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Backpack Hunting for Mid-Asian Ibex in Kyrgyzstan
- pantheonhunters
- Sep 21, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 2, 2025
What is it about remote mountain hunting that makes it so enchanting if not magical? After all, most remote high country hunts will test a hunter’s resolve and every facet of physicality to the point where sanity can be questioned. Is being cold, wet, breathless, and with every muscle aching, a vacation?
To think that we actually pay for physical abuse to be heaped onto ourselves isn’t logical. But, could the source of this magic come from the emotional sense of accomplishment we feel from successful hunts up high? We think so. But the by-product of accomplishment is an uncontrollable addiction to it. We keep doing it.
We were tested like never before hunting Mid-Asian ibex in Kyrgyzstan. “Remote” was a relative term to be redefined by a virgin stretch of the Tien Shan Mountains reaching into the far northeast corner of the country. It was here, just 5 kilometers away from the Chinese border, where a friend had spiked out on an experimental hunt up to 12,000 feet for Mid-Asian ibex. He was essentially the first to hunt it and among the first to be there since a guardian group of the Soviet Army vacated it.
The picture of his ibex, 56 inches around the curve, was proof there were many old ibex inhabiting this untamed land. If a hunter could just survive the 2-day drive and 3-day ride on horseback through the mountains, and could climb well beyond where the horses had to stop, he might get a shot at one of these royal mountain monsters. Now, many years later, we were a group who wanted a similar raw adventure outside the normal context of outfitting. We were explorer-hunters in current times. The launch of the Queen Mary was no more spectacular than the six of us laden down with all of our gear at the airline counter.
Turkish Airlines took us from New York’s JFK to Istanbul and then onto Bishkek. We piled our gear into a caravan of 4-wheel drive vehicles and set out for the town of Karakol. There we would stay overnight at the home of one of our Game Rangers who had worked for 26 years with the Hunting Department, a quasi-commercial entity of the Ministry of Ecology.
After 5 hours of riding over a rough but very picturesque mountain track, we reached the end of the road – literally. This was the homestead of our guiding family who would lead us into the far reaches of the high country. We slept on the floor of a crowded room only to be awakened midway through the night to attend a “goat roast” prepared in our honor. We had not realized that the “dinner” we thought we ate before bed was actually an appetizer and part of the welcoming course of tea, fruit, nuts, bread, and hearty stew. So, we got up at 03:00 out of politeness and ate some boiled goat, and then went back to bed.
Dawn broke quickly, and after a spot of tea we were put through a very beneficial long-range shooting practice. After each of us tested the zero of our rifles at 100 meters, a small metal plate was placed high on a ridge at 400 meters. A hit was unmistakable and very satisfying, but the most impressive hits came from a .338 Excalibur. It drilled neat holes through the 1/2-inch thick plate at that distance! It certainly wasn’t a backpacking rifle, but very flat shooting and with great wind bucking ability. Before the hunt was over, that gun would really prove its intended purpose by dropping a 49-inch ibex like thunder had hit it at 540 yards.
With renewed confidence in our shooting ability under field conditions, we began paring our gear down to the bare essentials. Everything had to be loaded on the horses, and it did not make sense to take any more that what we would eventually have to carry on our backs later on.
We spent the next three days marveling at the abilities of our horses as we penetrated far into the mountains. The Kyrgyz are exemplary horsemen and their hunting skills, endurance and penchant for hospitality were exemplary.
Setting up spike camp after each day’s grueling ride was exhausting in itself but once we reached the final staging camp, we split up into three groups of two hunters, each with our
personal guide. We had not seen any ibex on our way in, so we all expected to see game once we climbed over the last ridge in front of us. We are not disappointed.
The ibex were very difficult to spot at first. But, once we began to school ourselves in “looking small”, a wildlife kingdom gradually appeared through our binoculars. They were there. Several small groups of ibex occupied many of the ridges and gullies in front of us. Even at 1 or 2 miles away, the big ones among them all looked big. We had reached our Shangri-La, and just hoped for the chance to tell others about it after a safe and successful return home. The biggest of the ibex have a black tint in their coats. Our spotting scopes confirmed that we were looking at some dark ones in the 45-50 inch class, and approaches were strategized for each group of ibex that contained larger trophies.
We nourished ourselves with hot black tea, Mountain House freeze-dried meals, sardines, homemade salami and bread. The Kyrgyz believe that garlic aides breathing, so we also popped garlic cloves like candy. Water was drinkable right from the streams, but we had to re-fill and pack our water bottles for each climb. Also on our backs were two-man tents, sleeping bags, and one change of underwear and socks. That was it.
As the days wore on, the path of the three groups converged. Eventually, we met in the same valley and camped together. Everyone had taken an ibex with a sense of accomplishment. We had taken one of Asia’s iconic mountain species in strict fair chase and most definitely on terms the ibex determined.
Kyrgyzstan remains one of the most productive countries for hunting Mid-Asian ibex and we have multiple new options that are producing ibex in the 45-51 inch range consistently. It’s still one of the most affordable mountain hunts in the world.
Pantheon Hunters also hunt Mid-Asian ibex in other countries. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are outstanding options, and we offer various methods of hunting – horseback from both tented camps and permanent base camps and high mountain helicopter insertion.
Contact us today to start planning your next expedition!
