StickFlicker's New Mexico Antelope Bowhunt

Our archery antelope hunt in New Mexico was very different than my hunts in other states for the prairie goats. Land issues were key, and we knew that obtaining permission to hunt would be difficult. Since this is a state that gives vouchers to ranchers to sell to the highest bidder (our area started at $3,000 and all were sold directly to outfitters who then doubled the price to the hunter), there is really no incentive whatsoever to allow bowhunters onto their ranches to shoot off any of the bucks prior to the high paying rifle hunters’ arrival. You can’t even trespass on State land, earlier than 7 days prior to your hunt, which made scouting the small amount of State land very difficult.

Unlike our home state of Arizona where the archery antelope season is 14 days long, the Land of Enchantment only gave us five days in which to close the deal. Arizona normally posts approximately a 10% success on this 14 day archery hunt, so I figured our chances in New Mexico on this five day hunt might be well under 5%.

On my first day, I passed bucks twice at very shootable distances, one I had named “Lucky” because he was lucky I was looking for a little larger buck and chose not to shoot him! I saw Lucky on every day of the hunt, and passed up two good opportunities at him while trying to get a buck I had named “Seven”. I named him this because I hoped he would be my seventh antelope with a bow. I guess I could have named him Fourteen, since he would be my fourteenth antelope taken by bow, handgun and other weapons, but that didn’t seem to roll off the tongue as well…

My hunting partner was only after a legal buck, so was very frustrated each night when I would show him photos of the bucks I had passed each day. I had good shot opportunities on about two bucks per day on average, although my partner was only seeing about a buck per day and not getting any real shot opportunities. He made me feel pretty guilty that I was passing bucks that I knew he would be thrilled to shoot, and kept trying to convince me to shoot one of them so that he could start hunting the valley I was hunting. He finally took a 12 inch buck on the third day, and then made me feel guilty that he had nothing to do all day while I continued to pass bucks attempting to get one of the two bucks I was after. I'm sure it wasn't ever his intention to make me feel guilty, I just did I guess.

I came very close on each of the two bucks on several occasions, including the fourth day when I spent about 40 minutes within shooting distance of my first choice buck (10-45 yards) but could just never quite get the shot. When I had the shot, there were too many does near me to draw. I knew it couldn’t last forever, and eventually another hunter came along and spooked the herd…. As sunset neared on the fourth day, I made the decision that I would need to take the next decent buck on which I could get a shot opportunity. While I expected that to be at some point on the final day, this buck gave me a great shot at 29 yards about 15 minutes before sunset, and he dropped in his tracks with my first arrow.

I was a little disappointed in myself for not having faith in my abilities to hold out for the final day for one of the big boys, but I was scheduled to leave for a coues hunt the next day, so returning to Arizona with a day to shower and process the meat was a welcome bonus. The coues have continued to frustrate me though….. Marvin