After 8 unsuccessful tries, the Great State of New Mexico sold me a ticket to White Sands. We are heading off in 11 months.

It looks lie a pretty exciting hunt. Any tips are appreciated.

thanks, and good luck in the draws.

Congratulations! You'll have fun, and I wish you success. My advice is don't be in a hurry when they open the gate, watch closely (many people drive right past bedded oryx) and glass a lot.

I shot mine last year.

Did you get the draw results already? I thought they were out tomorrow (the 9th)? I'm waiting to hear about an off base hunt.

I've applied for the last 7 years & once again no Oryx tag for me, well maybe next year...

Good luck to the successful.

quote:

Originally posted by Jack D Bold:
After 8 unsuccessful tries, the Great State of New Mexico sold me a ticket to White Sands. We are heading off in 11 months.

It looks lie a pretty exciting hunt. Any tips are appreciated.

thanks, and good luck in the draws.

Congratulations, I am 0 for 6!

Congratulations Jack you will find it very entertaining and perhaps not as easy as some may have intimated in other threads. Do your glassing and you will have success. Orientation is very interesting as many hunters bring along a couple of friends, etc so there are many more people than actual hunters although you will have many hunters as well.

Drew mine very first try but did not get my shot until the last hour of the second day.

Best of luck and will be happy to respond to any questions you may have.

Congrats Jack!
I hunted the small missle range several years back. It's a hunt like I've never seen. Everyone meets just before daybreak to go over the rules and once that's done then all hell breaks loose. I liken it to a Indy car race with everyone trying to get to some spot before anyone else.

Drummond Lindsey just hunted up there and posted about his hunt. He would be a great reference. Feel free to PM me and I'll be happy to share my experience.

Congrats Jack, it will be a pretty cool hunt. Good luck to you.

Congrats.

quote:

Originally posted by Jack D Bold:
After 8 unsuccessful tries, the Great State of New Mexico sold me a ticket to White Sands. We are heading off in 11 months.

It looks lie a pretty exciting hunt. Any tips are appreciated.

thanks, and good luck in the draws.

Just got back from there last week. Had a BLAST! The young lady that drew the tag killed a great 38" bull on the last evening of the hunt, it was the 2nd biggest Oryx of the hunt out of 79 hunters.

PM me if you want any more info

Drummond

Congrats on the draw, I diden't, but have been a couple of times. If the weather turns cold, or the wind starts blowing, the oryx will bed down. Shoot the next one you see. It is a great hunt.

Good Luck.
I leave next friday for stallion range. First year applying.
W.

congrats Jack! I would definitely talk to Drummond...

quote:

Originally posted by woodsie:
I leave next friday for stallion range. First year applying.
W.

GRRRR.

Hope you have a great hunt. Please post pics and a report.



Drummond, PM sent.

Thanks!

My 12 year old daughter drew on her first chance for the Rhodes Canyon hunt next February 24-26th.

Me, nada, of course.

Any tips for guiding a young huntress would be much appreciated!

Chris Peccia

FishN,
Send a PM to Drummond. He just guided a young huntress and did extremely well. He's probably one of the best all around guides you'll find in N America and a great guy as well.

quote:

Originally posted by lde:
FishN,
Send a PM to Drummond. He just guided a young huntress and did extremely well. He's probably one of the best all around guides you'll find in N America and a great guy as well.

Done, thx!

Congrats...All I get is my money back every year...Have a great 2 day hunt......

If you need any help, give me a holler. We have been guiding down there since they started letting outfitters on.

When do you need to put your name in the hat for these hunts?

Thanks,

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
When do you need to put your name in the hat for these hunts?

Thanks,

GB,

This year it was due by February 2nd. You can put in on line for the draw at wildlife.state.nm.us

Jack - Congrats on the Oryx draw. I have done the hunt and have been there several times with friends. I will PM you within the next few days. Again, good job.

Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

quote:

Originally posted by Jack D Bold:

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
When do you need to put your name in the hat for these hunts?

Thanks,

GB,

This year it was due by February 2nd. You can put in on line for the draw at wildlife.state.nm.us

Thanks Jack!

I pulled this from another forum it was put out by compass west outfitters, seem to be pretty stand up

So you drew an Oryx tag in New Mexico, now what…
Since there is so little info on the oryx hunts, for people looking to DIY or thinking about a guide, I thought I would try my best at offering a hand. I have hunted all the bases now many times, so I know and understand how the hunts work at all locations including guiding a large number of hunts on all of the base as well as off the base. My Name is Chris Guikema I live in Aztec, New Mexico just south of Durango, Co with my wife and son, I am a full time outfitter in NM, CO hunting fly fishing year round in this wonderful state we call home!

