards and I spined what looked like the best remaining billy. He was anchored but I had to finish him off.

Brother's ibex





My ibex





On our way over to see the ibex we had killed, another ibex came out of the rocks 500 yards above us. I think he was one of the lone males from before. He was really nice and at this point I had regretted pulling the trigger because he was obviously bigger than the one I had killed. Oh well, that is hunting and I was happy with what I had.





We broke down the ibex and they saved all the meat and about the only thing left was the guts and spinal column. On the way down we found a bear skull, some maral sheds and a big ibex dead head.





For the next 3 days it rained and snowed almost constantly. We tried glassing for maral and only turned up a few while getting thoroughly soaked even with rain gear. The grass is 6-7 feet tall in a lot of areas and even when the rain was just a drizzle the grass would rain on you. We had a break one day and I glassed up a big maral at the top of the adjacent mountain, but then the rain set in again. We ate a lot of ibex in that time and it was actually very good considering they looked to be about 6 and 10 years old.

Meat pole



View from camp morning after arrival.



Same view 2 days later. It was getting colder and the snow line was coming down every day.





Finally the weather broke and at that point we broke camp and headed back to base camp. As we were riding in, we ran into my dad who was riding out to a different location to hunt ibex. He had been lucky and spent the rainy days in the nice, comfortable cabin. Apparently prolonged rainy/snowy weather is uncommon at this time of year. The camp manager had called out on the satellite phone and they were expecting 3 nice days, then more rain and snow for several days. At this point we split up and hunted maral in different drainages. Mine was a fairly quick 2 hour ride to where we set up a spike camp at a major fork in the drainage. There were more maral in this area and we heard more bugling and were seeing more out of the trees. We glassed up a huge wild boar, that looked like it was as big as a cow elk but he was over 1km away and there was a good sounding bugle above us. Had he been closer I definitely would have made a stalk on the boar. We stalked into the bugle and found a good bull out in the open in a wallow area tearing up the grass with his antlers. He was the best maral we had seen and the guide indicated he was a nice mature bull. I made 2 quick shots at 240 yards and they were both perfect, right in the chest. We had a nice maral down.

My camp









While this was going on, my brother was hunting maral in a different drainage. He had seen one really good bull (360-370 type elk) that was too far and it rimmed out into a different drainage. He saw quite a few smaller ones as well but a lot were still holed up in dark timber and would not come out to bugles. The next AM they were chasing some bugles and he glassed behind him seeing an absolute monster. He showed the guides and gave the 2 thumbs up sign, but the bull was 900 yards away and they seemed to want to try to see the other bulls that were bugling. After what sounded like some furious hand signaling and broken German he got the point across that he did not care what the others looked like and wanted to make a stalk on that bull. They made it to 500 yards and wanted him to shoot but he wanted to get closer. The bull looked like it was going to go over the ridge but then the wrangler let out a good bugle and he turned around and started running towards them screaming with bugles. Once he got under 400 it sounded like my brother was having a little buck fever, but he laid down some withering fire and got the bull down. His was a true monster 8x8.

His camp










My dad was off hunting ibex while this was going on. They spotted a herd that was too far and put them to bed in a high basin. In the AM they hiked up to where the guide expected them to be and when they popped over the ridge the herd was 50 yards away. There were 2 billies that looked the same and he put one down. They were in among the rock spires right at the top of the mountain. A few shots from the days he was hunting ibex.










When we all ended up back in base camp the Banya was finished, so we ended up with a good sauna/bath to get cleaned up.



Trees festooned with Maral meat.



The horse shoes with cleats.



At this point they were expecting more bad weather and seemed to want to get us out of camp before this hit. We drove out to a small town, stayed in a local hotel and met a driver from Almaty who was bringing supplies out. They switched our gear from the russian SUV to the VW passenger van and we ended up driving all the way back to Almaty. The flight in had saved us 8 hours of punishing paved/dirt road full of pot holes. Once in Almaty we got set up in the Hotel Uyut which was pretty nice. We spent a day touring town with Almira and had some horse meat at a restaurant. It was excellent. Food, liquor and the hotel were quite a bit cheaper than here in the USA.

The bazaar in downtown.



Turkish airlines was able to get us seats back to Houston the next day and it was only $200 each to switch our tickets, so we made the changes and went home a few days early. American airlines really sucked and said it was going to be $700 each to change our ticket dates, or we could buy new tickets for $535 plus luggage fees. At that point we voiced our displeasure, then just rented a car and took the 10.5 hour drive home. Which was not actually too bad, because our internal clocks were still set for 12 hours different so we just drove all night and got home before we could have if we had flown.

Plane in Istanbul, Turkey.

Kazakhstan is such a wonderful country to hunt and I also had great success with my 7mm. Great report and some really nice animals taken!

Great report and pics!

Yes I agree a fantastic report. Well done !!

That was a Awesome Trip
Well done
Thanks for the Report and Great Pics

Outstanding report! Thanks for taking the time to share.
You have memories for a lifetime!

Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

Wow great report, amazing animals and pictures
congrats.

All I can say is WOW!

THIS is a hunt I’d be interested in!

Wow, that is a dream hunt.

Congrats!

Great report and congrats on a great hunt. You have me fired up. I leave for a hunt like that tomorrow. Hoping the Maral rut is peaking.

Thanks everyone.

Tim, good luck. I think we were early. They were bugling but not really with the cows and chasing them. You should have a great time.

Gratulation, exellent report!

I`m just home from ibex and maral in Russia, good hunts!

Congrats on an interesting hunt and adventure! Nice trophies all around but that Maral your bro took is a toad! A true bull of a lifetime. Well done and thanks for reporting.

Great animals and report, which area was this in their new one, I hunted with them in the national Park they used to hunt which I think is now closed to hunting. Almira as cute and helpful as ever I see

Wonderful Hunt, Congrats!!!

Remarkable trophies and outstanding Hunting Report.

An incredible hunt and incredible pics. Some of the best hunting and scenery pics that I have ever seen here on AR.

Awesome hunting,shooting and story.Congrats to all three. That beast of your bro`s is something.

Congratulations. Loved your report and pictures are superb. Wonderful trophies.

Reading this may just have convinced me to go!

Nice...brings on good memories from two Kazakhstan trips in 2008 and 2009. Heck.. it is alreday 10-11 years ago...


Morten

thanks for sharing a fantastic experience.

Awesome report and pictures! Thanks

I missed this when it was first posted. What an absolutely incredible hunt and experience. It looks like all three of you ended up with tremendous trophies. Thanks for sharing!