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2021 Big Game Draw Deadlines

68,628 Views | 709 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by ttha_aggie_09
cupofjoe04
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lazuras_dc said:

I'd be curious. What kind of attitude/antics would he be exhibiting. Really just wanting to make sure I work on any of my qualities that might put me in that camp. But really asking for a friend



Don't worry. You are more likely to be scratching me off of your list after a few days in camp together….
cupofjoe04
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I feel you on that. Makes it tough for sure. Wether you go alone or together, you can both learn from this and be better prepared next time. Keep at it, keep working, keep growing. You will very likely have an elk that makes you work your butt off, and you will savor it. And you will someday get one that falls in your lap, and you will cherish that all the more as well.
TX_COWDOC
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Player To Be Named Later said:

I'll reach out to you, may very well take you up on that.

We have a small piece of land in Timberon, so I've met quite a few people in the area. The guy who did some dirt work for us out there ranches on Federal leases in the area, so hopefully I'll get good intel on spots.
Boom! Elk on the ground! Can't wait to hear the story!
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BradMtn346
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My buddy's 15 year old daughter, in her last hour to hunt this season, laid a serious smack down on a very good eating calf elk. Managed to shoot it and not spook the herd. Normally I'd do better pictures, but she had to be at school 3 hours away by noon to practice and then play in her volleyball games this week.
lazuras_dc
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Does anybody know where or how I can find/calculate odds for New Mexico draw? I saw one on TopRut i think but you had to be a paying subscriber. Looking at Unit 45, w/ outfitter just want to compare 1st archery vs. muzz vs. 1st rifle

AgEng06
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Give me a little bit and I'll tell you what GoHunt says...
chocolatelabs
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AgEng06 said:

Give me a little bit and I'll tell you what GoHunt says...
i am looking at getting a subscription service for next years application process. Is go hunt worth it?
lazuras_dc
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I just found this wonder how it compares to what yall find. Seems high:



AgEng06
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See if this helps:

(sorry, that was hard to read)



AgLA06
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Not necessarily based on how New Mexico does their draw odds. I'm' going off of memory, but they skew the draw percentages on purpose to state residents.


Residents get the lion share at a minimum of 84% of the tags

Outfitters get a minimum of 10%

Non-Residents get a horrible 3%-6% of the tags unless they spend money for an outfitter.

So depending on how many residents like to hunt the area, Outfitters could have a really high draw percentage.

Edited, I looked it up.
lazuras_dc
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I assume you were able to select outfitted draw %'s on the photos you shared? Thanks!
AgEng06
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Yes, here are the filters (they were in the 1st pic I posted, but it was too hard to read):

Track&Recover
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Totally awesome! Congrats
stdeb11
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Got back late Tuesday from helping my dad and friends from TX with their 1st rifle cow hunt. All 3 tagged out on cows Sunday morning. Fun times packing it all out....things got a little western for their liking. They got their little trailer with all the gear stuck on the way in Friday, managed to get it out and had to shuttle it all by truck to camp.

Then got some good snow Monday night and their truck got stuck shuttling camp back to the trailer. I ended up having to chain up my truck to make it thru the muck and shuttle things back and forth for them. I had fun sliding around in the mess, they did not enjoy it nearly as much. Took us 7hrs to get camp broke down and out. Moral of the story, be prepared for crappy conditions to change suddenly. Doesn't take much snow in some places to make it unpassable.







ttha_aggie_09
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Awesome!

I don't hunt for another month and am starting to get nervous with all the snow…
stdeb11
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It's gonna be great. I've got a 3rd rifle mule deer tag and getting excited...chains make a huge difference, worth the investment. Tire pressure as well. Shovel and a jack go a long ways too...They struggled with highway tires on 4x4 F250.

