Oryx hunting 101
I drew the tag in Feb. So I had 8-9 months to study oryx and talk to people. I did a search on MM for oryx. There are a couple of articles in the archives that are great. I had a unique situation, Oct 13th was the same day elk season opened in New Mexico so there wasn't an outfitter available to help but they shared their information with me. Two of these outfitters were awesome and I would hunt with either one of them. I contacted David Black who is in charge of the hunt and he sent me maps of Rhodes canyon ahead of time and he told me how to take the right class so I could ride atv on the missle range. He couldn't have been nicer. If you need any Rhodes Canyon maps I still have all of my stuff. Here are the judging tips I got.
1. From the tip of the nose to the base of the horn is about 15" on an adult animal.
2. Young animals are more brown in color and have dull horns. My buddy wanted me to shoot a young bull that did look nice but when we compared his body size to a one horned cow we passed up he was half the size and darker in color. He did have dull horns.
3. I was lucky on my hunt in that I got to compare some smaller animals in one group to the group I shot mine out of and I knew I was looking at mature animals. All 7 animals in my group were mature so I picked out the horn structure next. The come in all different shapes. One was to narrow but long, one was one horned, one had dull horns, one was just what I wanted. In retrospect I think the dull horned one was a bigger and it was the only bull in the bunch(I was leery to shoot somthing with dull horns). I loved the hunt and hope a brother or friend draws so I can go with them and do it again! If you want my help just ask!
Balz was the taxidermist at the gate and talking to him helped a lot.
