Cameroon Rain Forest Bongo Hunting is a multi-faceted journey of discovery. We experience unique species, human cultures, terrain and local hunting methods. We even discover ourselves as we adapt to the challenges we face. To hunt is to be learning all the time. Hunting bongo in the rain forest of Cameroon is a test and a learning experience. For many it will redefine safari because conditions and hunting tactics are so diverse from safaris in southern and east Africa. The rain forest is radically different from the typical African bushveld. Visibility is limited to 5-20 yards. The vegetation and undergrowth is thick and seemingly impenetrable to the point where the average shot taken is 10 yards and rarely as much as 20. You do not need binoculars when hunting the forest! If you decide to scope your rifle, you’ll need just a 1X. A red dot sight or irons might even be better. Pygmy trackers cut a path in and out with their machetes – all the while tracking and alert for any noise ahead. During the early phase of a stalk, they vigorously hack the bush, but as a track gets hotter, they quietly slice and snip through the vegetation with knives and scissors.  Hunting Bongo in Cameroon Rain Forest Tracking in the forest can be tedious. A hunter will be stepping over logs and brush, crawling or at least walking in a crouched position for hours on end. It’s simply amazing to see how an animal as big as a bongo or a dwarf forest buffalo will go under  a thick bush rather than go around it. The team will follow right on top of the track; if the track goes under, you go under on all fours. The heat and humidity can be staggering on its own, but it is especially severe when coupled with all the physical exertion required. We averaged about 100F with near 100% humidity daily. It was the rainy season, which is prime time, and this is to be expected. In fact, rain helps a safari. It may rain out on a day of hunting because tracks get washed away. But, there is renewed hope for morning when it’s likely that every track you find is fresh and easier to judge.  One must also be cognizant of ant columns, both the red and black varieties. Considering how the forest floor is shaded by the bush and trees high above it, it’s easy not to see them until it’s too late. Then, it’s a matter of getting them off as they dine happily on you. It’s not fun at all. Cameroon Rain Forest Still, the forest is where you find the magnificent bongo and other prized species. Many believe that the limited visibility and keen senses of the dwarf forest buffalo and forest sitatunga make them among the toughest African game to hunt. Of course, the giant forest hog and red river hog also inhabit the forest. But conditions make them opportunity animals in the extreme. Unless you are lucky, you will just get a glimpse of one. Bates Pygmy Antelope If you are a duiker aficionado, there are the Blue, Bay and Peters duikers to hunt. Not all hunting blocks are open to Yellow back duiker, but Bates Pygmy Antelope is a prize for the persistent collector. Each tracking team has a Pygmy who is skilled at duiker calling. The hunter will sit behind a shallow makeshift curtain with a 12-bore shotgun while he calls. Buckshot is what’s used for these smaller species. Hunting in Cameroon Rain Forest One of the greatest prizes in hunting is the Forest Elephant. You won’t see many in even the largest trophy rooms around the world. A client of ours hunted them rather dedicatedly over a 7-day period while we were there, and he gained a new-found respect for them over larger elephants in the eastern and southern parts of the continent. The hunting team found fresh tracks every morning, but the herd which contained a big bull gaped at them each time they were pursued.  That’s why they are so prized as a hunting trophy. Alongside the Pygmies while tracking bongo, buffalo and sitatunga are their dogs. The dogs are a service to conservation. They put the PH and hunter in a position to avoid shooting females and young bulls. Cameroon Rain Forest Buffalo The dogs do not roam far from them, and are usually quite close. They are indispensable, however, and signal the presence of these species just at the last minute and hopefully enough for the PH and hunter to advance forward, judge quickly, and shoot. After trying to be as silent as possible on the stalk, all hell breaks loose when you hear one of the dogs bark. Then it’s a matter of running in the direction of the noise which gets even louder as the other dogs join together and attempt to bay the animal long enough for the hunter to shoot.  Hunting in Cameroon Rain Forest It is said that a hunter does not “take” from the forest. Rather, the forest decides if it will “give up” something to the hunter. This is a very good way to think about hunting the forest, aligning your expectations and preparing yourself for it. All things considered forest hunting is real safari hunting. Contact us today to start planning your next expedition!

