Iowan Finds the Ultimate Exotic Safari in Mongolia

Iowa farmer and hunter Norbert Bremer traveled 10,000 miles and spent $10,000 to get a shot at a ram on the frozen, wind-lashed wasteland of the Gobi desert.

“I had a wonderful time,” said Bremer, showing off the mighty curved horns of a Gobi ram, his trophy from one of the world’s more exotic safaris.

He is one of about 350 hunters (out of 600 who apply) whom the Mongolians allowed in last year. They control the number to preserve the wildlife.

Bremer, 52, also tracked down a tall-horned Siberian ibex as part of the tour, and, for an extra $750, shot a blacktailed gazelle.

Cold, Harsh Wind

He was the last hunter of 1988 to take the Gobi tour. He said temperatures in the Mongolian desert plunged to zero and that the wind knifed through the treeless scrub at 30 m.p.h.

Bremer, who farms 880 acres of corn and soybeans in Ocheyedan, Iowa, said he read of the Gobi hunt in hunting magazines. For about $6,500, the Mongolian tourist agency, Zhuulchin, provided in-country transportation, guides and attendants, and a license to shoot one Gobi sheep and one ibex.

Bremer had to get here on his own, via Beijing.

He also paid a fee of $200 for every inch of the ram’s horn in excess of 43 1/2 inches. His kill had horns of 51 inches, which Bremer said may make the record books.

But the experience was more than the hunt. His party passed nomadic herdsmen, some armed with rifles and riding camels and horses as they tended their herds and flocks in the parched bush.

Lived in a Tent

The hunters lived in a yurt, the round, tent-like home of Mongolian herdsmen, and were served by an interpreter, a driver, a cook, a camp manager and a young woman who tended the stoves and skinned the animals.

The tourist agency also offers safaris to the woodlands of central and northeast Mongolia, where elk, moose, deer and brown bear abound.

G. Batsukh, deputy general director of Zhuulchin, said that several years ago the government sold licenses to hunt the rare and beautiful snow leopard found in the Altai range, claiming that the leopard population had increased and was preying on cattle, yaks and people. But he said only one or two of the white-and-black leopards were killed and that shooting licenses are no longer issued.