Texan hunter bags ram in Central Asia
If you are a fan of big-game hunting stories, you are sure to find some candy in the diary of tales Ebb Flynt had to share on the heels of a high country adventure that unfolded at 14,000 feet, deep in the heart of the Tian-Shan mountain range in east-central Asia.
A big game hunter from Nacogdoches, Flynt recently returned from a two-week stint in Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked republic sandwiched by China and a host of other countries with names that are hard to pronounce.
To give you a better perspective for how far Flynt was from home, Kyrgyzstan is roughly 630 miles by air from Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are at war as we speak. And he was all alone, with no one except a Tajikistan mountain man named "Otambek" to trust as an escort and interpreter.
It was Otambek's job to usher Flynt through a host of military check points and, ultimately, to a remote base camp situated amid treacherous snow-capped peaks pretty much void of terrestrial life. There, Kyrgyz and Russian-speaking hunting guides would lead the American on a quest for a shot at one of the most sought after big game trophies on earth: the Marco Polo ram.
Distinguished by a shaggy, tan-white coat and massive, spiraling horns known to grow beyond 60 inches in length, the Marco Polo is one the largest members of the sheep family. It also is among the most difficult to hunt, mainly because it lives at elevations where the air is thin enough to kill and one wrong step can lead to tragedy.
Flynt bought the package hunt at a Texas Big Horn Society Fundraiser auction last February in Dallas. It was donated by Pat Latham with High Mountain Hunts out of Arlington.
Having hunted other subspecies of sheep before, Flynt had a good idea how physically taxing the trip would be. Still, he spent the better part of 2010 contemplating a journey that ultimately turned out to pack more twists, turns and potential adversities than any other before it.
"I've hunted Stone Sheep in British Columbia and Dall Sheep in the Northwest Territories, but I'll always look back on this one as the true hunt of a lifetime," Flynt said. "It had all the aspects of a great hunt, plus a tremendous sense of adventure and remoteness. In British Columbia, you always knew you had access to a helicopter within six hours if you needed it. That's not the case in the mountainous regions of Central Asia. There you are pretty much on your own. If something bad happens, you had better hope you can live with it for at least a day or two."
Prep work
One of the most perplexing problems Marco Polo hunters experience is altitude sickness associated with the ascent to elevations beyond 8,000 feet. Mature rams, which often grow beyond 280 pounds, are frequently killed at elevations twice that high.
Common symptoms of altitude sickness include severe headache, insomnia, dizziness and fatigue. Severe cases can result in the development of fluid on the lungs and swelling of the brain. Left untended, both can be fatal.
Well aware he would be nudging elevations up to 14,000 feet, Flynt followed the advice of his outfitter and began altitude training six weeks in advance using a sleep mask-generator rented from Hypoxico Altitude Training Systems. The setup helped his body gradually adjust to high altitudes while he slept in the comfort of his home.
"Once I got over there I never had problem at all," Flynt said. "I would highly recommend the Hypoxico to anyone planning this trip or any other hunt to high altitudes. The last thing you want to do is get over there and be miserable."
Flynt also brought along plenty of SPF 50 sunscreen and good sunglasses to protect his skin and eyes from the bright sun. "You'll burn to a crisp without it," he said.
Making the trip
Just getting there was an adventure in itself. Never mind the 26 hours Flynt spent in the air, navigating customs checkpoints and napping in stuffy foreign airports before he finally stepped on Kyrgyzstan soil. It was the grueling 15-hour drive from the airport to the base camp -- half of it spent crawling along a bumpy mountain road in a 4x4 SUV -- that he remembers the most.
"Put a foot of snow on the roughest pig trail road in East Texas, then imagine driving 15 mph on it all the way to Kansas," Flynt said. "We crossed frozen rivers and ditches and drove in foot-deep ruts of ice most of the way. We probably got stuck seven or eight times."
Interestingly, Flynt said other men in the convoy were a jovial bunch. They never needed much of an excuse to make a customary toast with shots of premium Russian vodka.
"Every time something good happened we had to stop and make a toast, without fail," Flynt said.
One of the most memorable came just after the men had passed through a military check point occupied by armed soldiers.
"We pulled off the road, so they could toast to the fact we made it through the check point successfully, yet the soldiers were still close enough that we could have hit them with a rock," Flynt said. "The soldiers saw what was going on and they ended up coming over and having Vodka shots with them. Nobody ever got drunk -- it's just their culture. But I have never been so ready to get out of a truck as I was that one."
