Ibex rifle

DoeNob · Jan 4, 2022

Hunted with Kiowa/Kauffman and punched my tag on day 2.5 on the second biggest Billy of the trip seen. G&F has straight up pounded this resource way too hard and between that and the drought I'd lay off applying a year or two for your OIL. Nanny/kid hunts have cratered the population from over 800 to less than 300 on this range. 2 other rifle hunters in camp, one was active military and ate his tag after 5 hard days, one killed a billy in mid 20's that ran over the back of the mountain after I missed his big brother at 450 yards on a very uphill shot over a granite dome on the morning of day two.

Still a great hunt with great guides and I'm happy I got to go. That mountain is a straight up kick in the crotch. And I did it all with a torn meniscus/spaghetti knee and had surgery when I got back; 3 weeks on crutches down, one more to go. Lotta rehab ahead of me.

Grateful for the opportunity, happy for my trophy, privileged to meet and hunt with Dennis Kauffman, wish NM did a better job of managing their special and valuable resources.

All in all still a great hunt. 37 inch billy shot downhill thru the heart in his bed facing directly head on laying on a boulder at 258 yards with a savage long range hunter 300 win mag topped with a zeiss 4.5x14 rapid z 800 sending 165 grain barnes TTSX.

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lion kill

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heartless bastard

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DoeNob · Jan 4, 2022

long form version of my hunt if you like reading pages of nonsense. Mostly written for me when I get senile later in life.

ibex story

BradA · Jan 4, 2022

Congratulations

live4muleys · Jan 5, 2022

Congrats. Dennis is the Ibex man for sure. If he is not finding trophies on the mountain then that is a scary thing indeed.

DoeNob · Jan 5, 2022

live4muleys said:
Congrats. Dennis is the Ibex man for sure. If he is not finding trophies on the mountain then that is a scary thing indeed.

Dennis told me before the hunt it was the worst drought in the last 50 years in the area and the mid 40's class ibex was just not there. Set your sights for low 40's trophy expectation he said and we got close. I did miss one that was probably 43-44 and bigger than the one I shot but saw none bigger. We saw less than 13 billys in 3 days of hard hunting and from the very north to the very south of the range. This was the 2nd biggest we saw. 3-4 spotters working dawn to dusk daily + 1 guide per hunter. G&F needs to let them rebound.

Mixed emotions. Drawing odds were 1 in 700 for this tag for me, so I'm grateful I got to experience it. You just do the best you can with the conditions that year and I feel like we did.

El Gringo · Jan 5, 2022

It’s beyond shameful what the G+F has done with the continuous slaughter on that mountain. I got to hunt it before the big Nanny hunts started, and it was amazing.

I’ve tagged along on a hunt last year and it was just “So So”. It’s a shame, and I don’t bother to apply anymore as a Non Res.

Congratulations on a great Billy, and a lifetime experience.

LIK2HNT · Jan 5, 2022

What had happened to the herd in the rock??
Older age class shot out?
Die off?
Never heard of them leaving, so if alive they should be there somewhere?!

DoeNob · Jan 5, 2022

LIK2HNT said:
What had happened to the herd in the rock??
Older age class shot out?
Die off?
Never heard of them leaving, so if alive they should be there somewhere?!

Nanny/kid slaughter "population" hunts and bad counts. Incentive hunts - bring in your nanny and get in a drawing for a Billy. It's beyond time to stop those. Predators also got fat when there was a bunch of them running around - lions. Now there are less, the lions are hunting them harder.

Official line as I understand it is they are scared of them leaving the Floridas and going to other ranges because of disease or whatever. There is a limit to the carrying capacity but this is a pretty drastic over correction, even if you buy that argument.

It will be VERY interesting to see success rates in the harvest reports when they are published this year. Out of curiosity I pulled some stats off last 5 years. What is NOT Reported that anyone who is up there will tell you is there is a significant amount of killed and left on the nanny/incentive hunt. People kill one cant get to it so shoot another one.

I am no biologist but EVEN IF these stats are dead on accurate it still looks like a pretty ambitious harvest on a population of animals they now estimate to be around 300 or so (guides think its less)

IBEX harvest	Billy	Nanny	525 Success	avg arch
20-21	58	51	63%	7.50%
19-20	62	58	69%	6.50%
18-19	57	9	54%	7.50%
17-18	98	126	85%	8.5%
16-17	86	73	78%	10.00%

I heard one archery camp on the early hunt had 17 hunters, one drew blood this year, did not recover.

NMPaul · Jan 5, 2022

Sad that NMGF has decided to over hunt them .

NMhunter4life · Jan 5, 2022

You did well. It is very tough, if not impossible to break 40" on the mountain right now. Drought has nothing to do with it. The G&F started the immature/nanny slaughters and did not stop soon enough, which dropped the numbers of ibex down into the "predator pit" zone. There are now way too many tags for the number of animals left and all the ibex billies get killed before they reach maturity.

LIK2HNT · Jan 6, 2022

Guess I can save some money now. Use to put in for Ibex. 20 something years ago after never drawing I put in for Oryx instead and drew. Been back trying for Ibex ever since. They are amazing looking trophies.
Yours will make a great mount. Please post a picture when mounted.

TX_Diver · Jan 6, 2022

Congrats. I ate the bow tag a few years ago.

Awesome hunt and hope to get the chance again, even if it's not what it once was.

BradA · Jan 9, 2022

LIK2HNT said:
Guess I can save some money now. Use to put in for Ibex. 20 something years ago after never drawing I put in for Oryx instead and drew. Been back trying for Ibex ever since. They are amazing looking trophies.
Yours will make a great mount. Please post a picture when mounted.

