My Ibex Hunt

nmtaxi

nmtaxi

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LAST EDITED ON Jan-19-07 AT 09:51AM (MST)[p]Well... I didn't get an ibex on my archery hunt last week, but had a great time trying. These ibex are awesome animals, and even getting within rifle range can be a challenge. The mountain range, while it is not very big, is extremely rugged. Every muscle in my body was sore for days afterwards, along with all the bumps and bruises and cactus pokes. I spent 5 days on the mountain, solo, and saw lots of ibex. I never got close enough to release an arrow, but I did take a lot of video and pictures.

Here's some pics of the Floridas, where the main ibex herd is.
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Here's a few video clips of some of the ibex I saw. There were some huge billies in this group, just way to many eyes to make a stalk.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v375/nmtaxi/?action=view&current=ibex2.flv
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v375/nmtaxi/?action=view&current=ibex3.flv
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v375/nmtaxi/?action=view&current=ibex4.flv
 
I'm dying here.... your picts got me all excited about seeing the video clips and then the links didn't work. Photobucket says the file no longer exists.... I sure would like to see it. WOW! archery hunting ibex. That has got to be the toughest hunt around! Any more details about your hunt?
 
Thanks.... WOW! I couldn't imagine trying to close the gap for an archery shot. I bet it was fun trying though. It looks like you saw some big ones. Are they tough to find/glass? How many would you say you saw on your hunt? Thanks for the post.
 
Actually, those mature billies stand out pretty good. But a lot of people stay at the base of the mountain and glass the cliffs looking for ibex. That takes some pretty big glass. I hunted the top of the mountain, and mostly hunted that big herd in the video. I did a lot of sitting still waiting for ibex to come into the canyons and ridges I was watching. But they are tough animals to sneak up on. They have great eye site, and as soon as they make you out, even from 500 yards away, they leave the area. The only real hope with a bow, I felt, was staying on top and having some come in close enough for a shot.There were well over a hundred ibex in that herd with some monster billies. All the other ibex I saw were in small groups of 2 to 4 animals. It's really an experience of a lifetime, and I would recommend it to anybody. Can't wait to go back.
 
I want one! Especially like that big tall bugger in the first video that is about the sixth billy to cross through. Country looks so much like desert sheep country.

Thanks for the pix and vids. Too bad you didn't get to arrow one. Are they a draw only and who can hunt them?
 
Too cool dude. I gotta admire a guy that will even try that with a bow! Looks like an awesome hunt. I think I am going to try and put in for that one.
 
My friend just emailed me the story and pics from his hunt, he came close to scoring! Bow too.

FYI nmtaxi is understating how hard it is to bowhunt these animals. If memory serves me no bowhunter has taken one in many years, maybe 1 bowhunter in 10 years? Considering some years they offer 100 bow tags this speaks for itself.

Truely an awesome animal in some awesome habitat.

Good pics!
 
LAST EDITED ON Jan-27-07 AT 04:27PM (MST)[p]Taxi- Those pics are great. Trying to find pics of that mountain has been the hardest thing while I wait for my muzz hunt to get here. Welp I have exactly 19 days till I leave.
Dan-I will get in touch when I get back hopefully with a head for you...
 
Great video . I already put in and this year put the bow hunt as my third choice , so if I draw it , Taxi I'm visiting lol...How long did it take you to get up inthe saddles where you were finding the goats and how close did you get?
 
I never got more than a couple of hundred yards away. I always saw goats on the opposite side of a canyon. And these animals give you no chance what so ever once you are spotted. Even at 400 yards, if they see you, they are gone.
The first time I spotted the herd, was mid-day. It took me about 5 hours to get to that spot, but I was stopping and glassing the whole way. The next day, the herd had moved to a spot where you could see them from the bottom, and would take less than an hour to get to. They cover ground fast.
Where I took a lot of that video from, I was only .6 miles from camp, but had gained 1600 ft. in elevation. It is very, very steep.
 
great post Taxi.. They don't call it the hardest bowhunt in America for no reason!! At least you saw plenty of goats and from the looks of it, some bruiser billies to boot.

I've already got my app in for them this year.. We'll see if the state of NM wants my 1600 dollars or not!!
Better make that 3200 dollars.. I'm drawing my oryx tag this season as well!!
 
I am really enjoying your postings. I have had my once in a lifetime chance at these animals. I was fortunate to draw on my first try for the rifle hunt. I could only imagine what nmtaxi was going through with a bow up in the rugged terrain of the Florida mountains. The closeset I could get to these animals was 469 yards and that was the closest bolder that my rangefinder would pickup so my billie could have been further than that. nmtaxi I love that picture of the Florida mountains with the snow on them. Did you go up on the hill while the snow was up there?
 
Congrats on your goat. Hopefully we can talk you into posting a pic of it.
I sure hope I can draw another tag with a little longer range weapon. If not, I'm glad I had the opportunity to do what I did. Not many people ever get the chance.
The morning it snowed, I looked out my tent and could not even see the mountain. It was coming down pretty hard, and I decided my body could use the rest. I was up on the mountiain by 10:30 or so, and the snow was just about gone by then.
I made a DVD of my hunt, and have watched it over and over again. I thought maybe this hunt would get the ibex bug out of my system, but it only made it worse.
 
When I get a chance I will post a picture of my goat for you. From looking at the picture with the snow, that looks like the area where I got my ibex. It was my last day of hunting and I found some nannys on a really steep point and I was going to try and make my way to them to get a shot at anything and that is when I found my billie. He was with another billie and two nannys. I took the shot across a canyon into a huge crack in a large bolder. The shot was a 469+ yard shot and my billie ended up as #4 overall and #3 with a rifle SCI. I was lucky to get into the area and get him out.
 
