To “The Rooftop of The World” for Ibex in Tajikistan

As the Ibex feed in a favorable direction, we make our way along the creek bottom toward them.
The rangers want to hurry but Kaylee is very cautious about falling in the rocks, so we keep a steady pace.

The rangers do not want to let you carry anything whatsoever at any time and with the language barrier, I basically have to rip my backpack from one of their arms so we have a rest to shoot off of.

A ranger gets about 20 feet ahead of us, finds a place to shoot from and begins knocking down a bit of light vegetation that may block the view. Kaylee and I get to him, she lays down and begins trying to catch her breath.
I pull a stuff sack out of the backpack and we start looking over ibex. This part was a bit more excited and hurried than I care for but that’s just how it is there. The ibex were getting antsy, but they were on a wide open hill at 350 yards. There was nowhere they could go that we couldn’t get some shooting in.

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I’d like to tell you about how I expertly picked out the ibex that I knew was the 2nd biggest, but that’s not the case.

I watched 5 billies walking straight away from me, nearing the top of the ridge. One stopped and the other 4 kept walking. I had already ranged the top of the hill to be 395 yards.

As soon as the one that stopped turned broadside, I pulled the trigger. He took two steps to the side and fell off the ridge out of site. That’s good, I think.

Kaylees was laying dead in sight. We sat with the rifle for a few minutes as Billies filtered out of view. Mine never appeared. The shot felt good, but I didn’t think it sounded solid. Kaylee and a ranger went to her billy. I grabbed the rifle and went toward where mine had disappeared with another ranger.
 
My billy was dead too. Hit right where I’d held the crosshairs, behind his shoulder.

What a relief.

I was shocked at their size. I’d say like a yearling elk. Bigger than a large mule deer buck.

Myself and the ranger took a few pics. Then we dragged him down off the mountain to where the others had dragged Kaylees to a level spot.

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Awesome! This has been on my list of things I need to get to for a while, you may have bumped it up a ways...
 
Amazing looking adventure, congrats to you and your wife on all of it. Looking forward to seeing the rest
 
Yeti GOBOX Collection

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