Ready and I just wrapped-up our 6th hunt together. (Well, I'm trying to wrap it up - I'm stuck in Paris for a bit, courtesy of Delta.) We met for the first time on a mountain in Alaska in 2011, and found the company agreeable enough to have hunted together 5 times since. I had been to Germany twice, and he to the 24HCF hog hunts twice. We both longed for the mountains again, and Ready suggested an elk hunt in the Rockies. I nonchalantly mentioned that he had mountains on his side of the pond, too. And voilà, you saw his response in the other thread. The guy doesn't mess around.

Case in point - Ready fetched me at the airport, and whisked me not to our hunting area, but to some small burgh called Absam, Austria. I mean, why not take a guided tour of an alpha glass manufacturer?





Yes, Ready knows EVERYBODY, and has endeared himself to most. The factory made every workplace on the planet look like a craphole. It was more like a spa retreat from which world class optics just happen to ship daily. The company cafeteria space was more elegant than any restaurant I've been in for the last 4 months. And it's located at the foot of a mountain that leaves one speechless.

From there, we proceeded toward the next day's appointments, stopping to nosh in a beautiful village (they're all beautiful) called Vomp. (My pronunciation is poor, but I think it's like the sound your car makes when it hits a possum.)





I went through a lot of ibuprofen on this trip, what with my jaw smacking the ground at every view I saw. The alps are just friggin' breathtaking, and it never got old.





Ready & I will be updating this as we go along. Our photos are spread across 2 phones and several camera memory cards, so we'll refresh things as time and technology allow.

FC

Thanks for sharing!

That's awesome!!!! keep it going with stories and pictures!!!

Looks like good time where had.

We ambled down through Kitzbühel, and into a splendid gasthaus on a mountainside. After securing provisions, we made do with a humble meal in Ready's room:

In their breakfast room the next morning, it became clear we were deep into Chamois country:





No, not those! These:





The black horns:

Since Joe has now gotten us down to Tirol already, I will chime in here.

As a PSA, here the link to the thread building up to the hardship:

What else friends are for?

You see, I am rather "bequem". The "...lets stay down in the Wirtschaft and have a Bier" - type.

Now, that does not fly with Joe - at all.



Constantly he will be looking "Up".

Next day after staying in the little Gasthaus found us traveling to Italy - to Southtirol - to the Dolomites.

Yeah, the south Tirol...





Our host insisted on showing us their 700 year old church:






Then some coffee... and beers... in the town square:





And those Dolomites:





For anyone curious, the hats definitely threw-off the locals: they spoke English to Ready, and German to me.


There's lots more to the story of this part of the trip, but I'll leave that to Ready.

FC

Joe,
Thanks for setting the stage.
Let's get this show rolling.

Yeah, yeah... We'll get there...

I finally dragged my azz home yesterday, and fell face-first into bed for 10+ hrs. I'll get some coffee in me, & see what I can come up with to describe our trip to the hütte. Just be aware that all the high quality pics will come from Ready - he's got the good cameras, and the skeeelz. I sometimes get the feeling that he's taken several Master Classes in photography at Guide School.

At one point, we kidded about putting all of our lens-containing devices in a pile on the hill, and taking a photo to see just how many optics it takes to hunt these days.

More than once we pondered how the Jägers of old ever got it done, in lederhosen and old style boots, and rucksacks, but with no 14x scopes, flat-shooting cartridges, s30v knife blades, alpha bins, 80mm spotters, gore tex, bug dope, internal frame packs, camelback water bladders, topo maps... or butt-out tools...

On the plus side, my tick bites seem to be healing well.

FC

Are ticks bad there?

'mike - depends on the way of looking at it, I guess...

After 4 solid days of field Joe and me both had but two bites - on the last day, none of which got infected, it seems.

PIA - but could have been worse.

The reason for our most scenic, tirolean detour was just me tugging at any straw I could reach for to prolong "boots to the ground".

You may agree with me - see the serenity of a "Caffee Latte" in an old city square above...

We met Paolo, who is an old Gams hunter and author of books on hunting ballistics.



Paolo and his wife are natives of Tirol and very much live the hunting live - slowed down some by his on admission, but it was very interesting to listen to him explaining the species habit to us.

Keeping this running, while in South Tirol the Weather was striking, back in the Austria side, all was fogged up.

We met up with our host and finally (said Joe) set out for the hut on the mountain,



with a place to hang our hats.



