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Blue Sheep Hunt in the Himalayan Mountains

Join the professional hunter James Rivera-Schreiber to the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal. In this article he talks more about the hunt for Blue Sheep, preparations and choice of ammunition.

ECOSTRIKE

The specie and location

The Blue Sheep or Bharal Sheep (Pseudus Nayaur Nayaur) inhabits in the Himalayan Mountains, specifically in Nepal and Pakistan. It belongs to the Ram’s family. The short, dense coat is slate grey in color, sometimes with a bluish sheen. The underparts and backs of the legs are white, while the chest and fronts of the legs are black. Separating the grey back and white belly is a charcoal colored stripe. The ears are small, and the bridge of the nose is dark. The horns grow upwards, then turn sideways and curve backward, looking somewhat like an upside-down mustache. They may grow up to a length of 80 cm. An adult male weigh from 55 to 75 kg. This ram lives between 4.000 and 5.500 meters above sea level in very steep and mountainous areas.

The Hunt

It is necessary to obtain a visa to visit Nepal, and the authorization to import weapons and transport by airlines. Besides that, the only way to get a hunting permit is through an outfitter. The flight destination is the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. Once you land, there are two ways to reach the base camp; making a three-day acclimatization march or taking a helicopter flight (around 1,5 hours). Once arrived at the base camp, tents are set up to spend the following hunting days.
The hunting in Nepal is conducted solely in the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve of north central Nepal. There are very few annual permits available for this hunt, as there is not a high density of these animals. This ram inhabits in such steep and mountainous areas what makes this hunt even more exclusive and difficult to succeed. The duration of the hunt is five days at least. However, always being an incredible and unique experience; standing as one of the most coveted and dreamed mountain hunt that any hunter must have on his or her bucket list.

The caliber and ammo

In this hunt we use the Kalahari bullet with caliber 300 WM with 155gr. Kalahari has been our chosen ammunition that we´ve been using over the past years and which is for us one of the best bullets the brand has manufactured. Its a copper bullet of superior quality destined to the hunter for which only the best is worth in terms of both precision and performance at the time of reaching the animal. The bullet is designed to offer a rapid, although moderate, expansion to achieve the effect of quickly killing the animal and, at the same time, obtaining a high weight retention to offer a good penetration. The final performance obtained when folding the piece is similar to the Vulkan, and its degree of penetration is slightly higher than that of the Oryx. Its unique design and the relatively lightweight of the bullet make the Kalahari the flattest flight ammunition on the market, achieving up to 300 meters of range in their respective calibers.

Our opinion

The reasons why we´ve been using this bullet for so long are the ones above. It has have given us such a great result in every of our mountain hunts worldwide. But now the new ECOSTRIKE released is probably the exact substitutive for the Kalahari, and from our point of view even having a better performance, as it has a better final impact of penetration and a longer flight. For us, these cartridges are probably the best ones of the brand to be chosen for any mountain hunt, having a good grouping shoot between 100-400 meters. Also having a very good flight trajectory with very little fall in long distance, and an excellent final impact energy. The hollow bullet causes strong and rapid penetration damage with a suitable entry gap, which makes the animal die quickly so it doesn’t suffer much, and examples good amounts of blood if the animal runs a few meters and we need to look for.