New Mexico 2B late rifle

Camdu7 · Apr 21, 2018

Well I was lucky enough to draw a NM 2b late rifle (nov3-7) tag. I have never hunted in NM and had a couple of questions for guys familar with the area.

I have read that there are a number of gated roads. Would it be worth while to bring my mountain bike to access the roads?

Given that it is a partial migration hunt, would a summer scouting trip be worth the flight and rental car to get it done? I plan on showing up a couple of days prior to the season to try to locate animals.

Any special advise or issues with the area?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

jrabq · Apr 21, 2018

I would vote yes on bringing a mountain bike.

I doubt a summer scouting trip would be worth it, unless you have another reason to be in the area. Gather as much info as you can ahead of time, and show up a few days early would probably work out.

If it does rain or snow during your hunt the roads will be terrible, bring chains. There will be a lot of traffic on the roads due to oil & gas workers, and other hunters. Keep in mind the area behind the closed gates will filter out the road-hunters, but there can still be lots of oil & gas traffic.

I had this tag with my 2 brothers about 20 years ago, we used a boat and accessed some of the "roadless" areas, but it didn't help us. It was a dry and warm year and we had a disappointing hunt. Typically saw 100 deer a day, maybe 5 bucks a day, almost all forkhorns. Opening AM I did talk to some guys on bikes who had a shot at a trophy buck, but missed. We hunted hard and I never saw anything worth shooting. But some big bucks get killed every year, so good luck.

npaden · Apr 21, 2018

I had the tag 2 years ago. I've never hunted off a mountain bike so not sure whether it would be worth it or not. I can tell you that I walked 2 miles down a gated road in the dark every morning and each night coming back out. Pretty easy walking so not sure if it would save enough time to bring the bike or not. There might be some longer roads that are out there though that I didn't check out.

I will 2nd that if you get rain or snow you should have chains. Pretty slick mud, I had a 4wd truck with good all terrain tires and still ended up chaining up even driving on one of the main roads. I doubt it would be much fun riding a mountain bike in that either.

I read it a dozen times when I was researching the tag and I would say that it is right on the money. You want nasty weather to push the deer into their migration pattern. I saw tons of deer and almost shot a 140" type buck the on the 3rd day or so. I covered lots of miles and saw lots of deer but just nothing big.

I got lucky and shot a nice clean 165" buck right before dark on day 4. Not a whopper by any means, but good enough for me and by far the best buck I saw the entire time I was there.

Untitled by naathan2, on Flickr

I think it is a good tag, just don't be holding out for a 180" deer unless you really like to eat tag soup.

Topgun 30-06 · Apr 21, 2018

I hate to say this but 2b is way overrated even if you hit it right and the weather starts bringing deer down from CO because the best deer don't come down until it really gets bad up there and most times that rifle season is too early to see much in the way of good bucks. My buddy drew that tag 2 years out of the last 7 or 8 and we hunted the east side of the unit in the NF the first time along the Jicarilla boundary and even with help from a friend who is a Carson NF Biologist there we didn't see a buck that would break 130". We had snow and up and down temperatures such that if we hadn't had a good PU with all 4 wheels chained we would have been walking everywhere. After that 5 day hunt even the main road was so bad that we got up several hours before daylight while the roads were frozen over and got back down 30+ miles to the highway since we were camped up within a mile or two of the CO border.

The second time we went we went way up north again, but stayed as far as we could get to the west where the roads were gated and we walked in west toward the lake well before daylight every morning. We did run into snow again on that trip, but not much, although we saw more deer on that side between the gates and the lake than we did on our first hunt. Unless something has changed in the last 3 years or so we had to walk from where the gates were locked and the only vehicles of any type allowed past them were the workers that had keys to get past the gates. That may have changed, but I doubt it and I would make sure you can take a mountain bike past them before you take one out there. That second hunt John shot the best buck we saw on either trip the 4th night and I doubt that it would even score 120"!

If you want to see a few pictures of what the country looks like, send me an email to: [email protected] and I'll send you several emails with a half dozen pictures. PS: Be prepared to see a lot of feral horses, as I think we saw more of them than we did deer. We did see one small band of cow elk the second trip that had a nice bull with them.

Camdu7 · Apr 21, 2018

Topgun I sent you an email.

Thanks for all the information guys! I'll make sure I bring my chains and winch. Since I'm going solo I will stay in my truck bed and topper. Then wherever I end up that day will be home for the night.

npaden I would be very happy with a buck like that.

