New Mexico Mulies

[nikman]

#6086

I’ve got my hunt coming up soon (jan. 1st) and am asking for some advice from some more expirenced Trad hunter’s out there. I’ll be hunting in the rolling hills with lots of juniper and mesquite. What’s the best time of day to look for them? They should be rutting. My buddy that’s going with me is a rifle hunter and is not used to getting that close to them. Any advice is appreciated.

[T Downing]

#49527

Congrats on the NM mule deer tag. I am from NM originally and I have hunted the southern units of the state in the past during Jan. Personally, I would be out at first light glassing and I would remain in the field all day. Rutting mulies are out and about all day long. I would find a good glassing area and use my binos/spotting scope to locate the deer. Rutting mulies are simply a little insane right now, if you locate does, there will be a buck near by. Still hunting work excellent right now as well. You can get incredibly close to these wonderful animals by staying patient and being as quiet as you can be. In my experience, you have to pay more attention to the does, the bucks are so much easier to get close to. Good hunting to you and hopefully, shoot straight! T

[aeronut]

#49810

Good luck on your hunt. I was fortunate to hunt there with my cousin years ago north of Silver City. Beautiful country.

The bad part was we hunted the Gila National Forest and just a three day season. There were dozens of hunters out and it looked like an army of red ants swarming the canyon walls.:shock:

Dennis

[nikman]

#58417

Thanks for your advice. I leave tomorrow morning. I’ll keep you posted about how the hunt goes.

Hopefully I’ll get my first big game animal with a bow. If not it’ll still be fun.

Happy New Year.

Nik

[nikman]

#14497

Well everyone, I was able to get into 3 bucks all of them forkies. The 1st one I put a stalk on and got to within 40 yards, but I had lost him for a while. When I did see him, he was about 40 yards up the hill. Too bad I was looking for him across the hill and he spotted me first.

Right after that I spotted 2 more with a group of does about a half a mile away. I rushed to get in front of them. I kept an eye on them as they crested a hill. We hurried to locate them as it was getting close to noon and I knew that they would be bedding down soon. We came over the crest and they were gone!!! We glassed and glassed, but there was nothing!! So we started wandering around in hopes to spot them again. But it seemed like they just vanished. My buddy decided to try to call in some coyotes since we saw tracks everywhere. I was taking a leak as he started his call. Then he yelled “grab your bow! they are right there.” I stopped the stream and grabbed my bow and bolted trying to head them off. I got into position to see them head right up a huge cliff face. I’ve never seen deer head up anything so nasty looking!!!

The next morning we headed back to the same area in hopes to see the deer in the same area. We spotted 2 does that were very skittish. Then we started seeing all the other hunters EVERYWHERE. We must have seen about 20 hunters throughout the day. Half of them cruising around on 4-wheelers. It looked like everyone decided to roll in on Saturday. Long story short, or last least a little shorter. The deer seemed to have vanished from the area we were hunting.

I headed back the following weekend and so did everyone else. All the signs I found looked like the were a week old. The trip wasn’t a waste though. We had a great time and I was able to get 3 rabbits. Not to bad for using my wife’s grandfather’s bow from the last 60’s. Nothing like that old Ben Pearson 2 piece recurve.

Hopefully next year,

Nik

[Stephen Graf]

#15257

Nik,

Still lots to learn… If it was me, I’d try to figure where the deer went. And find a way in that would get me deeper and away from everyone else. Do it now, while the sign is fresh and you will be ready for next year….maybe.

Definitely get away from the 4 wheeler trails.

I sure would like to see a few pictures of your ben pearson takedown recurve…

Thanks for sharing and congrats on the rabbits !!

[nikman]

#18183

Thanks for the advise and support.

I did follow the tracks and found that they all lead to some private property. Go figure. Knowing that, maybe next year I’ll stay of their path and try to ambush them. We’ll see.

I’ll have to take a photo of my bow this weekend. If anyone could narrow it down to the year it would be great. I know that Ben Pearson started manufacturing them in 1968 and my Father-in-law said that he remembers using it before he graduated in 1972.

I’ll post it here this weekend,

Nik

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