Sorry this is late. Being at home during the China virus mess has given me time to catch up on my reports.

Note on this report - the guide, a supporter and outfitter seen at DSC, asked that his name and town not be disclosed publicly due to anti-hunting backlash. I respect his wishes and submit this without reference to his name or home town. If you want info, please PM and I will call you with that info.

Austria – Who Hunts There???

Outfitter – not named as outfitter request – has had repercussions from anti-hunt groups

Will reply to personal emails if you want the name

Area –50 miles south of Vienna in a private estate managed timber and wildlife area

Dates – December 15-21, 2018

Agent – none

Game Sought and Taken – Alpine Ibex, Mouflon, Fallow Deer, Wild Boar, Red Stag (1 trophy and 2 management), Alpine Chamois (did not see)

Guns and Optics – Blaser R8 in .308 Win with Swarovski Z6i 2x12-50 illuminated reticle using 165gr Nosler Accubonds. The rifle was suppressed as well. I really do not understand how the USA has not made using suppressors easier. A suppressor saves the ears and shoulder. Amazing device.

Executive Summary

Who hunts in Austria? I never thought I would until I met our guide at the Dallas Safari Club Show. I saw his booth, stopped to visit and booked an Alpine Ibex hunt along with the rest. I had no clue that Austria had a long and cultured hunting tradition much like what Germany and many other European countries offer. We had a great hunt, took great animals, enjoyed great good and hospitality. The Red Stag and Ibex were the highlights with other excitement thrown in for good measure. He is the real deal – experience, passionate and an excellent guide.

Austria

I think of The Sound of Music movie and singing when I think of Austria as do most Americans. It is a stunningly beautiful and post card perfect country with outstanding roads and transportation. It is rich in all types of traditions and welcomes hunters. Getting there is easy as most major US cities have direct flights to Vienna. We were picked up by a driver and were in the town/village in an hour. Vienna is the major city in the country of 8 million people with the rest being smaller towns and villages. You are rarely more than five miles from the next town and rarely ever far from a home or farm. Clean, beautiful and very picturesque is the best way to describe what it all looked like.





So, how did I even find out how and where to hunt in Austria? Well, the Dallas Safari Club Show was a great place to look around. I met my guide there, hit it off and booked a hunt. I liked his passion, obvious knowledge and history in the area (He has lived there all of his life). He is the real deal and knows European hunting as well as anyone. Heck, the Europeans taught us Americans how to hunt!!!!



Accommodations

Our guide put us up in a local hotel/resort named for a big mountain that overlooked the town. The hotel is upscale with great rooms and a super restaurant. This is a resort or weekend town for folks from the city. Lots of hikers and skiers come here. We had a very large suite that offered all the amenities of any Colorado ski resort. Hotel food was superb and we spent parts of each day exploring the small village. We hunted early and late so the midday time period was perfect for sight-seeing and resting.

Hunting Area and Methods

The area started just outside hotel and covered a couple of mountains and valleys. I never had a feeling for the size other than it seemed very expansive and rugged. The mountains were very steep and unclimbable in the snow. Again, the area was stunning beautiful – much like post cards of the Alps. I struggle to describe it other than a 10,000 acre reserve/forestry operation that is intensely managed for long term hardwood tree growth as well as wildlife. Our guide is a forester by trade and manages this property for logging, firewood, hunting and long-term conservation. The property has trees that are 250 years-old and older. He and his staff are thinning and taking care of the land and trees with a view to the next generation or next century.

Roads in the area are very good and extremely well maintained, so getting around was no issue. We had 12” or more of snow while there and were hardly hampered getting around.







We hunted mostly from stands that overlooked a valley or a clearing. The stands were miniature log cabins and seriously stout. These were first class. The open areas may have had food plots, salt licks or were staging areas for the logging operation. We hunted out of three or four stands but there were many more. We spent time driving the curving mountain roads looking off into valleys or looking over fresh tracks in the snow. On the mouflon and one of the fallow deer, we spotted them from the truck, made a short stalk and the shot.

The Animals

I am not a collector nor an “inch guy”. I just like to hunt. So, in setting this up, I told our guide that my goal was a representative animal of what he had to offer with the goal of taking a nice Alpine Ibex.

