In February of 2021, my buddy and neighbor said he wanted to put in for the oryx hunt in New Mexico. I asked if he knew how low the odds were of drawing. He said, “Yep, but you win everything. If your name is on the application, we have a chance.”
He contacted Huntin’ Fool and decided which unit to put in for. He texted me the codes for the application, and we entered with probably a 2% chance of getting drawn. Previous to this, I had won a decked-out, high-rack Polaris ATV, multiple guns, several Yeti coolers, a couple hard to draw hunts through Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the 2019 Dall sheep hunt from Huntin’ Fool. All my friends think I’m the luckiest person on the planet.
In case you’re unaware of this hunting opportunity, 95 Gemsbok oryx were released on the White Sands Missile Range between 1969 and 1977. These original animals have grown to a herd of between 4,500 and 6,000 and need to be managed. In Africa, only 10% of them survive to 1 year old, but in New Mexico, survival rates are extremely high with few predators. In 1974, they started the first hunts to control the numbers. Best I can figure it, they issue about 800 tags every year to keep the present numbers in that 4,500 to 6,000 range, giving us sportsmen this amazing opportunity.
Fast forward to May 2021 when I got an email saying I’d drawn the tag. I read it a couple times to make sure it said what I thought it said, and I texted my buddy, Matt Light, “You’re not going believe this. I won again!” At this point, neither of us remembered that we applied jointly. He, of course, was excited for me but sad it was me and not him. A couple hours later, he checked his email and realized he had the same email and we had both been drawn. To give you an idea of how lucky this tag is to get, of the 65 tags issued for our season, only 4 go to non- residents. We had two of the four non-resident tags.
We started doing the typical research and planning as the date got closer. Having done the Dall sheep hunt with Austin Atkinson at Huntin’ Fool, I contacted him to see if any members had been to the Stallion Range that I could get advice from. Turns out, he had a broken horn tag the year before and knew it well. What were the odds? The stars had aligned once again. If things couldn’t get any better, the hunt fell on my son, Tripp’s, 14th birthday. He lives for this stuff, so he was more than happy to skip two days of school for a trip to New Mexico.
Thursday evening, January 27th, we arrived at out little $75 per night Airbnb in Polvadera, New Mexico. It’s a tiny, little rundown town of 400 people that looks like an abandoned old cowboy town in Mexico with adobe buildings. It turned out it looks like that because the entire street was redone for the movie “Cry Macho” by Clint Eastwood, and he stayed in our little Airbnb while shooting the movie.
Friday, January 28th, we arrived at the range for the check-in and instructions. After a brief meeting to go over the rules, they turned us loose on the 750 sq. miles. That is 480,000 acres if you do the math. We went to a couple of the areas Austin and others had said should be good. We learned quickly that oryx can see like no animal we had ever hunted. When you spot some at 500 yards, 1,000 yards, and 1,500 yards, they are already locked onto you and waiting for a sign they need to run.
Day two was my son, Tripp’s, 14th birthday. We had discussed how cool it would be to kill two oryx on his birthday. We chased a couple herds around that morning but couldn’t get a shot at less than 550 yards in an area that had little to no cover. At around 10 a.m., we changed strategies and went to a thicker area with more cover, hoping they felt safer and we had something to hide behind to do a stalk. Matt spotted two about three-quarters of a mile away and decided he was going to put a stalk on them. Tripp and I stayed behind to get on the toolbox of the truck and watch from the spotting scope as he made his stalk. After a good 45 minutes, he was on them. From our angle, he looked like he was less than 10 yards from them. We couldn’t figure out what was going on. How did he get that close, and why hadn’t he shot? Finally, we heard his gun crack off and saw oryx going in all directions. A big bull plowed headfirst into the ground at what looked like 15 yards from him. We jumped off the toolbox and went cross country, dodging yuccas, towards Matt.
As we pulled up to him, he was excitedly fist pumping. I asked, “How big is he?” Matt responded that he didn’t know yet, but he was big. He was 427 yards over the next ridge. Tripp and I looked at each other in disbelief. We were expecting to drive up to see him standing over the oryx. This was a good hunting lesson on distances. What looked like feet from our angle was 427 yards in actuality. We drove over to the oryx and took a ton of pictures of Matt’s 35.5” bull and commenced loading it into the truck. Getting a nearly 400 lb. dressed animal into a Ford F-350 with a 4” lift is no easy task.
With one down and one to go, we felt some of the pressure lift. We hunted our way to the check station, and the check-in went pretty quick. Luckily, there’s a taxidermist who sets up just outside the gates of the range. You can drop your animal off with him and his team will skin it, quarter it, and cape it for $150. Big thanks to him because that allowed us to get back in the field with two hours of daylight left.
We spotted a couple more oryx but couldn’t get a good shot. In a last-ditch effort to kill birthday bulls, we drove back to our spot from day one where there were some bigger herds but no cover. With 20 minutes of shooting light left, I spotted a solo bull about 400 yards from us in some tall grass. I jumped out of the truck to be ready. Matt quickly glassed him and told me 400 yards. I dialed the scope to 400. I said, “Is he a shooter?” At that moment, he turned to run, giving me his side view. It was obvious he was, but now he was trotting off.
Matt said, “You want me to honk?” He honked, and the bull stopped to look back. Matt said, “427,” and I let one fly. The bull hit the ground right where he stood. I pulled the trigger at 5:45 p.m. Last legal shooting time was 6:05 p.m., and they wanted you off the range by 6:30 p.m. Knowing we had no time, we took some quick photos and attempted to load 500 lbs. of oryx into the truck whole. It was not happening. We had to gut him to even have a chance. We got that done and used every bit of energy we had left to get him in the bed of the truck. We looked at the clock, and it read 6:22. We had eight minutes to make the 30-mile drive back to the front gate. That obviously didn’t happen, but they were nice about us being 20 minutes late, and we had our birthday bulls.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime hunt, and we would like to thank Huntin’ Fool for what they do, Austin for his recommendations, the taxidermist that hangs out at the gate, the state of New Mexico for allowing these hunts, and my two angels, my brother and my dad. I’m sure they are a big part of why we are so lucky. Last, and most importantly, happy birthday to my lifetime hunting buddy, Tripp Payne. You make your dad super proud.
Login