Unit 2b New Mexico

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

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.

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!

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

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!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

West side is a bit different, but there are closed and opened roads like on the east side, just not as much area to deal with.

posted but must have went elsewhere. West side is similar to east side with opened and closed roads. Just less area to deal with, so a little bit easier.

Kaibab200:

Have you hunted 2B before?

yes last year. Read my first couple of posts posts on this post. For being one of New mexicos top hunts, I was sorely disappointed. I feel the management of the unit is the cause of a henry mountains, paungsagant, az strip type unit having such poor quality.

BohnTR. When I'm talking about the West side I'm talking about the area by burnt mesa west side of the lake. Still a large area, yes, but not as many people or as much area as east of the lake.

Great post. I'm hunting 2B during the 1st rifle season this year. (Oct. 19-23)
Never been there before and those top 3 you have listed were my top 3 "to do". :)

I'm hunting solo and coming by myself from Dallas. For what sounded like a great unit when I was researching right before the draw - it sure does sound like there are a lot of negatives. Especially early in the season.

Don't get down about the hunt it is hunting. It is a great potential unit. There are resident bucks and these early snows in Colorado may turn it into a great hunt. I was talking to one of the premier outfitters last year and he said that it has been 10 years since the weather had caused the bigger bucks to migrate in large numbers during any of the hunts, so maybe this will be the year. There are some big resident bucks, but for the most part it is a 2 point hunt and most of the resident hunters harvest smaller bucks. Hunt hard and you never know what you are going to find. Last year I was scouting during the dates of your hunts and I glassed up a 180 inch type buck 400 yards away going about his business, no hunters, etc. I was wishing I had your tag. There are some nice bucks, just not a lot of them. There isn't a better trophy unit besides 2c in new mexico, so you have a good tag. Here is what disappointed me about the hunt and what was great. When you draw a states premier hunt I was expecting to see multiple 140 to 150 bucks during the hunt and when you saw something bigger to have to make some choices. It just didn't happen for us. It was either a 2 point or a bomber. We saw 2 bombers during the hunt. Lots of spikes and 2 point, very few in between. The great part of the hunt is the potential, you just never know when you may glass up the buck of your life. The genetic potential is there the next hill may just hold a giant.

GOod luck

kaibab - Thanks for your insight on this unit. I'll be there next week for the first rifle hunt.
Good luck to you and your son on the youth hunt this weekend!

Me and my boy went out shooting again 2 days ago he shot a 1 inch group at 100 yards, so we are on target. Put most of the gear together last night. We have a scout court of honor tonight, Im lucky enough to be his scoutmaster as well, so we won't have much prep time tonight and we will head out thursday. I will update you early hunters on our hunt, hopefully we will have something come our way.

Good luck! Hope you guys have a great hunt. Looking forward to hearing a good report.

Best of luck, Scoutmaster is no easy job. :)

Good luck on your hunt this week. There are winter weather warnings/advisories just across the border to the north for today and the entire area got rained on yesterday. Should be about as good of conditions as you could hope for for the youth hunt.

Good luck!

thanks all - I'm leaving (Dallas) Thursday morning.

Good news for you. It's already snowing here. Bucks will be pouring out of CO into 2b. This is a predominately migratory unit. Obviously you'll want to intercept them as they filter down from the North. This is across the whole northern border of the unit. They come on down along the eastern shore of the lake (Navajo) and move to their wintering (and Rutting) grounds in the BLM land east of the lake and over to about the national forest boundaries on the east. Get off the roads into the "locked gate" areas. Lots of locals out hunting the first forky to step out. Don't participate in the roadhunting madness. Get off the road and walk in to the locked gate areas and bivvy out back there if you've got the gumption. You are looking for that one moment right at dusk or just after dawn when that buck is standing out in the sage. Take the best optics you can get your hands on and get out and find one. You'll see hundreds of does. Don't waste your time trying to grow horns on those does. Look off at the edges for the solitary deer. That's the buck. Your hunt is so early that the big bucks are still very reclusive and nocturnal. Work hard and try to glass up a bedded buck. They usually bed on the first or second bench out of the sage flats. I don't usually hunt the early hunts because they can be so chancy for my clients. (delayed migration, etc.)

I have private land in both the northern sector of the unit (migratory) and the southern sector(resident deer) There are some very big deer in the resident population but total numbers are of course a lot less than up in the migratory path.

Call me at 575-621-6158 an I'll be happy to help you with what I know. We can also discuss access on my ranch if that might interest you.

John Jaquez
San Juan River Outfitters and Livery Co.
200 Rd. 4599
Blanco, NM 87412
575-621-6158
website: sjroutfitters.com
john@sjroutfitters.com

"TexasHunter83" wrote:Is this the same unit where you can cross over Raton Pass into CO?

Wow, finally looked at a GMU map for NM and I was WAAAAYY off. No wonder this question didn't warrant any responses. #-o

Hey thanks for everyones responses! The problem is that I headed out Thursday after work and got home late last night. So this is the first I have seen of any of them. Here is the report for the hunt by day:

Friday day before the hunt: We were scouting so covered a lot of ground looking for tracks. Roads were a mess from the Thursday rain. Nearly lost the truck a couple of times. Could literally only drive on the Rosa and the 310 and the 310 was iffy. Tried going south and turned around for fear of getting stuck. I was forced to check areas I swore I would not go back into but they were only roads with all weather surfaces. The Rosa road saw a few does. Toward evening went up on Caraccass to see if there was any migration happening with all the Colorado snow, basically got stuck so camped in the truck. Glassed the evening located a giant bear, no deer. Deer total for the day: 3 does.

