In January 2022, I had the amazing opportunity to go hunt oryx in New Mexico. It was a once-in-a-lifetime hunt, and I never thought I would get a chance like that again. My mom and dad had put in for 25 years and never drawn out. Late in 2022, my mom got a voicemail letting her know that I had again drawn an oryx tag in back-to-back years.
Utilizing multiple hunt strategies, like those found in Huntin’ Fool, and learning some little tricks like in New Mexico you can choose to accept a depredation hunt if you don’t draw your first-choice hunt. These depredation hunts are on the White Sands Missile Range and have much better draw odds. Using this knowledge, I beat the odds and drew depredation tags two years in a row.
In 2022, we went to the White Sands Missile Range, specifically the San Andres Wilderness Area. It was a place where no one else was allowed to go and was awesome to hunt where there was hardly any sign of other people. This area is set aside to study bighorn sheep and allows very limited access. One of the drawbacks of the tag is that you have to shoot the first oryx you see, even if they have broken or missing horns. We saw one oryx in the early morning, but it was running away from us. A couple hours later, we finally found our second oryx. The escort we had was very excited and pushed me to shoot as quickly as I could. The shot was 570 yards. First shot was a solid hit and the oryx was down. To our surprise, it was a beautiful bull with unbroken horns.
The next year, my mom got a voicemail identical to the previous year, which at first we didn’t think was real. It was another depredation tag, this time for a rangeland study in an area called Jornada Experimental Range. Once again, January found us traveling south to New Mexico. We went to the orientation and met the guy who would be helping us. He was awesome and very helpful. We also met the resident oryx, Rex.
We looked around for a couple of hours but didn’t see anything. There were a couple other groups that were seeing some oryx, but the morning was slow for all hunters. Eventually, we spotted one with a group of beef cows. The hunt was on. He was on a very flat plain, and it took some strategizing to get close enough. Eventually, we were 600 yards away but had run out of cover. At this point, we slowly moved through an opening, watching the bull and the cows. Although he was nervous, the cows were not, and I believe that kept him from spooking. We got another 150 yards closer in the wide open. I made what felt like a good shot, but we watched him walk behind a pile of thick brush. We waited a couple minutes but never saw movement. We slowly worked our way in. It was interesting to watch our escort as he was a little nervous. Apparently oryx can be aggressive when wounded. He was very cautious until we got eyes on the oryx and confirmed he was dead. I had my second New Mexico oryx, and once again, it was an unbroken bull. Two unbroken bulls, two years in a row, amazing.
It’s hard to believe I was able to get this lucky to be able to go on this hunt twice, but you can’t draw out if you don’t apply for everything. If you put in for enough dream hunts, occasionally you will draw one, or two.
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