You need to take a deep breath and remember that the stress of the hunt for you is going to be almost unmanageable for that night before and even worse once you are on the base. Here is how it all works:

You’ll want to arrive the day before in time to drive out and find the gate that you need to check into. Stallion is easy to find but the Rhodes can be a little harder to find the first time. Once you have the location down head back to the hotel and check for, NO BEER in coolers, be sure you have the permit, AND BE SURE YOU HAVE THE HABITAT STAMP, it will not come with your tag you have to buy it in New Mexico, be sure you also have your ID in a folder along with your current registration and proof of insurance for auto, this is what they are going to check at the gate. There will be taxidermists and butchers at most hunts outside the main gate.

With the new meeting time on Friday with the opportunity to also hunt on Friday I really think the hunts will be even better!. Since 2011 will be the first run with the 3 day hunts we are all going to have to see how it goes. You will not arrive on Friday go through the meeting and then be cut loose to hunt if the base will allow. You will then line up at the gate on Saturday and Sunday mornings and be let into the base in order and wait for safe light. I am looking forward to the new format!

GETTING TO HUNTING AREAS. Drive safe and smart and you’ll have a great hunt. There are a ton of animals Rhoads but Stallion has less animals it will be a tougher hunt!!! Harvest rates are 69-87% for the base and if you are willing to walk and glass you’ll be 100% (more on hunting later). Study maps and pick an area based on gut feeling or info you find on-line, drive to that area and hunt. It will be light out as you head out so keep an eye out you might shoot one 100 yds from the starting point…..

HOW TO HUNT: GLASS GLASS AND MORE GLASS, I cant tell you how important GOOD optics are going to be on the hunt. 10x42 at a minimum for the hunt you need to glass big areas and judge them. I will talk more about judging later. They are not easy to see at first, just remember to look for white and black in the fields, the areas are open grass to thick brush, first thing I do is find a high spot to glass pull over park and start looking. Remember they will run in groups from 3-100 you just never know. Once you find a group start to look for bigger body’s first then start to look over the horns. The adults and sub-adults will run with like age groups for the most part, the babys are brown and black with little white, they breed all year so you’ll likely see a few in the cow groups, this will help you pick out the young animals as well as the cow groups. Bigger bulls will be in the areas but not always with the pack, I have shot 4 monster bulls that were bedded down all day all alone in the middle of nothing….. Hunt like you would Antelope! 90% of people are lazy the other 5% will walk a little giving you all the great animals that you need to walk to if you are in the last 5% that is willing to WORK FOR IT, hunt like it’s a once in a lifetime hunt, because it IS!!!

WHERE TO HUNT: I am willing to share info about the where to hunt more in private email and phone calls. Took me years to learn where to hunt and how to judge these great animals and public forums and blogs are just not the place to talk about it 100% openly, but I am more then willing to attempt to offer the same quality of information I am putting in this article even if we are not going to guide you. This is a once in a lifetime hunt, it is also one of my personal favorite hunts I have ever been on in the US for a great animal!!! I want everyone to have a wonderful time and help you be a 100% harvest hunter for this special once in a lifetime hunt!!!



HOW TO JUDGE: The first oryx hunt I did was with a friend, I have guided elk and mule deer in NM for years so he asked for my help in judging and glassing. I did all the same that you are doing right now, hunting for all the info I could find on oryx and how to judge and pick the right animal. I was able to find limited info at best on judging them so I decided we would be OK and just look for a big one. Well all the stress and confusion affected us just like it will you, we found a big group about 30min into the hunt in a location a friend had told me to hunt. Of the 30 animals 3 were much bigger then the rest, we looked them over picked the biggest bull and shot it. 34” bull in a group of 30 other sub-adult animals, we were MORE then happy with the hunt but we did what so many people do, we rushed with the stress of a once in a lifetime hunt and all the worry about only 3 days to hunt, and just not knowing what we were looking for. If you just half ass work at it you will harvest one, do you need a guide, hard to say but judging is the HARD part but if you know what to wait for, you can kill a monster. I have helped hunters harvest many trophy’s including the #9 all time SCI bull and a 41” cow and a number of other 38 to 40+”cows and some other monster bulls!! Take a deep breath and calm down your going to do fine and harvest a great animal!

