We received our early December 2008 hunt dates from Bob Kern-Hunting Consortium for my husband's Marco Polo sheep/ibex hunt in Tajikistan.
This is his retirement gift to himself after 29 years in law enforcement.

We will fly into Moscow then on to Dushanbe and then camp.

Any advice from those of you who have been there would be appreciated. Optics,clothing,gifts for camp staff/guides, food to bring,anyhting else you think is important.

Thank you again for your assistance.

Kathi:

I haven't been, but I almost booked this hunt last year. I look forward to hearing how it turns out.

The biggest thing that pisses me off about the these hunts is the mandatory bribes. I would call them tips, but we all know they aren't that.

What a screwed up mess over there.

At least on a Alaska or Canada sheep hunt your guide can suck and you can choose not to tip him.

Unfortunantly so much of hunting is creaping toward this way.

I think I would rather go to Mongolia. I know that the odds are lower, but the drama is too!

Which area would you be hunting in Tajikistan?

We hunted the Hot Spring Camps which borders the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan near Murghab in December 2005. If this is the area you are also going, I can give you detail of our hunt.

Ahmed,

We will be in the Hot Springs camp. Is there anything you can suggest to bring for the guides?

Any information on weather, shooting distances,etc.is appreciated.

Kathi,

Marcopolo in Tajikistan is not a physically difficult hunt, in my experience the hardest part is getting to the camp and coming back. It seems that the moment we landed in Tajikistan there were big problems, one after another of different nature, but our agent was able to solve every hurdle with ease or should I say by greasing palms of the officials. The key as a hunter is: you must trust your agent and let him worry, he will get you through to the camp.

The first night in camp after dinner our local hunting guides came into our room and bluntly asked us how much we are going to pay them in tip after the hunt? I thought this was a bit rude and told them it depends on how hard they work for the hunt. But they kept on insisting that we must tell them a Tip amount so that they work according to that. In the end I have to call our agent and who assured the guides that a good hunt will result in good tip.

The altitude medicine is an essential and you must consult your doctor. Even with the medicine I was very sick the first day and didn’t take part in the hunt. On the second morning, I was back to normal and accompanied my father who shot his sheep around midday. His shot was at 450 Yrds which slightly above average 350-400 Yrd shot in the area.

In the camp there was a Canadian Hunter who shot his sheep from 860Yrds the day we arrived. I guess it helps if you could do that.

We saw a lot of Marcopolo probably more than 1000 during our two days there.

The guides showed us four ram of 55†class before we got on the ram that we shot which measured 62â€. It was pity that it broke both his horns when it fell after the shot.

The weather when we were there in december was -36° C day time temperature and it was extremely dry. In the night I couldn’t sleep more than 30 minutes in a stretch because my throat would get so dry that I had to sip on water.

They are poor people in camp, so any thing that you can take as gift would be appreciated.

From our experience I can tell you that, when you will shoot your Marcopolo it will be the best moment of your hunting career. Good Luck.

You can see some of our Marcopolo hunt pics in my Tajikistan hunt post. If I can be of any further help, please let me know.

Ahmed,

Thank you for the information. Did you get a chance to do any ibex hunting following your Marco Polo hunt?

Also, congratulations on a GREAT Marco Polo.

quote:

In the camp there was a Canadian Hunter who shot his sheep from 860Yrds the day we arrived

Seloushunter

Thank you Kathi, We didn’t shoot ibex when we were there but we did saw two big herds of Ibex while hunting and our agent told us that if we are interested they can take us to an area about 100 Km which has some really big Ibex. The ibex hunting there is very easy as the Ibex are not shy at all. Secondly, I have shot Himalayan Ibex in Pakistan which to me is exactly the same animal so it didn’t appeal to us to hunt Ibex there.

One more thing, in camp they have a Russian snow vehicle with very large balloon wheels, which they call “big footâ€. We found out that our hunt package includes service of a normal Jeep but not the big foot. The Canadian hunter in camp advised us to hire the services of the big foot which was I think at $200/day. I will fully recommend you to use it as this will allow you to go into places where the ordinary jeep can’t.

Good luck.