~ Great Rams of Asia ~
Wild Sheep
Alaskan hunting guide / bowhunter / orthopedic knee surgeon Jack Frost with a 57-inch Marco Polo ram arrowed from 55 yards in Tajikistan. Gary Bogner is said to have taken a good Marco Polo ram with a bow & arrow. I've seen a picture of Tom Hoffman's nice ram. I heard that Beau Turner shot a Marco Polo with a bow as well. Has anyone else bow bagged a Marco Polo? Has anyone ever bowhunted for the Ammon Ammon argali of the High Altai Mongolia? Has anyone ever bowhunted for the Gobi argali or any of the rare sub-species? With hunt prices ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 and upwards it's quite an endeavor even with a rifle. Most of the Marco Polo hunts take place in the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan. Perhaps it's best to avoid the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan at the present time. The greatest rams in the world exist in the high mountain snow covered vast expanses of Asia. Whipping wind, dust and snow is par for the course. The wide open terrain doesn't bode well for bowhunting. However, in this world where the envelope is forever being pushed, someday someone's gonna arrow a huge High Altai Ammon.
Institute of Biology, Ulan Bator, Mongolia
Tom Hoffman with Marco Polo ram taken in Tajikistan.
I believe Archie Nesbitt shot a marco with a bow, Marco with a bow is the ultimate hunt in my mind, unreal mountains and awesome animals.
Tom Hoffman and Jack Frost have both taken Gobi and Hangai argali rams with bows, I believe. . .
I haven't ever been able to find out about any modern archer taking an Altai with a bow. But I would not be surprised if it had been done by somebody quietly and under the radar. Nor am I hooked into the sheep community enough to really hear of such things
Good pics up there!
Bake
My end game, mother of all hunts is for Transcaspian Urial, I will one day bowhunt these sheep in their native country.
A Marco polo with a bow is a grand acheivement, hard to belive it can be done when listening to the accounts of most rifle hunts. If you can bowkill a Marco anything is killable with a bow. Where there is a will there is a way !!!
Those guys that have chased those sheep with a bow are amazing hunters to hunt at 16,000 plus feet and take an animal that most shoot with a rifle at 400 plus yards is one hell of a feat.
Another question since we are on the subject (sorry to hijack the thread but have to ask). Has any archer taken a free range Markhor in its native range?
Also where did you get all the photos?
Archie Nesbitt took a free range markhor I believe. Maybe in Uzbekistan? I think?
I'll check
Bake
Hoffman's Gobi, largest taken by bow
Okay, did a little checking, and Archie Nesbitt does have a top 10 Sulamain markhor, with a rifle
I still think I saw something about him taking a markhor with a bow in Uzbekistan. Maybe an Astor Markhor, or maybe it was a Bukharan Markhor. . . .But I can't find it
I could be wrong
Altai Argali and Marco Polo argali are on my never-gonna-happen bucket list. . . I wouldn't be shy about using a rifle either
Bake
By the way, all the pics I posted are right in the public domain. Taken directly from SCI's website
Bake
Perhaps only four have arrowed a Marco Polo and Placed into SCI.
We have our own Operation in Kyrgyzstan
and include a Mid Asian Ibex with the Marco Polo Hunt for one low Price. . 10 days + VIP Treatment and best price around.
two guides for each hunter. jeep or horses to get into Hunt areas.
Owner is taking 3 MP Hunters this October at our low altitudes of 10,000 -13,000 feet, and I hope to go in Oct 2014, with bow. We have had one Successful bowhunter for MP. About a 50 % chance on MP with Bow
Ibex with bow is around 80 % shot opp in K. for our place. 100 opp % with rifles for both species..
We no longer take hunters into Iran or Ethiopia . Owner is former SCI Record Book Director ( 7 years) and we no where to go or not to go .
We occassionally get Cancellation Hunts, and will tell you if our Outfitters are not conducive for bow. No Surprisies, great references, ( including ones on this you all heard of ) 26 years in Global Hunting Adventures.
Predator
Do you have a link to these hunts.
Bake & friends, thanks for sharing the photos and good info. I'll leave this thread open for any updates. Hoffman's Gobi looks massive, world class. Superman Nesbitt will probably be the first to arrow a huge high scoring Ammon, if that neckless or all-neck beast of a Bighorn he bagged is any indication. Here's a link to my bowhunting page at Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inter-island_helicopters/sets/72157594565328220/
Aloha from Kauai, Hawaii
Dr. Frost is the real deal !! Have been fortunate enough to be on a couple of hunts with him and boy the stories he can tell !!