If you have read any of the mountain hunting literature, a few books stand out – “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” by Kermit Roosevelt, “Big Game Hunting in Asia, Africa and Elsewhere” by Jacques Vettier, or “Persia – Safari on the Summits” by Ricardo Medem you can get an idea of the passion many have for hunting the sheep and ibex of the world. One of the best books is “From the Himalayas to the Rockies- Retracing the Great Arc of Wild Sheep” by Richard Mitchell and Mike Frisin. Hunters and researchers and adventurers have spent a lot of emotional, physical and intellectual energy trying to define why sheep and ibex in the high places attract us so much.

I have hunted a variety of the sheep, goats and ibex. I have no ethereal or spiritual view on this other than I like to hunt. Sheep, ibex and goats are fun to hunt. They can be brutally challenging but most often are taken in reasonable places by sane hunters. I decided on alpine ibex because – a) it lives in Austria, b) Austria is very nice place to visit, c) it was relatively easy to get to the place where the ibex live, and d) they are cool, they look great and are very majestic. I saw my first one in 2000 at a zoo in Innsbruck while on a ski trip. It had snowed so much that the resort was shut down for a day, so I took the family to the local zoo. We were the only ones in the zoo. One of the best exhibits were the alpine ibex in a fake mountain compound just bouncing around in the snow. I was hooked and decided to try and hunt them someday.

Red Stag

We hunted out of a couple of stands in a couple of areas where we had seen tracks coming and going. The first “sit” was fun, saw a bunch of young stags and hinds – so we were in the right place. Each “sit” was about two hours as it was cold and our guide had a good idea if animals were moving or not. We had a great deal of snow that impacted movement.

The second sit was boring… but only for about twenty minutes. With the snow, the sounds were muffled and stone silent. All was still and frozen. Our guide later told me that this was the perfect set up as the reds bed down in a snow storm, then get out when it clears a bit.

This is exactly what happened now. A parade of red deer started across the face of the hill we were watching. First were hinds and yearlings, then came the “spikers” and small males. The congregated around some apple “leavings” leftover from a cider operation. The smell of the apples and salt drew in the red deer. As this collection of reds moved around, a couple of the younger males looked up, looked startled and moved out. The hinds just looked up and keep eating. In struts Mr. Big. He walks straight to the apples, noses around, pushes a hind or too out of the way and looks around. At this, when I could get words out in a whisper, I blubbered, “Shooter??” To which, our guide said, “Ja, shooter so please shoot and shoot straight!” So,I did.

The stag jumped at the shot, walked five steps and dropped, skidding slowly in the snow down the hill. Our guide was ecstatic. I was too when I saw how happy he was. He had seen this stag a few times over the past few years but never where he could hunt him. He said that this one of the best in the area and would be a CIC gold medal. All I could think of was, “Wow, that is a big stag!” I had taken a couple of big ones in New Zealand, as you always do in New Zealand. But here was a real, born in the bush, Austrian native red stag that was a dandy. My wife, who rarely gets jazzed over any animal was jazzed over this one. Look below and see why!

The green twig in the stag’s mouth is the “final meal” and we said “Waidmannsheil”. Hunters in Austria have their own language. They use it always in hunter circles. They say “Waidmannsheil” for welcoming, leaving and even if they have successfully hunted game. This is a show of respect and thanks that the animal gave us this life and meat and enjoyment. I like that tradition. When a hunter says this to you, usually at the end of successful hunt, you respond, “Waidmannsdank”. This means "Thank you, I am very grateful".





I wish we did this in the USA instead of fist bumps and high fives. Killing an animal like this is a solemn event in European hunting. I agree and it should be in the USA as well.


Meat Stags

Later in the hunt, we had an afternoon to pass, so our guide suggested we look for a cull red deer or two as they like the meat and this was the last hunt of the season. He needed to cull a couple. How do you pass on that? We went back to the apple patch and waited a bit. A couple of groups of hinds and yearlings showed up at dusk. Our guide picked out two and asked if I could get them both. I told him I would try. He said, “Don’t try, just shoot”. So I did, pop pop, two dead yearlings for the freezer. I surprised myself as I usually don’t get to do that. Two shots, two young stags. Great fun and “Waidmannsheil und Waidmannsdank”





Alpine Ibex

This was the highlight of the hunt. Our guide has a significant number of ibex on his reserve. The only boundaries are roads or farms or areas where there is significant human activity. His ibex are somewhat used to seeing people and vehicles. He has men out working the forests every day and they keep a close watch on the ibex and where they move.

