Applying for New Mexico Draw- 1st Time

[Lone Star Outdoors Show]

Going to put in for Elk, Antelope and Mule Deer. Never have applied for big game in NM, but have hunted grouse and fly fished there for almost 10 years. Usually in the Carson National Forest. Only have killed one buck (whitetail) with my bow and am not confident enough past 40 yds to feel good about any archery hunts out there.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Maybe share your experiences with the draw system. Basically any help before I send in my final choices would be great. Thanks

 

[Big Fin]

Always make your first choice a long shot. Never know when your lucky number might come up. Since NM looks at all of you choices before going on to the next guy, it is possible to draw your second or third choice.

I usually make my second choice a good unit and good season, but not one of the glory choice. My third choice is always a unit or season everyone else thinks is not worth their time and effort. I love hunting NM. I would rather hunt one of their overlooked third choices every few years, than to hunt one of their glory units once in my life.

Their late rifle elk seasons are tougher hunts, but still hold the same bulls as the early rifle, archery, or muzzy hunts. Just gotta work a lot harder to find them.

If there is a bad antelope unit in NM, I have yet to find it. Only screwy part is the rifle tags are done in a manner where you get assigned a ranch. That can be a crap shoot, but you still have good odds of being assigned a ranch that has good bucks. Might not be one with B&C bucks, but most every unit in NM has plenty of bucks in the high 70" range.

Good luck. Given how close you are to NM, it is probably the best option you could ask for.

 

[npaden]

Good advice from Big Fin, my biggest addition would be that you should have been applying already. I only started applying in New Mexico 2 years ago and have already drawn some great tags and harvested some great animals.

The odds are probably going to go way down this year as the DIY nonresident has gone from being allocated 10% of the tags to just 6%. In addition the way they handle leftover tags has changed and that even hurts the DIY nonresident as well.

With that said, you might as well apply, the cost to apply is fairly cheap and they are still 100% random draw so you have the same chance your first year as you would if you had been applying for 20 years.

I personally did have a bad experience with my NM antelope tag, but I may need to just chalk it up to horrible luck and start applying again.

If you have to money to tie up for a while, you can always put in for Oryx, Ibex and Bighorn Sheep as well. All of them are once in a lifetime hunts and the odds are pretty low, but they really are once in a liftetime quality hunts.

Good luck.

 

[Lone Star Outdoors Show]

Thank you both for the thought out responses. This is the type of stuff that is helpful to someone applying for the first time. Much thanks!