A couple buddies and our wives recently traveled to Spain to bowhunt for Beceite Ibex. Tom Moleski of Mountain Predator, Inc., and Randy Cooling from Dexter, Mich., were my companions and fellow Sitka Gear heads.

We left the girls in Barcelona at a luxury hotel on the beach and traveled inland to the mountains for a hunt we booked through Bowhunting Safari Consultants.

We stayed in an old house above the village of Vallibona. These Spanish mountain villages were once home to thousands, but now very few live in some of them. One village I hunted near used to have more than 1,000 people. Today, there are four.

The country was remote, scenic and rugged. We hunted with the folks of Salvaforcaza, and Tom started things off quickly by shooting an ibex on the first evening of the hunt.

Many of the hillsides were stepped with ancient terraces, and some of the walls and ruins date back to Roman times; a lot of history on the ground we covered. Several times, the walls were helpful when stalking in on the elusive and wary animals.

We hunted hard every morning and evening, and after numerous stalks, I finally got a 25-yard shot on the third morning of our hunt. A melt-down in my head and shooting form sent my arrow ricocheting off both horns, with two of the guides watching.

On the final evening of our hunt, I crawled into shooting range of a decent billy and hit low through the chest and the off leg. They have very good tracking dogs, and Miguel put his dog Txusca on the trail. She bayed the buck in a steep canyon and I was able to sneak in and put in a finishing shot. Very exciting!

Tom shot a second ibex on the final evening as well.

Randy hadn't connected yet, but on the morning we returned to town, he went out for a quick hunt and was able to stalk in to make a perfect shot for a grand ending.