Also, another couple arrived at the hotel and we learned that the husband – Jerry- was there for the fourth time to hunt ibex with our guide. The hotel was somewhat in the low season, so we had the chance to share meals with Jerry and his wife to learn. They were an older couple from Houston that spend a lot of time traveling the world and enjoying the fruits of a long career in the energy business. They had been to China to see the “ice palaces” somewhere in northern China and were headed to Malta after Jerry’s hunt. He had nothing but high praise for our guide and the overall operation. He was after a “monster” ibex.

Jerry is an experienced hunter having been many places and taken a pile of animals. He had recently been to Mongolia and Uganda. He was a great guy to visit with and share experiences.
We were both headed up the mountain on different days but got boxed in by the heavy snow. The ibex were pushed down from the top to high meadows and areas a little more protected from the wind and snow. Our guide had his men out doing some pre-scouting to see where the ibex were headed and how best for us to hunt them. As a unique twist, we ended up hunting them from blinds that were normally used for stag and fallow deer as the ibex had come that far down the mountain to get out of the snow.

Jerry was hunting from a blind high above a meadow and had a devil of time getting in and out of the area due to 40 mile per winds and white out conditions. He ended up killing a super ibex but needed a lot of help getting out of the knee-deep snow and down the mountain. He was 82 years old and in good shape for a hunter of that vintage.

My wife and I took up the challenge to climb up a good distance to a blind on the side of the mountain facing up the mountain looking an open area. This open area ran up the mountain about 400 yards and was 100 yards wide. I was concerned that we were looking in the wrong direction to see any ibex as I am used to looking “down” the valley to see what is coming. Our guide assured me that the ibex use this open area to traverse up and down the mountain and that after the storm passed, they would work back up the mountain passing through this open area.

The next day, the storm passed leaving a lot of snow up high and less down in the town. We drove as far as we could then hiked up the mountain with our guide breaking the trail of knee- deep snow to get to the blind. We settled in and watched…..

He had heard that morning from his men that the ibex were below us and that they expected them to work back up the mountain and in fact saw them start moving very early. We feared we had missed them but only saw a few sets of small tracks showing that the rams had not passed by. An hour into our “sit”, we spotted one, then a second big males slowly working up the mountain. They turned and walked within forty yards of us when our guide gave me the “go” sign. The first male passed, looking huge to me when our guide saw the second one and pointed. Not slow on the trigger, I fired and we had a really, really nice ibex. “Waidmannsheil und Waidmannsdank”, as I am truly very thankful for this wonderful Ibex.

From the blind, looking uphill –







Ibex are intriguing. I hunted Bezoar or Persian Ibex in Turkey and had a great time. Next up will be Spain for the ibex that like hot food!



This stag was in the lodge/trophy room of our guide. This was the biggest off this estate. Ours was close but this one is to dream for and hopefully I go back for a chance at his twin.



Fallow Deer

This part of the world is where Fallow deer were originally from. They are cool. The size of a whitetail, heart of fighter, and fancy antlers. This area has held Fallow Deer for 500 or more years. Fallow come in three colors, all of which are normal and natural – white, brown, mottled brown bordering on black/gray. All have spots. All taste really good. I have hunted them in the US (not too big), New Zealand (very nice, big and a lot of them) and now in Austria.



I ended up taking two as I saw two really nice bucks and just did it. We found the first one while looking for boar. We were on boar tracks and looking hard into a deep ravine. With the deep snow, tracking was a cinch. While looking at the boar tracks and trying to see who made them, we see a fallow buck watching us through some very dense trees. All I see is an antler and one leg. This one was dark brown, so somewhat easy to see in the snow. Our guide moves slowly around and sees more of the deer, then tells me he is a good one and to shoot. I do and he drops. Well, where he dropped was not in an easy place to get to due to the snow. For a 120 yard shot, we spend at least half an hour wallowing through the snow and slipping up and down the hill to get to him. Turns out, he was good, but not great in terms of antler size. Our guide was a little disappointed but I had no regrets – he was nice. “Waidmannsheil und Waidmannsdank”




Later, we were again hunting wild boar and bumped a nice buck near one of the apple and straw hog feeding places. This one was white and more difficult to see. He froze when we got within 100 yards and again, took a bit to find him in the trees covered with snow. When our guide was settled on him, he said that this one was one he has seen over the years and was at his peak for antler growth. So I obliged myself and shot him. Again, the .308 Blaser dropped him. Recovery was a lot easier as he slid down the hill to a road. Very pretty, very classic and elegant. This is one of the first animals my wife says she wants mounted in the house. Wohoo for me!!! And “Waidmannsheil und Waidmannsdank”





There are a lot of fallow deer here. Our guide and his customers are more focused on stags and boars, so the fallow get overlooked. I really don’t get that, but it worked well for me.