Saturday: Stuck on Caracass (place I did not want to be, but the roads were keeping people out), made the best of it and went out hunting. After glassing known good deer areas. Did not locate one single deer. Glassed extensively, located no deer. Went for a 4 mile hike, located 3 total tracks crossing the road. Roads were drying out, Got unstuck around 2:00 in the afternoon, with no migration started heading off that damned plateau, as we headed south on 310, roads were in better shape and we probably passed 20 trucks making there way up to the caracass, boy were they going to be disappointed. Deer total: 0

Afternoon: Got south of the 64 roads were much improved and drying out fast. Glassed a known area, located total of 25 does for the evening 0 bucks.
My 13 year old boy is beyond frustrated and tells dad, he is lowering his expectations and would just like to see a buck, doesn't care if he kills one. 2 days and few deer, Dads feeling the pressure.

Sunday: We decided to hunt the low country South of the 64, just looking for a buck in traditional locations, Started out early found five does, then for the first time hunting this area in the South we ran into people. 5 different groups to be exact. Very frustrating, so after discussing with a friend and my boy we decided to head for a completely different area of the unit, an area we hadn't spent a lot of time in, but where they had been seeing some deer. Arrived in the new area around 3:00 in the afternoon.

Afternoon: The young boy is real frustrated, but I'm proud he is sticking with it. He is a bit more excited as our friend had killed a buck while guiding his youth hunter in the morning and had bedded two little 2 points. We get to the new area of the unit and start hiking into to a glassing point about a mile away. Light rain going on. We start glassing for a bit and we locate 3 does, I moved position and glassed up a 2 point. I jogged back to my boy and let him know. He came over and we put the spotting scope on him. The buck is off a mesa 1100 yards away. My boy says lets shoot him. Knowing the 2 mile hike back up the mesa that would have to happen, I said lets watch him for a bit and see if he moves closer. About 5 minutes go by and I'm thinking, maybe we should make a move, even though I know how much work its going to be for a 2 point. Its the boys first hunt I tell myself. I am about to give in and head off the mesa, when I notice more deer coming out of the trees, First out is a 3 X4 with a kicker, heavy horned, then another 2 X and then lastly a deep forked typical 4X4. I said take a look at this. That 's when my son got excited. That's when Dad was ready to dump off the Mesa. I told my boy, that we will make a move on him, but these things often don't work out and either way its going to be a long steep hike back. I could see the look in his eyes, he was ready to go. It was 5:30, so we were running out of time. We bailed straight off a steep mesa, got the wind right and made a 20 minute walk around a hill. When we got in position, the bucks were up in a cedar cove and we couldn't visualize them. I was deciding where to go next and here they come around the point feeding. I ranged them at 500 yds, They moved to 486 and were staying put, I got my boy set up with the 6.5 X284, adjusted the turrets, but him on the Eberlestock and said don't shoot unless he is broadside, not moving and the scope is completely still. After 5 minutes, he fires, the buck drops in his tracks. We went over to the buck and he had hit him lungs and heart with a berger 140 grain. A lot of damage. Took some great photos, Scored the buck at 176 inches, what a great first buck. Boned and caped him and 2 hours later made it back to the truck completely exhausted. What a hunt. Beautfil buck. My son can't wait for his AZ strip hunt in November. I told him most guys struggle to kill a buck as big as his, but with his November tag he may have quite a year. Tougher hunt in New Mexico than I thought being so early. Hopefully, the migration starts for you guys on the Early hunts, hadn't happened yet even with all the snow.

Saturday afternoon: with no migration in sight

Not sure how to post a picture, I'll try to figure it out.

Lets see if these pics work

That's a great 1st buck and heck of a shot! Great hunting lesson as well: Patience and persistence.

Awesome deer! You and your boy should be very proud. Sounds like the hunt was tough, but I'll bet he got more out of it than simply driving out and shooting one from the road on the first morning. Hard work and patience pays off!

That's a really good buck for the lad! Congratulations to him and kudos to dad for spending the time up there with him. Awesome trip!

That's a great buck! Congratulations on the successful hunt! That buck puts my first buck to shame by a LONG ways. It sounds like you've successfully added another hunter to the obsession. Good work!

I think his smile says it all!

I'm jealous!

Very nice. =D>

NICE!! You're giving everyone buck fever already! Congrats guys!

Heading out tomorrow to 2b to see if we can't scare up any hucks like the one in the pics above; what a beauty kaibab! Doesn't sound like the migration has really kicked in yet, so planning to head south of the highway. Any last minute info would be appreciated, especially from anyone that just finished the early rifle hunt. Hope to have a good report for you all later this week.

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

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.

"kaibab200" wrote: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!

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!

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.
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!

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.

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

Way to go on your first buck!

Kaibab200:

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

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

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

Kaibab - I'd like to see what you came up with and hear a bit about where you took them if you don't mind sharing. Curious to hear about your experience with the area we talked about.