Last weekend I had a great hunt in the Rhodes Canyon section of the White Sands Missile Range. After glassing over 80 animals on Saturday I shot this one on Sunday morning.



The hunt organizers measured her 39.5 x 39. The longest horns of anything shot on the hunt.

I was lucky enough to draw this tag on my second attempt. The other hunters in our party were either on their first or third attempt.

This is an interesting hunt because you need to go through the security check and instructions meeting on the missile range before all the hunters are turned loose at the same time. It was funny listening to the warning not to chase a wounded animal into the mine fields. I wouldn't think that sort of warning was necessary, but maybe it is. As soon as they let us go on Saturday there is a foot race to the trucks and a road race out of the parking lot. My guide said not to worry about getting out fast because there was plenty of space.

Sure enough, we were very quickly out in the brush by ourselves. I got to glass a lot of animals and pass on a 36 inch bull on Saturday. On Sunday we had a plan on where to go to get into some herds away from the other hunters. Luck smiled on us when we found a pair of oryx standing 200 yards off the road before we got to execute our plan. While they didn't cooperate for a standing shot, I connected with an off-hand shot as they ran past at about 75 yards.

We had the pictures taken and the animal mostly gutted before any other hunters came by. There was a butcher and taxidermist convention waiting just outside the missile range gate to handle the rest of the job.

Tim Barraclough of Kiowa Hunting Service guided me on this hunt and was a big help letting me know which were big animals and which we could pass on. Using a guide also let me fly in and out of Albuquerque with minimal gear. I couldn't be happier with the results.

I used my 7mm Rem Mag with 175 grain Nosler Partition hand loads for this hunt. That rifle and load came through for me just like it always does.

Congratulations!!! Thats a beautiful Oryx!

I shot one a few years back and I made the mistake of giving about 1/2 the meat away, I wont make that mistake ever again as its one of the best tasting game animals i've ever shot

Drummond

Awesome! Mind giving a ball park price for the guide service?

Thanks for sharing.

Great looking Oryx!!

Tim's website (kiowahunting.com) lists his 2010 pricing on this hunt (1x1) as $1500. It includes "Albuquerque airport courtesy pickup if needed,
motel accommodations, meals, guide service and trophy preparation of the animal."

We stayed at the Comfort Inn in in Alamogordo and had dinner at the local restaurants. On Saturday we set up a grill on the tailgate of the truck and had hamburgers and bratwursts while glassing from a high spot. On Sunday we had picked up one of the 2x1 hunters and were too busy chasing oryx for him to stop for lunch. Snacks and drinks were handy in the truck.

We were on our own for alcohol, but it isn't allowed on the range anyhow.

We were hunting in an F250 with a crew cab. It had enough room for my 6'8" legs even when I was in the back seat on Sunday afternoon. He had all the gear we needed so all I really needed to bring was my rifle. The airport pick up and drop off removed the hassle of renting a car to get to the missile range.

I am thinking of going back for one of his private land hunts to pick up a bull to go with this cow and the cow I got in South Africa.

Thanks for posting. Great animal!

Any idea what the overall success rate was? Could you have found the animals without a guide?

Armbar.

Nice Oryx, Things have changed there, at one time you could not hire a guide service on the White Sands hunts. I have been on many of the hunts as a helper and spotter have never drawn hopefully March 10.
Kick hunt

You can get the sucess reports on the New Mexico Game and Fish web site
Larry

The statistics from the hunt are:

January 30-31, 2010 Rhodes Canyon Oryx Hunt Summary
# %
Permits 110
Hunters 107 97%
Denied Entry 0 0%
Violations 0 0%
Kills 89 83%
Adults 73 82%
Adult Bulls 28 38%
Adult Cows 45 62%
Reported Pregnant 23 51%
Subadults 16 18%
All Bulls 34 38%
All Cows 55 62%
Non-Typical 22 25%

You can certainly shoot an oryx without a guide. With an 83% success rate, a lot of oryx were shot. The big questions would be how well you can judge an oryx and whether you know where to go on the range to get away from the crowds. The other big help was being able to fly in to Albuquerque and not have to worry about the gear.

We saw oryx all over the place. They were near the parking lot we started from and along the road. We also watched other hunters drive past oryx without seeing them. The trick was finding ones that were approachable. That was easier away from the crowds. The only time I had plenty of time to watch an animal under "easy" shooting conditions and have time to contemplate its size was on Saturday when we were well off the beaten track. On Sunday morning I had to trust Tim's judgment but event then the oryx did not stand still long enough for a shot off the shooting sticks. I wound up making an off-hand shot at a running animal at 75 yards. It was great having someone who has seen a lot of oryx confident that this was not an animal to pass on. All I had to do was to make the shot.

With a once in a lifetime tag I opted for some expert assistance. For my local bear hunt this spring I just hunted by myself. I got a decent bear and I have reasonable odds of drawing the tag again.

Very nice. Well done and thanks for sharing. I did the hunt a few years back on Rhodes and it was a real hoot! Different, fun and lots of animals.

That's a great oryx - good going! I'm pleased that they now allow cameras on range. "Hero shots" in the field are much better than tailgate shots.

Have you enjoyed some steaks yet?

I dropped the animal with a butcher and taxidermist at the gate. I just couldn't get it to fit in my carry on bags. I will have to wait for the meat to be shipped.

Very nice animal. Congrats.

It was finally steak time tonight. The oryx was just as good on the inside as it was on the outside. Tender and lean. Fresh off the grill. This is living the good life.

Congrats. Just found out today that I won a tag for next march.
Congrats again,
W.