Howdy guys.. I have a couple of questions that I thought I could run by all of you here on AR that have done an Ibex hunt in Mongolia.. I've put my pennies away and now have enough dough to make the trip next year and am ready to book a hunt ASAP. I am planning an doing an Altai hunt and am going to try for a Sept, Oct '08 timeframe..
I have been reading alot of past disscussions about Mongolian hunting here on AR, and it seems almost as confusing a hunt to plan as any! Hawkeye had a really good report if I recall.. If anyone here would like to share their past Mongolian expirences, I would love to hear how your hunt was run, how it went, who you went with, etc... Good hunts and bad hunts alike. I just keep getting diff reports from diff guys on these hunts.. Some went flawlessly, some were a disaster.. Any and all help would surely be appreciated. Hopefully, with a little help from all of you, I can get a great hunt booked and have the trip go without any hiccups! Thanks guys for the help!

This Ibex was taken from the Altai mountains near the town of Hovd during the month of April.
This hunt is a great deal when compared to the prices for similar Sheep hunts and they also make great trophy mounts.
It is a hunt worth doing but if you have more than five days, try to hold out for a good one.
The Altai is very dry but cold and its best to be fit to combat the effects of the mountains and altitude.

Scottyboy

You have probably read my post from last year. I would say the hunt itself was run well, but for us it was the booking agent which gave us the most problems.
If I remember correctly Julchin in Mongolia runs most of the hunts (I believe this is true) and this is who ran our hunt once we landed in Mongolia, but many different agents book them. We used Cabelas.

I would say, ozhunter is correct, do more than 5 days and be in shape. Despite our issues with the booking agent. It was well worth the time, money and effort. Just be sure to ask every question you can think of to your agent prior to booking.

Enjoy

I just returned last week, booked exactly as PCS. Our hunt was flawless. Problem was my cousin and I hunted only about 4 hours for about 4 days of travel one way, finished well before noon the first day. Same with some Germans that came into camp a few days after us.

The camp sends out local nomad guides into the mountains specifically for your hunt. They generally know where the animals are. My hunt was on horseback, this varies according to the camp.

We returned to Ulan. a few days early for some very nice sightseeing. They took care of everything.

My only concern for the future is that I feel like it is turning into an assembly line. A lot of people seem to be streaming through. I see prices have already jumped considerably. Not sure if there is a plan for future trophy management.

<a href="http://sports.webshots.com/album/560497208PGOMNy"><img src="http://thumb15.webshots.net/t/60/460/9/53/40/2686953400039751215xqlejm_th.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Webshots.com"></a><br>by <a href=http://community.webshots.com/user/tundragriz> tundragriz</a>
Click on pic for album. Hope it works!

OK, the link didn't work. Try this instead.

Mongolia album

Good stuff, how where the numbers of ibex?
I have often wondered why the standard package is only 3/4 days of hunting. A long way to travel for only 3 days of hunting....

Tundragriz,

Did you have any problems clearing your guns on to U.B. from Seoul?

Hawkeye47

thanks guys.. keep the good info coming, both on here and the couple of good PM's I've received.. I am all ears till the day I leave. I plan on booking within the next couple of weeks.

Do any of you have a hunt price breadown.. as in the costs of all the various things involved.. ie. the hunt itself, airline tickets, UB to Hovd price, etc..
Also, any suggestions on who I should book with??
I'm all ears.

Hawkeye,

No serious problems with the guns. Going there it was very smooth. The Korean Air folks in Atlanta weren't quite sure how to handle them but they were very polite, courteous, and apologetic while they figured out the right thing to do. They had a form for the gun/ammo info and made a copy of my Mongol gun permit. They folded these and stapled them to the baggage tag. No problem all the way out from there.

Coming back there was a little hassle getting out of UB. We were taken into the secure baggage area. They xrayed my packed Tuffpak case. 1. Then I had to remove it(along with most everything else, tuffpak case) for Serial Number verification, repack. 2. Remove stuff again, now have to count bullets, didn't trust our count, repack. 3. Remove again because now bullets need to go in a separate bag, repack. 4. Remove again because now bolt needs to be removed, repack. By the 4th go around I just started laughing. I was early, the hunt was over and successful, I was willing to do this for hours. The Korean Air agent was visibly trying to restrain herself from joining in the laughter. She held her lips tight and just shook her head. The interpreter just kept apologizing. Clearly the security agents did not know what they were doing and just kept thinking of yet another way to make the world a safer place. I guess if I didn't have a bolt action I would have to cut off my barrel.

Keep in mind this is a still very corrupt ex-communist country. The guy orchestrating this exercise just looked like a senior ex-communist party member. I couldn't help thinking he wanted to find something wrong so he could have himself a very pretty gun.

In Seoul on the way back, I am Northwest Elite and tried boarding early. I was asked to step aside because of the gun in the luggage. Actually it was the bullets. The bullets were now in my cousins soft bag from the UB hassle. Of course this bag was not listed as having bullets but showed them on the xray, and the bag that was listed as having ammo did not show any on the xray. My cousins bag was locked and he already boarded. Everyone else was now on the plane. The agent literally ran onto the plane to get the key from my cousin. The bag was brought up into the boarding area and we sat on the floor counting all the bullets, separating the loaded from the unloaded. Then I had to sort out the 300 Win mag from the 300 ultra because they would only fit into their own case. The bullets were all over the floor because I could not explain that all they had to do was look at the primers to see which were loaded.

Such is the fun of traveling with firearms.

Boghossian, There were a good number of respectable billies. In my 4 hours of hunting I saw probably eight that were representative, but except for the one I took none were over 40". The others brought into camp ranged from 35-37. The six hunters that came thru our camp had shot opportunities on similar representative trophies within the first couple hours of hunting.

A note on Korean Air, I was very impressed with their sincere service, professionalism, and attitude. I travel quite a lot and never consider a foreign carrier, except for regional international travel. In the future I will check Korean Air for my Asian travel.

Tundra: Gorgeous photos.Did any of the fellows speak any English at all besides your interpreter?

TundraGriz,
Great photographs! I especially enjoyed the yurt with satelite and solar panel. Was there any fishing in the stream that ran through camp?

Thanks,

I think one of the drivers spoke a little English. But basically only the interpreters, none of the camp staff.

They said no fish in most of the creeks because they flow seasonally. It looked like a really nice trout type stream to me although I wondered about the PH due the variety of geology in the area. I know some of the rivers have good fishing but I didn't do any.

Those sat dishes and solar panels were really funny, and surprisingly common. When I saw the first one I just yelled "STOP! I gotta get a picture of this". They said they are common because China sells them cheap.

Mongolia = Safari Outfitters, Inc.

Safari Outfitters
410 W. Yellowstone Ave.
Cody, WY 82414
(307) 587-5596
clark@safari1.com

We have been arranging hunts in Mongolia since 1958. We know it well and work exclusively with one of the top outfitters there. We are very well established and deal with this part of the world on a daily basis.

If you are planning a hunt to Asia, the last thing you want to do is deal with someone who has no idea of what is involved. An adventure of this nature is very detail oriented and can go south quickly if things are not done correctly.

Do it right, do it once.

Cheers,
Clark Jeffs
Safari Outfitters