Article I read today about early snow pack conditions
https://www.9news.com/amp/article/weather/early-snowpack-numbers-off-the-charts/73-6033ef63-bc22-4640-900a-eac87e93dda2
ttha_aggie_09
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I should be able to make it to the gate just fine and then let the locals worry about getting places. Im honestly more worried about freezing to death lol. 4th rifle elk is going to be chilly
txaggie02
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Heading to Utah tomorrow for mule deer. Looking forward to getting away for a few days.
stdeb11
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Oh yeah that will be...I realized after last year brutal cold 2nd rifle my gear wasn't up to the task. Got pac boots, new puffy pants, and chopper mits to hopefully make this year more enjoyable. With my luck it'll be sunny and hot this year now.
stdeb11
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Good luck!
aggie_2010
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Finished up CO 1st rifle season unsuccessful. Had a bull tag, but only saw 3 cow elk the whole time in my unit. There was little to no elk sign to be found. The hunters I talked to in our unit and the adjacent unit echoed what we were seeing or lack thereof. Still we had fun and can't wait to do it again next year. The snow made things difficult as some days it could be up to your knees in areas. Setting up camp was a challenge too since we had to clear snow as more snow fell so we could stake the tent. The little bit of snow that we couldn't clear made the ground muddy inside the wall tent and it would take days for the wood stove to dry things up.

The mule deer bucks have someway of knowing they're safe on private land. We saw 20+ bucks inside of 60 yards on several private pasture lands.






meggy09
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Anyone getting back from 1st rifle in or around CO 49? Heading up tomorrow for two days to finalize my plan/check conditions for my 2nd rifle cow tag.
BradMtn346
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I was in 49 earlier this month for my son's doe antelope hunt. I'm pretty sure the National Forest campgrounds are closed. The ranger said something about roads closing at the same time, so you might check in with the forest service.
BradMtn346
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meggy09 said:

Anyone getting back from 1st rifle in or around CO 49? Heading up tomorrow for two days to finalize my plan/check conditions for my 2nd rifle cow tag.


I used to hunt 49 a lot. We had a ranch there. I know a few places you should check out if you are hunting the east side.
BradMtn346
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aggie_2010 said:

Finished up CO 1st rifle season unsuccessful. Had a bull tag, but only saw 3 cow elk the whole time in my unit. There was little to no elk sign to be found. The hunters I talked to in our unit and the adjacent unit echoed what we were seeing or lack thereof. Still we had fun and can't wait to do it again next year. The snow made things difficult as some days it could be up to your knees in areas. Setting up camp was a challenge too since we had to clear snow as more snow fell so we could stake the tent. The little bit of snow that we couldn't clear made the ground muddy inside the wall tent and it would take days for the wood stove to dry things up.

The mule deer bucks have someway of knowing they're safe on private land. We saw 20+ bucks inside of 60 yards on several private pasture lands.









Where were you hunting 53 or 63? Either way, they both take a lot of work. One buddy killed a decent bull in 63 opening day. Killed it with his grandpas 30-30. With his grandson along to help. Not my pictures to share.
aggie_2010
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We were hunting 63. Glad he got one. We didn't hear many shots, so I'm guessing success rate was very low.
meggy09
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BradMtn346 said:

meggy09 said:

Anyone getting back from 1st rifle in or around CO 49? Heading up tomorrow for two days to finalize my plan/check conditions for my 2nd rifle cow tag.


I used to hunt 49 a lot. We had a ranch there. I know a few places you should check out if you are hunting the east side.


Awesome, I'll take whatever help your willing to give. Still pretty bad at this. I've got a couple backup spots to check out on the south west side of unit, but focusing pretty hard on the east side.
K_P
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Any reports out of 25/26? We are headed up for Mule Deer 2nd season. Any tips for what elevation bands to start looking? Neither of us have hunted the unit before. Appreciate any advice! Thanks!
BradMtn346
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Got it. You can delete info if desired.
Ag210
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Anybody have any 2nd season reports yet?
BradMtn346
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This buck was killed across the highway from our ranch.

220 SCI. I watched this buck grow all summer. He'd been on our place a couple of times. I'd hoped for a shot at him, but I'm hunting 3rd.

My Airbnb guests, one guy by himself and another group of 3 with 2 tags went 3/3 on public land.