Boar

I struggle to excited about pigs. I have shot a bunch of feral hogs in the USA. I have shot a number of warthogs and a couple of Giant Forest Hogs. I just don’t get jazzed by hunting them. No real reason, just preference I guess. Well, our guide was keen on boars. He said he truly loves to hunt them as they are smart and tough to hunt. I listened as he is seriously experienced so I agreed to give it a go.

In Austria and other European places, they are driven across area where hunters are stationed in blinds/stands. Every hog coming by gets targeted and usually a group of hunters in a good area will shoot a truck load. The other way is to sit in a blind overlooking a baited area much like how many in the USA hunt whitetails. I am not into that at all, but our guide suggested we try it just to see the hogs show up.

My wife and I are freezing in the blind and looking at the darkness when a sounder/herd/gaggle of hogs show up at a corn and apple feeder. It was the Main Event on WWE as those pigs rooted and fought over the food. It was too dark for me to shoot, but our guide had a thermal spotting monocular and was telling me which were boars and which to shoot. The milled around and was on and off each with the Swarovski Illuminated reticle until I could not sort out who to shoot and who not too shoot. In about two minutes, the mayhem was over and the hogs took off.

First, I was bit embarrassed and not getting on a target. Second, I did not expect a full-on hog fight right in front of me. In total, I guess there were 20 +/- hogs with a couple of big boars in the tag team match. Our guide laughed and said that is what happens in their version of hog hunting.
We packed it in for the night and decided to come back and track them the next day.

Getting to the boar area –



The next day, we go to the area and pick up tracks. The hogs scattered all over the place so tracking was difficult due to the number of tracks and how many there were. We drove a few roads looking for where they had crossed and so, confused ourselves even more. We decided to go a pile of apple “leavings” from a local cider mill that our guide worked with to use the waste from the cider mill as food for hogs. While heading there, we spotted a boar asleep at the base of a large tree. Our guide said that this was my lucky day as he rarely sees them in the daytime. We made a sneak behind a snow drift. I eased up and over (I thought) and fired. A puff of snow and hog running off apparently unhurt led me to a second shot. I fired again and hit him high in the back. He slowly went down the hill out of sight.

Our guide said I did not get high enough above the snow drift and shot through the snow on the first shot. I never saw the snow drift in the scope. He said the second shot wounded him badly and he would not go far. So, we back tracked, got to the truck and drove down and around to where he thought the boar would go. I was using his rifle so I asked for a couple more bullets and his face went a little white. He had one left. He had grabbed a box of .30-06 cartridges instead of .308. He had one lone .308 round in his pocket leftover from the day before. Well, all we could do was make sure one was enough.

We got to where our guide felt was the place a wounded hog would go and we started glassing and looking in the dense woods. In a few minutes we spotted the boar laying down at the base of a tree breathing hard. I took aim and shot him in the neck at 50 yards. He just over and slid down the hill to us. Our guide was a bit shocked I tried a neck shot. Well, I hadn’t aim for the neck but I could not tell where the neck started and body began. I missed him in the neck. Anyway, he was dead and I was jazzed at the size of this pig. “Waidmannsheil und Waidmannsdank”





Again, I am not a pig guy….but I am now a boar guy. This was fun. This was beast and they are really cool. Turns out he was a “gold medal” boar according to the CIC standards. He weighed 151 kgs.

Mouflon

Again, I was not terribly interested in mouflon. I have seen them a lot in Texas on game ranches and read a little about them. They are highly domesticated and cross bred. I believe they come from Corsica or somewhere in Southern Europe. They are not very big in terms of body size. They grow a long circular type horn that frames their face quite nicely.

We saw several while hunting stag and fallow deer, so I got a good look at what was here. We even saw one that was a bit drunk from eating some fermented silage. He was staggering a bit, slobbering and acting like a fraternity kid with free beer. We drove up on him and he never acted nervous.



Our guide told me that the mouflon in this part of Austria are about as pure strain as there are. He pointed out the characteristics of them and showed me how to tell a big one from a little one. As the hunt progressed, I got the itch to give it a go. Heck, I was there, the mouflon were there, so why not?

