In search of a ram named Louis...

Past SCI president Larry R. hunted the Gobi in fall 2011. Early in the hunt, he and his guides spotted a ram that they nicknamed "Louis". They hunted for several days and kept seeing this dandy ram, but never could get within shooting distance. Finally their patience and persistence was rewarded when Larry took this outstanding Gobi Argali. He measures 51" w/ 18" bases. Louis will be a great addition to Larry's large collection of trophies and will evoke memories for many years to come!

Gobi Success!

This fine Gobi Argali was taken in August 2011 by Guinn C.

The ram measured 47" w/ 17 1/2" bases. Congratulations Guinn! Nice ram!

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

2011 Dagestan Tur (Azerbaijan)

Our 2011 spring season in Azerbaijan has just concluded and we had another fantastic season! Success rate was again 100% with some excellent rams taken! This is one of more affordable sheep hunts and we get rave reviews each season on this hunt! Sasha from our Moscow office is along on each hunt to ensure that everything goes as it should. Outstanding guides, good food and abundunt game populations make this one of the more popular hunts for one of the most unique animals in Asia!

Below are some photos and comments from some of our 2011 hunters - Make your plans now for 2012 while good dates are still available!

We had a great hunt in Azerbaijan!  All the local guides did a good job of finding the sheep and getting me to a spot where I got a shot.  They worked hard and went up and down mountains with an ease that I wish I still had.(If I ever had that stamina at their age.)  From the comments of  the guides, I left the biggest Tur still up on the mountain so there will be an opportunity for some other lucky hunter to still get a BIGGER trophy.  Overall we had a great experience and a fun trip including sightseeing tours of Istanbul and Baku.

Dave M. (Spokane, WA)

Great Hunt! - Expectations were met - all the way from start to finish! Touring in Turkey, hotel accomodations and food are great! The hunt was awesome! Saw 15 to 150 tur per day!! Guides were very capable and know the area well. Terrain was steep but was what I expected it to be. Sasha was a great host and I hope some day to be able to hunt again with him!

Allen C. (South Carolina)

For a complete list of references, complete details and available dates for 2012 -

contact Clark - (307) 587-5596 or clark@safari1.com

Get out and get hunting while you are able!

Hunting the Caucasus for Tur

After spending a few days in Istanbul to sight-see- which is a must if you have a layover there- my fellow hunter, Allen, and I flew to Baku.  Clark Jeffs and the crew at Safari Outfitters took care of setting us up with tour guides and transportation while in Istanbul so it was a very relaxing, trouble-free vacation. 
  Upon arriving in Baku it was a marathon of planes, vehicles and horses to get to camp with our guides and Russian liaison, Sasha, who does an outstanding job of keeping things in order.  In camp, we immediately began spotting tur on various ridges.  It soon became apparent what a game-rich environment this area was.  Later that same evening, tur were spotted on a ridge behind camp and we began the ascent up the mountain to cut them off.  We eventually crossed paths at 380 yards with the herd of 41 and the frantic excitement began as we tried to pick out the "shooters".  Allen (my new hunting partner) and I crawled into shooting positions and were ready to drop the hammer on two massive animals in the group.  Unfortunately, they were all feeding too closely and quality shots never presented themselves.  The herd continued up and over the mountain along with the sun as night slowly settled in.  My guides and I continued after them in an unrelenting effort to catch up. Unexpectedly, we jumped a small group while cresting a ridge, where I shot a respectable animal at almost point-blank range in the last few seconds of the fading light.  The horns had a lot of character from fighting with broomed tips. 
  The entire trip went off without a hitch from the time I left the States until I returned thanks to all the key members of Safari Outfitters.  This is a relatively unknown hunt with high success due to good area management efforts and was very rewarding in terms of the quality of the hunt itself.  The temps were in the 50's during the day while the weather was quite wet with it raining every afternoon, but the tents were sound and the food was plenty.  Being physically fit and mentally tough for scaling the mountains each day is a plus. Thanks again!

Dan W.

Superb Leopard Hunt In Zimbabwe!

Frank G. just completed his Africa "Big 5" with this magnificient leopard.  Frank booked his hunt through
Safari Outfitters and his hunt took place in the SAVE Valley of Zimbabwe.  Congratulations Frank!

Great Trek and Hunt in the Himalaya Mountains!

March 12 my wife and I started our long planned trip to Nepal. I had booked this hunting adventure with Clark Jeffs of  Safari Outfitters, through their long time partner Nepal Wildlife Adventure.

We were met in Kathmandu by Shova and Prem Singh of NWA, who also solved all the hassle about gun-importing next day.

March 16 we flew to Dorpatan by helicopter where we met Armen Avidissian,Bernie Mizrahi and Henry Davidian. They had just finished their hunting and had all been succesfull in an area  near Dorpatan.

My hunting was to be in the Seng region, which eventually took a six day trek. I had insisted on this trek to be able to acclimatise better to the altitude, even though my wife and I both had been training very hard in preparation for this trip.

Thanks to this trek we have seen a lot of everyday life in the mountains of  Nepal, it was worth every second of it!

We had 22 people escorting us during this trek, from camp manager to cooks to guides to porters………… 

After arrival in the Seng region the guides went scouting for sheep. The third day of the hunt the guides and I climbed from 3.675 meters to 4.250 meters, within 2 hours. From our glassing spot we found 11 male sheep, about 1.500 meters away. As there were a few very good ones in that group we decided to approach them, it has taken us 5 hours to close the distance to 265 meters, but I suspect we did more than 3.000 meters going up and down and up again, and again!

When finally into place we were at 4.188 meters altitude , and as said before 265 meters separated us from the sheep.

It should have been an easy shot but the ram was hit too far back and did not drop immediately so the guides Bir and Toklama followed it and, after it had fallen for more than 200 meters, had to cape it on the spot were it fell. They did a wonderfull job in retrieving the animal!

With the hunt finished we used a few days to trek back leisurely to Yamkhar at 2.850 meters, from where we were picked up by the helicopter to return to Kathmandu. We had a tremendous time!
Jan P.