Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game NM WSMR Oryx hunt--The good, the bad and the ugly

This past weekend I went to southern NM with my friend and his 15 year old daughter that drew her once in lifetime oryx tag. �Long story short, on opening morning we drive for quite a ways to get away from the crowds and we get way back on this ridge that runs for 6 miles or so. �We were the first ones back there and we pull up and park, get our gear ready and start to walk up to a glassing knob when another truck pulls in right next to us and parks. �One kid jumps out and literally races to the top of the hill trying to beat us to the glassing spot while the guide says "looks like y'all have the same idea we did". �I was PISSED! �There is a ton of areas to glass, there is nobody else in the area and this guy wants to race somebody to get to a spot? It was ridiculous, there's over half a million acres to hunt. �Anyway, we all get there and start glassing and immediately find oryx. �There are 2 groups of oryx on the flat and the right way to hunt them is to let them filter towards the hill we were sitting on. �

The other guide walks down 50 yards to us and wants to know our plan, we told him that we wanted to wait and glass the oryx before we made a plan as the oryx weren't committed to anything yet. He said that's fine, we are bailing off the hill and that his spotter would be sitting on the next hill over from us. �He said he was going after the group that was 800 yards or so to the north of the other group.�

As I was sitting there fuming that this guy would even consider parking right next to us, much less bail off the hill and into the oryx we were hunting I am realizing that he looks pretty familiar. �I asked his name and he said "George, what's your names?". Yep! �George freaking Taulman was bending us over the proverbial barrel. �The guy we were with told him that the right thing for him to do would be to drive a mile or so in either direction and pick another glassing knob as we were already there and there was a ton of country for him to look over that didn't have anybody there. �He said it was a public hunt and he was bailing off right there in front of us. �He knew the hunter was a 15 year old girl but it didn't phase that a$$hole one bit, he piled off there right in front of us.

We decided to make the best of it and continued to sit there, we spent an hour getting there, might as well hunt it out and see what happens. �If the group of oryx on the left hadn't moved south a couple hundred yards George would have spooked them but he didn't so we continued to sit there.

Sure enough, the oryx started moving our way just like we hoped they would and started to come up a draw that would lead them right under us and allow for a 250 yard shot. �They are coming our way when they stop and look directly below us, we couldn't figure out what was up with that as we were not skyline and tucked into some cover. �No way they had seen us. �They stand there and stare when we look 200 yards below us and to our right and see Taulmans spotter running down the hill to try to spoon the oryx back to Taulman who was now down on the flat and glassing back our way. �I yelled at the kid to sit the F down and quit moving, which he did, but it was too late. �The oryx were bumped out from underneath us. �I was so mad I couldn't see straight! �I thought we would see him again and I knew it wouldn't be a good experience if I did but we never crossed paths again the rest of the hunt.

George Taulman and United States Outfitters are as bad as I've heard, I've seen it first hand. �He would knowingly screw up a kids hunt up out of nothing more that greed and selfishness. Half a million acres and a bunch of areas within a couple miles to be able to glass from and they do that. �Simply shameful. �

This story does have a very happy ending, to be continued.....

Man, I would have been waaaayyyy pissed and nowhere near as nice as you when they pulled-up.

Sounds like you ended up wacking one. Looking forward to the story and pics. I did that hunt a few years back and had a blast!!

Thinking I'm glad I wasn't with you guys, as I'm dang sure my "evil twin" would of come out...

Looking 4-ward to the rest of the story and hopefully pics of a young gal smiling over the recently deceased.

Dober

The only reason I didn't jump up his ass and tap-dance is because I was standing right next to my buddies 15 year old daughter. Had it been my tag George and I would have most likely been escorted off of the range, at least I would have walked off the range, George would have needed to be carried off. I was beyond livid

We are still driving back to CO and I'm on my iPhone or I would just post a pic now. To give you an idea, the very first oryx we saw was a 36"+ bull and she passed on him. That was on the way to the glassing knob. She let us know that the bull she passed was the cutoff point, she wanted something bigger than that or she was willing to go home without one

Well drive safe and we'll see the pics when you get home.

Sounds like it worked out well for the young lady. Good on you for helping her out!

