Tuesday, September 27, 2011

2011 Mongolia Gobi Argali Adventures!

I recently returned from a great trip booked by my old friend, well, not that old, Gretchen from Safari Outfitters.  I normally get an old client or hunting buddy to come along on my adventures, and this time it was Jorge Camou, one of the bigger outfitters in Mexico.  We met up in Vancouver, spent the night there, flew Korean Air to Seoul, did a couple tourist days there, then onto Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

We were met there by Geleg, who would be the guide and interpreter for Jorge.  The following morning, we drove down to the train station and caught a train for about 12 hours.  It was daylight hours all the way, which made for a great tour of the country.  We had sleeping berths which were very comfortable, a far better way to travel than by vehicle.  At the end of the line, we were met by our local team who all turned out to be great people.  We arrived at night at the camp, which was first class.

The following morning, we went separate ways . . . me with Adiya and Jorge with Geleg.  By night fall we met back at camp.  We had both seen several rams, some of which were close to 50 inches.  There was no pressure to shoot one right away as our local guides knew the quality in the area.  We spent a few days hunting different areas and as it turned out, we both shot rams the same day.  Mine was lighter bases, a couple inches under 50 and Jorge’s great ram was 50” on the long side with 18.5” bases.  It made for a great day in the Gobi Desert.  Jorge managed to shoot a gazelle and missed a wolf as well.

We both plan one more trip back to get a Hanghay.  Special thanks to Gretchen and her crew of great people.  It was all first class and a fun holiday.  Mongolians used to be the most feared in the world in olden days, but now are some of the nicest people we have met.  I now have 12 sheep of the world and plan to get a couple more to replace a few transplanted ones I shot several years ago.  See you at the Wild Sheep Convention.

Rick Guinn
Guinn Outfitters
Alberta, Canada