NM Oryx experience

[Felix40]

In my reading about Africa one of those books talked about Oryx with the carcass of a dog impaled and stuck on its horns. Made it seem as though it wasn't a rare event.

That's a lesson you only learn once!

There’s a photo of one down here that did the same thing to a lion. Tough animals.

 

[Papa_Goose]

There’s a photo of one down here that did the same thing to a lion. Tough animals.

I work with a guy that told me a game warden once showed him a picture of an Oryx with a rotting lion carcass impaled on its horns. Always wondered if that was true.

 

[Felix40]

I work with a guy that told me a game warden once showed him a picture of an Oryx with a rotting lion carcass impaled on its horns. Always wondered if that was true.

It sure is.

 

[El Gavilan]

When NM Game and Fish were releasing the first oryx on White Sands one of the releasees came around in front of the tow pickup and proceeded to impale the radiator and air conditioner condenser. That was expensive!

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[thewileyone]

When NM Game and Fish were releasing the first oryx on White Sands one of the releasees came around in front of the tow pickup and proceeded to impale the radiator and air conditioner condenser. That was expensive!

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Oryx have caused lots of vehicle damage.

 

[twdjr]

Congrats on the successful hunt! Nice write up!

 

[Jason K.Y. Wild]

Awesome hunt how many years did it take you to get the tag?


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[eldeuce]

I've considered doing a guided hunt, since being a fully employed engineer, spare time is at a premium.
Thoughts on guided vs DIY??

Also, I understand you can shoot either sex, and females frequently have larger horns.
Would there ever be a preference? Can you tell M from F, other than the dangly bits???

 

[Seamaster]

Males usually have straighter horns, and the horns are thicker. The females have thinner horns that are usually more curved. It is not uncommon for females to have longer horns, but they clearly are thinner.

 

[Rogue Bay]

Those are such cool animals! Definitely at the top of my personal list of African game. Congrats on a great hunt and thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[406life]

I did this solo last year on WSMR. It wasn't terribly hard and if you have elk experience then you're way ahead of the game. My experience was incredible, but over too quick. On range hunts are not difficult, and field judging is key.

 

[LLB]

Congrats . Very good write up, lots of great info.

 

[JPD350]

Congrats, what an awesome animal!!

I hope to get a OIL tag before my lifetime is up.........although I have had a blast going on other peoples OIL hunts.

 

[jburman]

Awesome hunt how many years did it take you to get the tag?


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I actually got my tag on my first year applying, BUT I applied through the Iraq/Afghanistan resident veteran program, so it's a MUCH smaller draw pool

 

[jburman]

I've considered doing a guided hunt, since being a fully employed engineer, spare time is at a premium.
Thoughts on guided vs DIY??

Also, I understand you can shoot either sex, and females frequently have larger horns.
Would there ever be a preference? Can you tell M from F, other than the dangly bits???

You'll be fine with DIY as long as you are confident and comfortable with your own gear. Part of the reason I did this write up was to help other DIY hunters. As I mentioned, once you see one and know what to look for, there are a lot of them out there so finding them isn't the challenge, making a good shot is the hard part.

As for male vs female, the males have more body mass, and typically somewhat shorter, but thicker horns. Females have thinner, but longer horns. At the end of the day I dont think it makes to much of a difference which one you shoot unless you're going for some sort of perfection trophy hunt.

 

[gmkeller1987]

When I got to her, she was definitely down, but still kicking and moving while laying on her side. I put a second shot right through her sternum to try to put her out of her misery. While I'm sure that second shot was more than enough, I did finally put a third a few inches away from the second and that one definitely ended her. I make note of this to say that oryx are TOUGH. When cleaning her we found none of the rounds had made it all the way through. The first shot was a few inches high, so missed the heart, but double lunged her and this would have likely been lethal... eventually. We found the bullet inside her skin on the far side. Tracking back from where she fell to where she was for the first shot, there was almost no blood trail to speak of. Just a few dots here and there in the dust. Certainly not something I would want to try to follow for any real distance. This is likely due to the fact that the round didn't exit, and her skin was practically a 1/4 inch thick. Again, they are TOUGH animals.

