An off range hunt with an opportunity at a decent bull..
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Many have differing views of what a decent bull is, but off range, I say ANY oryx is a decent one.
You place your name in the hat with the other million crazies ( of which I am one ) and hope to get drawn.
If you are lucky and do get drawn, it is all about putting the miles on your truck, and distance on your boot leather.
I was lucky enough to go on 2 off range hunts this year, in August and in November, both successful.
The numbers aren't what they used to be, but you CAN see oryx. In August we took one opening day. After 14 hours of driving, and probably 400 miles on the truck we took the first 1 to give us a shot and it turned out to be ~32". Not a great bull, but respectable for off range.
Opening day of my daughter's hunt we saw 20+ oryx, 2 of which were at least 38" cows, but buck fever overtook my 11 year old, and those lived to see another day. On the 5th day out she took a 26" young bull out of a herd of 8 ( 2 of which I figured were in the 36" range ), but she is 11 and was told to take the best shot offered, 1 shot 1 kill, 325 yds. I couldn't be happpier.
We saw between 60 and 80 oryx on her 5 days that we were out and about, 50 of which were on the right side of the fence, just leaving dust trails, or a bit out of range for a novice hunter. We saw oryx, but we drove for 10-12 hours every day and glassed every hill/draw/yucca in the area we believe holds good numbers.
Read the posts on here about judging them, it takes a bit to learn, but it can be done fairly well if you take your time. Be ready to launch lead a long distance, they are quite wary on the outside ( i will have my 1st on range hunt in Feb, so I am not sure if there is a big difference in their habits on range, ( come on 40" plus broken horn lol ) )
I have been on 5 successful off range hunts, my biggest suggestion, GLASS GLASS GLASS learn how to pick them out of that ugly desert.
Good Luck in the draw, there are 2.5 weeks til your app is due. Check out monster muleys' draw odds site if you are looking for the better odds, but it is still a hard tag to draw.
NMYB