We got up this morning at 4am to try to get a whitetail gazelle. I got one last year but I wanted to try to find a much older one this time. We saw thousands last year but only two males - the one I got and then one that was even smaller than that. This year there was supposed to be a herd of 10,000 whitetail gazelles but they moved out of the area where they were a week ago. I was expecting to see a whole country side of moving gazelle but all we found was four, but all four were males, including one big, old one. We made a two mile stalk on them in the wide open country, got within 400 yards, had to wait, snuck around another mountainside and this time we cut them off. The biggest one came by us but he was trotting and I didn't get a chance to shoot at first, then he finally stopped for a second and I didn't have time to range so I shot and actually shot right over top of him. He turned and ran 50 yards closer to us, so he was now about 250 yards from us but there was still no time to range him. I went to take a second shot and totally jerked the trigger with no hammer back, which was good because I would have missed by a mile. So after I did that I was spazzing out and had to calm down, and was able to make a perfect shot on the next attempt and got him. He's a beauty, ancient, old ram with a huge goiter-thing that hangs down under his neck that's the size of a grapefruit. So it's a great animal and we're hunting Roebuck in another area next. It was a great day. 

The Next Day… 

Wonderful day today. We got up at 3:30, ate some breakfast and headed out to the area where we're hunting Siberian roebuck. We drove all the way over here yesterday from Ulaanbaatar into the forested country up here where we're looking for Siberian roebuck, Wild board and wolf. We got into the hunting area as it was barely getting light and got out of the truck and started to climb up the mountain. I had asked our guide if there were mosquitos here and he said no, but I asked him when we were at camp, so he assumed I was asking if there were mosquitos at camp, which there aren't, so we left our mosquito spray back at camp and it turned out that there were some of the most veracious mosquitos up here. We could barely walk through them and when we sat down to glass at one point, we just got eaten alive and couldn't even glass it was so bad. 

Just after the first light came up, we spotted a beautiful, male Siberian roebuck standing at about 750 yards away. As we were watching him, a wolf ran across the same clearing and chased the roebuck away. All the guys got all excited because wolves are the big deal here, it's pretty much the only thing that the locals hunt. So our guide started howling to bring it over and I was trying to get him to stop because I wanted to get the roebuck, but they wanted me to get the wolf, so the wolf started coming across the valley towards us. I gave my rangefinder to the head guide and told him to range it as soon as it came into the open, so when the wolf stepped out into the open, I asked, "how far?" and he couldn't see it, so I didn't shoot because I figured it was 400 yards. I finally grabbed the rangefinder back and it was only 320 yards, but as soon as I moved, the wolf started running and there was no time for a shot. All the local guys were all upset, so we started walking up towards the ridge to see where he went. As soon as we came over the ridge, we spotted three more female roebuck and then a male roebuck started barking like a dog down below us somewhere then all of a sudden he started coming out into the open, so the wolves had apparently chased the roebuck out of the forest. He came up to 396 yards so I shot, but everyone said I missed. I couldn't figure out how I missed, so we watched him run up the hill about 75 yards then I shot again and this time he dropped. We went over and he had two holes in him at about two inches apart at 400 yards. He's a beautiful, magnificent, male Siberian roebuck. We're all thrilled and got pictures and everyone was excited. 

As we were coming back, a giant wolf ran across the grasslands and was heading for the timber, so I grabbed my gun and shot him on the run. It was either a really good, or really luck shot, but I got him, so now we have a big, male wolf and a Siberian roebuck today and everyone is extra happy. They say the wolf is the best luck of all for the hunting team and it's a really big deal around here. They eat every ounce of the wolf meat, including all of the internal organs, the brain, everything. It's all medicinal for them, so everyone is happy, happy and celebrating tonight. They could care less about the roebuck, but the wolf is a huge success for them.