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My elk hunting partner, Chris, invited me along on an Oryx(or Gemsbok) hunt on White Sands Missile Range in order to provide another pair of eyeballs. It was quite an experience! I wasn't real enthused about it to begin with. They are goofy looking critters and they don't belong here anyway. Best to kill them! Chris hired a guide because he wanted a trophy animal. We road hunted and road hunting is not my thing. We spotted a couple bigger animals and then followed them out in the desert in order to get a look at them. They were all spindly unimpressive critters until I saw the big one. Yep, I spotted him! We ended up following him a couple miles into the desert. The terrain is fairly flat but the size of the brush varies. The area we were in was very open with little cover so I hung well back so as not to spook the Oryx. As a result I couldn't see what was going on. We would walk a while, then Chris would get set up and I would wait for the shot. Nothing! Chris would get up and we would repeat the process, probably four or five times. I was starting to wonder if they were going to kill that critter or were we going to follow him to El Paso? Finally Chris got set up on the edge of a shallow draw. I couldn't see into the draw from my position so I waited. No shot! Then I saw three oryx run out to the left and neither Chris nor the guide looked at them. Then I had to see what was going on so I eased up behind them. I could see dust flying as I approached which turned out to be two oryx fighting. They were at 180 yards and were really going at each other. I watched a couple minutes and they broke and charged straight up Chris's shooting lane right at us. The bigger one was right on the slightly smaller ones tail and they were galloping hard. We did not exist as far as they were concerned. About 20 yards out they veered slightly to our left toward open ground and passed by us about 20 feet away. Their muzzles were bloody and they had blood spots all over. Chris was trying to swing on them but his sling caught on the tripod he was using for a rest so he had to untangle that and then catch up with them. He had his scope on 10 power so when he got on the last one all he could see was hair! Luckily he opened his left eye and looked along the barrel. Oryx have a stripe up the side. They told us in the orientation for the hunt to aim at the intersection of the stripe and the shoulder. Chris followed the stripe up to the shoulder and squeezed. I saw the bullet hit high in the shoulder. The oryx took one more bound and rolled. Turned out he hit him in the spine. A big bore levergun would have been ideal for this kill! The guide was ecstatic! He kept saying he wished he had a video camera because nobody would believe it! It turned out the one we were following had forgotten about us and went down in the draw and got in a fight. Anyway here is the happy hunter:
The picture was taken off the range as cameras are not allowed on the missile range. By my measure the horns are 38-1/2" and 37-3/4" in length with about 7-1/2" bases. The taxidermist is going to measure it for SCI. It turned out to be an exciting hunt! I am still excited!
We also drove up the mountain a bit and saw some deer. Here's four New Mexico does:
They also had a monument in honor of my airborne brothers from Alamogordo so I had Chris get my picture. All the paratroopers listed on the monument came from a neighborhood of about 1/4 square mile!:
Me with my unit insignia:
Last edited by Marc on Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
It was a fun trip! We stopped in Tombstone on the way to New Mexico and visited Boothill. 1882 was a rough year! A lot of shootings, hangings and a couple suicides. We went over by the OK corral to see the gunfight reenactment but our timing was off so we missed it.
Saw a couple levers for sale in the Tularosa Trading post north of Alamogordo. One was a pristine Winchester 94 in 7-30 Waters for $500. They also had a Savage 99 in 300 Savage for what I thought was high dollar.
There is an art gallery further north at Three Rivers(ought to be "Three Dry Washes") that is owned by an artist in Montana. He has a collection of Indian artifacts. Moccasins, baby carriers and the like. The collection includes a Colt 1860 Army that was found in a creek in Montana. There is a lot of excellent Western art in the gallery too.
Impressive stickers on that critter. Looks like you had fun. By the way, 325, 504, 505, 506, or which unit of the 82nd were you in? I was in B Co. 3/504 for a while.
D. Brian Casady
Quid Llatine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur.
Advanced is being able to do the basics while your leg is on fire---Bill Jeans
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up---Robert Frost
Great story. I was just there a month ago quail hunting. I love the area and have property near Magdalena. I hope you got a chance to stop at the Owl Cafe or the Buckhorn for a real green chile cheese burger.
Bwana, We heard about the Buckhorn but didn't get there.
I served in HHC, 1/505 PIR, 3rd Bgde. from mid 1969 to end of 1971. Actually we were a different battalion in the Fourth Brgde. when I got there. We changed designation when the third Brgde's colors came back from Vietnam at the end of 1969. I went to Redeye gunner school at Fort Bliss and I think our practice range was at the southern end of the missile range. I was on White Sands twice on training exercises so it was neat to see it again. I was there a fourth time for a weapons demonstration for the brass and polititions.
Oryx were introduced in 1969. They have overrun the range. There were 110 hunters the weekend we were there and that is normal. Success ratio runs 80% and they have a hunt nearly every weekend. We heard that Sunday afternoon the game wardens were taking unsuccessful hunters and showing them oryz to shoot. They are killing a lot of oryx and they aren't close to running out. There are no large predators here to keep them in check. They have seen them running around with coyotes and mountain lions decorating their horns. Tough animals!
If anybody happens to stay in Alamogordo on a weekend they should go to the Super 8 Motel. They cater to the hunters on the weekend. They serve continental breakfast at 3:00 AM. In the afternoon you will see a bunch of dead critters being butchered in the parking lot. When I saw that I knew I wasn't in Kalifornia anymore!
Marc wrote:They have seen them running around with coyotes and mountain lions decorating their horns. Tough animals!
Not surprising, I hear in their native habitat even the lions stay clear of them, and they are one of the few antelopes that will kill a man. Congratulations on a successful hunt. I hear the base also has a large population of Aoudad (Barbary Sheep).
The history of exotic game in New Mexico is interesting. For many years the Game Commission was run by Elliot S. Barker. He had actually come to New Mexico by covered wagon and grew up on the family's homestead in the Pecos. He grew up hunting and wrote several books on the subject which can sometimes be found on Ebay. When he started working as a ranger in New Mexico Aldo Leupold was a ranger there too. Later in Barker's career he was responsible for reintroducing elk in New Mexico after they had been wiped out. A re-introduction is much more difficult than it looks and he solved many of the problems and his methods are still used today. He also figured out a game trading scheme that allowed different states to trade game for restocking thus avoiding having to get state legislatures to approve funding for the purchase of the game to be restocked. Later in his career he he became worried about the extinction of African game and he looked for species that would thrive in New Mexico. This was before anyone worried about non-native species. They tried several and the oryx is one that thrived.
We talked to some hunters from Wyoming who had spent the week hunting Barbary sheep. They only saw two all week and they were to far away. We didn't see any on the range and didn't hear about any there. Apparently they haven't done as well as the Oryx.
Nice to see some 82nd Alumni here. I am surrounded by Marines out here on the coast. Nothing wrong with Marines, they are just so ...common!
