When is the BBQ?

MAHA

There are over the counter tags available for bear, mountain lion, and Barbary sheep. Everything else you have to either go thru the draw process or buy a landowner tag.

I went scouting again on Saturday... We saw over 60 Barbary sheep. 30 antelope, 15 oryx and 1 small mule deer buck.  I've got some more pictures that I'll upload soon.

Of the Barbary sheep, at least 1 ram was approaching 30".  Of the antelope, two of them were at or near B&C range.  The oryx were all average, with the bigger bulls probably under 34".  We did see one young oryx hanging out with a herd of about 15 antelope.  The herd actually accepted him so my guess is that he's been following the herd for some time now.

My taxidermist is from S. Africa, he said when they went out to the bush to kill something to eat they always targeted Oryx. With all they had to choose from this was their favorite animal to eat. I shot one here in New Mexico years ago and the meat is incredible, not gamey at all, if you get the chance to harvest one you will be pleased with the table fare I'm sure.
Pic taken last September in New Mexico:

Nice elk!

Ok, I did my second scouting trip a few weeks ago.













This next picture is fully zoomed in... but we estimated 40ish Barbary sheep and at least one ram in excess of 28" of horn length.

Ok, I had my antelope hunt today.  I missed one first thing in the morning... he was a medium sized goat and I tried to use the truck mirror as a rest.  I pulled the shot high and it sailed right over him.

Then we located a nice buck.  We put a stalk on him but he wasn't where we thought he was.  Then as we were driving out, he and his two does busted cover.  We chased him around the grazing unit for probably an hour until I tried a shot on him.  My buddy called out 299 yards.  I had my rifle dead on to 300.. but between the dehydration and everything else, when he said "299" for some reason I rounded down and used the 250 mark.  The bullet hit just under him dead center.  Had I used the 300 mark, he'd have been dead.  We reacquired him and his does an hour later and Justin stayed at the truck, calling me on the radio.  It took me over an hour to stalk the 1100 yards to him. He had bedded down.  As I got close, he jumped up and began chasing his does.  I flashed my antelope decoy and one of does he had been chasing ran in to 225 yards.  I had a narrow view of her, about 30 yards wide left to right, with everything else being blocked by yuccas and other brush.  I saw him run behind here, roughly 5 yards back and he stopped broadside.  I had my rifle on its long Harris bipod (36"?) and I fired from the sitting position when the crosshairs stopped on him.  Justin, from 1100 yards back, could see the hair fly before he heard the crack through his spotting glass.  I didn't see it because my vision was obscured by brush, but the goat ran 15 yards and flopped.  Impact was high shoulder.  300gr Nosler SSTs do the trick!  I actually heard the wet "THWAP!" just like on my previous goat hunt of the bullet hitting flesh.





He measured just shy of 15" at 14 7/8 for his longer and 1/8 shorter for his other if memory serves correct.  We rough scored him at 77 5/8.  80 is the minimum entry for B&C pronghorn antelope.  Still, he's a trophy goat!

Also, here is the writeup from last year's hunt.
www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_2/676402_Successful_muzzleloader_antelope_hunt.html

No, just one of the ranges has a military only draw which significantly increases my chances of drawing.

Congrats man.

MAHA