Mongolia

HUNTER- 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

Congratulations! Sounds like a hell of an adventure, even without your stomach issues. Great animals too!

Have you done enough hunting this year?

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
Congratulations! Sounds like a hell of an adventure, even without your stomach issues. Great animals too!

Have you done enough hunting this year?

I am just getting started at home !

Thanks for another great hunt report, Larry. It sounded like an amazing and very memorable experience.

What a fascinating outing, thanks for sharing.

Shangri-la and Blue Sky hotels are both very good. Both have several good restaurants. I felt safer walking around UB than any big city I have been in...and some small ones!

Just curious, Larry. Did anyone in the hunting party speak English?

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
Just curious, Larry. Did anyone in the hunting party speak English?

At least one.

thank you again Larry for the review and report.

Thanks for the report Larry, sounds like a very interesting hunt. Mongolia has always been on my bucket list but I think I am too old and crocked for it now...not to mention that US priced hunts are painful for Canadians with the exchange the way it is.

Another great hunt report from Larry this year. Great to see you going hard in all the aspirational hunting destinations. And congrats on all your successes. You certainly deserve that after all you put into your own hunting and the help you give others.

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
Thanks for the report Larry, sounds like a very interesting hunt. Mongolia has always been on my bucket list but I think I am too old and crocked for it now...not to mention that US priced hunts are painful for Canadians with the exchange the way it is.

Skyline,
I feel your exchange rate pain. Just be glad you're not dealing with the NZD / USD exchange rate which, currently, is eye wateringly miserable.

Thanks for the report Larry. I truly appreciate reading your adventures in far away and exotic areas that I'll never be able to reach. Congratulations on your successful hunt.

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing Larry.
I loved Mongolia and can’t wait to return.

Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

Atta boy Larry! Awesome adventure.

Very impressive!

Congratulations are definitely in order!

Thank you all.

There were some fascinating aspects of this trip. The history of the Mongolian Empire for example. Absolutely unbelievable.