does anyone know anyone who has taken a marco polo ram or an ibex with a trad bow?? any pics or stories? this is my "if i won the lotto" dream hunt!!

Ozy, I know what you mean.  Ibex ...live in my dreams...

I know Steve Hohensee and Rick McGowan went to try for them....that's where they met my Mongolian friends...but I don't know for sure whether they got one or not.

I'd sure like to try for any variety of ibex too!

Go Clint! Nothing's impossible; some things are just difficult!

yeah, like convincing the wife to let me blow the house deposit. LOL!!

It's only a house mate! Your dead a long time!


AK.

We didn't go for Marco Polo or Argali sheep, those are way,Way, WAAAAY out of my budget. I was happy to to see a decent argali ram and five ewes on the last day of the hunt, the guide was very excited too, so I don't think its a common event. We did find a dead argali ram and Steve tried to bring the horns home, but I won't go into that story. The sheep and ibex live in different sort of country, but it does overlap a bit, I don't think the sheep where we were in Mongolia are in good bowhunting country, rooling hill with NO stalking cover. We could have shot an argali if we got the chance, but it would have been a $25K trophy fee, so we were hunting Gobi ibex, lots of ibex, I watched one group that had 12 billies and probably seven of them would have been in the world record class, but they are VERY wary and spend almost all of the time in the middle of big open valleys, unless they get spooked and then they are at the very tops of the mountains. The wolves, snow leopards and no doubt poachers are after them all the time, so they are very hard to stalk and the wind will give you away, nearly everytime, we never came close to getting a shot. Of course it is live and learn, if I was to go back, I wouldn't listen to the guides(like I could understand them anyway). They just seemed to want to sit on top on the mountain and wait for something to happen, which when it did was never good for us and trying to stalk with guides, interpreters, drivers etc. was a waste of time. One day I faked a bad knee and just stalked for hours by myself and had an awesome time, walking in the tracks of Chingiss Khan! The mountains where we were weren't all that bad, but some of the other varities of ibex live in places that are just scary to look at, I go to hunt, not to mountain climb. It was a very big adventure and not all that expensive if you skip the sheep!

I had thought about booking the same hunt as Rick and Steve took. After talking with them I changed my mind though. It would be an adventure for sure but there are still some North American game animals that still have my interest I want to go after first.

Mostly what RicMic said.  I accidentally got to 80 yards of some ibex one day during the trip.

There's got to be a key to those ibex in the open... summertime, stinkin' hot...where's the water in those parts during the summer?

No water, probably get moisture from grasses.

Wow! That's pretty amazing!

I have friends that have taken Ibex with the other type of archery tackle. Their shots were at much greater distances than I'm comfortable shooting though. I'm not saying it can't be done but I know my limits and know it can't be done by me. Given the right circumstances and the right terrain I'm sure that Ibex and perhaps even marco polo could be taken with tradional equipment if someone were wealthy enough to keep trying. I'm just not one of those people that fit into that category.

"I believe Fred Bear took a Marco Polo with his recurve."

I am corrected on the above statement...Fred did not take a Marco Polo.

I did see ibex drinking from a bit of melting snow, but as Stevo said, there are no waterholes or streams or anything like that. No doubt if you were lucky early or hunted long enough, you would eventually be waiting in the right place.

Blackhawk...I believe that is not correct.

As Jack said, there have only been a few taken with compounds and I believe the only way those were taken was on drives.  So, it could be done, but it would be very, very, difficult; especially if you truly wanted to stalk them. It is VERY open country, not like the mountans we have in North America as you can see from these photos:

Steve-o.

That is YOU in the hero pic, right? I've seen guys jumping up and down with RIFLE kills smaller than that...nice ram.

Have you done ibex?

Ray,

I wish!  Just grabbed a couple photos to show the terrain.  I would love to do it, but I would have to win one in a raffle or hit the lottery.

With that said, I have been on a couple sheep hunts in North America and I have quite a few friends that hunt EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, so I am fairly up to speed on most sheep hunting in the world albeit second hand.

I think the only guys who have Argalis with a bow are Frost, Hoffman, and Nesbitt.  There may be a few more, but there are not many!

my favorite nighttime read is the book...Diary of a Sheep Hunter- that Iranian guy who hunted with Prince Abdorezza all around the world.

To sleep, perchance to dream of 50" ibex, ribbed horns gleaming black in the sun, with a white cap wrapped Grizzly tipped arrow sticking from their side after a 6 hour stalk...THAT'S MY DREAM HUNT.

You might look into the Bezor Ibex in Turkey...

If I had my pick, I would be going to Russia for Kamchatka Bighorns or Snow Sheep.  Those Montana boys that went in the late 80s/early 90s are my heroes  

I think Gary Bogner took both with compounds.