We all have our heroes of hunting, but those who captivated many of us were Africa’s old-world ivory hunters. These were real men, and they defined elephant hunting according to one principle belief . . . that a hunter kills an elephant with his feet, and that he will walk a mile for every pound of tusk. That adage still has the ring of truth to it for today’s elephant hunter, but it leaves one wondering if there is a similar adage for hunting the world’s mountain game?  One simple truth fits. A game animal that a hunter must climb for is worth it, and the hunter’s emotional highs from the endeavor are proportional to altitude where the game is hunted. Just ask a goat, sheep, ibex, or markhor hunter. Sheep keep us dreaming, but we thankfully have various species of ibex. One can spend a lifetime hunting them without bank loans and never feel that mountain hunting opportunities are lacking. Those afflicted with a big-time ibex addiction will argue that ibex provides more thrills and emotion-packed hunting adventure pound for pound than many of the world’s sheep. They garner respect the moment you immerse in their world. Bezoar Ibex Hunting Perhaps none of the world’s ibex are more beautiful and alluring than the Bezoar Ibex of Turkey.  30 years ago, a copy of Hunting in Turkey  by Ali H. Üstay opened up our eyes to Turkey as an important hunting destination and its signature trophy, the bezoar ibex. Bezoar is a game management success story in Turkey. Having long realized the potential for hunting as a form of tourism and foreign capital generation, Turkish wildlife authorities have ensured that today’s Bezoar hunter will experience excellent hunting. Hunting Bezoar Ibex in Turkey Populations are tightly managed through permit auctions. There are three trophy class tiers and price levels for each. Premium areas will produce trophies measuring 45-50 inches or better.  Hunting Bezoar Ibex in Turkey A swept back set of horns coupled with its profound coloration makes the Bezoar a truly awe inspiring trophy. They are trophies regardless of size and are suitably emblematic of Turkey’s long and storied hunting tradition. The Bezoar prefers up and down areas of mixed timber and rocky outcroppings. They can be found from very low altitude up to 9,000 feet. Spot and stalk is the primary method of hunting, so good binoculars and boots are important tools of the hunt.  Turkish hunting teams are adept at adapting the hunt to accommodate hunters of various ages and levels of physical condition. Regardless, you will help yourself greatly by bringing a good set of legs and lungs and the ability to reliably hit a 6-inch kill zone at 300-450. Hunting Bezoar Ibex A visiting hunter to Turkey will be enchanted by the culture and professional outfitting. Pantheon Hunters has access to both regular and special hunting areas, each populated with healthy concentrations of appropriate bezoar. Their hunting teams will be welcoming, attentive and hard-working, and you’ll feel sad to bid their friendly smiles farewell.  Accommodations will vary from Hunting Bezoar Ibex country hotels to cabins and tented camps primarily because bezoar extend across several mountain ranges. Some bezoar territory also offers excellent hunts for other species, such as the hybrid ibex, and Anatolian chamois, roe deer, Anatolia stag, and wild boar (the world’s largest).  Hunts for bezoar generally take place from September 1 through March 31. “Prime time” would be from late November through late December. The hunter can often find snow at the higher elevations this late in the year, but a great system of forest roads through the mountains makes covering lots of territory and penetrating deep into higher country much more possible. There are many flights daily from major cities to Istanbul through numerous carriers, and accessing good hunting territory usually means just one connecting flight and a reasonable drive into camp.  At the end of that trail is some of the world’s best hunting and one of the world’s most handsome trophies. It’s worth it. Contact us today to start planning your next expedition!

