Wow, this was a fun hunt. Part lope, part elk!
The hunt was on the White sand missle range in NM for free range Oryx (gemsbok) that were introduced in the 60's. I took both my bow and rifle and after i saw the sparse cover and how well these things could see i left the bow in the case
and with only 3 days to hunt i wasnt about to mess around. The first day we spent a most of the time in the flats. Saw about 15 orxy but nothing real good. Its not like the good old days from what i was told and the huge ones are far and few. in the evening i wanted to head to the mountains and found this one playing like around in desert bighorn country. first shot was 550 yards and i held over too high and missed. it ran around the corner of the mountain and i manged to get another glimps of him when i rounded the bend. I ran up the hill to intercept him and after about 10 seconds to get my wind back i took one at 450 and hit him a little forward in the neck. He took off and i figured lets rock and pounded 2 more for a hope and prayer but no go. Then for some reason when he crested the hill he stopped to look back. well i let the last one go and he rolled down the hill with one through the shoulders at close to 500 yards. Man i tell you what, i dont hardly ever rifle hunt but it was cool to kill something that far away. Sorry about the lack of field pictures but cameras are not permitted on the range what a cool looking animal, big, strong, amd just pretty neat with the long tail down to the ground.He was just under 36 inches long and the next day my Buddy Tim got one that was 37" after a lost animal and a 2 hour track. but it all worked out for him as he got one of the biggest bulls of the 130 person hunt.