Early morn found us enroute to the chamois... in the rain.



Even Tip was shut up - the attentions of a certain young lady might have taken his mind of the rain...

Paolo was awesome! He received us warmly, took us around town, and told us some wonderful anecdotes about Hubertus over beers. He then led us back to his pad, where his wife had laid out an amazing spread for lunch. That pepperonata was friggin' amazing!

Ready & I specifically asked him how to tell the male Chamois from the females. He responded in a dead serious tone, "wait for them to pee." We were sure he was yankin' our chains, but he explained that they're furry enough to hide the sheath on the males, and the only other somewhat reliable sign is whether the bases of the horns are round (male) or elliptical (females), which is kind of hard to discern from 800 yards away through a spotting scope.

And you've probably noticed how Ready slipped in a line about, "gams". I was lost, too. Turns out that's what Deutch speakers call Chamois. Everything has 2 names. Hell, when I climbed up to the ridge, there was nothin' but kilometers for miles & miles around.

To get from the Paolo's to the hunting area, we had to pass through Mittersill. The town's traffic circle has an interesting sculpture:





Perhaps that explains why we also passed by this:





Yes, I had to have Ready explain it to this country boy. And as the natives say, "He who Laufs last, needs a penicillin shot."

To get caught up with the thread, I need to point out that Ready left out the part about Henrik (sp?), our host/guide/jäger-watcher/mack daddy of Salzburg province. He showed us up to the cabin, and had us check zero on our rifles. I'm sure I committed a major breach of protocol when I suggested we fire from the windows of the hütte, using the windowsill as a rest. We 'Mericans are resourceful, though, and it worked like a charm. However, decorum prohibited us from documenting the act in photos.

Afterward Henrik whipped out some exceptional homemade soup & dumplings that his wife had made us:



along with some some of his very own pine cone obstler (schnapps) that was absolutely killer. (pictures forthcoming). It was the trip of a lifetime, and we hadn't even hunted yet!

FC

Somehow, that "Laufhaus" - Joke stayed with us the whole trip.

FC mentioned the "pine cone schnaps". Here a picture of it amberly in the glasses of an evening on the hütte:



Early mourning on the hill:



Going up the hill:



Chamois - there is more than 10 in this picture...



These chamoises are tough. Known to shoot back at you appearently. Maybe Joe knew more than me about them - 'merican and all - before ridgelineing he would do the "Hat on a stick" routine:



Hours of Glassing:

Joe, thanks for the pictorial thus far. It looks like a really amazing trip and you can't find better company than Carl.

However, Carl in a cowboy hat is just wrong. Cant explain it,but for lack of a better word, it seems unholy.

You're probably right, but it's still but a fraction of the sin of Europeans seeing this flatulent foreigner in a Forstdiensthut.

FC

And so there the matter shall rest, then. The Grand Poobah hath spoken.

Yeah buttttttt...Joe looks good in any kind of hat........

Wow. Keep the pics and stories coming. Bucket list-esque stuff... Wow.

Great story guys. Who had to get the penicillin shot?

That's one thing we for sure never needed to worry about. Ready & I both married way too well!


But climbing mountains is hard work, and calls for powerful paleo breakfasts of apples, walnuts, avocados, & speck (bacon). It was actually really tasty:





Then we had to pack up our gear:





And sometimes we had to fight with the locals to get into our hunting stands:





We had to get to the top of the small hill in the center [ironically called Glätz (bald)]...





... so that we could glass & hopefully make shots at the very bottom part of the big hill on the left. Ready's earlier photo with the chamois was from the lower left of it. Here's a better picture of the face from our shooting position:





Of course, the goats didn't need to be very far up on that hill to see us coming, & they busted us flat nearly every time.

FC

Having made the trek, though, we settled into some trees, and figured we'd try to wait them out. There was much glassing (and bs-ing...):






And surely enough, after about 3 hours, their curiosity got the better of them. One nose would poke over the ridge, then another, and another... In only a few minutes, there were 30+ Chamois hauling ass across the face of the ridge. They were bleating like a bunch of barnyard sheep, at well over shooting range. Worse, there was nothing but pairs of ewes with lambs. Not a great payoff for waiting so long.

A few minutes later, though, we saw some movement down low, and there were some likely candidates coming in at much better ranges. When I say, "likely candidates", I need to explain that our host had requested we take a female, between 2-4 years old, and preferably one that might not be in peak condition. I didn't understand it, but - their country, their province, their national park, their forest... their rules.

