My 13 YO daughter, Ally, was lucky enough to draw a New Mexico oryx tag on the White Sands Missile Range.

The hunts are used to control the population of oryx that were introduced to the WSMR in the 70's from Africa and are an incredibly unique hunting experience.

These are tough, wary animals and a ton of fun to hunt.

We flew in to Albuquerque on Wednesday night and drove down to Alamogordo on Thursday to meet up with our friend and guide, Shannon Owen of SO Hunts. Shannon is a fantastic guy to hunt with and knows the WSMR like the back of his hand, I'd highly recommend him if you are lucky enough to draw this tag.

The hunts are only two to three days long so I wanted to give Ally the best chance to succeed in the limited time we had so that is why I chose to hunt with Shannon, in addition to the fact that he is funny as hell and fun to hang out with.

We attended the mandatory hunter orientation on Friday morning and they didn't have any military exercises planned so we got the bonus of hunting on Friday afternoon so off we went.

We saw several decent oryx and made a couple stalk attempts but were foiled by swirling winds and the acute eyesight of the oryx a few times.

About an hour before dark we spotted a few feeding in a stalkable location and off we went.

We were able to move into shooting distance and Ally got set up on the shooting sticks and took the shot. The oryx was hard-hit but moved off into the thick brush. We were able to position ourselves for another shot and Ally hit it again hard and down it went.

These are incredibly tough animals and she had to put in two additional finishing shots before it was over. We were able to take a couple quick pictures and quickly field dress it and headed out at dark as we had to be off the base at a specific time. We returned the next day to cape, bone out and pack the meat and cape out about a mile to the truck.

Here are a couple pictures of the 36" oryx, pretty dang good for anyone and certainly great for a young hunter.

Rifle was a .280 Remington shooting 150 gr. Nosler Partitions.

Fantastic. Way to go!


.

Congratulations on a great trophy! And an experience you could share with your daughter, it doesn't get any better. That photo could pass for Africa.

That smile says it All!!!! She is hooked for life! Was this her first game animal?

Hawkeye

Great oryx, congrats to the both of you.

quote:

Originally posted by Hawkeye47:
That smile says it All!!!! She is hooked for life! Was this her first game animal?

Hawkeye

No, she's shot four elk, three deer and two antelope.

She's talking about moose in Alaska now and Dad's checkbook is quivering in fear.

She is really fun to hunt with, very easy-going and doesn't get too excited about anything until it's over than the ear to ear grins emerge.

She's willing to hunt hard, crawl through cactus and do whatever it takes to get close enough for a good shot opportunity and NEVER complains about anything. I couldn't ask for a better hunting partner other than the fact that she doesn't field dress the animals but I'll take that any day!

That is just awesome, congratulations to both of you.

CONGRATULATIONS!

I love seeing guys that hunt with their daughters, my daughter is due on April 5th. I hope she likes to hunt like Ally and my friend Jeff's daughter Maddie.

quote:

Originally posted by drummondlindsey:
CONGRATULATIONS!

I love seeing guys that hunt with their daughters, my daughter is due on April 5th. I hope she likes to hunt like Ally and my friend Jeff's daughter Maddie.

Drummond,

Congrats on the upcoming baby!

Meant to tell you Ally shot her oryx almost exactly where Maddie shot hers so you know the location well!

I thought that was pretty cool.

Thanks for the great info on Shannon, he was perfect for Ally they got along famously!

Chris

Way to go !! Conglads on a nice oryx. Where you on the Rhodes? I hunted the Stallion about 10 years ago.

36" is a good oryx---looks like a cow?

Pretty..Pretty....
and you're a Lucky Dad

Nice gemsbok, and good deal with your daughter.

We have a 5 month old baby girl. I always feed her bottles on Saturday morning while we watch hunting DVDs.

Our kid is our life. Congrats to everyone on their kids, be they a hunter or not. Hopefully they are hunters!

When I was single going to church I was initially annoyed by little kids screaming during the services. Then when I went to a night vespers service there were no kids and it was very quiet in there, quiet and very empty feeling. That was the turning point in my life that made me want to get married and have a family.

quote:

Originally posted by kudu56:
Congratulations on a great trophy! And an experience you could share with your daughter, it doesn't get any better. That photo could pass for Africa.

Except for the Orange... I had to be that guy.

Very nice Gemsbok!!!

Nice to see young ladies out hunting, she did really well!

Congratulations to both you and your daughter. excellent animal and great story.

quote:

Originally posted by Colorado Bob:
Way to go !! Conglads on a nice oryx. Where you on the Rhodes? I hunted the Stallion about 10 years ago.

36" is a good oryx---looks like a cow?

Yep to Rhodes and the cow Q's. I heard Stallion is a tough hunt.

Congrats Miss Ally! That is an excellent Gemsbok! Now for the filets.........

Great looking Gemsbok!! Congratulations to the young lady...