Topgun 30-06 · Apr 21, 2018

Sent you three emails with a bunch of pictures. That buck npaden shot was by far better than anything we saw on our hunts.

teamhoyt · Apr 22, 2018

Send me a pm when you get a chance. I will give you some advice. This hunt could just as well be a million miles from the jic. It is not even one of those things where if you hunt hard you might have a chance at a big buck, imo your gonna need some serious luck.

dididraw · Apr 23, 2018

I had this tag about 10 years ago and hunted from a mountain bike. I saw lots of deer and quite a few bucks as I rode around, I would recommend it. Once behind the locked gates I only saw a couple of other hunters and the gas/oil workers. As others have stated, the roads get really messy when wet - don't try to ride your bike on wet roads as the mud will stick to the tires and make it 40 lbs heavier and unrideable.

I didn't see a lot of bucks but found a nice 170ish buck on the third day, it was a fun hunt.

Good luck on your hunt - you will have a good time there.

appaloosa · Apr 23, 2018

I will reiterate what everyone else has more or less stated:
You will see a lot of deer regardless of the weather. I hunted it during one of the warmest/driest falls and saw hundreds of deer daily.
Big deer are very far and few between. Of the handful of bucks I saw most were forkies or small basket 3 and 4 pts. However, I did end up killing the largest buck I saw on the hunt and he scored 194, so there are some good deer out there if you get lucky. Though I did talk to guys who say it can be consistently done if you hunt hard in the right spot and don't get frustrated. The biggest challenge I had was keeping myself composed on a hunt where I was seeing 2-300 does a day and 2-3 bucks. I promise you though, you will go through a period of disappointment when you see all of the other hunters, all the roads, and all the small deer killed.

appaloosa · Apr 23, 2018

https://i.imgur.com/UppLTH8.jpg

TexRed · Apr 25, 2018

My cousin and I have this tag for a late October hunt. Sounds like the earlier the season date the harder the hunt. I guess we need to hope for some early weather to get migration started?

TexRed · Apr 25, 2018

My cousin and I have this tag for a late October hunt. Sounds like the earlier the season date the harder the hunt. I guess we need to hope for some early weather to get migration started?

teamhoyt and npaden I tried sending y'all a pm but it says y'all have "exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space."... Just FYI

Camdu7 · Apr 25, 2018

Hey Texred,

I'll likely show up on oct 31st. If your still there it would be great to connect and chat. I'll bring beer.

TexRed · Apr 25, 2018

That sounds great. I finally got to start chasing my dreams of western game last year. One of my favorite parts is meeting new people with similar passions

teamhoyt · Apr 25, 2018

My inbox is cleared now

npaden · Apr 25, 2018

TexRed - The hunt for sure gets better the later in the season you can hunt. I'm almost 100% positive the buck I shot was in a migration pattern. I had hunted the same general area for 4 days straight and hadn't seen a glimpse of him and he was with another buck almost as good.

I've read that there are some good resident deer in the unit but that they are few and far between and you really need some insider knowledge to find them.

Even on the late hunt it seems the later in the week the better.

P.S. - I cleared my inbox

Nathan

Devil Diver Down · Apr 25, 2018

Camdu7 said:
Hey Texred,

I'll likely show up on oct 31st. If your still there it would be great to connect and chat. I'll bring beer.

Bring beer earlier. I have the early archery elk hunt 9/1 - 9/15 in Unit 2. All this talk about the gumbo roads is making me want to start drinking now. I might have some intel on deer to share once I'm done (and done with my CO archery elk hunt) and back to AZ.

Good luck on your hunt!

teamhoyt · Apr 26, 2018

Devil, just curious if you've elk hunted this area in the past? If needed I might have some old info for you in a pm

Devil Diver Down · Apr 26, 2018

I've never hunted New Mexico or set foot in the unit. Old info is better than no info, in my book. A PM would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If you need any insight to AZ units, I know some about a few units, lots about a couple and can make up things about the rest.

dan.kirkpatrick · Apr 26, 2018

I had this hunt a few years back but it was the muzzy season,,warm dry weather,didnt see much,didnt get a shot,,Id say a mountain bike could come in handy though,hope for weather and see if the big boys start coming in from colo,,hunt north end,hope you luck

New Mexico 2B late rifle

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