European ibex
Wildlife biologist and outdoor writer Larry Weishuhn embarks on a captivating hunt for alpine ibex in the Austrian Alps.
“Did you see it?” Asked my wife, but before I could respond she said, “It looked like a goat of some kind, dark brown with long back curving horns with what looked like bumps on them!” I had seen it, jumping from one rock to another before disappearing. We were vacationing in Switzerland’s Alps in the early 1980s. The trip was one I had promised my wife for years, from a time before we had gotten married. Guns had been left at home, but that did not preclude me from looking for ibex, roe deer and red stags as we toured Switzerland and several other European countries.
Visiting numerous castles and stately homes, I drooled over several red stag, roebuck and ibex skull mounts. We also visited several gun shops. I spoke just enough of the local basic German dialect, having not been able to hardly speak English until I was forced to start grade school, to visit with locals in their native tongue. Doing so usually got us into places every-day-tourists did not get to go. Several gun shops we visited, as soon as I started speaking with them in German said the comparable of, “We will take you upstairs, you need to look at those guns!” “Those” guns were gorgeously embellished with engravings and with precious wood stocks; single-shots, double guns and drillings (those with barrels for shotgun and rifle barrels on the same gun). I saw and held several I wanted badly. Unfortunately, at the time we had just enough money to get us into Europe; I hoped and prayed we had sufficient funds to get us back home to Texas. Had there been extra jingle in my jeans or money in our bank account, I would have bought several of the rifles shown to me. Those rifles have long haunted me as did the alpine ibex. Before leaving Europe I made myself a promise. Someday I would return to hunt.
It was several years before my wife and I returned to Europe, this time to Austria as a guest of the Swarovski family. At the time I did a lot with Swarovski optics and had gotten to know the Swarovski family well. When they found out my wife and I were about to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary they invited us to be their guests at the famed Ruhdurshul Reserve on the Austrian/Italian border, and, while there to hunt red stag. The hunt was fabulous, I shot an ancient majestic mountain stag, after which we crawled high into the Alps to look for chamois and ibex. We saw both, but they were were off limits. I marveled at the majesty and beauty of the alpine ibex. Some day!
“Some day” arrived a few years later. I was attending the annual DSC Convention. Following my speaking and committee duties, I stopped to visit with Tim Fallon at his FTW/SAAM booth. No sooner had I walked into the booth when he said, “We need to go hunt Austria this fall! Let’s talk to Patty at The Global Sportsman booth. She’s booking for Hunt Austria Miesenbach. They’ve got some alpine ibex permits available.”
Minutes later we sat down with Patty Curnuette and planned our hunt. By the time we finished Tim and his wife, Dr. Tim Doucet and his wife and I were booked to hunt ibex. Tim and Dr. Doucet would hunt other species as well. For me, I would concentrate on hunting alpine ibex. Prices were a bit steep on silver and gold medal males, but an older male that failed to develop huge horns, a bronze, was in my budget. To me our hunt was about the overall experience and not the length or score of the ibex.
I made arrangement with my grandson, Jake Johnson, to serve as a cameraman to accompany Tim Fallon on his hunt. We were filming for an episode of “DSC’s Trailing the Hunters Moon” television show which I owned at the time.
Before leaving I spent time at the FTW on their Sportsman All Weather All Terrain Marksmanship (S.A.A.M.) ranges with my 375 Ruger Ruger M77 Guide rifle, topped with a Trijicon AccuPoint scope and shooting 300-grain Hornady DGX, their Dangerous Game load. Yes, I know an ibex is not what one would consider ‘dangerous game’, but at the time I was essentially hunting the world with my 375 Ruger. My Ruger/ Trijjicon/ Hornady combination shot extremely accurately out to distances well beyond 400-yards. But if possible, I planned on getting as close as possible before pulling the trigger.