4SCIIBEX05, YOU GOT MY MOTOR RUNNING , GOTTA SHARE THAT PIC.I have been applying for years now , my buddy down in Deming has applied for some 18 years now. I put the bow hunt as my thrid choice soI could atleast , just maybe if drawn , get down and catch some of theat bug Taxi TALKS ABOUT....
 
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Here it is. These animals are very addicting and I am happy to see that the new proclimation has a F/IM hunt that I can apply for. Also I am going to start guiding for my brother-in-law and I am hoping to get some clients that might be fortunate to draw this hunt and will sign me up to guide for them. I would really like to go back and see these animals again.
 
4SCIIBEX05, Great Billy! Good job!
I also hope to draw one of these years.

Hiker

Proverbs 3:5-6
 
WOW!! That is a monster goat.. If and when I draw that tag (hopefully this year!) I can only hope to pull a billy out of the mountains as big as that one!!
 
Thank you. Just wanted to let you guys know that there are still some monster bullies out there. We saw them everyday. One of the outfitters here in NM had a guy kill a goat in Jan 06 with a bow. That goat is number 2 SCI with the bow. I would have to say that taking one of these animials with the bow is probably more luck than anything.
 
Those are some great photos and a nice goat! Unfortunately I have a feeling the draw odds are going to go through the roof for this hunt with all the publicity it is getting.
 
Sounds like a great trip. I have been thinking of those things a while too. Thats a toad in the photo- way to go.

Maybe I'll save up and go hunt em in Mongolia.......whatever........

Mark
 
It all started when my dad and uncle went javelina hunting in the area and saw these nice animals. When they got back they asked me to apply for this hunt. We all applied and I was the lucky one to draw the hunt. In Oct. a good friend of mine took me down to the Floridas to show the areas that he knew and hunted back when you had to kill some nannies in order to get a trophy hunt. After seeing my first ibex I was hooked. Dec. couldn't come early enough. When it finally got here we went down the day before the hunt. My dad, father-in-law, and my good buddy went down with me. We hunted opening morning and did not find the goats. In the afternoon some guys informed us that they had killed a goat and it was being filimed by Limbsavers. That afternoon we found about five big billies but they were at about 900 yrds. The next morning I was able to take a 550+ yrd shoot at a huge billie and I was unable to get to the area where I took the shot. It took us two hours to get to a level area with the goat and it took us thee hours to get off the hill and another two hours to get back to the truck. I did not get another shot at these animials but I saw them for the next three days. I had to come back home because I was working on my Masters and I had finals on the second week of the hunt. After my last final my dad and a cousin of mine drove back to the Floridas. We got there in the afternoon and found about 15 ibex on a hill side. I took about five shots at them at around 500 yrds but they all got away. The next morning we searched the area for blood and did not find any. That afternoon we found some billies on top of a huge cliff around 1200 yrds away and just watched them walk off. I think by this time I was very tired and home sick. I wanted to be home with my family and I even got cranky at the tv at the hotel room that night because I told a guy off on the tv when he said he was mule deer hunting with a muzzleloader and he said it was the hardest hunting he had ever done. I told the tv you should try hunting ibex in the Florida mountains with a rifle. Well on Sat. morning of the last weekend of my hunt we were driving towards the mountain and we found a group of mule deer with a couple of bucks in it. I told my dad and my cousin I think this is a good sign. We drove to a nice spot where I found a nanny on a tall point. Then I found another one and I told the guys I am going to try and make my way to them and get a shot even if it is a nanny. My cousin and I made way to a vantage point and were able to get about 450+ yards from them. I was looking at a small billy that I was getting ready to squeeze the trigger and my cousin tells me you arent going to believe this but look to the right. There he was a pretty nice billy. I took my time and waited for the right moment and let a bullet fly. I amid about 11 inces above his shoulder and when the bullet hit he buckled from the back. He then ran a little ways and as he was trying to climb up the rock I saw him fall backwards and then we did not see any movement in the area. I called my dad on the radio and let him know about my goat. It took us about 3 hrs to get to him.
 
ABSOLUETLY FREAKIN AWESOME! I loved the story , and you actually made me laugh out loud....Thanks for sharing some of your experiance , I hope to someday get to do it myself , but really starting to think that maybe I shouldn't have put in for the bow hunt.Its ok , I'll just pack my mummy bag and double bull blind and sleep where I can find em , yeah , that sounds like a start to a plan.....LOL,,Again , thanks for sharing and big time congrats on a true trophy of a lifetime.....
 
Thank you NMHUNTNUTT1. I am glad you enjoyed my story and that is my story and I'm sticking too it. I hope that all of you that want to experiance this hunt get your opportunity because it is a very unique experiance. It is a very difficult but fun hunt. My father told me that he was happy to have had the opportunity to share this experiance with me and he said that so long has he can walk he is going to keep trying his luck with the draw system here in NM for his chance at one of these animals. I think he is pretty lucky because he drew the Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep hunt up in the Pecos the same year that I drew this hunt(05).
 
Goeas your family ever buy lotto tickets ? If not , you ALL may want to just drop a buck lol....Love to see and hear your dads ram hunt. I work here in Santa Fe and would go by Imperial Taxidermy around the hunts and have got to see some of the rams brought down from Pecos.....
 
you forgot to tell them when you took your celebration shot and couldnt make it down the mountain.lol Met you over at Archuletas place.
 
I apoligize for leaving out that I had a shot of rumple mintz when I got to my goat. I am afraid of heights and it kinda relaxed me and it really helped me off the hill. Thanks for the reminder crazeymaez.
 
Ibex will be drawn the same time as the rest of the big game draw. Only oryx and deperdation and some turkey hunts are drawn this week....
 

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