BULLS: The mature bulls will polish there horns in the brush, so as a result they will tend to have shinny horns more so then the cows. Bulls tend to have less visible rings on the top of the horn and have rings that are more spaced out and bigger gaps, and like I already said the horns shine in the sun! The bases are going to be 2-5X bigger then a cow this is where you need to be looking. Some of my best bulls have been 36-37 but HUGE mass on the base. Body mass is the second thing to look for. If there are a bunch of animals in a group look for the largest body first THEN look at the horns. Check for polished horns first then at the bases, then compare over all length. This spring I had a client who had never seen an oryx in the field, and was really nervous about the hunt and only 2 days. About 2 hours into the day we glassed up a big group walking in the direction of a road, we drove to cut them off, parked and got out and hid in the bushes and waited. About 15min later they all walked into a big opening, I glassed them all over and told him they were all immature I knew this because the bulls in the group all had dull horns and small bodies. Dull horns does not always mean they are not adult (I have killed adult bulls with dull horns) but all the body sizes in the group were the same, cows and bulls allowing me to make a quick decision not to shoot a bull, so as I pull him back to the truck almost kicking and screaming about only (then 2 days to hunt) to hunt a second truck showed up, they asked if we were going to shoot the animals we said no but I told them 5th from the front was the largest in the group but a cow about 34”, they asked if they could harvest a bull from the group, we said no problem they shot the biggest bull in the group that we were looking at, it was a great bull but 30.5”. Later that day we glassed up a small group of adults about a mile into a flat, stalked into 400yds glassed them for 45min to pick the right one, my hunter choose to harvest a huge cow in the group because the animal had great LONG horns and just was a beautiful animal. That 45min got steve in a grove and we shot a 38 3/8” cow at 427yds with a 300 WSM. Remember look for the biggest body then- bases- horns (dull or polished) - over all length of horns, a 40” animal will have horns that almost reach the rump of the animal, but also remember cows for the most part have longer horns. Also they have almost full horn length at close to 18months old, so reading body size (mass) and horn length is a important skill!

COWS: They have longer horns as a rule, and thin horns compared to bulls. Look for tight rings and dull horns compared to the bulls. Mature animals tend to run in groups, don’t let the biggest of the group fool you unless they are all adult animals!!!

GUIDES: I have chosen to include information on guides last. There is a limited number of outfitters and guides who are permitted to guide on the base, if you are hunting with a guide you better be 100% sure he is licensed or you will be blocked from access to the base. You can check with the hunt administrator for a list.

Over the last 5 years I have seen major changes in the oryx hunting on all the bases. Both RC and SR hunts have gotten very difficult to expect a trophy size animal, but with the right guide and knowledge about judging you will up the odds. The oryx hunt is no longer a road hunt you get lucky now and then, but don’t really expect to shoot a monster bull on the road. If you are looking online for more info and starting talking with guys in chat rooms that have hunted the base, find out what year they hunted, there were some hunts in the last 2 years with harvest rates in the low 60%’s even some in the 50’s weather plays a major roll in the hunt!!! Guides will help insure you spend the three days in the best areas and help you judge them so you harvest a quality adult animal. If you are looking for nothing but a hammer bull or cow, hire a guide!

Where to stay: They are in order of quality in my opinion!
Socorro for Stallion Range:
Holiday Inn Express 575-838-4600, Best Western 575-838-0556
Super 8 575-835-4626, Days Inn 575-835-0230, Motel 6 575-835-4300

Alamogordo for the Rhodes Canyon: They are in order of quality in my opinion
Holiday Inn Exp 575-434-9773, Hampton Inn 575-439-1782
Comfort Inn 575-434-4200, Quality Inn 575-437-7100, Motel 6 575-434-5970

Food:
In Socorro you want to be sure NOT to miss the Brewing Company next to the Burger King and the Holiday Inn Express (best food in town)
In Alamogordo you will have, Chilies, Applebee’s, and Golden Corral all in walking distance of the hotels listed above. There is also the Rocket Buffet if you like Chinese food, (its GREAT) just across the street from sonic.

You want to also be sure to eat at the Buckhorn and or the Owl café in San Antonio on the way to both bases from Albuquerque. They have with out question the best green Chili cheese burgers in the state (I like the buckhorn best).


Congratulations

Dk,

Thanks a bunch. Really good stuff here. AR working like it should.

Great Info.
I am hunting with Compass West.
W.

Drew a tag on my first attempt in 2000. Spent ten years trying to get another to no avail. I've been very lucky to tag along on nearly a dozen other hunts though, so I shouldn't complain. I'd happily answer any specific questions for those lucky enough to get a tag. I've been on every section of the range and will offer up all the information I have; just shoot me a PM.