Alaskan Costal Brown Bear Trophy rooms fulfill many purposes, and perhaps none is more proper than to glorify the power and grandeur animals hunted in fair chase. While it’s gratifying to experience the awe felt by gazing visitors to a trophy room, it’s particularly interesting to see what attracts the most attention. The sight of a big life-size coastal brown bear seems most imposing, if not terrifying, as they reflect on the command that a monster bear has over its remote and totally wild domain. It could be argued that a brown bear hunt along Alaska’s coast or the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia qualifies as one of the Top 10 hunts worldwide. In listening to hunters’ stories of their brown bear hunts, it’s apparent that they had truly hunted, that they gained a huge measure of respect for big bears, and that they had a hunter’s version of an out-of-body experience.  Alaskan Costal Brown Bear Hunting Big bears don’t come easy. In fact, seeing one and getting close enough to one for a shot are two different things altogether. Sometimes you get all the closeness you never wanted! A client recently experienced what that’s like. He hit his bear badly and the bear went into a thicket and found a hole. Crawling behind his guide on hands and knees, the bear’s head popped out of the hole as they approached. One shot straight into the nostrils with a .458 at point blank range thankfully ended their drama. If it’s true that one kills an elephant with his feet, that also applies to taking a brown bear. But what happens beforehand — locating the animal — is the difference. Bear hunting requires a lot of time dedicated to glassing big country. Plan to sit, look hard and long, and look again. Prepare for the worst where the weather is concerned. Relentless 20-50 mile per hour gusts of wind coupled with driving rain can take the joy out of just about anything. And prepare to come back the next day and start the process all over again.  Regardless, hope springs eternal when hunting brown bears. Where there was nothing just moments ago may now be a small dark speck at 3,000 yards that is moving. It could end up being the holy grail — a 10-footer. But, what lies between the guide and hunter and the bear is likely hell on earth. Dozens of streams to cross. Alder jungles to fight. Rocks. Mud. Slippery slopes. Meanwhile, the bear is likely to be moving at a speed that amazes. It’s typical that the bear will move in and out of sight during the stalk, and the hunter’s heart will rise and sink many times along the way. One of our own hunts on the Alaska Peninsula begins with the airline delivering our guns in Anchorage but off-loading the rest of our gear in Salt Lake City. We had planned to overnight in Anchorage anyway, but were now desperate to buy new gear during our short overnight layover. We certainly did not want to head out from Anchorage gear-less, or worse, miss the daily flight down to Sand Point for the sake of waiting for the gear to arrive the next day.  So, that evening we scoured the phone directory for sporting goods stores just hoping that one would open early enough to buy the basic gear needed in time to catch the flight down to the Peninsula.  We had exactly one hour between a store opening and our flight departing. We commandeered a wild cab driver who happened to be a sportsman. When we told him how the airline put our hunt in jeopardy, she tore off at the speed of a New York City cab. He was a real character. When we got to the store, it was still closed, but there was a clerk dressing a manikin in the window with a hunting coat exactly like the one sitting in my luggage in Utah. Recognizing the hurried look on our faces, the clerk came to the door and I asked “what size is that coat on the manikin?” “Large”, he replied. “Good, we’ll take two, and we’re in a bloody hurry and need your help”.  Alaskans are great people, and this guy could not have been more helpful. He rounded up 3 boxes of .375 ammo, socks and liners, shirts, pants, hat, and gloves. Luckily, we had the sense to wear our hunting boots on the plane, so we were tricked out as far as footwear was concerned.  In our peripheral vision we could see the cab driver admiring a pair of hip waders. So, we asked him if he needed a pair. “Yeah man”, he excitedly replied! “Well, you can thank Delta Airlines because they are buying you that pair of waders. Now, let’s get to the airport”. Our knuckles went white as we held on and made the flight with no time to spare. We were met in Sand Point by our guide, an ace pilot who ended up scaring the hell out of us several times in his re-built (many times) Super Cub. He could take off and set it down without any semblance of a runway.  