My dad has been taking me on hunting trips since I was around five years old. I instantly fell in love with it and knew I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. After noticing my love for the port, he started applying for tags in different states. I drew a youth elk tag in New Mexico my first year and ended up tagging out on a beautiful 6x5 bull. I’ve also drawn deer tags in a couple of states. This year, when I found out I had drawn a once- in-lifetime Stallion Range oryx hunt, I was overjoyed, though I knew a lot of work and target practice would be needed. Having drawn the last hunt of the season, we had to wait nearly 11 months from the date of the draw to go on our hunt. I used that time to read and learn about this amazing animal and the history of how they were introduced into the wild here. When the day finally came and we arrived in New Mexico, we discovered the first day of our three-day hunt was cancelled for base reasons. Instead, we attended an orientation about what to expect on our hunt and what we could or could not do. After the orientation, we went back to the ranch house with our guides, Jack Diamond and Josh Woodstock, with Beaverhead Outfitters. Kay Diamond, Jack’s wife, cooked us an amazing meal and made us oryx burritos for the morning hunt.
The next day, my dad and I threw on our clothes, grabbed our gear, and headed out the door. Thankfully, the weather that time of year was mild and only partly cloudy, so we did not have to bundle up. I was so excited as we met up with the guides and headed to the Stallion Range. When we got to the gate, the Game Warden went over a few safety precautions and we were off! We had only been in the car about two minutes when my dad exclaimed, “Holy crap, there’s an oryx right there!” I nervously grabbed my gun and jumped out of the truck. We snuck up as close as we could, but it seemed like the closer we got, the further away the animal appeared. It was amazing how quickly they covered ground while doing little more than grazing. We eventually decided that we would keep going down the road to a place Jack had seen and killed oryx before.
We saw more throughout the morning, but some weren’t big enough, some had broken horns, and others were simply just too far away for me to shoot. Later while driving, we were all eating our oryx burritos when I suddenly dropped mine and yelled “Stop! There’s a huge herd right there!” Jack slammed on the brakes and got out his binoculars. We crept out of the car and grabbed the gun and shooting sticks. Slowly and silently, we got closer to the animals. I set up several times with my gun trying to figure out which was the best. However, just before I could get a good shot off on one, it would start jogging away or another (non-shooter) would get in front of it. My dad’s lessons echoed in my head, telling me that I couldn’t pull the trigger unless I had a clear shot. The herd started moving really quickly, so we got back in the truck and drove further down the road. Other hunters with the same idea were parked on the side of the road looking at the herd through their binoculars. Lugging our gear, we continued on foot for over an hour, climbing the hill behind which the heard had escaped. We crept up and glassed from just below the crest. Shockingly, there was no sign of them in sight. I thought, How can such a big group of animals just disappear?
Although the massive herd had magically vanished, there was a nice sized broken-horned oryx standing perfectly broadside at a tempting 200 yards. Josh and Jack quickly told me that it was not a shooter but they wanted me to practice. I unloaded my gun and then practiced putting my crosshairs on the animal and squeezing the trigger.
After this, we hit a dry spell for several hours, driving and glassing with no luck. Discouragement crept in while thinking about our one remining day. We started to see other hunters struggling as well, so we knew we weren’t alone. John, Jack’s son, called to check in and suggest a higher spot in the mountain area. Worried about gas, we instead headed back to one of the spots where we saw oryx earlier that morning. After glassing for about 10 minutes, we saw two Game Warden trucks pull up to the spot. We glanced at each other, nervously wondering if we had broken one of the range rules. They said they were just curious and wanted to check to see how we were doing. I was happy to talk to them and told them that I thought it would be fun to be a Game Warden one day. When they found out that I was a youth hunter, one of them, Steve, offered to show us an area known to have a herd roaming. Breathing a sigh of relief, we realized that they had no official reason to be there and just wanted to help.
Excitedly, we jumped in the truck and followed them down the road. It wasn’t long before he stopped and whispered, “The oryx are about to come over this ridge.” Boom! There they were. As we got closer, we hopped out of the truck, pulled out the gun, and set up. At this point, the animals were around 900 yards away, a shot I knew I couldn’t take. We decided to drive around and try to cut them off. After getting ahead of them, we stopped and I quickly hopped out of the truck, grabbing my gun as I did so. We had to nearly sprint to catch up to the fast-moving oryx, doing our best to stay in single file to lower our profile. I set up on the shooting sticks and saw a nice bull directly in front of another one on the very left of the large group. I was nervous about taking a shot while the bull was walking, but I sensed he was giving me my only chance. Once I got the “OK” to shoot, I squeezed the trigger. The sound of my suppressed 7mm-08 was quiet enough that I could hear the thud of the impact on the animal almost 300 yards away, but I was still unsure if I actually had hit it. I watched as the rest of the herd ran away as far as they could to escape the area.
Josh confirmed that it looked like I had hit it, which soothed my anxiety, but I knew I would have to shoot him again. We snuck closer and took two more careful shots at the oryx before it finally lay dead. Almost in tears at the sight of the magnificent bull, Steve showed me a tradition of putting grass in the animal’s mouth to reflect its last meal. We also joined hands and said a prayer for the animal that I had harvested. We took a lot of pictures and then began to field dress it. Josh and Jack were amazing at butchering wild game and even decided to time themselves to see how fast they could do it. I helped by holding up the different pieces of meat or legs so they could cut around it. Afterwards, we said goodbye to Steve and his friends and thanked them for all of the help they had given us. We loaded up the meat, filled out the tag, and headed back down the road. We got back to the ranch and had an amazing meal cooked by Kay and celebrated with some fresh pecan brownies with ice cream.
The next day, we took the meat to the food processor and Josh got the leftover meat on the skull of the oryx off for the shoulder mount I was planning on doing. Later that day, I got to hang out with Cayden and Reese Diamond, Jack Diamond’s granddaughters, and we went to the shooting range for a little bit. I had the best time on this trip and got to spend a bunch of good time with my dad while hunting. Thank you so much to the Diamonds, Josh, and Steve and his buddies for all of the help to make this trip so successful. I learned so much and can’t wait to be back!
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