Did you draw off range ? Or on ?

LIK2HNT · Jan 10, 2022

On range

RioHuntNutt · Jan 10, 2022

DoeNob said:
Nanny/kid slaughter "population" hunts and bad counts. Incentive hunts - bring in your nanny and get in a drawing for a Billy. It's beyond time to stop those. Predators also got fat when there was a bunch of them running around - lions. Now there are less, the lions are hunting them harder.

Official line as I understand it is they are scared of them leaving the Floridas and going to other ranges because of disease or whatever. There is a limit to the carrying capacity but this is a pretty drastic over correction, even if you buy that argument.

It will be VERY interesting to see success rates in the harvest reports when they are published this year. Out of curiosity I pulled some stats off last 5 years. What is NOT Reported that anyone who is up there will tell you is there is a significant amount of killed and left on the nanny/incentive hunt. People kill one cant get to it so shoot another one.

I am no biologist but EVEN IF these stats are dead on accurate it still looks like a pretty ambitious harvest on a population of animals they now estimate to be around 300 or so (guides think its less)

IBEX harvest Billy Nanny 525 Success avg arch
20-21
58
51
63%
7.50%
19-20
62
58
69%
6.50%
18-19
57
9
54%
7.50%
17-18
98
126
85%
8.5%
16-17
86
73
78%
10.00%

I heard one archery camp on the early hunt had 17 hunters, one drew blood this year, did not recover.

Those hunts were stopped in 2021 ,2020 was the last year the department had the Incentive hunts .

BradA · Jan 10, 2022

RioHuntNutt said:
Those hunts were stopped in 2021 ,2020 was the last year the department had the Incentive hunts .

Well that seems like a good thing that they stopped it and maybe now the herd will start to bounce back.

5yearcoueshunter · Jan 10, 2022

BradA said:
Well that seems like a good thing that they stopped it and maybe now the herd will start to bounce back.

There is still F-IM hunts though. Granted they dropped the tags way down from 300 last year to 80 this year.

BradA · Jan 10, 2022

5yearcoueshunter said:
There is still F-IM hunts though. Granted they dropped the tags way down from 300 last year to 80 this year.

Oh well that’s a good thing let’s hope that they keep dropping it or at least don’t increase it. I would like to think that because they did this they notice the decrease in ibex and are trying to resolve it.

Muleman · Jan 11, 2022

Problem is there is 250-300 ibex on the mountain. Billy to nanny is 1-1 or slightly more Billy’s than nanny’s. So it the nanny population is 150 at best. 80 license for 150( which I think is a high estimate). gonna take a long time for them to rebound with basically no new recruitment last year because of the drought. G&F needs to back off more. They could hunt them to where they can’t rebound. G&F said said estimate ~400 ibex which I think is way to high. Average billy length has gone done every year for the past 5 or so years. This year will have a few more 40 because of the great monsoon we had this year, billies had real good growth this year

wildfin · Jan 11, 2022

the ibex does not lose its horns for its entire life and they would not get smaller in a drought, they may grow better with good feed but not much

smarba · Jan 12, 2022

I had the archery hunt in Oct. I've been blessed to hunt ibex several times (it used to be A LOT easier to draw a tag). I too confirm the numbers are WAY down. And the quality was also WAY down. I had days I didn't even SEE an ibex, which I've never had in the past. Also in the past I've always seen dandy billies. Last Oct the biggest billy I spotted was about the size of the OP, high 30s. A handful right about 30, most were young or immature. This hunt is nothing like it used to be. Thanks NMDGF...

smarba · Jan 12, 2022

And while wildfin is correct that ibex don't shed, so their horns just keep growing, the big ones just aren't there like they used to be.

DoeNob · Jan 12, 2022

Smarba can you post some harvest pics of any billies? I just like looking at them. Thanks!

smarba · Jan 12, 2022

DoeNob I just sent you a PM with link to stories and photos

twdjr · Jan 12, 2022

Congrats Andy on the great Ibex! Nice write up and good luck on your recovery, been through that twice.

GilaCoues1 · Jan 14, 2022

I bowhunted ibex the two times I've been able to draw and had absolute blast. This was over ten years ago when the herd was absolutely incredible. I need to tag along with SMARBA and learn how to hunt!!! Followed his ibex adventures over the years, so if anybody knows what the herd is like, he does!!!!

Good looking ibex!

OCHO · Jan 17, 2022

What even sadder is you know there’s solid amount of ibex that get shot an never recovered due to the terrain on those depredation hunts. I don’t know why this states G&F has to be 0 or 100 and a planned out management hunt over years that works progressively instead of a WWII style! Mt Taylor another classic example. If you haven’t watched Elk Shape Hunt here in Taylor do yourself a favor and watch it!!

outdoorsdude · Jan 20, 2022

Let's not forget, the Floridas are BLM and that Federal entity has a big say in the ranges management, especially when it comes to introduced species. The reason for the initial slaughter was because of overpopulation, you could see it by the browse line on every shrub that was there.
The year before the immature/nanny slaughter, I could spot stalk a small herd every morning and afternoon, unbelievable fun!
Drew it the year after the slaughter-- not even close to the same hunt... haven't applied since.

rockn9858 · Jan 20, 2022

Game and fish was told by BLM to reduce the number or we will remove them all. the numbers were around 2K and that is why they had the nanny slaughter. they are prolific breeders and should rebound a little if G&F will let them. at the end of 2022 I believe is the next cycle to set the tag numbers and as hunters we need to let G&F know that we would like the numbers reduced to allow the numbers to rebound and see what 4 years of lower numbers does for the ibex.