Mouflon Sheep Hunting

Artemis Hunting organizes mouflon sheep hunts in Croatia. Mouflons are believed to be one of the ancestors of today’s domestic sheep. Scientists think that wild mouflons disappeared from most of their original home in Europe thousands of years ago, but they survived on a few Mediterranean islands where people had brought them. Later, mouflons were moved from these islands to hunting areas around the world. Today, they can be found in many European countries, including Croatia where they are hunted free-range, even though the biggest trophies come from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where they are hunted in free-range and fenced areas, because doctors in the Czech Republic and Slovakia had a liking to mouflon as a species, and a lot of money was spent to study them, which resulted in them having the biggest trophies of mouflon in the world. Hunting them in the mountains of Croatia, overlooking the Adriatic Sea, is authentic as it gets. Mouflon are very cautious animals that are not easy to hunt; they tend to be in groups with ewes and lambs or in bachelor (only male) groups when the ewes are giving birth to new lambs in April and May. When they are in bachelor groups, sometimes usually (but not always; they can be in bigger groups), they form a 3-ram group, 1 older ram and 2 younger ones that have better hearing, sight, and smell than the older one, which keeps the older one more protected, although sometimes you can find really old rams alone; sometimes they don’t even come to salt licks. Mouflons like coming to salt licks, and we usually don’t shoot them directly at the salt licks. Hunting season for mouflon in Croatia is open all year round. The minimum caliber to use for hunting mouflon is .308 Win. Because they are very tough animals, especially during the rut, which is in October and November. The best is to shoot them, aiming for the heart and lungs but placed so the bullet also breaks a bone (either shoulder or leg) on the way through; this anchors them on the spot, since even if the shot doesn’t drop them instantly, the broken bone means they can’t run far.  Mouflon was one of the first wild sheep that made people interested in sheep hunting. Long ago, European aristocrats who traveled across the Mediterranean on their yachts discovered the excitement and challenge of hunting wild mouflon on the islands. This helped create interest in hunting other wild sheep around the world, including species in Asia and North America. Today, mouflon are a great affordable choice for hunters who want to start their first sheep hunting adventure. As compared to North American sheep or the Marco Polo sheep, it’s still a bargain sheep hunt. Guests usually combine mouflon and Balkan chamois hunts because both species share the same hunting grounds; only the chamois lives higher than mouflon. Since 2006, Artemis Hunting has established itself as one of the premier hunting travel agencies for organizing mouflon hunts. We have organized hunting trips on mouflon in Croatia for more than 20 years. Pedro Ampuero and Fieldsports Channel are some of the hunting personalities that chose us to organize their Croatian mouflon hunting trip.