The trip had been in the planning for over 18 months with deposits paid for myself and my son, one of those trips of a lifetime. Then got made redundant in March which wasn't a bad thing but then got diagnosed with bowel cancer at the end of May "that wasn't so good". So with the trip mid September and surgery not till late in July the trip was up in the air and not knowing what the outcome would be in consultation with doctors etc I still decided to go. I put the dates off by a week to give myself more recovery time and to try for a bit of fitness "fitness wise that didn't work".
So off we went left home on the Sunday afternoon to Sydney- Korea "24 hr stop over" then to Almaty Kazakhstan on the Tuesday night, we left for the mountains as soon as we got out of the airport a 5 hour drive. So after a meal and a short sleep a gun test shot it was on the horses and off, myself and 2 guides and my son and 2 guides in different directions.
1st evening saw 2 very good bulls a few ks away just before dark so we decided to stay put and camp and see if they were about in the morning or the next evening but no they weren't.

first camp the locals were making hay although it's a national park


that evening over the ridge into the next valley where we got onto a bugling bull but got to about 900m and he moved back into the timber

saddle


so next day we moved camp to over the ridge to and old cabin out that night and the next morning but nothing doing so we moved up that valley and over into the next

looking back down valley towards the old cabin



going over into the next valley just under 3000 m



In the next valley we saw 3 bulls a few ks down the valley on a clear face and 1 bull up the valley so down we went "the area had been logged in the past as it's only been a national park since 2005 so there are roads which make going easier"
At the valley bottom the bull up valley had come back down and came out in a gap in the pines a good 7-800m away up hill so I wouldn't take the shot as was not comfortable with in he went back into the pines so we raced up valley and up the side " these horses went where it would have been hard to walk up not good for a novice rider". but he never came out. We moved up valley to camp and there was another bull towards the camp site on the clear ground the shepherds make hay off bugling so we made haste. We got close just on dark and after a quick scramble across a gut he was only 20-30 m away but it was pretty dark so filled the scope and let him have it he ran which put him towards where the sun had gone down which gave better viz and put another one in him



looking up valley to where I shot the bull on the clear looking ground


Took some back steak and went to the camping place and back next morning for the head



Rested the horses for a day then a 5 hr ride back to the house we were staying in the guide carried the head for nearly the whole ride







Found out when we got back that the son had been harassed by the guides to shoot at a bull they insisted was huge at long distance and turned out to be a small 4x5 was not happy, but other than that the organisation and hospitality were great and the national park administrators were involved at all times.
Complained to the outfitters about Jared's treatment but haven't heard anything back, it's a get an animal on the ground syndrome and unfortunately he gave into it. My bull went approx. 53" but will measure better when it arrives here

That's a great story, Wazza. Sorry to hear about your tribulations, though, and hope you'll overcome them as well as you handled the trip.

Good on you , mate . Hope you beat the health issues and carry on hunting . ;-)

Sorry to hear about the problems, mate, but well done on the hunt. Beautiful head.

Nice bull mate well done, trap for young players in that part of the world with your son and unfortunately if unsure no matter don't shoot, lesson for next time. Hope your well on the way to full recovery and planning the next adventure

Ah, the joys of Kazakhstan. Having lived there 3 years and worked in there 5 years, it is a unique place.

You were in some nice country and hunted an animal few get to hunt. The Kazakh's are skilled hunters but somewhat new to the concept of "trophy" hunting. Antlers are antlers to many of the men I met.

You had a great experience in a part of the world most will never see.

Howdy:

Great story and pictures, dandy bull. What species of elk is it? Didn't know they had 'em over there.

Best to you with the cancer problem. Mine wasn't, it's Chron's and they took ALL my guts out the second gutting. Hell of a trip ain't it?
George

It's a Maral which are identical to North American Elk/Wapiti which probably came from Asia over the land bridge during the ice age. There are several sub species through out eastern Asian countries, Wish you well in your battles

Congratulations on a great hunt. I consider my Maral hunt in Kazakhstan as one my best hunts ever. An unbeatable experience. I am sure it is closely related but it is not the same as the North American Elk, for one many really big Maral have palmated antlers.

Thank you sir.
Many of us if we hang around long enough attract the wrong attention it seems.
Hell of it is in this game of life we can seldom reject the cards we're dealt and just have to play them best we can.

Back in the mid 90's I came up with this.
"Life: Is just a test, of our stamina and endurance"
Age: is just a number used to judge how long we could handle it all".

Best to you in yours too.

George

quote:

Originally posted by reddy375:
Congratulations on a great hunt. I consider my Maral hunt in Kazakhstan as one my best hunts ever. An unbeatable experience. I am sure it is closely related but it is not the same as the North American Elk, for one many really big Maral have palmated antlers.

Yes agree with that, they are all subspecies separated by time and distance even in Asia they are different in size etc depending on what area they are from