We chose to clean and quarter her out in the field as we did not have a hoist of any kind to get her into the truck, and they are very heavy animals, even without the huge gut pile. One of the rules for WSMR is you can leave the ribs in the field, but you must take all edible meat. I took the shot at about 1140 in the morning, so we had ample time to relax and take the time we needed to really clean her up good. I did make the rookie mistake of not going far enough back when caping her out, and later got the advice from a taxidermist to go half way back the ribs, that way you know you have more than enough. Live and learn on that one. Thankfully a good taxidermist can fix my mistake for a little extra $$$. After the hunt, we got one more email saying the success rate on our weekend was 75/81, or about 93%.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my bit of bragging, and I hope you did learn something, even if it's just what NOT to do. I'd be happy to answer anyone's questions to the best of my ability, but again, this is just my personal experience, and it's based on a single hunt.

Congrats on the success, and thank you for the information. I just found out that I was successful drawing the broken horned tag on the Rhodes Canyon area. Its y understanding that the broken horned is not a OIL hunt, and only has 15 tags. I would be interested in hearing more about you experience and how the briefing helped you in finding these animals? I am coming from Arizona and have lots of experience with coues deer in the mtns, but not used to hunting safari style or glassing the flats. Any help would be great, thank you.

 

[jburman]

Congrats on the success, and thank you for the information. I just found out that I was successful drawing the broken horned tag on the Rhodes Canyon area. Its y understanding that the broken horned is not a OIL hunt, and only has 15 tags. I would be interested in hearing more about you experience and how the briefing helped you in finding these animals? I am coming from Arizona and have lots of experience with coues deer in the mtns, but not used to hunting safari style or glassing the flats. Any help would be great, thank you.

Honestly the briefing didnt help with finding them at all. I don't know about Rhodes Canyon, but the vast majority of the briefing for Stallion Range covered where we weren't allowed to go, where we couldn't drive, etc. so we didn't get in trouble with military operations. Glassing advice would be to get yourself a pair of binos that fit you and you're comfortable looking through for long periods of time, as well as a chest harness that is comfortable. You're going to be wearing your binos pretty much all day and want them easy at hand at all times. Since your hunt is a Broken Horn, I would recommend having some very good glass because you MUST be sure it has a broken horn before you shoot, and at several hundred yards that can be a challenge to confirm.

 

[Imurhulkbry]

Congrats on the success, and thank you for the information. I just found out that I was successful drawing the broken horned tag on the Rhodes Canyon area. Its y understanding that the broken horned is not a OIL hunt, and only has 15 tags. I would be interested in hearing more about you experience and how the briefing helped you in finding these animals? I am coming from Arizona and have lots of experience with coues deer in the mtns, but not used to hunting safari style or glassing the flats. Any help would be great, thank you.

This is my Rhodes Canyon bull from the end of 2019, 38.5". The briefing doesn't provide you with much info on how to find them but don't worry, they are literally everywhere. Let the crowd rush out like they do when the brief is over. Take your time and maybe have a cup of coffee or something. A lot of the ones who rush out will pass right by several animals without seeing them. Drive a little bit then stop and glass. If you can get a ladder and put it in the bed of your truck or find a way to get a little higher. Glass then move a 1/4-1/2 mile and do it again. One place I was told they would be and found some at was near the upper northeast area around the lava flow area. The game warden also said he had seen several up a canyon road in the NE corner area. There is a good hill on the far north end that you can sit up on and glass, maybe even take a long shot if you are up to it. This guy was 242 yards. Again, they are everywhere. If you see some bitbfar from the road I suggest driving a little ways further before getting out. They tend to not bat an eye at a vehicle that just drives by or one that slows and then drives off but they do tend to run off 8fnyounsrop and shut the vehicle off.
The police out there are cool. One actually had spotted mine and pulled me over on the main road to bring me to where he saw it as it was about to enter a restricted area. He even unloaded his ATV and helped us load it on to it and then from it to my truck.
There will be guys out there who can hang and quarter it out for you and taxidermist who will offer mounts for you.

 

[Aclossman]

Thanks for the great info/stories. One day I’ll finally draw a OIL tag...

 

[Michael k]

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