Kyrgyzstan Ibex Success

Joined
Oct 13, 2022
Messages
37
As I’m writing this I’m just about to leave my hotel in Bishkek for the airport.

When I arrived I used the VIP service at the airport which made collecting baggage, and getting guns through extremely easy. After getting everything sorted out at the airport I had a 5 hour drive to Karakol. We ate lunch in Karakol where I met up with the camp manager and taxidermist and then drove the remaining 5 hours with them.

Upon arrival to camp I ate a quick meal, and headed to bed. The next morning the guide showed up and we checked my rifles zero. Im glad we did because it was way off and required a handful or rounds to get it back where it needed to be.

After my rifle was sorted, we loaded up and drove an hour to an old mining town that had been mostly abandoned upon the fall of the Soviet Union. We began glassing from town and immediately started picking up Ibex on the mountain faces above. We decided there was no point in packing in and freezing in tents when we could stay in a house in town and hunt from there.

We spent most of the first day watching the ibex and coming up with a plan for the next morning. That evening we went to a hot spring next to the river, and soaked in that before heading back to town and going to bed.

We were up at 4 the next morning. After a short drive we began hiking. Over the next several hours we climbed close to 3,000 vertical ft topping out near 13,000 ft. We got to a rock spine, in the dark, that had Ibex on either side of it the day before. As it got light we began picking out Ibex on the faces above. The first herd was nannies and kids. We watched them for a while before my guide started indicating he had found the billies.

The billies were close to 800 yards away, but three of them broke off and started coming our way. As they spread out single file on the face in front of me at 545 yards, I picked out the billy in the lead, and prepared for the shot. When he stopped I touched off the shot and he immediately stumbled down the hill, but remained on his feet.

I could tell he was hit hard, but he wasn’t dying. I prepared for another shot and was just about to touch it off when he bedded to where I could just see his horns. I was then able to work around above him, and out another shot into him at 200 yards. Upon the second shot he began tumbling and sliding down the mountain. He went over 700 yards before coming to his final resting place.

As we worked our way down to him, I cut a set of snow leopard tracks, which my Kyrgyz companion referred to as “ice kitty.” When we got down to him, we took some pictures, and began processing him. While we were processing him, another guide brought the horses up to us. We loaded up on the horses, and made it back to “town” around 3 in the afternoon.

I’ve spent the last couple days in Bishkek waiting for my permits to be complete so I can take my Ibex home with me. It’s been a great trip, but I’m ready to be back in the US. I went solo on this trip, and it’s been a bit lonely at times not really having anyone to talk to due to the language barrier.
 

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Joined
Feb 28, 2021
Messages
571
Congrats, this has been on the shortlist for awhile. I looked into a few years ago but with my dad the drive to hunting camp was too much. I think it was 9-12 hrs in a truck after the flight
 

buzzy

WKR
Joined
Sep 10, 2013
Messages
509
Congrats. Glad you got your permits. When I was there a few weeks back there wasn’t anyone in the government to get them from. I heard he came back for a week and is gone again so mine will be shipped back to me.
 

buzzy

WKR
Joined
Sep 10, 2013
Messages
509
Congrats, this has been on the shortlist for awhile. I looked into a few years ago but with my dad the drive to hunting camp was too much. I think it was 9-12 hrs in a truck after the flight
The outfit I went with drove 4.5 hrs to a town where we spent the night and got a good rest. The next day it was a 5.5 hrs drive to camp. It was great to break up the drive this way and the hotel was awesome and only cost $39 bucks with a great breakfast.
 
OP
CFarrington96
Joined
Oct 13, 2022
Messages
37
Thanks guys! It was an incredible experience. I believe you were hunting a different region Buzzy so maybe that’s why there was a discrepancy in the permits, but the outfitter I went with had close to 40 hunters this season and everyone of them took their ibex home with them.
 
Joined
Sep 1, 2016
Messages
81
Location
Anchorage, AK
That's awesome man! I was deployed there back in the 2012 time frame ( literally fixed jets in front of the airport terminal. Being the young buck I was back then I had no idea those were there. I loved going to down town Bishkek. Super cheap stuff and their little food stands were to die for. There were these little triangle things about the size of a scone, we would call them "chicken and cheese". Not sure on the actual name but they cost about a quarter back then. Awesome critter and glad you had a good hunt ! The kyrgyz are good people (at least the ones we dealt with)
 

buzzy

WKR
Joined
Sep 10, 2013
Messages
509
Thanks guys! It was an incredible experience. I believe you were hunting a different region Buzzy so maybe that’s why there was a discrepancy in the permits, but the outfitter I went with had close to 40 hunters this season and everyone of them took their ibex home with them.
Thanks and very interesting. I have found others who had the same issue I had with permits and then you along with someone else who got the permits. So I'm struggling to figure out why there is a discrepancy. I thought all the permits were managed out of Bishkek where a specific government agency that created the cites permits needed to leave the country with the trophy was located but obviously there is something more going on. Glad you got to bring your trophies home with you as it's just a rip off to have to pay to have them shipped. I met one guy on here where the outfitter was charging him several thousand dollars. If that is what it's going to cost me I'm going to throw a fit and may just leave the horns there.
 
Last edited:
OP
CFarrington96
Joined
Oct 13, 2022
Messages
37
Thanks and very interesting. I have found others who had the same issue I had with permits and then you along with someone else who got the permits. So I'm struggling to figure out why there is a discrepancy. I thought all the permits were managed out of Bishkek where a specific government agency that created the cites permits needed to leave the country with the trophy was located but obviously there is something more going on. Glad you got to bring your trophies home with you as it's just a rip off to have to pay to have them shipped. I met one guy on here where the outfitter was charging him several thousand dollars. If that is what it's going to cost me I'm going to throw a fit and may just leave the horns there.
Yeah, at that price I’d probably leave them as well. According to my outfitter, they’ve always had hunters take their horns since 2008 with no issues. I’m sitting at LAX right now waiting for my flight home to Utah. They took me to secondary screening for my rifle, and didn’t even look at my paperwork or my ibex even after I told them I had it.
 
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
2,230
It’s a Savage 110 ultralight in .28 nosler with a 4-32 Nightforce NX8. I get sh!t for my Savage, but it’s killed 2 desert sheep, 4 mule deer, 3 coues deer, a handful of coyotes, a bobcat, 2 black bears, and an Ibex this year alone!
Thats awesome. My 15 yr old son is saving up for one in 280AI. They make a left handed version, so that is where he landed.
 
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
34
Congrats on a great trip. If you don’t mind would you post the outfitter or send it as a pm? I’m seriously considering this trip.

Thanks and congrats on a great trip
 

buzzy

WKR
Joined
Sep 10, 2013
Messages
509
Congrats on a great trip. If you don’t mind would you post the outfitter or send it as a pm? I’m seriously considering this trip.

Thanks and congrats on a great trip
I just returned from a great hunt and can recommend the outfit I went with. Talk with Asif as he runs a great hunt. He’s a lot more active on FB than his website. I posted my hunt on this forum a few weeks ago.

 
OP
CFarrington96
Joined
Oct 13, 2022
Messages
37
Don’t book anything in Kyrgyzstan until after January. There’s a proposed 3 year ban on hunting, that the outfits I’ve talked to seem to think will be voted in. They meet and January and will know for sure then.
 
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