Hey Brian, great thread!
Kahoe and I checking it out right now. Never even heard of half those animals, but certainly have heard of those hunters.
Thanks much. Aalloha.
After one look at Sam Pancotto's enormous High Altai Ammon argali, it's easy to see why the smilin' Italian has made one and only one sheep hunt to Mongolia -- he had no real reason to believe that he could ever improve on the great ram pictured here. Hunting in October of 1989, Pancotto used exactly one hunting day to bring in his trophy. Late in the evening, when Pancotto and his guide, Adya Tundev, arrived back in camp with the ram, Pancotto's wife Rosemary, who has accompanied Sam on hunts all over the world, laughingly asked: "Sam, what took you so long? You're an hour late for dinner!" Although Pancotto has never been one to publicize measurements, his once-in-a-lifetime ram is in the mid-60's with 22-inch bases.
excerpt from WIND, DUST and SNOW ~ Great Rams of Asia - by Robert M. Anderson
This, my friends, is the King of the Mountain - XXL
I love this thread, espically since I will never in my life time hunt any of these rams. I might just have to get the book great rams of asia.
In my book Marco Polo and Argali the ULTIMATE trophy...wow what a Ram...
"Wind, Dust, and Snow: Great Rams of Asia" is a great book with a great many good pictures of huge rams
Not a record head, but in that book, I LOVE the broomed and heavy look of John LaMonaco's 55 inch Altai ram. Old, and grey, broomed and awesome
Brittingham has a couple of giant rams shown.
Several rams shown that are not in SCI.
Well worth the photos
Also check out Soudi Golabchi's book "Obsessed"
His collection of top 10 Marco Polo Rams is IMPRESSIVE!!!!
Golabchi also took a 70 inch Marco Polo in the last 2 to 3 years. STUD RAM!!!
Bake
I just ordered "Wind, Dust, and Snow: Great Rams of Asia", going to check the mail box to see if it arrived yet ;)
Zhunter - You won't be disappointed with the book. Such incredible hunting stories - I savored reading each one like a fine wine. However, Collector's Covey shipped it to me in Hawaii via the slow boat and it took way too long to arrive in the mail. Nevertheless, it's worth the wait.
I believe George Harms may have taken a couple of the Asian sheep with the bow as well....not 100% though. Here is his Asian sheep display......
Just for ha has here is George's North American display.
Very cool thread! Interesting...
Just ordered the book, thanks for the inspiration Brian.
some forget that you can hunt Asian Ibex and other mountain species for cheaper then NA sheep.
Some amazing mountains and places
Absolutely beautiful animals. Don't you all wish you could afford to hunt them? Only in my dreams.
Another excerpt to wet your appetite Busta'Ribs...
TEN DAYS OF HIDING...
Ten days of hiding in a miserable Dushanbe room, the crackle of automatic weapons fire from fighting between Afghan invaders and Tajikistani troops, lousy food, biting cold, and streets littered with the dead exacted a huge emotional toll from Jeff Neal and three hunting friends in their superhuman efforts to complete their December 1992 Poli hunt in the Pamirs. And, for Neal, no trophy in the world other than the Poli ram in this photo could have made such suffering worthwhile. Neal barely got his ram into the States before the curtain came down on the importation of various argalis.
Went on an Asian ram kick on YouTube last night. While googling around for hunt info I came across this cool old thread. Might have to snag a copy of the book. Anyone have any more recent pics or stories of bowhunts over there?
Good grief. I was 30 when I posted before . . . Where does time go?
I’m not sure who it was, but I follow shikar safaris on Instagram. Couple years ago they had a hunter kill an Altai ram with a bow
Lots more info about these hunts in the last ten years. I follow a couple Asian mountain guys on Instagram and they post pics of Asian rams quite a bit. Videos and pics of live rams. Pretty cool stuff
Forgot this one. Couple years ago at P&Y convention I happened to sit by Jack Brittingham at the Saturday dinner. I didn’t really have a chance to get a word in edgewise ;) but I finally got to remark to him that I really enjoyed his Asian sheep video. He said “glad I got to do those hunts then. They are too damn expensive now”. ;)
I thought, “damn, if he thinks they’re too expensive now I’ll never get to do it” ;)
I'll never get the chance, would be a dream hunt, but not wealthy enough and too old now, but noticed all the bow kills were with compounds... Anybody ever taken one of the big Argalis with a stickbow?
