Ollin Magnetic Digiscoping System

Desert Mule Deer

kylemcintyre67

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 11, 2018
Messages
420
Location
El Paso, TX
Well here I am 3 days and a wake up away from the opener of my first bow season. I am in full on freak out mode right now and could use some of the collected hunt talk wisdom.

For the background, I have an archery FAD tag in New Mexico unit 25. This is the area on the Mexican border south and west of I10 out to almost Lordsburg. The unit itself is rocky/ sandy desert scrub terrain around 3500-4000 feet with sporadic mountain ranges up to around 5500 feet on average. There is a large volcanic flow area as well. I am taking my last pto day on Tuesday so this will be a four day hunt. The unit was an easy draw because it has very low success rates and almost no non-residents apply. I am mentally prepared for tag soup, but I would like to at least get eyes on deer and hopefully attempt stalking a couple.

I live in El Paso close to the unit and had originally blocked out 4 weekends to scout. Life, as it does, got in the way and my scouting has been limited to a couple afternoons of mostly driving around and seeing where I can get to in my truck. Depending on the rain this week that may have changed some. I will be camping out of my truck and I am in shape enough that hiking a few miles won't be a problem. I have had time to do plenty of map recon, and have some areas picked out. My anxiety lies with the fact that I have not seen any more sign of deer in the few spots I have looked than some very dry scat.

This is where you all come in, I am going to lay out my plan for this opening weekend and let you all point out what I may be missing or doing wrong.

My initial focus area is a spot out near Columbus. There is a small mountain range with several water tanks for cattle and a small agricultural area within 2 miles. I will drive out Friday evening after work and plan to camp in a spot about a mile from one of the tanks. Opening day is Sunday so I will have Saturday to get to know the area. I have spot picked out to hike in before sun up on Saturday that should give me a good vantage on the north facing slopes and draws of this small range. I plan to spend the morning glassing the area for movement. I will spend the warmer parts of the day hiking around to the water tanks and checking for sign. I am not sure how important the water tanks will be as there has been a fair bit of rain out there this monsoon season. My plan gets a little more vague after Saturday and this is where I am looking for advise. If you were in my shoes, would you sit the water tanks? Would you glass the range and move on to a different area if there was no movement? Would you even go about it this way at all?

I will have two more weekends after that as well, and I plan to let the results of this weekend dictate my approach to them. I feel like spending more than Saturday and Sunday on this spot would be a waste if I haven't seen any deer by then. I have some areas to the northwest of Columbus in the Cedar range area as a tentative backup plan. I really have no idea how close I can get out there. Any and all advise is appreciated.
 
I would move a lot more and look for tracks. I would also avoid my particular affliction - being seduced by lots of does and yearling bucks. There they are, the bigger bucks are not. At least that's my 2 cents. Glass on Sat Am, then move to cut tracks.
 
Lol well my first diy whitetail last year wasn't much more than a baby. I have to abide the fork antlered limitation on this hunt but I won't be much more picky than that.
 
If you were in my shoes, would you sit the water tanks? Would you glass the range and move on to a different area if there was no movement? Would you even go about it this way at all?

Any and all advise is appreciated.
It is still warm down here so I would definitely sit on water specially if there is sign deer activity. I would be there really early and late in the day. Glassing is always a great option as well, closing the distance might be tricky. I know the mountain range you mentioned. Good area specially if you can intercept the bucks traveling from the agricultural area back to the hills. Good luck!
 
It is still warm down here so I would definitely sit on water specially if there is sign deer activity. I would be there really early and late in the day. Glassing is always a great option as well, closing the distance might be tricky. I know the mountain range you mentioned. Good area specially if you can intercept the bucks traveling from the agricultural area back to the hills. Good luck!
Water wasn't that great last weekend since it had rained almost every day. I did get into a small bachelor group and blew the stalk. Now that I have a better idea of where they hang out I'm hoping the water holes pay off a little better since it hasn't rained all week. All of the big puddles were pretty well dried up by Monday evening when I was headed home.
 
Water is great, but they only spend a fraction of their day at water, and a lot of the time that will be after dark. Good luck, chasing desert mulies is a blast
 
Well the season is over for me. I spent 4 weekends out in the unit, covered a ton of miles on foot and in the truck. Spent enough time behind the binos to make me cross eyed. I did get to attempt a stalk on opening morning. I rushed it, and three nice bucks took off for Mexico, never to be seen again. Never even got close enough with a clear shot to draw my bow. The rest of the hunt was an exercise in frustration. I can find does and fawns all over the place. I only ever saw on other buck, Saturday evening just before sun down in a light rain. I wouldn't even call it a stalk, he got above me and saw me before I even started my move. He was smallish but not stupid. If you want a challenging hunt that is easy to draw, NM unit 25 early season is it. In a couple years after this frustration subsides, I will probably try to hunt it again during the rifle season. I'm still on the fence with this archery thing.
 
Next time Kyle! You did see some gray ghosts tho.
Just heard from another guy who blew a 10yrd shot on a smoker...one twig away from his 4th Booner.
 
I just finished my archery tag in nm as well without nothcing it. I could find a group of does every day on the slopes but only saw and stalked one buck, in basically a still hunting situation in a flat finger of thick cover mid elevation of the mountain. I found myself missing my rifle very much lol. I also realized had there been bucks on the slopes I probably wouldn't have that many stalks in me, a 300 yard shot across the canyon would have been a treacherous hike down and back up hopefully with him still being there to get in to bow range. Much respect to bow hunters that get in done in some of these places. I need to get in way better shape to give high country archery a serious go.

I read your barbary thread earlier this year. Do you plan on giving that another go this winter?
 
Yeah I am planning to get back up in there after the Barbary soon. I will also be headed to Oklahoma for rifle season white tails over Thanksgiving. I need to take a couple weekends off and square away my garage and such. Between the canoe build this summer and then diving right into deer season it's a mess.
 
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