Gilla NM rain?

jvanderlinde

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Joined
Jun 13, 2012
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Location
Mayer, MN
Accordingly to weather bug on the phone it looks like there starting to get some rain down there. Any first hand local reports ?
 
If you look on facebook at the N bar Ranch, it says they have been getting some rain and its greened up quite a bit.
 
That area has been receiving a decent amount of rain. I hunt on the east end of the Gila and that area is really green at the moment.
 
I was in Unit 15 this last weekend. They have gotten a fair amount of rain. I live in Deming and the monsoon so far for us has been rather spotty. We have gotten good rain on some places and almost nothing in others. From what I saw on my drive up to 15 for a quick scouting trip the west side of the Gila seems to be rather dry and the east side seems to have gotten more. The Mimbres River is flowing just north of Deming and the Gila River seems to have a good bit of water. We are just getting into the real part of our monsoon so we could still get plenty. If you have any other questions feel free to PM me or post on this thread. I will be happy to help where I can. That is of course unless you are hunting 15 first archery hunt then you are on your own.
 
I was just kidding I will be happy to help out even if you are hunting the same hunt as me.
 
Good luck this year JDSanders. I have multiple friends that will be hunting unit 15 as well. I'll be southeast of you guys in unit 17.
 
Thanks for the report Sakibomb...my son has the youth muzzleloader tag in unit 17. We are from Montana, so we've been watching the weather quite closely. Glad to hear that its greening up! Have you hunted 17 before? This is our first trip to New Mexico...can't wait to get down there and see that country.
 
It's certainly greened up west of Magdalena. I enjoy seeing it when I drive out for work at the VLA once a week. I wouldn't call it a wet summer, though, but at least it has been wet a bit. It's at the point now that you either hope for a bunch of rain or to hold out and stay dry just so you can hunt some watering holes.
 
Pintlar

Yeah, I'm from Southern NM so my family has been hunting unit 17 for close to 20 years now. It's beautiful country with a good mix of ecosystems. It'll go from desert to grassland to pinon juniper and ponderosa pine dominated areas. Over the years we've found elk just about everywhere in the Cibola National Forest.
 
Sounds sweet! It will be a LOT different hunting for us, as the elk country that we hunt has abundant water...live streams and seeps are very common here. It's good to know that the elk are scattered throughout the unit...a little something for everyone. Hopefully it will keep the hunters scattered also. Have you hunted during the youth season? The folks that I visited with that have hunted it in the past have either had archery tags or regular muzzy tags, no youth tags. Am mainly wondering what to expect for rutting intensity on the youth hunt.
 
Pintlar what youth hunt do you have? October or the youth encouragement the end of November or December.
 
I have only hunted this unit with an archery tag. In the past few years the rut has been hitting pretty hard in late September. You guys should knock it out of the park during the youth hunt. This unit will have a couple springs but a lot of the elk will hit the water tanks if there hasn't been a lot of rain.
 
Thats good to hear...would be nice to experience a vocal rut, for sure. We are looking forward to this hunt/family vacation, the country sounds awesome.
 
I’ve been keeping an eye on rainfall in the Gila ever since I drew an Oct. Muzzy tag in 15.
I bookmarked Quemado on one of the weather sights.

I think we are in for a pretty good year, not great, but pretty good.
The range was in great shape after last years record rainfalls.
Ever sine the drawing there has been a minor rain event almost every week in the general Quemado area. It’s been very regular. The last few weeks have had some percentage of rain four or five days a week.
When a weather service says “20% chance of rain“, that does not mean there is a 20% chance it WILL rain, it means 20% of the general area will get some rain. The chances it will rain in one specific spot might be only 20%, but 20% of the general area will get rain. With weekly rain fall somewhere in the area, any elk willing to walk a few miles should find plenty of green stuff to eat, and elk are more than willing to walk a few miles to eat.
 
Thanks for the report Sakibomb...my son has the youth muzzleloader tag in unit 17. We are from Montana, so we've been watching the weather quite closely. Glad to hear that its greening up! Have you hunted 17 before? This is our first trip to New Mexico...can't wait to get down there and see that country.

It has been a number of years, but I used to hunt mz there every year when I lived in NM. It was 100% draw back then. I think there are more elk, overall, now than there was then.

We used to hunt the north end of the unit. We always camped near the main road in Sergeant Canyon and hunted out from there. The elk would move out on the grasslands at night and back in the junipers during the day. The highest part of unit was nearly devoid of game from what I was told. It is a green desert. There is nearly no water on the top of the mountains. Most of the elk will be from the grasslands up through the lower pines. Find the water holes and you will find where the elk are moving, unless there is enough rain to make the creeks flow.

Limestone Outfitters (as seen often on Knight and Hale TV) hunt the south end of the unit and do pretty well. They also (at least they used to) run cattle there and so know every spot in the area.

We always worked hard enough to find elk, but only took a few out of there over the years that we hunted there. There are some very large bulls, if you get lucky enough to find them. Be willing to work hard and you should be OK.
 
Thanks for the replies! Thats some good news on the weather end of things A-con, its good to know that we didnt.hit the driest year on record...lol. And you're advice on hunting the low to mid levels is much appreciated sbhooper; sounds as if we had better locate a water source or two. It's going to be different then what we're used to, but that will make the trip that much more memorable.
 

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