NM Oryx success!

[huntergirl_19]

Nice animal, congrats!

 

[Oak]

That's a fine bull and a great photo. Congrats.

 

[BuzzH]

Great bull.

I'll concur that the hunt is not an easy one, but theres still plenty of animals if you glass and get off the roads.

The toughest part is only having 2.5 days to get it done, kind of a high stress hunt from that standpoint.

It would be awesome if a person had 5 days or so.

After having done this hunt, I'd recommend not passing up too many mature animals. I passed several easy ones on day 2...I wouldnt likely do that again.

 

[sbhooper]

Great bull.

I'll concur that the hunt is not an easy one, but theres still plenty of animals if you glass and get off the roads.

The toughest part is only having 2.5 days to get it done, kind of a high stress hunt from that standpoint.

It would be awesome if a person had 5 days or so.

After having done this hunt, I'd recommend not passing up too many mature animals. I passed several easy ones on day 2...I wouldnt likely do that again.

Yep. I have heard that before. I went on a depredation hunt that I figured was a slam dunk. It was on the portion of the range that is northeast of Las Cruces on the west side of the San Andres Mountains. We hunted hard all day and only saw a few running at a distance. We finally got up on three sub-adults late in the afternoon and I did not hesitate to kill one. I already had one hunt, so I was not looking for a trophy anyway. It made a believer out of me about how EASY Oryx hunting can be!

 

[firehuntinmedic]

I'll concur that the hunt is not an easy one, but theres still plenty of animals if you glass and get off the roads.

I'd recommend not passing up too many mature animals. I passed several easy ones on day 2...I wouldnt likely do that again.

Buzz I agree with you completely! We probably saw 50-100 animals a day at varying distances, so they are for sure still there. I found it a bit strange that every day we would see a whole herd of hunters circling the big flat between roads 9 and 7 from all directions, maybe they didn't know they would go up in the hills.

I too passed on several the first 2 days, come Sunday I was beginning to question my decision(s).

Glass is your best friend. I would also say, from my experience anyway, that a hunter may be better served by getting out of the flats and into the foothills and hills. They sure seemed a bit less skittish in the hills, just my thoughts on it.

 

[Tom]

Very good, congratulations.

 

[nmelktrout]

Congrats on a very good bull. I love seeing pictures and reading about these hunts. Such a cool experience in so many ways. Rhoades and Stallion are great to spend time on and it always surprises me to see so many people road hunting on those hunts. The big animals are almost always killed in the foothills away from roads. It's pretty crazy watching the herds come from the flats to the mountains as the hunt unfolds. The other astounding ability of these animals is their ability to disappear in seemingly zero cover. I can't count the times I've watched truck after truck drive right by animals that were bedded within a couple hundred yards of a road. A couple animals always seem to bed down along the base of the lava flows on Rhoades and will lay there watching hunters pass by for hours. While the standing Oryx run for cover if a truck stops, the bedded animals will often hold long enough for a shot. I guess they think they're hidden. Anyways, if you couldn't tell, I love hunting Oryx... Congrats again on a great bull and enjoy every ounce of that meat!
-Cody