Species : Marco Polo sheep and Mid Asian Ibex
Booking Agent: Kaan Karakaya Shikar safaris
Guides Atokek and Shody
Country : Tajikistan
Area : Hot Springs Camp , Pamir Mountains
Rifle : Ruger M77 Hawkeye 300 win mag (no double !!!)
ammo : Hornady 180gr interbond
Scope: Trijicon Accupoint 5-20 mil dot reticle
Dates :20-29 November 2012
Others on the hunt : Don and Mary Harter , Kann Karakaya
Game Taken : 4 Marco Polo , 3 Ibex – Don missed a wolf and I missed my first sheep on the first day !



TRAVEL
There were a lot of legs to this flight and a lot of miles on the road
I left Dallas on the 14th November and flew to Atlanta , then flew overnight to Istanbul , stayed two nights in turkey to help with jetlag – you really don’t want altitude and jetlag working together !! Then late night on the 17th we flew from Istanbul to Dushanbe, arriving very early on the 18th then drove 16 hours Dushanbe to Khorog , overnighted in Khorog then on 19th the 6 hours to the camp at 14 000 feet deep in the Pamir mountains – 5 days travel and 12 timezones !

The roadtrips were in Toyota landcruisers and it was pretty comfortable – having not slept at all on the 4 hour flight to Dushanbe , I slept most of the 16 hours.

Returning was easy it was good weather and we booked seats on tajik air and flew back – we had to buy the 13 seats needed for the plane to fly up to Dushanbe but on the way back we just needed to buy our 5 seats (the plane wont fly if there are no bookings and as many planes as needed will fly when there are bookings and on no particular schedule- seats are 100 per seat so between 5 of us it was 400 each including for our bags – the best 400 I have ever paid I think !!!!

MEDICATIONS
Knowing that we would have 5 days of travel and we would be crossing 12 timezones I wanted to be in peak physical comndition people told me that everyone is sick by the end of the travel , hers what I did .

Two weeks out I started weekly vitamin B complex injections – 1ml per week and took two weeks with me.
A week out I started taking echinaciea every day and did so through the whole rip .
A week out I took two chewable airborne every day till after the trip
When we arrived in Dushanbe is atrted my diamox altitude sickness meds (250mg 2 x per day) and did so till we got back to dushanbe.
I took a herbal altitude aid from wilderness athlete from two days before we climbed all the way till we dropped

I remained perfectly physically healthy the entire journey no cough cold or altitude sickness – sion (my cameraman) did the same and we were the only ones in the group who weren’t coughing and and “bunged up” at all or sick in any way.

SECURITY, CHECKPOINTS AND OFFICIALS

The service was truly excellent and from the time I landed in Tajikistan none of us talked to , faced or interacted with a single official …this was all done for us , even passports and entry formalities at Dushanbe were carried out while we sat in a lounge and drank coffee , truly excellent organization by Kaan.

LODGE , FOOD AND ACCOMODATION
Food was excellent – always three courses , lots of salads and fruit
Accommodations very comfortable , warm and clean , good bedding and a hot tub fed by the spring
From the outside the camp looked like a dump but on the inside very nice

VEHICLES
A mixture of Russian jeeps and Toyota landcruisers , all hat heaters that worked , each had a driver/mechanic and even though everyone had either a flat , a burst tyre of a mechanical issue each day , it was fixed in very short order and we woiuld carry on , this time was never wasted as we would glass while it was being taken care of …

THE HUNT ITSELF
The scenery was spectacular , the weather was very variable , one day was still , blue skies and simply beautiful , 29 degrees F and awesome , the worst day was overcast high winds gusting to 50 miles an hour and 11 degrees F.

We would drive sometimes for a long time and then stop and glass with binos from inside the truck , my guides were atobek and shody and both had incredible eyes , as soon as a group was spotted everyone would scramble out of the car and start glassing with spotting scopes.