The first couple of days we hunted from a “hochsitz”. It overlooked a series of bluffs where our guide had previously seen at least one older ibex that fitted into the category I hoped to take. Wildlife is tightly managed in Austria, as it is in many of the European countries. Each year a quota is given landowners or hunting groups regarding the number of animals of each species that need to be taken and also the size and age of the animals taken. Only a limited number of upper end individuals, in terms or antler or horn size, are allowed to be harvested each year, as well as all classes of other males. Harvest numbers are based on herd density, age structure within the herd, male to female ratios, fawn/calf/lamb/kids survival rates, and range conditions, as well as short and long term management goals.
Our “hochsitz” days were great fun. We saw several ibex females, kids and young males, as well as several chamois and one roe deer, a very young buck, but the old males seen previously in the area failed to show.
When sitting and watching failed, the guide suggested we still hunt, stopping occasionally to glass likely areas, particularly where he had previously seen ibex. We spotted several ibex, but all were females or really young males.
Tim Fallon was hunting another part of the mountain and had great luck, he took an extremely handsome silver-class male. Jake was able to film not only the stalk but shot too. Tim was well pleased with his ibex. It was one of several species and subspecies of ibex he had taken in different parts of Asia and Spain.
The same day Fallon took his ibex, Dr. Doucet shot one as well. His was huge of horn, well over 40-inches, reputedly the longest-horned ibex taken that year in all of Europe.
Several days into our hunt, after many interesting encounters with wild boar I was beginning to wonder if we would find a bronze-medal ibex. However, I never give up on a hunt until the guns are packed and we are headed to the airport.
Fallon, Doucet and their wives hunted other species including wild boar, red stag and roe deer. I continued hunting ibex. We happened to run into Fallon and his guide while they were looking for a roe deer. We had spotted a very nice roebuck and stopped to tell them about it on a winding, switch-back road headed to the top of the mountain. “We just saw several ibex, mostly female but one older male. I think he’s the one you’ve been looking for….” We headed in that direction.
Our up-slope walk was not an easy one. I was in decent shape at the time, but the angle was very acute and the wet leaves were slippery.
We had crawled straight up nearly 300-yards when the guide spotted ibex up above us. He saw a couple of females. I saw the male. He pointed, I pointed. I watched the ibex, but I also watched the guide. Whether or not I could shoot depended totally upon his decision. He studied the ibex, then turned my way, smiled and nodded approvingly. Throughout our hunt he had spoken Austrian as I had requested. Now he said in impeccable English, “He is the one we have been looking for.” Followed by, “Can you take him from here? If we try to get closer, they will see us and run!”
“Hmmm… I think I can. With the acute angle I can probably hold for a 200-yard shot.” I replied, setting up my tripod shooting sticks. As I did, the ibex turned to look in our direction. My shot would have to be straight-on. Having seen and handled Fallon’s ibex, I knew they were not very big animals and their vitals were relatively small, especially with him looking down at me.
I took several deep breaths. The 375 Ruger’s crosshairs settled on the ibex’s chest. I was truly glad I had spent considerable time shooting before leaving Texas, not only shooting from the bench, but also from the tripod shooting sticks I was using. I took one last deep breath after pushing the Ruger’s three-stage safety to fire, let it all out, then started applying pressure to the trigger. Thanks to the rifle muzzle-brake I saw my bullet hit the ibex squarely in the chest and he fell.
Keeping an eye on the ibex, I bolted in a fresh Hornady round and stayed on what I could see of the downed ibex. If he moved, I was going to send another round his way. He did not…
It took me a while to crawl up to where my ibex lay. He was at least nine-years old, based on annual growth rings. He was handsome and he was mine. I could not have been happier or more thrilled. I had finally taken an ibex. My first attempt had happened a couple of years earlier in Kyrgyzstan — it was truly an interesting hunt that is best talked about some other time.
With my alpine ibex in the salt, I spent the rest of the hunt pursuing mouflon and dodging wild boar. I would dearly love to someday return to Austria, whether to hunt alpine ibex or to simply see them again…
