We had admired the herds of Scimitars for several years, and when we were advised they would be fair game for the first time my hunting partner and I were rarin' to go. We arrived the evening before the "opening" in time to make a couple of dry stands for coyotes and do a little scouting, hoping to locate at least one of the several herds of oryx on the 11,000+ acre ranch.
Our plan was to call early and late while light was poor, making sex determination difficult, then see if we could spot & stalk a cow in good light. The problem was compounded by the fact that I had a torn ligament in my calf, and required a cane just to hobble around. Furthermore, I went off without my standing shooting sticks and had to carry my shooting chair and short sticks since my leg wouldn’t permit a kneeling or sitting position on the ground.
A heavy fog rolled in next morning, limiting visibility to about 50 yards with a very light SE breeze. Made one dry stand in the SE corner of the ranch, a spot that had proven to be a good one in years past. Not so this morning, however.
We moved a couple of miles, set up back to back on an outer ranch fence and started calling. About 15 minutes into the stand, I spot a coyote charging toward the call on the opposite side of the fence. He tried unsuccessfully three or four times to cross through the hog wire fence, running right past the decoy & call before finally finding a spot to his liking about 20 yards short of the call.
I’m not sure if he got hung up in the fence or just paused to look up and down the two track but the right end was on my side of the fence and that's all that was required; he met his maker with his back end still on the next ranch. He kicked a couple of times and actually fell the rest of the way through the fence.
We moved a mile or so and set up with our backs to a cattle guard on a wide pipeline sendero bordered on both sides by short mesquite brush and thick broom weed. Several thick mesquite mots dot the area on both sides of the pipeline. The fog has thinned out a bit w/visibility between 75 and 100 yards. Started out w/lucky bird and about 12-15 minutes in, this healthy male trotted out of the broom weed and stopped 75 yards out when I barked.
While we were picking up the coyote and our gear, we noticed a large herd of oryx about a mile down the pipeline sendero and decided it was time to switch gears.
They appeared to be in a dry lake bed that crossed the pipeline. Since this is another favorite coyote stand location, we knew the area quite well and drove to a brush mott from which we thought we could approach unseen.
I parked the jeep and slipped up to the pipeline just as the last of the herd moved off into the mesquite mott to the right of the pipeline. I eased toward where they disappeared as quietly as I could but was hindered because of the bad leg. I had planned to set up beside a large cat claw bush, hoping some might wander back into view. As I stepped past a fairly thin mesquite bush, I spotted a large area of white through the trees and froze. Part of the herd had gathered in the edge of the laguna no more than 40 or 50 yards from me. Since they had not spotted me, I sat in the chair where I was and set up the sticks to wait them out.
Using binoculars, I could make out a head here, a hip there and some legs over there. Pretty soon, several of the animals bedded down, others seemed to still be moving around feeding. A herd of range cattle complicated the situation when they moved between the oryx and I and stopped, staring at me. The cattle on this ranch are wild and often spook at the sight of a human so I didn’t move at all and they finally wandered off; all the while giving me the evil eye. Fortunately, the oryx didn’t pick up on the cattle’s concern so I dodged another bullet.
We were prohibited from shooting a bull, and the plumbing on a bull (only sure means of determining sex) is located just behind their pot belly, and let me tell you, there is not much there to look at….about one inch and that’s it! Any high grass or other vegetation such as was present in the sendero pictured above further complicates the situation.
After what seemed like an hour, but was probably only twenty or thirty minutes, a lone oryx stepped back into view about 175 yards down the pipeline and proceeded to graze, but I was unable to determine sex of the animal due to high bushes obscuring the view. Fifteen minutes later, a second animal emerged 150 yards away.
I’m 99% sure this one is a cow, but a negative is always harder to prove than a positive, so I waited, hoping a bull would step out for comparison. Another 10-15 minutes pass and three more animals join the group and yes, one is a bull.
My cow was now surrounded by the three new arrivals, so now I had to wait for a clear shot. She finally cleared the other animals and gave me a good broadside shot. She stumbled, nearly falling at the shot, but quickly regained her footing and sprinted into the nearby brush. The rest of the herd stampeded at the shot as well. Confident that the shot was good, I forced myself to wait 15 minutes before checking out the results. As I walked toward where she stood, I looked out into the brush and saw a group of animals about 50 yards out. Decided to give it another ten minutes as I figured if she was still on her feet and the herd bolted, she would try to follow and could make recovery a lot more difficult. Ten long minutes later, as it turned out, she had fallen where this group of animals had stood and I was able to get the jeep in close enough to hook the winch on her and drag her out.