If a good ram was spotted , everyone would crowd around the scope that was on it and start discussing in Tajik , body language was enough – not ever having hunted here I left it 100% up to my guides to tell me which one to shjoot , when atobek asked me – “you like this sheep?” my reply was “if you like him I will shoot him , I like this hunt !”

I chose to walk more than drive for the final approach , if that’s what you like then important to communicate this with them , the more usual hunting style once you make the descision with the scope is to rush the hard with the vehicle and when they are at about 300 yards everyone scrambles out of the truck , gets the shooter steady , the sheep will stop at 350 – 400 and its not a very tough shot – these atre very old mountains and its amazing but the cars can go about anywhere –

The alternative is to plan a stalk and try and use what little cover there is , walking at altitude is very tough – I shot at about 1500 feet or thereabouts and after walking it takes a while to slow your heartbeat ! one day we used the truck as a decoy and the sheep watched the vehicle while we climbed the backside of the mountain -

Most hunting was in landcruisers or riussian jeeps - I thought I did rough things with my truck in Africa believe me my truck is treated like a baby by comparison.

GETTING TROPHIES HOME
When I hot to camp they told me I could take the trophies with me when I left , not possible in my case as I am going on to tanzania , I was skeptical but a quick call to rosella quarterone of safari specialty importers and she confirmed that was indeed an option and she even offered if I wanted to come and meet me at the airport and help !! so if every you do something like this , keep in mind it may be an option and flying home with your trophies cuts a whole set of issues out in a lot of cases -

Anyway , pics are worth 1000 words so let me rather just show you pics

Feel free to PM if you have questions – I have another two days here in Dushanbe so am available on the internet ..

Thanks !

Passport paperwork in Dushanbe – no standing in lines for us !


Awesome scenery as we drove between dushanbe and Khorog


looking over Khorog


climbing up


much of the road on the last day or travel was high speed dirt






yak herder


welcome to camp !


the “rec room” complete with pool table !


the hot tub !


simon Elton , cameraman extraordinaire – in the snowfall !


Afghanistan in the background we would all glass in opposite directions looking for sheep


glassing




out the car glassing , BIG BIG country out here


the sheep – we would see hundreds (photo through the scope)




not a warm African day !- me and kaan


high altitude hunting garb .


simon had high winds and bright snow to contend with …not to mention the cold !- his small backup camera had the better zoom so we used that a lot – notice the footwarmer on the battery otherwise they would last about 4 minutes !!


cold and windy !


not to metion high – 17 300 feet


we would drive past skulls all the time in the awesome scenery


simon with a big head !


the Russian jeep in high Pamir altitude


three big rams , I missed the middle one or one very similar on day one , shot an inch below him at about 360 yards , there was a 15-20 mile an hour crosswind but I didn’t compensate for the downboil of wind coming over the ridge they were behind . my fault entirely but it meant I got to keep on hunting !




steep !


my ram where he fell – 370 or so first shot – lunged him and a second running shot in the butt at about 430 , he went about 200 yards .-shody is holding his head atobek with me is a legend..


old old ram


his teeth were about done


the skinner looked a bit different to what I was used to !!!! he was as good as any in Africa though , very thorough fast and a nice guy


mary and I shot on the same day so we took a pic behind camp –


Don got his in the middle of a snowfield , dropped it with one shot


Kaans sheep – he made a great 450 yard shot


old pickup heads behind the camp


my ibex – 340 yards or so , over 45 degree angle , getting up to him was the most challenging part –


no blood free pics here , the blood would freeze on the hair and we couldn’t clean it at all …just another set of conditions I couldn’t have ever known !!!


the flight out we had more luggage than all the other passengers together !!- yes that’s all ours , including trophies


this smile is so broad because it’s a one hour flight instead of 16 hour drive



through amazing scenery


THANKS FOR LOOKING PEOPLE !!

Great hunt.

Weather looked really good.

One to remember I am sure.

Regards Mark

What an amazing hunt!

Glad you all had such a great time.