We were confident that we had landed in big bear country. After a quick change of clothes and paring down our backpacks to the bare essentials, we were airborne again and headed out to spike camp. We landed on a sandbar of an inlet well below the cabin which was set into the face of a hill far above. It was purposely camouflaged so that the crews of ships staged for porting in Alaska’s harbors would not find it while waiting their turn to dock. It was a plywood structure with just enough room for 3 people to lay side-by-side; guide, packer and me. At one end of the small structure was the door and the other was a Coleman stove. It was a pretty comfortable alternative to the backpacking tents we used in other parts of the area.  A mink had found the cabin equally comfortable. The guide reached over to light the Coleman when the tubing ignited. A mink had bitten the tube in multiple locations and the perforations leaked gas that flamed instantly. That blaze got us up faster than any alarm clock could have done. Days are very long during Alaska’s spring, and it was not uncommon for us to get up at noon, and hunt until midnight. Our morning routine involved walking the ridges high above the beach and glassing for bears in all the depressions and canyons as we moved. We would walk the beach late in the evenings hoping to catch a bear coming down to nourish on kelp or a beached carcass. Alaskan Costal Brown Bear We started to see bears right away. But what amused us more were the fresh brown bear tracks circling the cabin. While we were out hunting every day, a bear would chew on the cabin walls and lick the glue that fused the layers of the plywood walls.  Uncharacteristically for the Peninsula, the sun appeared and the weather turned stellar for the entire hunt. Could this actually be the big, bad, inclement Alaska Peninsula that we were hunting? One must accept everything and anything that a brown bear hunt dishes out, and in this case, it was some unexpected great weather. We were up high above the beach one day and saw two moving specks well out in front of us. We quickly set up the spotting scope and could see that it was a boar and sow. He was trying to mate with her, but she was resisting. His advances kept them occupied with each other and stationary. After a 2-hour stalk we were able to close the gap to 50 yards. As we peered around a rocky ledge, the bears were laying down, nose to nose, apparently exhausted from their struggle.  Alaskan Costal Brown Bear Hunting When the boar was alerted to us, he started to climb a ridge and was now 100 yards away. A .375 on the point of his shoulder and another into his chest as he reacted to the first shot. He rolled downward and disappeared into a gully. As we cautiously approached from above, the sow surprised us coming our direction not more than 10 yards on our flank. She appeared happy to be getting away from him. There he was. Most of his massive body was lying in a creek, so we had to skin him there. We could see that the wind currents down on the beach below were too stiff to plan on a Super Cub coming in safely to collect us. While we skinned the bear and contemplated what to do we heard the outfitter’s plane approaching. He had come over from base camp to check on us and happened to spot us below. He, too, noticed the white caps hitting the beach. So, he landed on a small clearing 800 yards directly above us and came down to help us finish skinning the bear. A wet hide on a bear that big would easily weigh 200 pounds, and we felt every bit of hit as we took turns packing it up to the plane. Once we reached the plane, we cleared some rocks and made a short runway. A couple of shuttle trips got us and the trophy back to camp. Alaskan Costal Brown Bear Hunting The skin measured 10 feet and 4 inches square, and surpassed hopes and dreams. With all the interesting animals available to hunt worldwide, a brown bear hunt is one of the select few hunts that we would do again.  That’s why we hunt them on the Kamchatka Peninsula , too. Look for that story. Contact us today to start planning your next expedition!

An Unexpected Bongo Rifle .404 Jeffery Mauser Ralf Martini Custom Highman & Laubsher .505 Gibbs London Ridby .375 H&H Griffin & Howe .350 Magnum Bentley & Playfair 450/400 3 1/4" London .450 Rigby Rimless Magnum 350 Remington Magnum 673 Guide Gun Perfect for bongo in the Cameroon rain forest Contact us today to start planning your next expedition!

Tien Shan Mountains 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. 56" ibex 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 in the Tien Shan Mountains 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 ibex hunting 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. ibex hunting Tien Shan Mountains 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. ibex hunting Tien Shan Mountains 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!