Unit 2b New Mexico

[long_range_1]

^^^^^
+1 headed out there tomorrow good luck to you!

[kaibab200]

It would be nice after all the information and update that I have given that should have been quite helpful, if a few folks would report on how the migration is going and the early hunts. I have drawn the 3rd hunt, which starts this coming saturday. I have a few good areas ready to go and a couple of local bucks, that I'm real nervous are going to get scared out of the country, but hoping for the best on this latest rifle hunt. Have to try to beat my Sons buck . Any way if any of the info I provided has help, it would be much appreciated to get a few updates on the hunt, I really don't care if you were successful or not, just would like to hear how things are going. Good luck Guys.

[wyflyguy]

It would be nice after all the information and update that I have given that should have been quite helpful, if a few folks would report on how the migration is going and the early hunts. I have drawn the 3rd hunt, which starts this coming saturday. I have a few good areas ready to go and a couple of local bucks, that I'm real nervous are going to get scared out of the country, but hoping for the best on this latest rifle hunt. Have to try to beat my Sons buck . Any way if any of the info I provided has help, it would be much appreciated to get a few updates on the hunt, I really don't care if you were successful or not, just would like to hear how things are going. Good luck Guys.

Just sent you a PM, brother. Sorry for the delay...I'm just now getting caught up with everything I missed. Good luck with your hunt!

[long_range_1]

Well here is my contribution. First I'd like to thank John Jaquez of San Juan River Outfitters he spoke with my dad and shared his knowledge and we weren't even a customer. I'd also like to thank everyone that posted here and shared their knowledge kaibab200 and others.

We got there friday morning and setup camp we decided that we were going to hunt the west end of the unit sage brush flat areas and the fingers on the lake. Friday after setting up got to the sage brush flats and a gate just started walking looking for sign, walked in a good few miles and absolutely no sign no deer spotted. We then decided to go to plan b went to some fingers by the lake spotted a fork and doe off the road and 10 does by a gas well but the lake fingers had alot of traffic so went back to camp. With all of our spot s not turning up anything away from hunters and or having bucks I really was just forced to pick a random spot and start hiking. Saturday morning did just that got up found a nice spot walked in a few miles and started glassing. Spotted around 40 does and about 5 forkies really liked the area so we focused there all day the evening produced 10-15 does no bucks. Due to work obligations I had to be back on monday so sunday morning was going to be my last chance. Went to the same area and glassed this time only turning up 1 doe. I decided to try another area as we were packing up to leave we got turned around and spotted a shooter buck 170 class 4x4 100 yards away broadside. Unfortunately I just couldnt get set up in time and spooked him . The buck went off over the hill into a canyon we got to the top and glassed my dad spotted a wide 3x3 and 2 other bucks but at this time they were starting to bed and we couldn't find them anymore. Hunt over for me if I had more time I'm confident a could have got a buck down. It was super hot the temps were mid 60s in the days and the nights were pretty mild. I would say the migration is in the early stages. Good luck to everyone going out this week!

[jdeck555]

Just wanted to echo Long Range's comment above and thank everyone on the forum for their comments and advice about the 2B hunt especially kaibab200; it definitely came in handy. My buddy and I headed out on Friday and decided to focus our efforts south of Highway 64 to see if we could avoid the crowds and focus on trying to find a big buck for the first couple days of the hunt. We scouted Friday and didn't see any deer, but we did mark some good looking canyons to check out over the next couple of days. We hunted south of the highway all day on Saturday and Sunday as well as Monday morning without seeing a deer. Hearing that, it probably sounds like the hunt was a bust but we saw a lot of really fresh sign and had a run in with what we believe was a big buck on Sunday. We hiked into an out of the way pocket and climbed up onto a bench above the canyon to glass. We immediately came across some very fresh, very large tracks and the stalk was on. As we walked we came across several piles of still warm droppings and a fresh scrape; that scrape meant it was a buck and we knew we were close so we continued on with our heads on a swivel. After following the tracks for more than a half hour the buck began to circle back on us and we realized that he probably had winded us and was circling around for his escape. Sure enough the tracks went from a walk to a bound and we found his tracks running off right through our boot prints from just minutes before. We got high on a ridge and spent the remainder of the day trying to find him with no luck and we hiked out in the dark. I guess the big ones get big for a reason.

