NM Oryx down!

[32/40]

Beautiful Bull , Congratulations, that's a trip of a Lifetime !

 

[highdrum]

Thats amazing! I'm super jealous, they're on my list of critters to bag, I hear they taste absolutely amazing. Congrats on the kill!

 

[dxlbaile]

I was out on the same hunt and you didn't say HI! ha ha... Killed mine Sat morning and went home.. Lots of fun out on the Mcgregor.. Great job on your Oryx.. Getting to be fewer and fewer on the Range they need to decrease the tags.

 

[H82MISS]

Beautiful animal. Thank you for your service sir, you have our utmost respect.

 

[Allen Kitts]

Congrats, Beautiful Trophy and great memories. Heading to South Africa in April, Gemsbok is on the list.

 

[ednied1]

I got lucky enough to draw three tags in New Mexico this year and Oryx on McGregor training area was one of them. It was a two day hunt beginning January 11th. We spotted several Oryx on the first day. The first one was a shooter bull at 450 yards that spotted us as we spotted him and he didn't hang around long enough for us to get a good shot. The next bull was a small bull on the wrong side of the GMU fence. We spotted a herd of cows and calves in the creosote covered dunes in the evening that we made a move on, but decided against taking one.

Day 2 was a challenge. We decided to stay in the creosote dunes hopping from high point to high point looking for an oryx up and moving. We spotted my bull with the Meostar 15s from a mile away at 2:30 in the afternoon. The bull meandered through a creosote covered flat, feeding on the grassy undergrowth. We decided that we had enough daylight to make a move, so we loaded the gear and hit the heel toe express to the next high spot to keep eyes on him. We made it to the next dune several hundred yards closer and spotted him bedded in the brush. We then made our plan to cover the last few hundred yards and moved out.

There was a patch of tall yuccas a couple hundred yards from the bull. We knew if we could make it to the yuccas without getting spotted in the flat, we'd have a chance to shoot him.

The tall yuccas provided the necessary cover to stay hidden from his sharp eyes as we closed the distance. We watched the bull with increasing intensity as we inched forward. We were 300 yards from the bull without him knowing we were there, unfortunately the thick brush kept us from a clean shot. At this point, I dropped my pack to go in light. I reached my target yucca a few minutes later and spotted the bull. I struggled to get a range on him with all of the brush between us, but I finally got a 200 yard reading and waited for a clean shot. I put a 270 grain ELD-X through his shoulder as soon as he cleared the brush. The shot dropped him instantly. It was the only Oryx we saw all day and fortunately he stuck around long enough for us to put a long stalk on him over flat desert country.
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Very cool. Looks a lot like a gemsbok. Are they actually the same thing? I was lucky enough to get 4 animals harvested in Africa and would love to go back and get one.

 

[Tarheelpwr]

Agreed. Thank you for your service!

 

[WYO300RUM]

Congrats ! Beautiful bull ! Great story sir !

 

[340Wby-4-everything]

Congrats. Beautiful bull and imho, the best game meat. I haven't tried it all, but have tried a lot and some unique (whale steak). I got a 41 6/8" bull in S Africa and in 10 days, we had Gemsbok/Oryx backstrap/filets for dinner 5 nights. Can't wait to get one there in NM so I can have all the meat. Non-resident, so could be this yr, could be never, but I'll keep applying.

 

[Jason lozier]

Congratulations on a successful hunt!!! And a great Write up also

 

[Rhino Hunter]

That's AWESOME!! I've always wanted to do that hunt! Thanx for sharing your hunt with us. What a great photo. I thought I heard you can't take any cameras on the military base. Maybe it's just White Sands?

What cartridge were you using?

 

[Tevisv]

Congrats all around!

 

[brentc]

That's AWESOME!! I've always wanted to do that hunt! Thanx for sharing your hunt with us. What a great photo. I thought I heard you can't take any cameras on the military base. Maybe it's just White Sands?

What cartridge were you using?

Thanks. Cameras are allowed on McGregor. I used my 338 RUM loaded with 270 grain ELD-X.

 

[brentc]

Very cool. Looks a lot like a gemsbok. Are they actually the same thing? I was lucky enough to get 4 animals harvested in Africa and would love to go back and get one.

It is a Gemsbok. They were introduced to the White Sands, New Mexico back in the 60s-70s to increase hunting opportunity in Southern New Mexico. The herd expanded at an unexpected rate. You can now hunt them on WSMR, McGregor, and off range. The two horn WSMR hunt is OIL. You can draw McGregor, broken horn WSMR , and off range tags multiple times.