Had the good fortune to help my buddy fill his NM population management Oryx tag this past Saturday and thought I'd share.
Fort those unaware, in the 1960s and 70s Oryx (Gemsbock) were released into NM in the area surrounding White Sands Missile Range with the idea that a small population could be easily managed by mountain lions and a few human hunts. Well, turns out the mountain lions don't really prey on Oryx, and the population boomed to between 4,000 and 6,000. Since the 1990s Oryx have been managed with public draw hunts, and such was the case on this hunt. My buddy and I applied in the general draw back in March, and while I drew a two-day Oryx hunt in January on McGregor range, my buddy was selected for a one-day population management hunt and invited me along for the ride.
We started out early and met the Fort Bliss Game Warden at 6 am. As it was a population management hunt, the Warden had a little more involvement in the hunt than he would on a two-day hunt, however said involvement was really limited to a discussion on left and right limits, and a request to notify him when we found an animal or herd and he would head our way. After the briefing we headed out and started the hunt.
While I have hunted Oryx previously on Unit 28 (McGregor Range), I had not hunted the west side of the range complex, just south of White Sands National Park. While the terrain is similar, the area had less vegetation and bushes, consisting of an arid plain that gradually slopes up to the foothills of the Organ Mountains. After around an hour of glassing of the side of hardball roads to the east we found a high point in the terrain and set up our spotting scope, glassing both east and west. When glassing to the west, I spotted an Oryx around 2-3 miles away. I quickly found a second, and a third, before counting upwards of 15 in the herd. Even from that range we could tell there were some shooters. After a quick consultation of the map on OnX, we called the warden and made a plan to cut the distance to about 1 km, where we would then stalk the rest of the way on foot. Upon arriving and disembarking the truck we slowly walked to within 600m, before covering the last 200m in a crouch or on hands and knees.
Before the hunt we zeroed my buddy's rifle, a .308 Mossberg Patriot shooting 180 grain Federal Trophy Bonded Tip at 2550 fps, and determined the max range to ensure a clean kill would be 400 meters. Fortunately there were a few berms between us and the herd, and we settled behind one at 375 yards away from the herd. After we settled in, I glassed them attempting to find the largest Oryx. This particular herd was interesting in that every animal was relatively the same size, and we had quite a bit of difficulty in determining which was the largest. Ultimately, we settled on one specific Oryx, and waited for it to turn broadside. With a range of 385 meters pulled from my rangefinding binos and a quick calculation, he held 9 moa and pulled the trigger. A short 20-yard run and stumble later, and the Oryx was down. We excitedly exchanged fist-bumps and watched the rest of the herd saunter off around 100 meters away. We found the Oryx right where it dropped, and to our mild surprise it was a female. After a few pictures and field dressing it was a short drag to the truck bed, and we were off the range by 1130. We measured the horns at 34" a side, and at the processor it weighed 243 lbs dressed out, sans the head and horns which were taken off at the taxidermist. We estimated the weight in the field at over 300 lbs conservatively. Overall, an extremely fun one-day hunt with memories made for a lifetime!
For those wondering how the 180 grain Trophy Bonded Tip did out of the .308, the processor found the round in the opposite-side hide of the Oryx when skinning it out. With the chrono'd velocity of 2550 out of the barrel, at 375m the round was travelling just over 1800 fps with 1318 ft/lbs of energy. As you can see the round exhibited good weight retention and expansion, especially for less-than-ideal velocities. Would a .308 be my first choice for an Oryx hunt? No. Did it do the job efficiently and in one shot? In this case, yes.
For the gear nerds out there:
The rifle used was my buddies Mossberg Patriot .308 with a Vortex Viper PST 5-25
Glass used was my Meopta Meostar 12x50s, a borrowed pair of older gen 8.5x42 Swaro El Ranges, and my Athlon Ares G2 15-45x spotter. All worked as advertised. My love for the Meostars continues to grow the more I use them. I also thought the Ares G2 performed great, and IMO is an underrated spotter for those on a budget. Was able to spot the Oryx herd easily at well over 2 miles, and was locating Oryx well over 4 miles on the arid plain. The Swaros are a loaner pair from my father-in-law, and while they retain great glass the ranging function is a bit outdated and clunky. Spotter tripod was the Athlon aluminum model, and it has had zero issues the past two seasons.
-Athlon Ares G2 Spotter-
I've had good success with the marsupial gear bino chest rig in the past, but for this hunt I let my friend use that rig and I used a chest rig built out of the Shaw Concepts arc chest rig base in multicam arid. With a spiritus JSTA pouch on the left wing and a spiritus SPUD pouch on the right, it handles the task of holding additional items (rangefinder/kestrel/admin items/water bottle/field dressing gloves/etc) better than the traditional style hunting rigs IMO. Will certainly continue to try it out and refine.
Mystery Ranch 2DAP is the pack I used to store our gear on the stalk, and it continues to be a favorite. Mystery Ranch doesn't miss, and this is no exception, especially if you can get the MIL/LEO discount they offer.
As far as knives go, I used my Stand Watch Knives Sentinel which has quickly become my go-to knife for anything and everything. Check them out if you haven't heard of them.
The camo I use is Kryptek's highlander pattern. There's been more than enough threads on the virtue of Krypek vs. A/B/C brand, all I can say is their gear has never let me down whether I'm in a deer stand in Minnesota or the desert of NM. I'm a fan.
That pretty much wraps it up! Hope you enjoyed this hunt recap and I look forward to reading many more from you all!
, also a cow but with a more steady taper in the horns you'd expect. 