Dober

With all the land area out there, hard to believe they would do that. The White Sands hunt reminds me of the history book desriptions of the Oklahoma land rush. Get out of orientation and drive as fast as you can to stay ahead of everyone else and get the "good spots." Which range were you on?

Rhodes Canyon. It was a zoo when they let us out of the parking lot

Good on you huntsonora! Looking forward to the pics and the rest of the story!

Azzholes in every coner of the country...can't wait to hear more and see pics!

I had similar situations with other hunters on the mustang range. I twice got set up for long range shots just to have trucks pull up, hunters jump out, just to fire offhand shots at animals 850 yards away. They had no chance of hitting those animals. I think it was done for for spite. I had an opportunity to do one of the hunters a good turn later in the hunt by finishing his wounded oryx. The only shot I had caused a lot of meat damage, but saved him probably several hours of tracking and packing. I did not consider the legality of it at the time, but feel that ethically it was the right call.

Sorry to hear about this. Its rediculous what a person is capeable of. I hope the the young one had a great hunt and didnt get a bad impression that all hunters are like that.

90% of the Outfitters out there are POS.
They've done more to ruin hunting than anything I know.

I hunted Tularosa Gate right after 9/11 (hunt was scheduled for Nov, postponed until March). It was also reduced to a one-day hunt.

There was so much tearing around in 4x4s right after orientation that I ended up just parking for a couple hours.

The range officers eventually announced that a big herd was spotted in such-and-such location. Everyone zoomed there, at which point I headed out in the opposite direction.

I'm not really bummed that it's a once-in-a-lifetime hunt --- I'd never voluntarily sign up for that experience again anyway.

So we left that area and worked our way back towards the middle of the area we were hunting. We found quite a few Oryx, we just couldn't turn anything up that was bigger than the first bull that was passed first thing that morning. A lot of 30-35" animals, beautiful but not what she was looking for on a once in a lifetime tag. We had seen probably 70 animals on Saturday.

We knew going in that Sunday was going to be tough, the forecast called for wind gusts up to 55 mph and they weren't wrong. The first few hours were ok but around 8 that morning it became ridiculous. Snow came down sideways and the dust was stirred up, it made glassing difficult! Even in adverse conditions my friends daughter didn't waver on what she wanted, a bull bigger than what she passed on Saturday morning or she was happy to head home empty handed. We finally found a group that held a big bull and a stalk was made, unfortunately there were other hunters that saw them on the other side of the mountain and when we crested the hill they were gearing up for a stalk so we let them go as they were closer at that point. We found a few more groups and there was a 38"+ cow that would have taken lead had she stood still but it didn't come together.

We were down to our last hour and a half and made a run to a spot that had some thick brush down in a draw, there had to be water in there. We located a group that had a large bull in it and it was on! They made a run while I went to high ground to glass. The oryx were feeding right towards them and the wind was perfect! When it all went down she couldn't see the oryx when she was on the shooting sticks so she finally said screw it and stood up and dropped that bull offhand in pretty stiff winds at 100 yards! This little red head is a natural born killer!

Her bull is just a shade over 38" and was the 2nd largest oryx taken on the entire hunt. There were 79 hunters on the range and 53 oryx were killed and she hunted as hard or harder than anybody else! She held out for what she wanted and it paid off!

Pics coming when I get home

Very good outcome! Congratulations to that young lady and her guides! Looking forward to the pics!

Those were the same conditions we had when I was with my dad, who was hunting that range!

I would have removed the valve stems from all four of the guys tires.

Please tell me it also involved George doing some type of unscheduled vehicle maintenance out there.

Yeah, no kidding, someone needs to string up that POS for once.

Congratulations.

Thanks for giving a kid the opportunity to watch an adult with ethics control a righteous anger. That hunt was probably better than learning from a book that we are participating in a sport, not a race, and life has a way of bringing lessons.

Yeah, it's great she got an Oryx...but it's better she had you for a mentor. She will remember the experience for the rest of her life. The mounted horns will remind her of who she is and who and what really matters. She will still have the memories after the cape gets ratty.

Thanks for taking a yung'un hunting. Sounds like she can shoot, too.