Crew, camps and food
Once Flynt arrived at base camp he was greeted by three men -- his master guide, "Omoorbek" and two wranglers. He said the camp consisted of three early model enclosed trailers. Two were bunkhouses. The third trailer was used as a kitchen, where Omoorbek's wife prepared eggs and sausage for breakfast and boiled meat-and-noodle concoctions for evening meals.
"Lunch was a different story," Flynt said. "The guides ate what looked to be a mixture of boiled meat, congealed fat and a fascinating assortment of braided intestines of some sort. I ate a lot of bread, cheese and Russian sardines."
A generator feeds electricity to the bunkhouses for light, but there is no hot water for bathing. Coal burning stoves keep things toasty in sub-zero temperatures each night.
"Other than having a warm place to sleep, you pretty much have to rough it over there," Flynt said. "If you use the toilet, you go to an outhouse. If you clean up, you either heat water or use Wet Wipes to do it."
The hunt
Flynt said the primary mode of travel was horseback. The typical day began before sunrise and ended after dark. The men spent 8-12 hours in the saddle each day, traversing through narrow valleys and canyons flanked by towering, snow-capped peaks that leaped in contrast to a stark blue sky.
"We covered a lot of ground and did a lot of glassing," Flynt said. "If we saw something that remotely resembled a sheep, we checked it out with binoculars."
Flynt said there was no shortage of animals to look at. He claims they saw about 75 sheep most days.
"That's probably why the wolves left our horses alone," he said. "There's no shortage of groceries, and there are lots of big wolves to feed."
On the morning of day three, Flynt found the ram he was looking for.
"We were riding down this chute and Omoorbek is in the lead," Flynt recalled. "All of a sudden he wheels around and starts motioning for us to hang tight against to the rocks to avoid being seen."
Closer evaluation revealed a bachelor group of rams moving slowly across a distant ridge 500 yards away. There were a couple of shooters in the group, but one stood out from the rest. The guides estimated the ram's horns to be about 46-50 inches, which Flynt says is akin to a 155-inch Kansas whitetail.
Flynt, who had practiced shooting beyond 500 yards with a .300 Weatherby, said he wasn't particularly excited about taking a shot at that distance so early in the game.
"When I told my interpreter to ask if we could get closer, Omoorbek never even flinched before he said yes," Flynt said. "He was so confident and quick to make the decision that I never questioned his judgement. That guy was amazing."
Flynt said they flanked the band of rams for the better part of an hour before they bedded down about 1,500 yards away. At that point, Omoorbek scouted a good ambush spot, then instructed Talas (one of the wranglers) to scale the icy bluff, circle behind the rams and show himself. The idea was to drive the animals closer.
The plan worked like a charm. Roughly 90 minutes later, the rams went on the move. The biggest of the bunch was the first to appear on a steep, snow-covered slope.
Flynt ranged the ram at 320 yards. He dusted it with a single shot that blew out both shoulders and clipped its heart. His bullet of choice was a 180-grain Accubond.
"Drives don't work out very often, but this one worked out like a movie script," Flynt said. "It meant the difference in trading a 510-yard shot for a 320-yard shot. That ram came skidding down the mountain like it was on a sled. Then out pops Talas waving both arms. He sat and watched the whole thing."
Then it was time for another culture toast -- one Flynt says he refused to partake in. After skinning and gutting the animal, Flynt said the men removed the gall bladder sac and divided the liquid bile evenly in plastic cups. The guides downed it like shots of vodka.
"A buzzard couldn't have gotten a meal off that carcass once they got done with it," he said. "They took everything, even the meat between the ribs. When we got back to camp, they boiled skull and ate the eyeballs and tongue. Those are like delicacies to them."
Small but game horses
Flynt is admittedly no horse expert, but he says the bay mountain gelding he rode for a week was by far the best mount he has ever been on.
"He wasn't very big, but he was tough as a boot -- they all were," Flynt said. "And what really impressed me is that he never missed a step."
Flynt said all the horses wore special shoes made with spikes for better traction.
"We crossed frozen rivers and scaled some mountain faces that would have been rough on most horses," he said. "These guys never missed a beat. Once you started up something, they didn't stop until they got you to the top."
Call of the wild
Flynt's says his first trip to the snow-capped Tian-Shan's probably won't be his last. Rugged-yet-soothing, the high country peaks left an imprint on his hunting soul that will forever beckon his return with resonant call from the wild.
Matt Williams' e-mail address is mattwilliams@netdot.com.
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