The group of 5 animals had one ewe with her lamb, so that left 3 possible shooters. So we waited, and held our breath, and got excited as they came into shooting range... and then one that was about the correct size and age stopped... and squatted to pee. BINGO!!!
(I told you that Paolo was awesome!) And in the end, we collected her. I'm sure Ready has lots more (and better) pictures:





If anyone must know, I used a Savage 10 in .308 with 130 TTSX bullet, and Leopold VX1 4-12x40. There - got that outa the way.



With the chamois accomplished, we attempted to collect some roe deer and red deer, so we went up high to do some glassing:





And Ready found a nice li'l perch:





Truth be told, it was actually a bit more precarious than it looked:





But he owned the territory like a boss:






FC

Uber write-up and pics thus far!

In the other direction, there was a great view of the town.





Every ridge in site had a cross on it. This one even had some small schnapps bottles placed there by previous visitors, paying forward hospitality to those who'd come behind them.


And speaking of schnapps, taking a Chamois of the correct size, age, condition, and gender definitely called for some more of Henrik's excellent home-brewed obstler:





The next day was up at dawn





And getting up higher on the mountain than most:





And glassing clearcuts







But the deer didn't cooperate.

FC

And while those Chamois might shoot back, the real reason for the hat-on-a-stick is that climbing mountains makes me sweat like Bill Cosby in a deposition. I had to take the hat off to let my head breathe!





Eventually, I took to wearing my do-rag under the hat to wick the moisture away before it got to my eyebrows then dripped on my glasses & bins. Thankfully, there are no pictures (that I know of...) of me in the do-rag.


FC

Nice looking country. I knew we didn't have to worry about the penicillin shot with you two. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

What more to tell?

No fence posts anywhere in sight -



"Glad, we have that Arctic Cat..." Joe effecting transport - tirolean style.



The "sentry" - perched high and on the look out.



Eyes on us...



As to hunting open spaces (clearcuts, meadows)



More later.

I hadn't seen the goat pictures. Excellent work, Ready.

Now... since the Poobah brought up the issue of the hat... Ready was quite resourceful in modifying his "38 Liter Kuhhirt Hut" when he found that the rear of it was binding on the top of his pack. However, it didn't look right with the back bent upwards at a nearly 90 degree angle.

So I asked him to spin it around, bent-bill facing forward, like so:





Am I the only one who thinks he bears a striking resemblance to Stinky Pete, from Toy Story 2?





FC

Now that's funny right there! Sounds like you guys had another grand hunting excursion. Thanks for sharing.

Paul

Awesome write-up! That country is gorgeous and that trip sounds like it would be a blast.

very nice

Great write up! Certainly a bucket list trip.

Some opportunities don't come along every day. When Ready saw our route would take us through Thuringia, he called his buddy who'd grown up in the area, to find out where we'd find the most authentic Thüringer Rostbratwurst:






Delicious? It was the würst!


In all seriousness, though, the entire adventure was completely born of the exceptional generosity of Ready, and his willingness not just to hunt with me for many days, but to dutifully put up with countless hours of my sophomoric dick jokes. The trip of a lifetime could not have happened without the friend of a lifetime.

Many Thanks, Sir.

FC

Ready is a good guy. Looks like a good hunt and some fine vittles.

Ready is a good guy. Looks like a good hunt and some fine vittles.

Tough life, but someone has to do it. Keepem coming,

Wow, outstanding gents.

The Alps are incredible in that part of the world!

I've never seen them like that.

GREAT write-up and pics.

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thx!

Please excuse any delay...

Haveing now let a few days pass, I feel adequatly detached to once again face back those days.

In the foreground - the "Bar on the Kar".



This may bear an explanation:

As "Kar" the Austrian Gamsjager names the bare rock faces just above shrubline.

i. e. this:



Joe - being, amongst many positiv traits, a comedian of no ordinary merit, could not get himself past the pun suggesting itself, when he saw this:



Further on checking my notes from that day, I give you

"Lizards Lust"



and

"Do you feel lucky, punk?" "Move, go on - make my day!"



"Quarters!"



to be continued.

Continued.

"Night"



With this - I would, for my part, bring this to a close. Joesef is already talking about our next adventure - something I look forward to with some apprehension...

Thank you for taking an interest.