Thus ended our first scimitar hunt, the first of many more. My hunting partner and I have hunted and fished together for over 50 years and have been fortunate enough to have shared many days in the field hunting various game but stalking scimitar ranks right up there at the top of the list of favorites.
Regards,
hps
Our plan was to call early and late while light was poor, making sex determination difficult, then see if we could spot & stalk a cow in good light. The problem was compounded by the fact that I had a torn ligament in my calf, and required a cane just to hobble around. Furthermore, I went off without my standing shooting sticks and had to carry my shooting chair and short sticks since my leg wouldn’t permit a kneeling or sitting position on the ground.
A heavy fog rolled in next morning, limiting visibility to about 50 yards with a very light SE breeze. Made one dry stand in the SE corner of the ranch, a spot that had proven to be a good one in years past. Not so this morning, however.
We moved a couple of miles, set up back to back on an outer ranch fence and started calling. About 15 minutes into the stand, I spot a coyote charging toward the call on the opposite side of the fence. He tried unsuccessfully three or four times to cross through the hog wire fence, running right past the decoy & call before finally finding a spot to his liking about 20 yards short of the call.
I’m not sure if he got hung up in the fence or just paused to look up and down the two track but the right end was on my side of the fence and that's all that was required; he met his maker with his back end still on the next ranch. He kicked a couple of times and actually fell the rest of the way through the fence.
We moved a mile or so and set up with our backs to a cattle guard on a wide pipeline sendero bordered on both sides by short mesquite brush and thick broom weed. Several thick mesquite mots dot the area on both sides of the pipeline. The fog has thinned out a bit w/visibility between 75 and 100 yards. Started out w/lucky bird and about 12-15 minutes in, this healthy male trotted out of the broom weed and stopped 75 yards out when I barked.
While we were picking up the coyote and our gear, we noticed a large herd of oryx about a mile down the pipeline sendero and decided it was time to switch gears.
They appeared to be in a dry lake bed that crossed the pipeline. Since this is another favorite coyote stand location, we knew the area quite well and drove to a brush mott from which we thought we could approach unseen.
I parked the jeep and slipped up to the pipeline just as the last of the herd moved off into the mesquite mott to the right of the pipeline. I eased toward where they disappeared as quietly as I could but was hindered because of the bad leg. I had planned to set up beside a large cat claw bush, hoping some might wander back into view. As I stepped past a fairly thin mesquite bush, I spotted a large area of white through the trees and froze. Part of the herd had gathered in the edge of the laguna no more than 40 or 50 yards from me. Since they had not spotted me, I sat in the chair where I was and set up the sticks to wait them out.
Using binoculars, I could make out a head here, a hip there and some legs over there. Pretty soon, several of the animals bedded down, others seemed to still be moving around feeding. A herd of range cattle complicated the situation when they moved between the oryx and I and stopped, staring at me. The cattle on this ranch are wild and often spook at the sight of a human so I didn’t move at all and they finally wandered off; all the while giving me the evil eye. Fortunately, the oryx didn’t pick up on the cattle’s concern so I dodged another bullet.
We were prohibited from shooting a bull, and the plumbing on a bull (only sure means of determining sex) is located just behind their pot belly, and let me tell you, there is not much there to look at….about one inch and that’s it! Any high grass or other vegetation such as was present in the sendero pictured above further complicates the situation.
After what seemed like an hour, but was probably only twenty or thirty minutes, a lone oryx stepped back into view about 175 yards down the pipeline and proceeded to graze, but I was unable to determine sex of the animal due to high bushes obscuring the view. Fifteen minutes later, a second animal emerged 150 yards away.
I’m 99% sure this one is a cow, but a negative is always harder to prove than a positive, so I waited, hoping a bull would step out for comparison. Another 10-15 minutes pass and three more animals join the group and yes, one is a bull.
My cow was now surrounded by the three new arrivals, so now I had to wait for a clear shot. She finally cleared the other animals and gave me a good broadside shot. She stumbled, nearly falling at the shot, but quickly regained her footing and sprinted into the nearby brush. The rest of the herd stampeded at the shot as well. Confident that the shot was good, I forced myself to wait 15 minutes before checking out the results. As I walked toward where she stood, I looked out into the brush and saw a group of animals about 50 yards out. Decided to give it another ten minutes as I figured if she was still on her feet and the herd bolted, she would try to follow and could make recovery a lot more difficult. Ten long minutes later, as it turned out, she had fallen where this group of animals had stood and I was able to get the jeep in close enough to hook the winch on her and drag her out.
Thus ended our first scimitar hunt, the first of many more. My hunting partner and I have hunted and fished together for over 50 years and have been fortunate enough to have shared many days in the field hunting various game but stalking scimitar ranks right up there at the top of the list of favorites.
Regards,
hps
