Chamois Hunt with the North Fork SS

After a few years of waiting, I finally pulled the trigger and booked a Chamois hunt in Austria and thus in September spent 3 full days hunting the alps for this amazing animal. Coming from Sweden, around here we hunt thick forest broken up by occasional flat farmland (or flat farmland broken up by the occasional thick forest!) so to be greeted by the vast open alpine valleys was something else entirely. Walking up a steep mountainside in the pitch darkness, hoping to reach the hunting grounds almost 8,000 feet up before daybreak was an truly unique experience in every way, testing your skills as a stalker as well as your pure physical endurance all at the same time. 

The rifle I brought along is my favourite, a Weatherby Mark V chambered in that most glorious cartridge 300 Weatherby. For it I had loaded up some 200gr North Fork SS going at about 2,950 fps. In retrospect I could have taken something lighter and faster, my latest load is the CPX 165gr going at the brisk pace of 3310 fps - that would have been an absolute dream to hunt the alps with!

In Austria cartridges like the 7mm RM or 7x64 are the undisputed kings of the mountains. Talking to a local Austrian hunter in a gunshop, he told me his favourite rifle was a single-shot Kipplauf chambered in 257 Weatherby - now we are talking speed! 

Regardless, the rifle and bullet did their job admirably and I was able to take an old female with a shot at about 240 yards. To say that both I and the hunting guide were pleased would be an understatement! 

Keep an eye out for the full article coming soon to the North Fork blog! 

 - Erik