Congratulations on a great hunt! Good luck with the move and with hopefully drawing another tag next year.

My aunt still lives in Las Cruces, and when I visit I've been getting New Mexico hunting regs and marvelling over the different game available in one state: muleys, ORYX, elk, cougar, sheep. My dad's old neighbors say it's tough to find public land to hunt on anymore, though. But what a neat place. It's my dream to go on a 5 species hunt on horseback there someday.

Thanks for the post,

Steve

Now that I have heard about it. Can't wait to see your beautiful Gemsbok.

I am going to be off the net for awhile since I am in the process of moving to Ft Huachuca, AZ. I will be there for 6 months learning how to fly UAV's (unmanned aerial vehicles aka remote control spy planes) But I am not heading there until after I take a couple weeks and head back home to Idaho for some elk, mule deer, and black bear hunting.

Now on a different subject I was finally able to get my long awaited Gemsbok hunt here on Ft Bliss. Last year New Mexico game and Fish worked an agreement where 30 tags would be alotted for soldiers stationed at Ft Bliss to hunt Gemsbok on the portion of Ft Bliss which is in NM. (which is about 90% of base) These hunts are the first time that the NM portion of Bliss has ever been hunted. White Sands to the north has been offering hunts for years but this is a first down here. (they have offered 5 permits each year on the TX portion of Bliss for several years also) I was lucky enough to draw the #1 tag and be the first to go out. All the oryx on Bliss are completely free ranging. Here are all the juicy details:


I got a call from the base Range Riders on tuesday asking me if I wanted to go get my oryx on saturday, needless to say I said yes. This was kind of a bad time though since on friday the Army picked up all my household goods and shipped them off to Ft Huachuca. I was living in a hotel and my wife and the kids were already up in Utah waiting for
me. Plus on tuesday I was taking off on my elk hunting trip. I drew this military only tag back in April and had been waiting anxiously for this hunt. I was worried that I may not even get to hunt since I was leaving for Ft. Huachuca. A lot of scouting had been done in the area I would be hunting ever since I drew the tag. There had been times we had seen as many as 100 animals in a single day in the hunt area. We had even spotted a couple animals that were well over the 40" mark. One especially that myself and the Range Riders estimated at 44" I brought my friend Steve along on the hunt and we met at the Range Riders office early saturday morning. I was honestly expecting to have my animal down by 10am. Was I ever wrong. The plan was to drive around until we found fresh sign and then go to higher ground and try and spot the animals by glassing and then make a stalk. We drove over 125 miles on dirt roads
looking for sign and animals. In the area where we had previously seen so many animals there was not even a single track. It had rained heavily 2 days before so any tracks would have indicated oryx activity. We saw NOTHING at
all for the first several hours. No tracks, droppings, or anything. Usually that area holds a few hundred head of oryx. But due to all the deploying troops operating non-stop in that specific area over tha last couple months
the animals had been pushed out. On the far end of the hunt area where there had not been any recent troop activity we finally started seeing sign, but no animals. We came to one of the old Nike missile launch sights that has been abandoned for 20 years and made the very perilous climb up its operation tower to use as a spot to glass from. After glassing for several minutes we spotted a lone animal several hundred yards out. We could tell he was a good animal but not really sure of length. Due to the lack of animals and time constraints we decided to go ahead and try for it. A rapid stalk was made and well masked due to the sand and brush mounds. At about 125 yards I poked up and
he was straight ahead and looking right at me. All I could see was his head and throat since his chest was obscured by the heavy low brush. The Range Rider told me to go ahead and take the frontal shot and we would track him if we had too. I was very nervous about shooting through the brush but with the 375 H&H and a 270gr Winchester Fail Safe bullet the Range Rider felt it would make it just fine. I centered up on where I thought his chest would be and took the shot. The oryx took 2 leaps all humped up and with his nose to the ground and dissappeared behind another mound. I knew the hit was solid since we all heard the bullet smack
and saw his reaction. We ran after the oryx and found him about 50 yards from where he was shot the first time. He was broadside at 75 yards and I put the second shot through the front shoulder. He immediately dropped. He was a
mature bull bull of around 7 years old according to the Range Rider who judged his teeth. His horns were perfect and each one measured 36 1/4" with very heavy bases. While skinning him we found the bullet fron the first shot. it had entered dead center on the chest. the bullet had completely slit the throat on its way through and penetrated completely the entire length of the front
shoulder plate. That was about 12" of penetration through shoulder bone alone. The first shot was lethal but we didnt know that at the time so had fired the second to make sure. The second shot entered the left shoulder and exited the right side just behind the shoulder. The Fail Safe performed exceptionaly well.

I hope to draw the same hunt again next year since I will still be eligable due to the fact I will only be in student status at Ft Huachuca and still assigned to Bliss. Then I can have a matched pair over the couch!!!!

The hunt was incredible and will be a fond memory for me.

I will post some pics of the gemsbok after I return from the elk hunt. (I pick them up from getting developed on my way out of town today)

Sounds like a great experience!

Good luck with the elk and the move.

Congratulations on your hunt..BTW, my dad used to own the HIT ranch that bordered the area that you hunted in and at that time CM McDonald was the range rider, and his son Clarance was an El Paso City Policeman...He and I hunted that area a lot, and shot some of the most fantastic Mule Deer that anyone has ever seen..That was in the early 1950s..No one hunted in the bombing range and the deer population was wonderfull and filtered on to us...I rode horseback with the range rider on many ocassion behind Coxs ranch in Soledad Canyon, and on one ocassion I watched 8 bucks slowly walk up a hill, of which the smallest one was over 28 inches and the two largest were in the 40 inch class..We usually saw 10 to 20 big bucks in a days ride..It was like being in heaven to this young man...