Mouflon are short-legged and I got the impression they do not like snow judging by how they walked in it. I agree with them. I don’t like snow either. I prefer the beach. But, ibex and red deer and boars and fallow deer don’t live at the beach. So here we are.

We drove to a couple of areas where our guide knew the mouflon would likely be and we looked over a few. Later that day, we spotted one just crossing a road and heading down into a deep valley. Our guide said he was the best we would see, so we made the stalk and shot. This was not a breath taking, hang off a cliff, climb a vertical mountain type of stalk/hunt. It was fun, albeit short, and ended well for me and bad for the ram. He was a dandy. They are fun to hunt and I would do it again. “Waidmannsheil und Waidmannsdank”



Sidebar about our guide – He is a long-time hunter and forester. He hunts all over Europe and has amazing stories about hunting in Russia. He lives where he works and has a fabulous Austrian hunting lodge for a home. Stunning trophies and many mounts. He gets it. I wish his North American counterparts were as good and as sincere. He charges no day rate, just CIC based trophy fees. Is he cheap? No. He is expensive but the quality is seriously worth the price. The experience is unique and is a great place.

Back to his background. He told us a story of hunting denned bears in Russia. They hunt them in the dens and locate them with dogs. When a den is scented, the Russians jab a long sharp pole down through the snow to arose and antagonize the bear. All of this while drunk or impaired by vodka. Our guide told me that the Russians steel themselves with the vodka due to the close encounter expected with the bear.

On this hunt, the Russians locate the bear. The man tasked with poking the bear is not the lucky man. He usually gets clawed or bit before he can get clear of the angry bear. On this occasion when the bear erupted out of the den, he surfaced right next to our guide who was encumbered by homemade snow shoes. He fell forward as the bear came up firing a shot from the hip hitting the bear. The bear wheeled and came at our guide from a few feet away. He was able to place the muzzle on the bears head and touch off another round. This ended the matter but scared all involved.

Our guide has that bear in his lodge, mounted and the skull shows the frontal brain shot from close range. I tell this story poorly. Go hunt with our guide and get the story first hand.

Alpine Chamois

Chamois are hard to hunt. Especially in the deep woods and steep cliffs. They see you before you see them, then they disappear. We had the benefit of deep snow that made seeing them easier and tracking them easier. However, getting to them was another issue entirely. We went to the areas our guide regularly sees them. We saw tracks and we saw where we had disturbed them pushing them into the deep and steep woods. In summary, we never got a shot and barely spotted them. This is the toughest animal to hunt here. We needed more luck than we got and we also needed a curious one to stand still a bit longer. Did not happen. I would do this again. It is a bit of a cat and mouse game which is great fun.


Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Always ask yourself this question – “Would I do this hunt again?” and “Would I recommend this hunt to my best friend or kids?” The answer to both questions is a resounding “YES!”. Great fun, great food, great guide, great country, great animals… What else do you need?

A couple more thoughts and comments –

1. If you go, no need to take a gun. I would expect every Austrian outfitter has guns. Our guide had a dandy in the Blaser R8.

2. Pack for snow. We are from Oklahoma, so we had to get a little guidance on snow gear.



3. Relax. This is a vacation in the Alps bolted onto a hunting trip. You will get your game and have fun.

4. Travel to Vienna is a cinch. We flew to Chicago and then to Vienna. No issues at all.


5. It is not cheap. Nothing is cheap anymore. This will cost what a good safari in Africa will cost. There are few Alpine Ibex tags available anywhere. They are pricy but less than any sheep hunt that I have been on.

6. The CIC trophy measuring system is good. I much prefer it to SCI. It is simpler and very easy to understand. I like the idea of the weight of the antlers rather than inches. Horned animals are measured and the fee based on centimeters.

7. It is an easy, yet hard hunt. Easy in getting there and navigating the country. Hard in finding exactly what you are looking for or if you are “inch” person, to get a lot of inches.

8. Shots are close. My longest was 120 yards, closest was 20 yards.

9. Book direct. No need for an agent. Our guide has been there for most of his life. He is the real deal and loves to hunt as well as showing others how fine hunting is in Austria.

Each night I journaled and did a Christmas devotional.




Parting Thoughts

I also judge a hunt on if my wife wants to go back too. She does and we will……


“Waidmannsheil und Waidmannsdank”

WMH- looks a fine hunt!

Ross - Congratulations and thanks for the great report! Did you get the trophies back home yet?

Where is your bird list????

Looks like heaven on earth. I have been hunting in that region twice. I love Austria a lot more than Paris.

quote:

Originally posted by SDSpink:
Where is your bird list????

