When I saw Mulie Mike's post regarding a free range Gemsbok hunt I about fell down. Called him I guess about 30 seconds after he posted it up.
Needless to say Mike's a great guide and I was successful. He put up with my numerous calls and we were able to make the hunt happen in the span of about a week.
Hunted with on a great gentlemen's ranch about 3 miles north of the el paso texas border in New Mexico. I believe his name was Dennis. Thanks Dennis for the opportunity to hunt your ranch. It will be a lifetime memory.
Mike's guide Sid was also along. Thanks Sid for all the great stories and your knowledge.
Anyway drove all day Thursday from San Diego. Got to Las Cruces at 3:00PM and bought my license. Expensive but well worth it. By the way Cindy at the Las Cruces New Mexico Game and Fish office is awesome and helped me a lot.
We hunted Friday morning and I was able to tag out in a few hours. I wasn't looking for anything huge, but representative as I don't have vaulted ceilings and these things are big. I think I got exactly what I was looking for.
We saw two bulls about 30 inches and I said let's go for it. Well we spooked them on the first stalk. On the second stalk we found them and I got the go ahead. I saw one behind a yucca that was quartering to me. I put the crosshairs on the middle of the chest(neck) and shot. The Oryx was at 230 yards and the 7mm using 160 grain Barnes TSX hit the target and DRT. Didn't take a step which I guess is lucky as these are notoriously tough animals. I guess there was another Oryx standing broadside about 20 yards to the left and that is the one they thought I was going to shoot at, but it all worked out great. After I shot we got a good look at the other three that were in the herd. They all were about 30 inches and the estimate was that there were two bulls and another cow.
Here she is. It ended up being a 30 inch cow with fairly good mass, thought it was a bull but it was a cow and I couldn't be happier.
I noticed the horns looked broomed at the tips (bent over slightly with little folds)and are very smooth. Even the rings at the bases were smooth. Anyone with any experience care to estimate if this shows older age?
Another cool thing was the ears appeared to show frostbite. Gives it some character.
Thanks Mike I can't tell you how much the hunt means! Mike's a great guide and will do all he can to make sure you are successful. I highly recommend him.
