Some of the last Addax and Oryx w/ Levergun and Enfield

[86er]

My buddy Jas is a bird hunting outfitter but has recently become a rifleman and big game enthusiast. He has only taken 3 whitetail deer to date but he wanted to try exotic hunting and particularly the Addax and Scimitar Horned Oryx (SHO) before they can no longer be shot when the sun sets on April 3rd, 2012. We set out walking on the ranch looking for non-trophy animals. Several hours and many stalks into it we finally creeped up behind a SHO that was grazing away from us. With the fading light and significant amount of effort already expended, I gave him the go-ahead to take a Texas Heart Shot. The rangefinder read 100 yds and the rifle is dead on and accurate at that range. The first shot hit the spine and dropped the animal. A very quick follow up through the ribs anchored it. Another follow-up shot went through the shoulders.


The next day we grabbed the 303 Enfield loaded with 174 gr Hornady RN @ 2600 fps. We spent most of the day working on Addax. At 168 yard and Addax stepped out and turned away. Still in the spirit from the first animal, he took another T.H.S. and dropped it. A second fast follow up through the chest ended the hunt. He's hooked on handy carbines now and has plans to purchase a levergun and an Enfield!

[rjohns94]

Congrats and well done

[Mescalero]

When I left N.M. to come to Phoenix, I left early in the morning and just before I got to White Sands, I saw a whole herd of Oyrx.
No camera!

[crs]

good show Jas (U 2 Joe).

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I'm sure I missed something but, why can't they be shot after 4/3/2012? Some new law I assume?

[Nath]

Nath.

[Rusty]

Looks like great shot placement to me.

[rimrock]

I'm sure I missed something but, why can't they be shot after 4/3/2012? Some new law I assume?

seems after that date, a mountain of F E D E R A L paperwork will be involved with a hunt. See for example, http://news.yahoo.com/texas-hunting-ran ... 29368.html

making guns too costly to own for their intended purpose is just another way of disregarding the 2nd amendment.

rimrock

[Mike D.]

Animal rights weirdos rule, eh? Sounds more like California that Texas.

[Mescalero]

The 2012 hunt for exotics in N.M. is to the best of my knowledge is proceeding as normal.
The fish & game pubished the 2012 hunting regs with no real changes.

[Mescalero]

I was trying to watch the road, there were at least 20 animals in that herd; probably more.

[JerryB]

Joe had a post on here a while back about this. It seems some world animal rights group has put a stop to hunting certain ones of the exotic class of animals. It is not state laws.

[Mescalero]

Jerry,
That does not explain why the N.M. exotics hunt is still on.
The N.M. exotics hunt takes place mainly on military reservation.
They may be exempt?

[piller]

Those crazy horns on the Addax would be a real trophy. Now, can we make wearing knee length socks with short corduroy pants and a hand knitted stocking cap illegal as it frightens children? (This seems to be a favorite uniform of the animal rights activists in this area)

[WCF3030]

Sounds like a good time.

[horsesoldier03]

You gotta love that Texas Heart Shot!

[86er]

New Mexico has Gemsbok Oryx. They are not CITES. All Scimitar Horned Oryx are on the CITES Appendix, and international law by treaty prevails, enforced by Federal law under the Lacey Act. Without a CITES permit you cannot take, sell, move, harass, neglect, trade or transfer a SHO anywhere. You can only get a permit if you have a sustantial, sustainable herd and then a take permit requires an excess animal to be used for research or education purposes. A permit requires 20% of any trophy fee to be collected by Conservation Force, a govt approved private company. After an administrative fee is taken the remainder of funds goes to the animals Country of origin. The biggest problem is that there is nobody controlling what happens to the funds when they land back at the country of origin. The SHO, Addax and Dama Gazelle were always on CITES, however the USFWS granted an exemption for captive raised animals. This lawsuit from PETA and HSUS caused a Judge to say the USFWS does not have the authority to grant an exemption, and has to have regulatory measures in place. The PETA spokesperson said she would rather see no scimitar, addax or oryx in the US at all than see animals that could be hunted. She is close to getting her wish. The devaluezation has caused landowners to sell all their animals and collectors to shoot one before it cannot be done. There are very few in the market left as the closing date gets near and the price has skyrocketted. There are two Texas ranches that intend to apply for permits and potentially have limited hunts in the future. Where SHO and Addax were around $2000 they are going to be $6500 and where Dama Gazelle was $4500 they will be $10000. The breeding populations are going to end up down approximately 92% from what they once were in the US. This is not about animal conservation - it is purely anti-hunting!. Guess what folks - if anyone knows what a Blackbuck or Axis deer is, well they are on CITES and USFWS has had them under a blanket excemption. File the same lawsuit, change the name of the animals and the foundation behind the suit is the same, assuming a Judge uses the same logic (or not) there will be the same outcome.

[bdhold]

Joe had a post on here a while back about this. It seems some world animal rights group has put a stop to hunting certain ones of the exotic class of animals. It is not state laws.

It's a federal court case with a short-term injunction to halt the hunting before the case is decided.

and here's what we're up against:

Meanwhile, Feral told “60 minutes” that she would rather see the animals extinct than hunted — at least in Texas.

If the animals existed only to be hunted, Logan asked her, would she rather they not exist at all?

“Not in Texas, no,” Feral replied, later adding, “The future for oryxes is Africa. It’s not Texas.”

Logan pressed her on the point. “Can the future not be both? Don’t they have a greater chance of survival the more of them there are?”
“In their native lands,” Feral replied.

“I don’t think you can say regardless of where they are,” the animal rights activist said. ” A Texas hunting ranch is not the same as being in a reserve in Senegal.”

LaSorte said this sentiment is fairly typical among hard-line animal rights activists, but it’s usually hidden instead of being articulated so plainly.

“You don’t often actually hear them say ‘we’d rather have all of them dead than have a few of them hunted’,” he said.

[Mescalero]

I admit that I cannot tell or know the difference between them, but it seems from Joe's explanation that they are a different species.
This is perhaps a good thing.
But even at that, a hunt for one of these animals in N.M. is a once in a lifetime thing.
Once you have taken one, thats it, no more.
There is a provision for a broken horned Oryx, but I am not sure of the circumstances.