Just Joined, I got an Ibex Permit for the Florida Mountains, and I am super nervous

flintknapper

New member
Joined
Apr 20, 2018
Messages
16
Location
Bernalillo, NM
Hi Everyone,

I'm Matt Barbour, a hunter located in Bernalillo, New Mexico. Typically, my family and I hunt elk, deer, turkey, and a variety of small game. However, on Wednesday, I found out that I was drawn for a once-in-a-life-time hunt for ibex in the Florida mountains south of Deming. In the past, I have never been the most diehard hunter. If I get something great, but if I don't, I have never let it really bother me. Sometimes, the story of the one that got away is better than the trophy on the wall, but with this hunt there is no repeats. So, I am feeling the pressure.

Has anyone here hunted ibex in the Florida Mountains? Has Randy ever done an episode on hunting New Mexico's Persian ibex? I am need of tips. That is why I joined.

This year is going to be a great year for hunting for our family. My wife and my father-in-law both got drawn for cow elk in the Valles Caldera, my oldest boy is going after his first javelina, and in addition to the ibex, I also got drawn for javelina. As part of the javelina hunts, we will also have our annual father-son rabbit hunt just north of Deming and we will do a squirrel hunt in the Jemez Mountains as part of the Caldera elk hunt. Currently, I have gone out for turkey twice this year and nada.

If anyone has any advice on Ibex, I would love to hear it. Better yet, if someone else was drawn, let me know and perhaps we can coordinate together. Thanks
 
I drew muzzy Ibex a few years ago. They’re the most sensitive animals I’ve hunted. Hunting the Florida’s isn’t hard, in that, you can glass from the desert floor and find Ibex. You can drive completely around the Floridas. The hard part is getting close once you find one you want. When I was there, you could find good numbers each day (100ish). I’d take as good of glass as you can afford. Include a spotter. Once you find one, climb which turns into rock climbing up until you get within range. They have excellent eyesight and smell. They will walk straight up vertical walls. Be careful where you shoot one as they’ll fall off cliffs into canyons that require rock climbers to salvage. YouTube is full of NM Ibex hunts. Good luck!

CCDB31AB-AE6B-4C85-846C-C8369CD7BBB2.jpg
 
Welcome and good luck.

I have watched all the videos of you tube. Prepare for 300 yards to 500 yards. That looks the norm. I have applied many time but quit a few years age. I do not want to climb that rock.

I think this a phenomenal hunt. Best wishes to anyone beating the odds and drawing this hunt.
 
Consider yourself enormously fortunate, ibex are one of the most spectacular trophies and terribly hard to draw. Good luck!
 
You get some sense of what's in store from brymore's pic. You can drive around the Floridas, but you see how much elevation you gain in hardly any distance. In places you go from the plains at 4800 to the peak at 6400 in as little as 1/2 mile.
 
It is rifle and scheduled for Nov 15 through 29. This seems late to me, but it is the first hunt of the season for ibex. I was planning to use 300 win mag to hunt. That seems like a lot of bang for a goat, but I figure it will give me the distance I need. I may go down a bit early, but I am not sure. My family's elk hunts in the caldera are both Nov 2 through 7 and while I would love to go straight from Jemez to Florida Mountains, I do have to work for a living.
 
Is it the early or late hunt? Archery? I know a guy that hunted it last year

It is rifle and scheduled for Nov 15 through 29. This seems late to me, but it is the first hunt of the season for ibex. I was planning to use 300 win mag to hunt. That seems like a lot of bang for a goat, but I figure it will give me the distance I need. I may go down a bit early, but I am not sure. My family's elk hunts in the caldera are both Nov 2 through 7 and while I would love to go straight from Jemez to Florida Mountains, I do have to work for a living.
 
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