Blandford Urial hunting

Blandford urial (Ovis Vignei Blandfordi) is a subspecies of Asian wild sheep that inhabits the Baluchistan and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. As compared to such mountain ranges as the Pamirs and the Tian Shan, the Blandford urial habitat typically features lower altitudes and warmer temperatures (about +5 to +10 Centigrade). But a hunter who travels to Pakistan to hunt a Blandford urial should be prepared to take a few rough strokes from Mother Nature nonetheless.

Like most wild sheep, Blandford urial are diurnal. They are more active during the morning and the evening, and usually spend the afternoon chewing their cud. A typical routine is to glass the area, moving from spot to spot, starting at dawn. If an animal that makes a good trophy is located, the hunters may wait until it’s bedded for the mid-day, and stalk it there. If anything goes wrong with the stalk, the Plan B is to try and intercept the trophy as it moves to the place of the evening feed. This doesn’t differ much from any other mountain hunt, and equally calls for good optics, a flat-shooting accurate rifle, and above all good “mountain legs” and stamina.