EUROPEAN MOUFLON SHEEP
We landed in Valencia airport, where Valeriano and one of his guides were waiting, they picked up my luggage and arranged all the legal weapon proceedings, in a short time we are in the car driving to the hunting area. Actually everything is going great, and I can state that Ibexhuntspain is an efficient hunting company, as I have experienced the fact of hunting with them last year.
We arrived to a big hunter’s house located inside a vast forest, they showed me the facilities and I chose a room to sleep. In a big dinner room there was prepared a great buffet, and I have to say that everything is like a 5 stars hotel!
We are in January so afternoon is not so long but despite this and the cold, we decide to go hunting in the nearby northern mountains. We load all the necessary material in the pick up, even a small dog just to follow the animal’s trail in case of hurt.
Despite the splendid sun , the afternoon is still very cold, we stop at some rocks and beat with the viewfinders all our environment. After an hour , we see a group of mouflons but all of them are females and young animals and the only male is not very big, Valeriano decides to continue walking to the southern slope. Once there we see other two mouflons eating behind some bushes, they are far enough so we assemble a telescope to observ them better, they are note very bif, so we decide to return to the car and go home.
Once there, after a moment of relax, we have dinner all together and we sit in front of a chimney to speak about Spanish fauna and its hunting.
New hunting day. We will try to hunt a big mouflon coming down to the mountains to eat in the meadows. We leave the pick up far from the meadows and we start walking, there is not so much light at the moment, but it is a great time to take these animals by surprise.
We stand behind some trees knocked down on the floor, we were bent and hidden by the trunks of some trees. We spent a long time watching the smallest nook with our binocular, but we saw no movement. The sun moves and everything is more clear , Valeriano hits my shoulder and whispers that in about 300 yards he can distinguish a white patch, it is the body of a mouflon. Quickly I take a look at the place and suddenly the animal stucks its head showing his big horns, he is really magnific. Valeriano and his guide decide to wait.
I understand then their patient wait for more than 20 minutes, because in a while a group of four male mouflons went out to the meadows and were located at 200 yards from us. It is in that moment that I receive the warning and I put my riffle at the top of my back pack. I can distinguish the beauty of these animals trough the viewfinder of my riffle. The chosen mouflon is the second from my left which is located in the cross of my viewfinder , but I’m waiting him to separate a little from his mate. After 4 steps of the mouflon, I find the way to throw a Nostler tip partition of 165 grains of my 300 wby at full speed. A huge roar sounds and the animal lays on the grass, the remaining animals escape very quickly.
We approach the animal and take his thick and curved horns. The mouflon is really beautiful and big, Valeriano congratulates me and comments the luck I had to bring down that animal in that area.
I just have to show my happiness and satisfaction to have arranged this trip with such a very professional outfitter.
F.M. from Belgium