GOOD LUCK to those that have a tag!

FishN4Eyes,

FYI, Drummond may be one of the best guides in N America and a great guy I am sure, but he's not an approved guide with WSMR. WSMR requires all guides and outfitters to be reigestered with WSMR. It appreas Drummond has slipped through the cracks, but I am sure they will have him and the rest of the guides on bookyourhuntingtrip.com on a watch list. It would be a bad deal to show up to your hunt with an unregistered guide and have to hunt by yourself, so before you invest your time and money I would research who is approved to be on WSMR first or make sure whoever you are dealing with does get approved in advance. I know KIOWA and COMPASSWEST, two outfitters that have been mentioned on this post and are registered with WSMR. WSMR is cracking down on unregistered guides so I just wanted to give you a heads up. Every season WSMR will send hunters a list of those approved outfitters. If you have any other questions you can PM me...

quote:

Originally posted by Oryxrus:
FishN4Eyes,

FYI, Drummond may be one of the best guides in N America and a great guy I am sure, but he's not an approved guide with WSMR. WSMR requires all guides and outfitters to be reigestered with WSMR. It appreas Drummond has slipped through the cracks, but I am sure they will have him and the rest of the guides on bookyourhuntingtrip.com on a watch list. It would be a bad deal to show up to your hunt with an unregistered guide and have to hunt by yourself, so before you invest your time and money I would research who is approved to be on WSMR first or make sure whoever you are dealing with does get approved in advance. I know KIOWA and COMPASSWEST, two outfitters that have been mentioned on this post and are registered with WSMR. WSMR is cracking down on unregistered guides so I just wanted to give you a heads up. Every season WSMR will send hunters a list of those approved outfitters. If you have any other questions you can PM me...

I have NEVER claimed to be an oryx guide on WSMR. I didn't see where it was stated that I was the guide or I would have corrected that statement. I thought it was very clear on my original post that we were hunting with somebody else. One of my best friends daughter drew the tag and I went with them. We hunt together quite a bit. Nobody did anything wrong on that hunt, we were with an approved guide in his truck the whole time.

Here is the thread I originally made about meeting George Taulman in the field
http://forums.accuratereloadin...3411043/m/3021012151

Hope this clears things up for you

Drummond

I had a chance to read the original post about Taulman. The post did explain everything.

I know Larry and Stephanie very well. I was just looking out for FishN4Eyes. In my opinion, several people were marketing your services to him which led me to respond, since you are a guide and I didn't recall you being on the list WSMR provides to hunters. I wanted to make sure he was aware of the requirements WSMR had.

Thank you

well maybe YOU should do YOUR homework!

quote:

Originally posted by Oryxrus:
I had a chance to read the original post about Taulman. The post did explain everything.

I know Larry and Stephanie very well. I was just looking out for FishN4Eyes. In my opinion, several people were marketing your services to him which led me to respond, since you are a guide and I didn't recall you being on the list WSMR provides to hunters. I wanted to make sure he was aware of the requirements WSMR had.

Thank you

No worries

the one thing people need to realize about registered guides on the WSMR is just because one is not on the list means only that at time of printing the list. If one has an outfitters lic all they need to do is a background check and $500 and they are in, why pay the $$ until you know you have hunters? I guess you could look at it as $500 in advertisment. So with that said people need to be careful about jumping on a guy that is not on the list. I have talked to them down there and they said as long as the fee is paid before services are rendered no problem, they can advertise WSMR guide service.

quote:

Originally posted by ravenr:
well maybe YOU should do YOUR homework!

I agree but if you haven't had somebody accuse you of illegally guiding and outfitting on a public message board your just not living life

What's better is that you really have to look hard to find me on my buddies website, I did that to help him out. Didn't realize I'd get him this kind of "publicity". Awesome

To be fair, here is a post that would lead any one to the same conclusion I had. Emphasis on..."HE JUST GUIDED A YOUNG HUNTRESS.."


Originally posted by lde:
FishN,
Send a PM to Drummond. He just guided a young huntress and did extremely well. He's probably one of the best all around guides you'll find in N America and a great guy as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Oryxrus:
To be fair, here is a post that would lead any one to the same conclusion I had. Emphasis on..."HE JUST GUIDED A YOUNG HUNTRESS.."


Originally posted by lde:
FishN,
Send a PM to Drummond. He just guided a young huntress and did extremely well. He's probably one of the best all around guides you'll find in N America and a great guy as well.

