Thanks NM GFD and WSMR

I was fortunate enough to draw a once in a lifetime tag to hunt oryx on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. It took me 10+ years to draw this tag and I know many others who have not drawn in twice that long. The hunt was an incredible experience to say the least and really interesting being on the base where they tested the first atomic bomb, the Patriot missiles, and seeing (from a distance) where the space shuttle lands, etc. We saw all sorts of spent ammunition, shrapnel, and lots of unidentified ordinance scattered about the desert. It was a little unnerving at times and you surely had to watch your step. We even saw a place where a missile had impacted the earth and melted the sand into glass shards. Like I said, it was really fascinating.

We arrived Friday evening and attended a helpful oryx hunting seminar held by one of the local taxidermists. We learned a little more about field judging and habitat preferences. After little sleep due to partying servicemen downstairs from our motel room, we were bleary eyed, but ready Saturday morning. It was cold as we stood around the check in station waiting for the orientation. There were people from all over the United States and we had some interesting conversations. We were told that bad weather was expected. Sunday’s forecast called for cold wind, rain and snow. That would surely shut down the oryx hunting and added to the pressure of finding a good one on Saturday. Finally, we were set free. I was forewarned to expect a circus as all 100 tag holders, and their 2-3 helpers, each made a mad dash for their trucks and burned out of the parking lot. Fortunately, it was nothing like that. The staff did a good job of keeping everyone calm and orchestrating an orderly exit out into the hunting area. That was a nice surprise as I was expecting the worst.

From talking with previous tagholders, I had some dope on a good area to hit. It would take almost an hour to drive all the way there. Within the first few miles I knew this was not going to be like the oryx hunts of the past on this range. I had heard about how easy this hunt was and how it was just a road hunt. Not true, at least not any more. I had heard of anecdotal stories of several guys killing their oryx within a couple hundred yards of the check station, just minutes after finishing the orientation. That sure wasn’t our experience as we drove 20 miles before even seeing animals, and they were just juveniles, called “brownies” due to their brown hides. It was evident that this was not going to be a slam dunk.

We got to our area and quickly glassed up some animals over a mile out in the greasewoods. With Taylor as the spotter left at the truck, Andy and I got on the stalk. A few hundred yards into it we bumped into two more brownies. They busted us at 2-300 yards but fortunately ran away from the main herd we were stalking. As we got closer we slowed way down and made every attempt to keep vegetation in between us and the herd. There was very little contour to the land. We got to a spot where the vegetation thinned out so we stopped to glass ahead. 500 yards out in front of us we picked up a black and white face that had us pegged. We were again reminded that this was not going to be too easy. When they told us that oryx had eyesight that would put a pronghorn to shame I didn’t believe it. I did now. All of sudden a huge bull, that we had not seen, busted from the outskirts of the herd and bolted. He was a monster. We had seen a trophy mount of the world record muzzleloader bull at the seminar and this one was bigger. 40”+ with great mass. Of course he took the whole herd with them and our stalk was over. As we walked out, we realized that there were two other groups of hunters stalking the same herd. That probably added to their spookiness.

We continued on and quickly found another herd. They were much further out towards the foothills, close to two miles from the road. We couldn’t get a good judgment of trophy quality due to heat waves in the spotting scope, but we could tell that at least one was worthy of a closer look. This time Andy was the spotter with the scope on the tripod, while Taylor and I stalked in. Again, we had to get around two juvenile oryx to avoid spooking the main herd. We did and got to the band of cover we needed to close the gap. We lucked out and executed a flawless stalk. We were finally inside of 125 yards when we got a visual. Fortunately we had several minutes to judge two mature animals that were in the clearing. The herd was unaware of our presence. One of the two animals that was visible seemed a bit longer than the other, but the other was giving me an easy shot. I contemplated and took a gamble to get a better look at the first one. It fed behind some brush so I had to move to get a better look. A big risk because the other one was in the open. As I moved, that one jerked his head up and looked our way. We stayed hidden but he knew something was up. I got one more quick glance at the one I wanted and confirmed that it was, in fact, substantially bigger. I went through my check list: dark polished horns, check. Horn tips several inches above the shoulders with the head down feeding, check. Flared horn tips, check. 2.5 face lengths stacked up the horn, check. BOOM!

I was rocked by the recoil, but I heard the bullet hit and I thought I saw the animal flinch hard. The brush erupted with animals and 7 or 8 more went running off. I lost track of which animal I shot at. One (the other of the two I was initially deciding on) stopped at about 300 yards and looked back. I held off as I was confident I hit the first animal. Then the whole herd took off to the north and Taylor and I were left trying to gather our wits. I called Andy on the radio and told him to keep an eye on the herd and see if any looked hit. He got a good look and replied back that he didn’t think any looked crippled.

Taylor thought he saw an animal go down, but wasn’t 100% sure. It was chaotic as the herd left the scene. There was a big sage patch in front of us so we gave it a few minutes and started combing the brush. After 20-30 minutes we found no blood and there were too many tracks to follow. Doubt was creeping in. We went back to the site of the shot and started over. Taylor walked right out into the cover and gave a holler. A horn tip was cresting the sage. A white belly was peeking through the brush.

Now I thought I had done a good job of trophy judging but having not seen enough oryx to be totally confident, I was nervous walking up to the animal. I knew it was respectable and mature, but I didn’t know exactly what I would see as I approached. I was more than pleasantly surprised. There was ground growth on this animal. It was a beast! It was 10:30 am and we had a trophy oryx on the ground.

Andy brought the game cart all the way out and Taylor started pulling as we left to try to find a way to get the truck closer. We were able to get the truck about 1/3 of the way there by driving off road (allowed) and weaving our way through the brush. Andy walked in front of the truck to keep an eye out for unexploded ordinance. That was a little puckering.

It was nearly 2:00 before we got it back to the truck. At the skinning rack, we broke out the tape. 39” on each horn with 6 ¼” bases. Perfectly symmetrical. As we cleared the gate at about 3:30, ours was the 31st oryx to come out. There was one animal that had broken the 40” mark by 3/8” on one horn, but the other horn was several inches shorter. The hunt staff congratulated us on our trophy. It set in as we stood outside the gate talking to some of the other hunters. Our animal was the envy of the crowd.

I was initially having a hard time getting too fired up about this hunt as it’s bowhunting that really gets me going. This hunt would have been a nearly impossible bowhunt so I was a bit unexcited at first. The terrain is flat, the animals are very highly pressured (10 hunts per year, with 100 tag holders each), they have incredible eyesight, we only had two days to hunt (really one due to weather), this was an expensive tag, and was truly once in a life time. I will never be able to apply again. Because of all this, I grabbed my trusty old 30-06. I must say that once I picked it up Saturday morning, all regrets were long gone. I got to spend a couple days on an amazing piece of ground with a great hunting crew and I got to take a rare trophy of several lifetimes. I’m a happy guy. Thanks for reading, enjoy the pictures.