26 September 2025, 14:21
larryshoresMongolia- Hangai argali & Gobi ibex- pics added
MongoliaHUNTER- Larry Shores
OUTFITTER- I have no clue . There were two different outfitters. This was booked through Greg Brownlee at Neal & Brownlee. It was a cancellation hunt with after the original client could not make it due to his wife being diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.
GUN/AMMO- I took a super light weight 300 Win Mag made by Rifles, Inc . It has a Swarovski DS scope on it . Those scopes are incredible .
The ammo was factory ammo with 180 grain Nosler Accubonds made by Black Hills Ammo.
AMIMALS SOUGHT- Hangai argali. Gobi ibex. White tailed gazelle .
AREAS- I might as well say planet earth. I have no idea . They were in the middle on nowhere.
The sheep was hunted about 5 hours outside of Ulaan Baatar or UB as they call it . If my memory serves me correctly, we went east . About half the drive was on paved roads. The other half on a variety of dirt roads. It would be an exaggeration to call some of them roads.
The ibex was hunted in the Gobi desert . It was about 12 hours outside of UB. South West if my memory serves me correctly.
The Gobi is absolutely massive.
GUNS-This was quite entertaining. On my way to Mongolia, I saw my name on a sign in Seoul. They wanted to fill out some forms on my guns . One of the questions was model number. Well my guns don’t have model numbers . They have names. This seemed to totally confuse them. They had 4 people working on this. They had no clue what to do. Ultimately, it got resolved with a minor delay.
Going into Mongolia , it was a breeze. Leaving was a different story . The police took me into a lower floor room. I had to wait a while. Some guy who can’t speak English comes in. I show him everything. Then a woman comes in, she looks over everything again . We could not communicate. The guy puts something into his phone. He shows me the screen . He wants to know where my 37 arrows are. I didn’t have any arrows . I tried to tell him that . We end up waiting for another person . He shows up. Looks at everything again. After a few questions, everything was cleared .
WEATHER - it was definitely colder in the Hangai area. Elevations were higher . We spent one night there . It was in the mid 20’s at night . During the day , it was quite pleasant although a little windy . If one got out of the wind, in the shade, it got cool quickly . Otherwise , it was quite pleasant .
The Gobi was much warmer . I was largely fine in a short sleeve shirt . The wind was much stronger in the Gobi . Thank goodness we were as successful as we were. The day we left , it was cold and rainy with winds blowing about 40 MPH. That day was absolutely miserable. Raining in the Gobi is a rarity I am told .
TERRAIN- The terrain varies greatly from place to place. The Hangai area has a lot of relatively flat areas . The mountains were generally not that difficult . However , there were notable exceptions to that . Lots of rocks , often loose rocks.
The elevation varied between 5,000 and 6,800 feet .
The Gobi really varied from place to place . There were massive areas that were absolutely flat. Some had rolling hills . The mountains were not that difficult. Again , there were lots of rocks, loose rocks.
The elevations were considerably lower. Generally from 4,000 to 4,800 feet.
ACCOMMODATIONS- while hunting we stayed in gers. These are traditional Mongolian structures. One sees many of these as driving
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UB- it was a very nice city . Much more modern than I expected. Traffic is horrendous. Really bad . The cell phone service SUCKS. 3G is the best I got .
I stayed at the Shangri-la. This was a very nice hotel with staff that all speak English well. If you ever visit UB, I definitely recommend this place .
The Mongolian people were all quite pleasant and helpful .
HANGAI ARGALI- we drove to the area , got to the camp and unpacked . After eating a lunch of pork ribs (which was excellent ) we took off. They had some guys scouting . They had spotted some rams.
We drove reasonably close to the sheep . Got our gear and took off. We made a short climb, sat down and glassed . We saw nothing .
There had been some radio chatter. I had no clue what they were talking about. Apparently, these guys had spotted the rams . We got our gear and off we go. We walked about a mile when we saw the local guy watching the sheep . They were in the bottom of a gulley in the shade . They were severely down hill. Emphasis on severely .
