Chamois Hunt in Austria Part 1

”Ok, let’s go for it.” I whisper to Uwe while looking through the monocular.

It is the same chammy that we have been spotting for over an hour while lying hidden in the thick heather and cloudberry which coats the mountainside at over 2,200 meters above sea level. When we first saw this chammy, Uwe correctly identified it as a female and since they usually have smaller trophies we at first decided to keep looking. Uwe and Tony have been scanning the mountains using their Swarovski binoculars and have with practiced ease identified chamois after chamois all morning. Most of them have been too far away to risk a shot and in our exposed position, moving about has to be considered carefully in order not to spook the chammy. All in all we have seen over 10 animals during the course of the morning.

Our lonely chammy female is standing about 400 meters away from us and at a position 200 meters higher than our current one. It has moved effortlessly and casually between a tiny fir and a group of small bushes, foraging in the morning sun. After studying it using his powerful monocular, Uwe declares that it is a very old female with only one horn. One-horned chamois are considered something special and not something that all hunters have the good fortune of finding, even after many years of hunting the alps.

The night before we had been talking about different trophies and what I was looking for, and in the typical Swedish manner I had responded that a “normal” trophy would be ideal. Not too small and not too big is what we Swedes call “lagom”, or translated to English –  “just about right”. Uwe had responded that during our 2 days of hunting we would be sure to find any size of trophy I desired. But he had also asked what I thought about a one-horned chammy, and he explained that in Austria these are considered something special.

“A trophy with lots of character” as he put it. I hadn’t thought about the fact that chamois will occasionally lose one or both horns and that they never grow back. Just like a ram, they only get one set of horns a lifetime. Then and there I didn’t think much more of it – I was still picturing the perfect “lagom” trophy.

“That’s a great trophy” Uwe states and Tony, our companion guide and actually the owner of this piece of land, nods in agreement. It is an old female who has led a long and interesting life – “just think about the stories her horns would be able to tell us!” Uwe says. He hands me the monocular and I get an opportunity to see the chamois for myself. The way she moves around confidently shows that she has called these mountains her home for many years. Her fur is spotted with grey and white and the one horn she has is very long and narrow. Chamois grow their horns one fraction of an inch at a time and from the length of the horn it is clear that she is old.

“Ok, let’s go for it” I say, lowering the monocular. “Good choice” responds Uwe.

 

A few hours earlier we had started our climb in pitch darkness. “We have to walk fast now at the beginning” Tony says as we unload from the car at about 1,600 meters above sea level, having driven up winding mountains roads until arriving at a small farmstead, Tony’s family farm. The sounds of cows moving about in the darkness can be heard all around us and it is with certain trepidation that we get out of the car and get ready to start our climb. Our goal is to arrive at about 2,000 meters at day-break in about 1,5 hours and we are going to need all that time in order to silently climb up through the alpine forests. The path we are following is one that somebody not intimately familiar with the terrain would never be able to find.

The chamois lives high up, preferably around or above the tree line which in this area is located at about 2,100 meters. Chamois is part of the goat family and is also called the Alpine Goat or Antilope. Even thou they are not part of the antilope family. They can be found in most high mountain ranges on the south and east of Europe. In Austria the chamois, or “Gams” as it’s called in German, is considered one of the most challenging types of hunting due to the high altitudes and often long ranges that chamois is hunted at.

Spot and stalk is the only possible form of hunting and shooting distances often exceed 300 meters. For this very reason the Austrians tend to favour calibers which are small and fast, with the 7mm Remington Magnum, 7x64, 257 and 300 Weatherby being very popular choices. This is in stark contrast with Swedish hunting where larger and slower calibers and usually favoured and shooting distances rarely exceed 150 meters. I’ve brought along my favourite rifle, a Mark V chambered in 300 Weatherby. I am using a 200gr North Fork SS moving at 900 m/s and with a reasonable BC. After a few range sessions at the 300 meter range at home, I am not hesitant talking shots out at 300 meters or even a little beyond.

But that is precisely the reason I wanted to go to Austria to hunt in the first place. Since the chamois can only be hunted in its own environment and at its own terms it represents an unique challenge to hunt. The hunter needs to be both a good shot and be in good physical condition since getting to the hunting areas often require climbing hundredths of meters up steep slopes, sometimes angled at 45 degrees if not even more. “To hunt a chammy you need to be able to walk like a chammy”, Uwe explains, and I am inclined to agree with him.