Again, no worries, but after accussing a guy of committing a felony on a public message board and finding out you were "mistaken" a simple apology would have gone a long way.

Had a few buddies read this and their thoughts were that you were somehow associated with Taulman, Blair or Heathington. Who knows, who cares. Post up some info so people know who you are, maybe you can book an oryx hunt or two. Welcome to AR.

It was a misunderstanding, but like I mentioned when someone states you were guiding and it looks like Ide knows you really well, what are you suppopse to think? You have to be fair about the post, Drummond. I didn't want FishN4Eyes to get in trouble, that's all. Also, I would think Ide's comments would require an apology as well since he made the same assumption I did, right? You didn't correct him when he made that post. I based my comments on Ide's request for FishN4Eyes to PM you since you guided on WSMR, his words not mine.

In any case, I do apologize to everyone on this post for assuming Drummondlindsey was guiding on WSMR. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

O' I am not an outfitter or guide so I could care less about booking a hunt. I know of Taulman, but don't know him on a personal level and I have no idea who Blair and Heathington are.

quote:

Originally posted by Oryxrus:
It was a misunderstanding, but like I mentioned when someone states you were guiding and it looks like Ide knows you really well, what are you suppopse to think? You have to be fair about the post, Drummond. I didn't want FishN4Eyes to get in trouble, that's all. Also, I would think Ide's comments would require an apology as well since he made the same assumption I did, right? You didn't correct him when he made that post. I based my comments on Ide's request for FishN4Eyes to PM you since you guided on WSMR, his words not mine.

In any case, I do apologize to everyone on this post for assuming Drummondlindsey was guiding on WSMR. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

O' I am not an outfitter or guide so I could care less about booking a hunt. I know of Taulman, but don't know him on a personal level and I have no idea who Blair and Heathington are.

I didnt realize those comments had been made until I saw your post yesterday or I would have made the correction. No harm, no foul. Water under the bridge.

With a handle like Oryxrus it sounds like you hunt Oryx quite a bit. Lets get this post back on track and productive. Post up some pictures to fire up the lucky hunters that drew this tag! I'm looking forward to seeing a few as well, I think they are a blast to hunt and hope to draw that tag one day for myself

Congrats Jack!

I didn't read this thread terribly closely, but the easiest way to tell a bull from a cow is to see if you can put one horn in between the other too. If you can, it is a female. Where legal, females make pretty stunning trophies too.

quote:

Originally posted by Oryxrus:
It was a misunderstanding, but like I mentioned when someone states you were guiding and it looks like Ide knows you really well, what are you suppopse to think? You have to be fair about the post, Drummond. I didn't want FishN4Eyes to get in trouble, that's all. Also, I would think Ide's comments would require an apology as well since he made the same assumption I did, right? You didn't correct him when he made that post. I based my comments on Ide's request for FishN4Eyes to PM you since you guided on WSMR, his words not mine.

In any case, I do apologize to everyone on this post for assuming Drummondlindsey was guiding on WSMR. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

O' I am not an outfitter or guide so I could care less about booking a hunt. I know of Taulman, but don't know him on a personal level and I have no idea who Blair and Heathington are.

FWIW, I received some great general information from Drummond. At no time did he offer nor did I ask about any sort of guiding service. Planning on a DIY hunt with my daughter and Mr. Lindsey provided some great information on how best to provide her a quality experience.

I appreciate your concern for my well-being but I think I have that handled and it was really unfair to Mr. Lindsey to imply anything was amiss.

Again, I thank you for providing some insight but the information I received was great advice and it was much appreciated.

Hate to see stuff like this crop up or no one will want to share anything.

This site CAN be very helpful and I'd like to see it stay that way.

Drummond, thanks again for the help, my daughter and I both appreciate it!

Chris Peccia

quote:

Originally posted by drummondlindsey:
I didnt realize those comments had been made until I saw your post yesterday or I would have made the correction. No harm, no foul. Water under the bridge.

With a handle like Oryxrus it sounds like you hunt Oryx quite a bit. Lets get this post back on track and productive. Post up some pictures to fire up the lucky hunters that drew this tag! I'm looking forward to seeing a few as well, I think they are a blast to hunt and hope to draw that tag one day for myself

Cool, in regards to pictures I got tons of them ONLY because I am associated with the WSMR Hunt Program for the last 8 seasons. I am on several hunting forms for my personal use so all my comments and opinons are my personal views and not associated with or speak in behalf of the hunt program or WSMR.

I'll post one of my favorite stories here shortly.