Any exciting trip related to hunting has an interesting background or a sequence of reasons why this trip has taken place.
My friends traveled to Gorny Altai several times to hunt for ibexes, and I also wanted to join them, but each time something prevented me to realize that dream. The Club of Mountain Hunters (CMH) singled out the Siberian ibex, extracted in the Sayan, as a separate "subspecies" ( it seems to be smaller than the Altai one), and that animal immediately became a desired trophy for mountain hunters, including me. There was a rumor that the Ministry of Natural Resources was going to add the Sayan ibex to the Red Book of the Russian Federation. Everything was decided when my friend, widely known in narrow hunting circles, Andrey Subbotin, suggested hunting ibex in the Sayan and introduced me to Viktor Blinnikov, who acted as an outfitter. The goal I set for myself was very simple – the horns are not less than a meter, the age is not less than 10 years. Something like that…
At the end of October I and my friend, namesake Mikhail who was also a hunter, flew to Abakan. I admit, that it is always much more boring to drive alone. Because It's very important and much interesting to share the impressions with somebody who understand you. But as you’ll understand later "solo swimming" is much more productive in terms of achieving the desired result…
It was planned initially that we would live in a large tent with a stove, but the weather made its own adjustments. Snow began to fall in Abakan in two weeks before our arrival, and the temperature dropped to -15 at night We took all warm clothes we had, guided by the new weather conditions, but tried to choose the variant so that we could also walk actively. Looking ahead, I’ll say that Kuiu's clothes hasn't disappointed!
After arriving to Abakan, we drove about two hours, then sailed along the Yenisei five hours more to the hunting land. When we reloaded our luggage on the boat and went on the water, we found ourselves in the arms of low, but majestic mountains, rising straight out of the water somewhere with bare rocks, and somewhere with wooded hills. The banks were completely covered with snow, and steam rose from the water, like from a pot of fish soup. Victor arrange our accommodation on the Base– the comfort level increased clearly.
We periodically met ibexes on the rocks-mostly females and young animals, although we got a couple of good horns while we were sailing along the river. In one place, we met a boat with hunters who were already returning to Abakan with trophies. Everything I saw and heard gave me unreal optimism and inspired me to feats.
I can't put it into words.
The next day, as soon as it was light, we set off from the cordon and walked along the Yenisei for about fifty kilometers. Then we found a place where we could get from the boat to the rocks, and began a long climb. It should be said that the e river in these places is at an altitude of 500 meters above sea level, so it wasn’t far to the peaks, and the mountains themselves cannot be compared with the Caucasus. It took us two hours to get to 1000 masl. We were raising shuddering periodically from the noise of the wings of partridges taking off from under their feet.
The boundless expanses and their most precious pearl-the greenish Yenisei far under your feet opened up to your eyes.
Somewhere there must be ibexes, that's why it’d be better to hide because they could notice us against the background of the blue sky and it’d be fraught with the failure of the event. There were a huge number of fresh tracks on the snow – the animals were there, and it was inspiring!
We hided in a small hollow, took out a thermos, drank tea, not forgetting to turn our head 360 degrees.
The group of animals was detected at noon. The rut season had started already - the females were grazing calmly, and the goats were rushing like mad between them. But they didn't fight among themselves.
We appreciated how to approach the herd and realized that there were a couple of hills that we should crawl on our stomach over in full view of the ibexes It wasn't the best option, but otherwise you couldn't get close to the shot.
Incredibly, we managed it! But one of us tore the fabric on his knee during this maneuver, and everyone picked up thorns. We’d approached 300m, laid and began to discuss what to do next. I set the camera with some difficulty, but, as it turned out later, I forgot to make a transfocation. Our mistake was that we began to move actively and the half of the herd began to stare intently in our direction. Only a few trophy size males paid no attention to anything, and were still running around in circles with their lips stretched out as if for kisses.
We agreed to shoot together on the count of three (I won’t advise anyone to commit such an absurdity). I chose a black male that clearly stood out in the herd, its horns were clearly over a meter . But there were two or even three males that were the same size but had light wool color.
What could I say, we both missed. We shot together but I pushed the trigger in a couple of seconds later than Misha and missed. Probably his shot was the reason. Misha missed too but he shot to the male not the one we discussed before and hit it. But it was not the trophy the hunter dreamed about all his life. In any case it was a result in such situation. The herd immediately moved and disappeared behind the ridge.
