Randy's New Mexico Archery elk hunt?

I was wondering what Unit Randy's new mexico archery elk hunt was. I am talking about the grassland unit with no trees basically. The show just aired. I was also wondering how many years it takes to draw an archery tag for that unit. any and all information is appreciated. Thanks.

I was kind of wondering the same thing about the unit.

No preference points in NM. You might draw it every year, you might not ever draw it.

I suspect you'll have a tough time getting information about a specific unit, but you never know I guess.... You can check out Randy's live 'blog' for coverage of his hunts in the "Live Hunts" section of this forum. Stick around a bit, introduce yourself, fill out the profile, and you may be surprised at how much information folks will share.

As the other post mentioned, anybody has a chance of drawing in NM. I have applied twice there with no luck. The best hunts/units will range anywhere from 2% to 20+% draw odds for a nonresident, unguided. On average you're probably looking at drawing every 5-10 years. Or you could buy a landowner voucher for several thousand dollars and hunt every year. Or you could enter the guided draw for (usually) somewhat better odds. Good luck and here's to next years draw! :W:

While we're at it, thecrittergitter, where did you shoot your giant bull two years ago?

mdunc8 said:

While we're at it, thecrittergitter, where did you shoot your giant bull two years ago?

Click to expand...

Now that's just funny!

GPS coordinates would be nice as well.I don't wanna tire myself out walking the hills actually trying to hunt. I wanna be able walk straight to it.

Seriously, gotta love first time posters wanting hunting locations.

WyOpitz said:

GPS coordinates would be nice as well.I don't wanna tire myself out walking the hills actually trying to hunt. I wanna be able walk straight to it.

Seriously, gotta love first time posters wanting hunting locations.

Click to expand...

I want to know the ATV trails to get to it as well

bjanecke said:

I was wondering what Unit Randy's new mexico archery elk hunt was. I am talking about the grassland unit with no trees basically. The show just aired. I was also wondering how many years it takes to draw an archery tag for that unit. any and all information is appreciated. Thanks.

Click to expand...

If it was a unit in a state that takes years to draw I suspect someone may share. But since this is NM and there are no preference/bonus points info will be a little more scarce. That said, plenty of information out on the internet and this site about NM units.

What I am still amazed at is how many NM tags Randy has drawn over the past few years. I'm not so good at the math, but with a 6% NR allocation this is pretty amazing luck.

jryoung said:

What I am still amazed at is how many NM tags Randy has drawn over the past few years. I'm not so good at the math, but with a 6% NR allocation this is pretty amazing luck.

Click to expand...

Yup. He seems to draw tags more often than some residents. Of course, most of them put in for hunts like 34, and 36 first rifle and expect to draw a tag every year and then bitch when they don't.

quackaddict said:

Yup. He seems to draw tags more often than some residents. Of course, most of them put in for hunts like 34, and 36 first rifle and expect to draw a tag every year and then bitch when they don't.

Click to expand...

Go to this link and read post #1. In paragraph 5 of that post, it will tell you how this tag was acquired.

http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=243929&page=5


The episode you saw last night is similar. The Elk Foundation wanted me to do a public land hunt in an area where they had done a lot of conservation work. A tag was acquired the same way as in the link above, a unit wide landowner voucher that allowed me to hunt public lands the same as if I had drawn the tag. Link to that live hunt is below.

http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=256262


Originally, this hunt was going to air on Team Elk over on Outdoor Channel, but in the end, it just had too many sponsor conflicts, let alone network conflicts, so it was decided that this hunt would air on our show, on Sportsman Channel.

In the six years of producing the show, we used these two public land vouchers and we also had been provided a mule deer voucher in Colorado as explained in post #1 of the first link provided above, but we did not use that voucher for a hunt. Due to schedule conflicts, we ended up "eating" that one.

Also, in Season One, my wife had bought me a NM pronghorn landowner voucher for a gift eight months before this TV show idea was even conceived, knowing my pronghorn addiction. We did that hunt on the same lands and same season dates as the public hunters. We told the viewer it was a hunt that was on private lands, the same manner in which public hunters are assigned to private lands when they draw tags. In that episode, you see the public hunters assigned to the ranch chasing the antelope we were trying to kill. Here is a link to that one.

http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=242951


Back in the day before NM changed it's system, you could use an outfitter's number and still go on an self-guided hunt. You had to pay the outfitter for the use of his number and sign a form indemnifying him that he was providing no services, so if something went south, you were responsible. Fine with me. That allowed hunters to enter the guided pool with better drawing odds. I did that and went on self-guided hunts, as did a lot of other people, including some Hunt Talkers. I asked the outfitter whose number we used, if he wanted me to advertise his services here on Hunt Talk. He asked us not to, as other outfitters were upset at the outfitters who were offering "self-guided hunts, saying they were "taking hunters" away from fully guided hunts.

When NM changed their rules on non-resident tag drawings, that "self-guided" option went away. A lot of guys were using these outfitter numbers and signing "self-guided" indemnifications. Due to the change, those guys all went back into the self-guided draw, putting even more pressure on the "self-guided" NR odds.

Since that NM rule change happened three or four years ago, we have still been lucky drawing tags. I drew NM rifle antelope last year. We drew 16A rifle tags the year before. This year, my buddy drew a great NM antelope tag that I will be helping him with.

So yes, I have been very lucky in NM, but some of it was unit wide landowner vouchers that allowed us to hunt public lands with the rest of the public hunters. Not my preferred option, but I have done it when working with other shows, and as part of a project with a network (that thankfully did not come together). I will be hunting a unit-wide landowner voucher this fall for Team Elk, hoping to bring more of the self-guided public land hunting to that show. It will be on a very "average" unit, but will allow us to show that style of hunting on Team Elk.

Ah. I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all.

I'm still new to the West...I just moved out here in 2011. And while I think that tag allocation and unit management is screwed up in NM(especially for NR tags), it's funny to listen to people complain about not dawing tags. They are only putting in for the best hunts in the state, so the odds even for a resident are somewhere around 5-10% and they whine and complain about not being able to go hunting.

Of course, LO tags are getting ridiculous in this state too(elk and deer) so not a lot of folks(especially residents) buy LO tags from what I've seen.

LOL Nothing amazes me anymore on here.....

Thanks for the summary Randy, when I saw the show last night and you linked the 2yd bull and 1 antler with your nephew for this unit plus your hunts on season one of FTs the math got a little crazy. Makes much more sense now.

bjanecke said:

I was wondering what Unit Randy's new mexico archery elk hunt was. I am talking about the grassland unit with no trees basically. The show just aired. I was also wondering how many years it takes to draw an archery tag for that unit. any and all information is appreciated. Thanks.

Click to expand...

No points in NM so you might never draw it.I didn't draw it this year.