Thanks people !- saeed it wasnt a buffalo but the difference in allowing oneself to be guided rather than the guide opened my eyes and i will be a better guide for that -

Well done Ivan for your Great Sheep and Ibex.
Thanks for shareing this incredible adventure.

Amzing hunt and wonderful report!

I really like the picture of the old pickup heads behind the camp

Unbelievable year you've had Ivan.
Beautiful photos and report,
Thank you and congratulations.

Epic hunt and great pics. Thanks for sharing.
JCHB

Thank you for sharing, amazing hunt!

Orvar

Thanks so much for the report, Ivan. It's a part of the world almost unknown to those who do not hunt. Brilliant pre-hunt health strategy. You really worked for it and my hat is off!

Wow, what a hunt!

Love the MP and the ibex, two fantastic trophies and I'm jealous as hell!

Love the photos, I've got to get to that part of the world someday!

Ivan,

CONGRATULATIONS!!! That ride from Dushanbe to the Hot Springs camp still gives me nightmares. We went straight through without stopping in Khorog.

Great to see Mary and Don were successful, please extend our congratulations to them.

Congratultions Ivan.
Thanks for taking time to do the report!
Well done!

Congrats to all. Well done.

Great stuff Ivan. Think I will keep me feet on hot soil though.

Fantastic! Well done Ivan!

Amazing!!! Glad you had a great trip!!

excellant hunt and a great marcopolo ram u took Ivan, congrats.
regards
Danish

outstanding job on two great trophies....

great job by all taking some awesome sheep....

keep the pics coming....

AWESOME all around.
W

Simply incredible! Congratulations!!!

Geez Ivan, I don't comment on many reports, but yours was fantastic. But hey! What did I say about the wind causing funny up/down drafts? If the wind blows into a hill/mountain, it will create a slight updraft and vice-versa. Very tricky.

I need to go on this hunt. WOW!!!!!!

A word of warning on bringing your trophies back; if the cape is not dry, Fish and Wildlife will want keep it until you can supply shipping instructions to a taxidermist directly from customs. Happened to me coming back from Mongolia; I pleaded with the F&W guy and got him to let me go. But he wanted to keep it...

Ivan, outstanding report and pictures, and some great trophies.

Congratulations on a fantastic hunt.

I too need to go on this hunt.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

That is one cool adventure, pardon the pun! Would love to do it one day. Well done Ivan.

The amount of pick-up horns is astounding!

Congrats again on a great hunt.

realy cool looked like a great trip

Great report!

Ivan,

Great report, thanks for sharing and congratulations on your hard earned trophies!

Great adventure and nice report!
Congrats !

Congratulations Ivan on a fantastic ram!!!!!!

Brett

Great report Ivan! How the heck did the vehicles cope at that altitude and temperatures!! I thought transport would be non-existant up there?

PS. Did you freeze your butt off?

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
Great report Ivan! How the heck did the vehicles cope at that altitude and temperatures!! I thought transport would be non-existant up there?

I went over the Khardung la pass in the Himalayas in 2010 in a vehicle; it is 5329 meters or about 16,500 feet. Hell, buses full of Indian soldiers were going over. It was a sad trip, as that was the year the Indus flooded; a mudslide in Leh killed 300 people about one mile from where we where.

Ivan,

Congratulations!! Outstanding report. The pictures bring back great memories of my trip there in 2007.



Doug

Ivan,

Congratulations!

Not a hunt for the weak at heart (or leg!)

What was the biggest thing you learned from this adventure, if I may ask.

Awesome hunt and report Ivan!! That hunt has been a dream of mine since reading "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" about 25 years ago. Congrats on a great ram, a great ibex and a great experience. Mountain hunting rocks!

Cheers
Chris

Thanks for sharing such a great hunt with us! Congrats on wonderful trophies

WOW! Great pictures and great hunt! Doubt I will ever get to do that hunt, but can always dream!

WOW x2! Perhaps someday I'll be able to follow in your footsteps...I could spend nearly forever hunting in a land like that.

Blessings!

friar