My regular second season guys on the ranch got skunked on elk, but they filled their one deer tag with a pretty decent buck.

Log
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NM Public Land Muley down!

I haven't been very vocal on here in the last year or so, mainly because the insane divorce I went through. I've got my kids 50/50, and the ex, while a major thorn in my side, got reined in. Which allows me to resume normal life to the max extent possible. So I put in and drew a NM muley rifle tag, in an area I've hunted several times, since I figured it would be "easy". Low desert country, ~4500 feet.

Since I know the unit fairly well, I had a few spots picked out, but I was planning on hitting my honey hole. I have hunted here four times now, and have (spoiler) killed 3 deer, and should have killed 4. So I show up Friday, and the gate to my spot is locked with no trespassing signs. I'm not sure I believe it, but the road is apparently private (NM switches designations a lot, which is super frustrating). I call the BLM, sheriff, no one has an answer. Finally run into the new lessees, and they took it over this past year and the landowner that "owns" the road wants it locked because of problem people. The good thing is that the county road that runs past the now-locked gate runs through a bit of BLM land, so I have access, but I'd have to do a bit more hiking.

So I'm up and about at 5 a.m. Saturday morning and head out after I load the truck. Plan on being to my hike in spot at 6 a.m. Literally about a mile from my turnoff from the blacktop, I start getting low tire warnings, and it's dropping fast. County road on my left, and I pull off. My left rear, WHICH I LITERALLY REPLACED LAST WEEK, has a huge gash/defect, right in the middle of the tread, and is gushing air. FML. Yada yada, let's change a tire. Easy, right. Damn thing was welded to the hub because of the hub being steel and the wheel being aluminum. All in the span of a week. Fought with it for an hour, and finally busted out my MSR Pocket Rocket to give it some heat. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. Booch finally popped loose, and I limped back into Roswell and gave Discount Tire an earful. At least the scenery was nice once the sun came up during my tire change.






So my day was basically shot at that point. It was close to 80 F today, and nothing was going to move, and I wasn't going to hike my butt off in the heat. So I headed back to the motel for a nap before my 12 p.m. checkout, then I hit WM for a few things, and headed to BWW to watch part of the game. I left around the beginning of the 3rd, so I missed all of the excitement.

The plan was to hit a few of the smaller accessible BLM areas for the evening, but as soon as I turned onto the county road, there were three trucks spread out over the next mile or so, slow rolling, looking for deer. So I passed them. Several of the spots I wanted to try already had trucks parked on them. So I kept going, and ended up at the very last BLM spot on the road, ~500 acres, but it was hilly and had three drainages with good brush in the bottom. Based on prior experience, I had a hunch that there might be a buck bedded in there that would pop out once it started cooling off.

So I park, and shortly after I start walking to cross into the second drainage, I see deer. About 12, but all does/yearlings. Good sign at least. Kept going cross a fence, then climb a big hill and stop on the military crest on my side so I can glass both the bottom behind me and inch my way over the top. See a doe on my side, but nothing else. About 15 minutes later, I inch my way over the top to glass more of the drainage. Nothing moving, but I needed to move about 10-20 more yards to get a better view of the bottom. So I did, and about 2 minutes later I caught movement to my left, about 200 yards out across the drainage, just above all the brush. Deer. Single. Binos up. Antlers, not a forky. Huge body. Rifle up. I'm on 4x,and I can't find him, because he blended in so well. Finally found him, and he was staring at me. Wind was good, so he either saw or heard me. Finally get settled, and BLAM!!, deer runs 10 feet and is down.

Holy crap, what a day. Only 800 yards as the crow flies from my truck, but that was across two drainages and one giant hill, covered in scree type rock and cobblestones.




Log
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Got his jaw pulled. Sucker was old, as I suspected, even though his antlers looked like a younger deers. I'm thinking 8.5, so he was probably much bigger in the past. Perfect deer to harvest.



ttha_aggie_09
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Look at the wear on those teeth!
harge57
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Makes me happy to know that there are wild places where deer are still out there dying of old age.
 
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