We maneuvered to a place from which I could shoot . I was not happy . As I said earlier , it was severely downhill. The rest was not the best . The distance was 340 meters. I decided to shoot .
BOOM! He was hit and laid down quickly . All the other sheep ran . There were a bunch of ewes that I had never seen . At least 3 other rams . We watched the ram for a few minutes. Personally , my dumb ass thought that he was dead . He wasn’t. We started climbing down. We got to another closer rock . I shot him again. He was finished .
I might add that this climb down was the most physically challenging portion of the hunt . It was STEEP! Lots of loose rocks . I suck at a lot of things . Down hill on loose rocks is near the top of the list .
As a side note , I showed the guide the “hill” that I train on. He laughed. It is an elevated tee box on a golf course . All grass . No rocks.
The ram was quite old . His horns were heavily broomed . I was happy .
GOBI IBEX- I made the call to drive from the sheep camp to the ibex camp in a single day . That was a major mistake . It was a VERY LONG drive . We left at 8 in the morning and arrived at 10:30 at night . I was f’ing beat.
Frankly this camp was much better . I liked it a lot more .
At any rate , we get up, eat and take off . At first, I didn’t know what to think . We were in the flatlands . Either flat or rolling hills . After a while , we got to the mountains .
I was excited as I spotted a Gobi argali pretty quickly . He was a big bugger .
We got out and climbed a hill and sat down to glass . We saw more sheep and some ibex. I started to hear my stomach rumbling . This was a warning of things to come.
After a while we got in the vehicle and moved . Two guys went one way . We went another. All of us glassing .
The other guys spotted some ibex. We had a quick conversation, grabbed our stuff and took off for a climb. The rumbling in my stomach was getting worse . I knew what was coming. We climbed down one mountain , and up the next . We got behind some massive rocks . Through cracks , I could see the ibex . They were not far . Maybe 125 yards . I was feeling worse and worse .
We tried to get into a position to shoot. I had a rock steady rest. I could clearly see the ibex. I was urged to shoot. There was a problem . There was a rock right in front of my barrel . Minor details ! I was feeling bad. Frankly, this annoyed me greatly.
We moved to a different location . They put my pack down . I took one look at said hell no! I was really annoyed with them now. I probably shouldn’t have been. I think my stomach issues made me a bit testy.
We moved slightly . I had a rest although not a great one . The ibex was facing us . Looking right at us. They ran off .
On the way back , my stomach issues arrived in full force. We got to camp. I took some medicine and went straight to bed. Next morning I was better but not 100%.
Off we go to some different mountains. We all glassed. Some ibex were spotted. We circled around to take advantage of the wind .
We could see several ibex. They were far . We attempted to get closer but 4 argali ewes appeared on the rocks that we needed to get close to . Damnit!
We wait them out. Finally they moved off . We got to the rocks we needed to get to. Up goes the pack. I was not happy with it . We moved to another rock several yards away . This was much better .
The shot was long . 376 meters. It was from one mountain across the valley to the next mountain. I love those shots . BOOM! He was down but needed a finishing shot.
My success had been incredible in spite of the stomach issues .
GAZELLE- There are two species . Black tailed and white tailed . The black tailed are protected.
There were a lot of the white tailed species . Unfortunately, they were largely in open areas with little to no cover . They ran like hell the instant they saw you . The only way to get one is to be lucky enough to find some where one can get behind a hill to stalk . That is exactly what happened with us . We were able to get close enough to get a shot . I put him down. I am told he is quite large . Over 10 inches . I have no clue .
In the late 90’s I shot a Tibetan gazelle in China . From my memory , they seem to look a hell of a lot like the white tailed gazelle I shot in Mongolia . When I get home, I am going to take a look.
All in all, it was a great trip. I am sure I will go back one day .
Pictures to follow