Feeling bummed at the lack of deer sightings and our failed stalk, and also starting to feel the pressure since it had been 9 years since the last time I shot a deer (a whitetail in Iowa), we decided to move north of the highway and check out the east side of the lake. I really wanted to fill this tag and we had heard that this was a good area to see a lot of deer even if they weren't as large as some other areas. We started glassing along La Jara Canyon and almost immediately spotted a forky and several does along with another deer with a large body that we couldn't identify. We decided to drive over to the other side of the canyon and see if we could get a look at that other deer and maybe fill the tag on the forky if it came to that. I'd never shot a mule deer and I really wanted to get something in the freezer. When we arrived at the spot we started walking in and immediately encountered another hunter walking up from where we spotted those deer. He had just shot at the forky and missed and didn't even see the larger deer bedded higher up the hill so we'll never know what it was. Well, that's public land, I guess, and I really wanted something bigger than a forky anyway so no big deal. We only had an hour of light left so we decided to hike away from the road to a small ridge that just looked "bucky" and didn't have any roads on it. We walked in and immediately heard a snort and jumped a deer that bolted onto a nearby piece of private land so we didn't pursue. We were interested in looking into a small bowl from the ridge top and continued our hike. As we crested the hill we saw two ATVs and two other trucks on a road in the distance and we thought they might blow up the area, but they couldn't see into the bowl from the road and they moved on. When we got to the top we looked over the edge and spotted three mature does. We continued glassing and I spotted several more does and a 4x4 buck! I got pretty excited and we decided that this was a worthy shooter for someone on such a long dry spell. I moved into position and ranged him at 200 yards. I squeezed off the shot and hit him a little back of where I wanted and he ran off bleeding heavily. We moved down the hill and I got a finishing shot from 30 yards and he was down for good. I had finally succeeded at a major goal for me: a public land, DIY muley buck. He's no giant, but I couldn't be happier right now.

My first muley buck

Me and my buddy Lance with the buck

muley2_reduced.jpg (42.05 KiB) Viewed 10492 times

Several things about this hunt. One, it really was a circus on the east side of Navajo Lake and everyone was focusing in the roads. At one point we saw six other hunting parties around us in a relatively small area. If you don't like hunting elbow to elbow this area might not be for you. Two, if you are willing to walk away from the roads and hunt hard, I think there are some really good deer to be had east of the lake. Sounds like Long Range had that experience based on the comment above. The numbers are certainly there; we saw 20 deer or so in only a couple of hours of hunting. Finally, south of the highway might be the place to look for a big buck if you are willing to hunt hard and not see much. Based on the sign we saw there are some good deer roaming around in there, albeit in small numbers. If you are willing to eat your tag this might be a place to look. Good luck to anyone hunting the 3rd rifle, and thanks again to all the awesome members who gave info on this hunt!

[kaibab200]

That's an awesome write up. Thanks for the pics and the story. Personally, I think that's a great muley buck for a first muley. A lot of guys haven't ever shot a 4 X4. Hard work pays off in the end. Too bad you didn't get into that one south of the highway, probably was a pretty good buck based on what you wrote up. Sounds like a few of the deer are migrating into the unit. I'm ready to go give it another try, starts up saturday. Thanks for the info and great deer.

[JBird]

Nice buck. I'll bet he's hooked now.

[BOHNTR]

Way to go on your first buck!

Kaibab200:

Good luck, amigo.......hope you let the air out of a good one!

[MuleyMadness]

Congrats on your first Mule Deer, thanks for the report of your hunt. Sounded like a good time.

[kaibab200]

So we ended up doing pretty well on our hunt. It was tough hunting, chased a few ghosts, saw quite a few bucks in the 130-150 category. Hunted hard in the desert country. We ended up going 3 for 4. 2 bucks killed on the morning of the last day, and one buck killed on the third day. Passed some deer that were decent. Killed some pretty nice bucks. One was a typical 4 x4 with eye guards. One was a non-typical 6 X7 with eye guards and the last was a really nice 3 X3 with guards. Anyway a tough hunt, but certainly an enjoyable hunt. I don't have permission to post the other guys bucks and posting these bucks won't help our draw odds next year, so I might PM someone if they really want to see a pic. Good luck on the rest of your hunts