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.

Thats awesome, congrats!

Amazing! Congrats on a great kill. It'll look great once it's mounted.

Congratulations!

A NM Oryx hunt is on my wish list.

nice

Congratulations and that is some damn fine eating.

sweet!!!!! That is one of those hunts that will stay in your memory for ever.

Nice Gemsbok!

nice

John
It was a pleasure to have you out again. I wish you could have stuck arround a bit longer but everything fell into place perfectly and you pulled off a great shot in those high winds.

I think Im going to pull the cash together and do one of those hunts this week if the wife lets me.

I appreciate the kind works.
Mike

Any input on as how the horns could have been "blunted"?

congrats
great oryx u have there.

I'm going to try to make some free time and call mike for sure

Nice one.
Great story.

I have a question. Are Gemsbok Oryx native to the United States, much less New Mexico? I dont know, that is why I am asking. If they are not native, how can it be a free range hunt? Is it free range, just because there are no high fences keeping them in? Do Gemsbok jump fences? Can you eat them?

If they are native to New Mexico, then disregard my above statement. Thanks

Great pics and story!

They are not native but NM released some many years ago and they are not hindered by high fences and roam where they want even crossing into Texas sometimes. Gemsbok are good eating, from what I remember having only had them at the tesas Game Wardens fundraise in Waco a few times.

Congrats

Congrats!

They are not native but have been arround for 80 or 90 years and have done very well in this area. They are all throughout the Whitesands and McGregor area and have gone as far south into Van Horn Texas.

They plow through fences or try to go under neath them, they are quite destructive. There are free roaming/ranging and have been for awhile. We have seen some oryx travel 20 to 30 miles regulary out in this country.

nice post!

Thats on my wish list

Grew up in Alamogordo and hunted these things when I was younger.....my dad used to have a range pass and back in the day all you needed was a resident license!!

These things are originally from Africa, imported to N.M. in 1969 with approximately 93 animals were released from 1969 to 1978 with in the Tularosa Basin between Alamogordo and Las Cruces. The mountain Ranges on either side of the basin has kept them mostly isolated to that area with the herd being approximately 3,400 animals strong. These suckers are big, mean as hell and taste great! Deep red meat with very little fat and extremely rich and tasty. Got about 60 lbs in my freezer from one a buddy of mine shot 2 years ago.

Anyway, take Hwy 70 from Alamo to Cruces or Hwy 84 from Alamo to El Paso and you are bound to see Oryx, Maybe pronghorn and a Mulie or two!!!

awesome plus pics