Unit 2b New Mexico

[kaibab200]

Thought I would share my hunting experience from last year with Folks. We drew the 2nd rifle hunt last year. It was hot and tough hunting. We ended up seeing high numbers of deer in the North East corner of the unit, but no mature bucks. We worked south and tried tracking etc. Not much luck. Did a lot of preseason scouting and did find a couple of nice bucks, but after opening morning they disappeared. The most memorable moment of the hunt was when my buddy was hunting a sage flat in the middle eastern part of the unit. Just before dark a white truck came barrelling through the middle of the flat. There were 2 herds of deer with a fork horn in each group. My buddy was Glassing the truck and deer in the same frame. The truck all of a sudden stopped. They guy got out of the truck, beer cans falling all over the place. He started Glassing the sage flat with his rifle scope. Then he unzipped and started taking a leak. He glassed up one of the herds in mid stream. He leveled the rifle on his truck rolled down window, still pissing and shot the fork horn. My buddy was rollling on the ground. The guy couldn't get the deer in his truck, so my buddy went and helped him. He said the guy must have drank a 12 pack. We dealt with a lot of that while hunting. We tried getting away from the roads, put a lot of boot leather down, glassed til we couldn't see. Anyway we put in again this year, but only for the latest rifle hunt. Unbelievably, we drew. So we are hunting 2 years in a row. With a year under our belt and the hunt being a little later, hopefully we will be more successful. Looking to see if anyone has any areas or thoughts to help us out in being a little more successful. My son drew the youth hunt, so that should be a good early season scouting experience and hopefully he'll be successful.
Last year we hunted caracass, so did everyone else. Spent a bit of time around Tucker ridge, cedar springs. Had a boat and packed into areas off the lake. Hunted the southwest area as well tracking etc.
Appreciate any help with this hunt.

Thanks
T

[tylerh68]

I drew that same tag you had this year been out scouting have seen sign just no deer found a good herd of elk but just can't seem to find a good group of deer headed back out to scout this weekend hopefully will find a spot to take off and get away from the roads and people let me know if you have any good ideas thanks
Tyler

[kaibab200]

Ok sounds good. Hopefully there will be some weather as last year was bone dry, no snow in colorado. A little weather may do some good things. Just found out my boy drew an arizona strip tag with only 3 points. I'm stoked hes only 12 should be a blast.
He is going to hopefully get some warm up on the 2b youth hunt as he has never shot a deer, this will be important. He did knock down a great bull elk when he was ten, so I know he can get it done.

[jdeck555]

I am going to be hunting 2B for the second rifle hunt and I am looking into hunting along the eastern edge of Navajo Lake. I noticed that the entire shoreline of the lake is part of Navajo Lake State Park. Is hunting allowed on the State Park land, or do most people hunt further up the canyons/on top of the benches away from the lake on BLM land? Any help is appreciated!

[TexasHunter83]

Is this the same unit where you can cross over Raton Pass into CO?

[jdeck555]

I figured it out. It is ok to hunt mulies on park land. Looks like I'll be scouting the lake in the next couple of weeks!

[blb078]

I drew 2B also, but 2nd rifle(Oct 26-30). Says there was 375 licenses issued for that hunt, which to me doesn't seem like a lot when 80% of the unit is public and the size of unit is pretty decent, but I'm from the midwest and our idea of pressure vs what people out west consider pressure are often times two diff things. Or is there other licenses I'm not picking up on? Those that hunted it, did you find that the weekdays died down some compared to the weekend or was it guns a blaze the entire week? Everyone I've spoken to says to go up by the lake and Caracus Mesa, which might be the problem, everyone is hunting that area and not exploring other parts of the unit. I'll be there 1.5 days before the start of the hunt so not a ton of time to scout. Is it even possible to get back a ways off the roads? From the maps looks like there's oil roads everywhere.

[BaylorRancher]

Thanks for sharing. I'll be hunting 2B Oct 26-30th arriving only on Thursday. (Doing a smart rifle demo in Arizona earlier that week that I can't get out of.)

[kaibab200]

I'll be hunting again this year as mentioned above, I have been out there scouting a bunch, I will tell you a few things I will not be doing obviously I'm not going to share where I am hunting etc. But have found one really nice resident buck. I will try to get with my boy and then If no luck during my hunt:

1. I will not be going to Caracass Mesa. Why: Because that is where I believe they send everyone that hasn't hunted to get them out of their areas.
Caracas Mesa positive lots of does and some 2X2's. Negative: Lots of 2X2 type hunters, drinking beer and driving the roads, all and I mean all non-resident that don't have a clue where to hunt and have read that there are lots of 200 inchers on the caracass (which is a joke btw)., Tons of residents that don't have a clue where to hunt. Long drive back in there for small reward.

2. Will not be hunting the East side of the lake or bringing a boat to hunt the East side of the lake. This area appears to be becoming the new Caracass Mesa. Same applies as above. WIth 375-475 tags, funny how nearly all of them end up in these two areas and all misleading posts on the net tend to send everyone to these two areas blows me away. But the posters aren't idiots, I assume they may be guides sending everyone into these areas. Don't get me wrong a blind squirrel does find a nut from time to time, so I am sure occasionally a big one is killed, but not the norm.

3. Will be hunting South of the highway:
Positive: When you find a buck it tends to be big Negative can hunt 2 days with out seeing a deer, so certainly not for everyone.

4. Will hunt the west side of the lake:
Postive: I tend to find more mature bucks here Negative: It is a long drive around via colorado, but no worse than Caracass, and much better reward.

5. Will not be hunting southeast area: May have potential, but I tended to again find smaller stuff, I found a few more residents hunting in the area than other areas, but was difficult to find mature bucks, slightly more hunting pressure and saw more elk than deer (may be pushing deer out?) Some thick areas and open areas. Just my preference, but didn't have a good feel here hunting or scouting and with a five day hunt risk/reward doesn't seem worth spending time here. For someone else, it may be just what there looking for, a few more deer here than other areas south of highway, quality and size is lower though.

Good luck on the hunt guys, Early cold and snow in colorado will hopefully make the hunt a great one.

[jdeck555]

Thanks for the advice kaibab200. I did some scouting earlier this month around the east side of the lake and Carracas Mesa and saw some sign and a few deer (mostly does and a couple of forkies). I did see a ton of deer (20 or 30) right on the highway at the intersection of forest road 310 and highway 64 one evening, but all of them were does. Overall it looked okay, but I definitely got the feeling that it would be hard to avoid people in those areas, especially given the fact that every report recommends hunting in those spots. I am thinking about going to the west side of the lake and was glad to hear someone say that it might be productive. Do you know if they close any of the roads on that side of the lake like they do on the east side?

Good luck to everyone hunting the 26-30th and pray for snow!