Believe it or not, we saw almost none, just crows and sparrows. Too much snow I think.

quote:

Originally posted by Hannay:
Ross - Congratulations and thanks for the great report! Did you get the trophies back home yet?

Yes, 3 weeks ago. They arrived slow but in great shape.

quote:

Originally posted by dogcat:

quote:

Originally posted by SDSpink:
Where is your bird list????

Believe it or not, we saw almost none, just crows and sparrows. Too much snow I think.

I do not know what kind they are, but the hawks there are very large.

Waidmannsgross! Swiss Version

Waidmannsheil! German Version

Dach Bror! Polish Version

Great report!

I think I want to be Ross when I grow up.

Congrats. Great report.

I did Austria about 20 years ago. It was fantastic.

Excellent report and having visited essentially all of my grandfather’s home land of Austria last year, I can attest to your comments regarding the picture perfect postcard country. Nice to see you kept the privacy of the outfitter as not all enjoy the fame.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

Sounds like a great hunt and experience. I just did a hunt in Spain in Jan.and England in Feb.may be interested in something like that in the future. Enjoyed Europe. Could you pm me the name of the outfitter

Outstanding! Congrats on what looks like a fantastic experience. Man I love the look of that traditional alpine terrain/hunting!

I shot a boar south of Vienna some years back (it was when that volcano erupted; MsAZW was stuck in the UK and I was stranded in Vienna).

I also visited there just before Christmas; MsAZW had to go to Vienna for business and I came along to see if I could drum up business. Vienna and Austria in general are really cool during the holiday season.

The other cool thing about Vienna is how many hochsitz (hunting stands) there are, and how close they are to major highways.

Great report.

.

Ross, I only saw this just now! A very big WAIDMANNSHEIL to you on a rack of superb trophies! The stag is a dandy as are the ibex and the pig. But the mufflon is the icing on the cake IMO! Superb. Congratulations. Glad you guys had such a great time and hunt. When the pandemic is over I plan to take my son to Austria for old old mountain roe buck up high!
Again Waidmannsheil and thanks for posting!

Charlie

Ps. Nice European style hunting hat you got there too!
.

congratulations you lucky duck! Thanks so much for sharing. I can't wait to share the same experience someday.

Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

Weidmannsheil for the hunt and the story!
With due respect, I cannot agree about appreciating the CIC measuring system. It is very complicated. The mufflon ram horns, for eample have to be measured in length along the curve. This length had to be divided in three equal parts and for each sction the circumference of the horns has to be measured, a.s.o. It takes two people to measure it properly. A CIC judge told me that it impossible to guess the points at sight, without a measuring tape and three, better four hands.
For chamois it is a bit simpler but if the horns at the top (i.e. at the bend) are wider than a certain value the measure does not influence anymore the pointage.

I too prefer the CIC system. Ultimately, I do not need any scoring system to know that Mouflon is awesome.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
I too prefer the CIC system. Ultimately, I do not need any scoring system to know that Mouflon is awesome.

Yep! Big sheep there, what more could a guy want?

Ross:

Fantastic write up and pictures.
That's about as full a bag as can
be had. Lacking one?

Thing about the mtns: here in CO
they start around 6-9000' then go
on up from there.
Those Alps start at sea level and
end up as high as ours. Whole different
deal.

I never got that deep into the country.
Had a lady I wanted to meet in Absam,
just about 10 miles east of Innsbruck.
Caught a bus and went there. Lovely gal.
Army and her studies got in the way so
we never could meet again.

Until recently I never knew Swaro optics
is just a couple miles further east at the
other side of Absam. Any of you well
healed guys that get there need to go
check their factory out and stock up
on a fine glass.

George

Fine report of your trip. Very nice animals. I always enjoy reading your posts since you detail each step.

Very cool hunt, Ross!

Looks like a heckuva lot of fun in a great country.

Congrats!

That's an excellent report. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you so very much for sharing your photos and writing a superb report, I really enjoyed it - Waidmannsheil!

Great report. We hope to go there next year for the ibex and chamois. Do you consider hunting in Austria to be free range?

Please PM me the name of your outfitter.

Ross,

Congratulations on a Great hunt.

Happy Thanksgiving


Arjun Reddy
Hunters Networks LLC
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: +1 845 259 3628
2020, DSC booth # 2350
2020, SCI booth # 3167

Just saw this. I enjoy your hunting reports Ross!