On- and Off-Range Success

mozey

Long Time Member
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Had a great October thus far. First, got to help my buddy with his OIL Rhodes Canyon hunt. We were hiking down into a draw when I spotted a couple oryx sneaking out of the same draw below us at about 800 yards. As I was trying to keep an eye on those two to see where they bedded, my buddy whispers to me that there is another one headed out across the same draw above us at about 500 yards, just showing its backside. I never could see that one, and as he was whispering to me trying to help me locate it, this 36" bull stands up in the bottom of the draw below us, runs about 10 yards, and then turns and looks right at us from about 175 yards. The wind was in our face and we had not been making that much noise at all. Not only is their eyesight incredible, their hearing must be amazing as well. Anyway, regardless of the comedy of errors that followed of me trying to get my BogPod down and set at the right height for his 6'2" frame, he got off a shot from his .338 just as the bull started to run. The WHACK and dust flying off the bull's back indicated a hit. The bull ran about 30 yards and stopped behind some brush where I could no longer see. Fortunately that was not the case for my friend, and one more BOOM, WHACK, and more dust flying up and that bull was down for good:

2550jakes_oryx_anon.jpg


We were about a mile pack out to the road and it was nearly 90 degrees. Our initial plan had been that if we wrapped up his hunt early enough, we were going to do some off-range hunting for my tag. But after quartering and packing that thing back to his truck, we were too exhausted for anything but a trip back to the hotel, so my off-range hunting would have to wait another week.

So as not to bore with details, after four long days of hunting effort, a little over 37 miles on the hiking boots, two blown opportunities, a scoped nose injury, falling on and breaking an expensive new scope, switching to my backup 7mmRM rifle, 14 more miles on the hiking boots, another completely blown stalk, then a totally unexpected and unprepared for opportunity, another scoped eye injury (just as the first scope injury had healed up and yes, I'm an idiot), and a finishing shot of about 700 yards to prevent an already wounded oryx from crossing the dreaded fence, I was very fortunate to harvest this 28" cow.

763514oro.jpg


Sorry for the crappy pic, but that's the best one of several blurry shots.

Let me just state that I'm not a fan of long shots, and usually limit myself to inside of 400 yards, and I'd already put two rounds thru this oryx inside that range: one through the shoulder and one thru the ribs about an inch back from the shoulder crease. I thought I'd put it down for good with the second hit, but as I reloaded it got up again and started heading towards the fence. On my next shot I held the horizontal about two feet above its back, and saw the bullet spray dust well short. It's getting further and further away, so I raised up what I estimated was four feet above its back and again saw the bullet hit short. Still getting further away, so on my final shot, I raised up what I thought was a good seven feet over its back. When I recovered from the recoil, it was gone. I looked through the swaros and saw what looked to be the white of its belly in the grass, not even twitching, but I was still not sure until I hiked about half the distance to where it laid. When I got to it, I saw that the final shot hit the neck, a world-class luck shot, for which I'm grateful to the powers that be.

I still had no idea how far the shot actually was, but I marked the coordinates on my GPS and checked Google Earth when I got home, and that's how I came up with my estimate of about 700 yards. Not something I hope to ever have to do again...

Oh, it ended up being a four-mile pack out. Very grateful to my friend for being there to help me. Did it all in one trip out, but it took us until a little after midnight--also something I'm not sure I ever want to have to do again...

Did I say it's been a great October? ;-)
 
Congrats on your successes, especially the off-range oryx. That "scope-eye" damage looks pretty serious, you should have that looked at ;-)
 
Should have posted pics of your scope kisses. I got one during my ML deer hunt to add insult to injury on a miss.

Wayne, looks like you closed the deal and that is all that matters.

Off range oryx definetly stimulates the NM economy. The wallet dont stay in the pocket long.
 
Shoot, Paul, except for the broken scope, based on what I've read here, I feel like I got off easy on the wallet. Made three round trips from my home which was less than 750 miles, and spent only one night in a hotel. If the Leupold warranty turns out to be as good as everyone tells me it is, then that's not going to hurt as much as I initially thought it might either.

Now that the soreness from the pack out has worn off, I hope NMDGF gives me another off-range tag--I'm ready to go again! I feel like I've got it figured out to the extent that maybe I can be a little more selective next time.
 

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