It's has no sense to describe how long and how emotionally we discussed what had happen. I can't put it into words.!
I can't put it into words– 2
The next day Victor and I went to the same ridge while Misha left the camp and went to walk alone in another gorge. We reached the place on the sunrise. Then we hiked about three km by the ridge. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the yesterday’s herd but spotted two small groups with trophy size ibexes. We decided to focus on one of them, but they disappeared somewhere while we were approaching. I stayed to watch the hollow where I managed to see them, if they appeared again, and Vitya went to the ridge to look behind it. He hoped that they were just there. He returned with the news: the ibexes were there, but small. "Small" didn't meet our goals, and we decided... to have a little snack As they say, war is war, and no one canceled lunch! I was just going to make a sip tea when saw a small goat climbed out through the circus on the ridge about five hundred meters away from us and stared at the uninvited guests. We crawled out of his field of vision and finished eating sandwiches – lunch was still not canceled! Then we discussed our tactic while chewing sandwiches and it was so. We should go around the circus from the right (Yenisei was on the left). It was about two km and would try to find other animals there. We still hoped that they were there.
We finished our lunch and went on. At some point, we were already on the opposite ridge on a snow-covered ridge a meter wide. We had to climb out to the full height, but I remembered three larches on the ridge where there were ibexes, and there were about three hundred meters to them. When they went down lower, Vitya said with regret:
- They left.
- No, they are behind the turn, - I began to argue.
He got down backwards to the turn, slightly down, and at that moment there was a sharp whistle of the female – we were spotted. A silent scene. Vitya turned around and saw two surprised ibexes staring at a man with a backpack. Then he turned to me disappointed and said:
- There was a Great ibex in twenty meters from us... But it was..
I didn’t say a word. I didn't say many different words.
We got out and followed the animals on the tracks, looking around periodically with binoculars. Suddenly Victor whispered that he saw a female with two males that had descended to the gorge and would rise by the opposite slope - Let's try.
The animals disappeared into a hollow, but after five minutes they appeared n the lawn that rose gently to the very top. A large goat was slowly following the female. They were not going to stop. The starting distance was 412 meters. The angle- 20 degrees.
300 WinMag triggered five centimeters below the aiming point, but this did not save the male, and it collapsed, rolling a little down the slope. My joy and satisfaction from the shot and the trophy were boundless after yesterday's miss.
But it was necessary to hurry up – it’d take about half an hour to go to the trophy, then we had to butcher the trophy and go down to the camp what would take more than two hours. It was necessary to go down to the boat on the light.
I got 12 years old male. The horn’s length was 103 sm. The goal was achieved, and I cannot convey what I felt at the moment!
I can't put it into words.
I could hardly describe what I felt. We were guided by the radio to where we had to go and where they take us from to the boat. Andrey, our captain, was dissatisfied with the fact that it was he who had to guide our ship at dusk between the logs floating on the Yenisei.
I tried to persuade Victor, but he took all the meat from the goat (it was right, but when you had to drag it on ourselves for so much time...). The two – hour descent turned out to be extremely difficult and dramatic. The half way down the slope we waded through thorny acacia bushes as tall as a man and stumbled over stones.
We reached the Base by boat already at full dusk. And the first thing we did, we drank to the captain! Despite our fatigue, we arranged a royal dinner with fried ibex’s liver and some hot drinks. Then we talked about hunting, nature, good people and where the world is going…
The next day we had rest and devoted it to taking a bath, a preservation of trophies, and the contemplation of the surrounding nature.
We had one more hunting day that we spent looking for another trophy for my fellow but didn’t find. We didn't manage to get anything. But we walked up, saw enough and gained impressions for a long time.
Then we spent the night in Shushenskoye, and visited the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, which couldn't fail to impress with its power/ Later we visited the Shushensky Museum, that gave us the opportunity to rejoice for the leader of the world proletariat, who enjoyed spending time in exile as I could see.
Snow began in the day before we should left Abakan but we managed to fly away.
On the plane, we remembered all the bright events of that hunt, discussed our impressions of unusually beautiful places, high concentration of the animal and a competent approach to maintaining hunting conditions. I am sure that any hunter who happens to hunt there will have similar feelings.
