That's what I'm talking about. I wonder if the federal government has too much influence here. I wonder if the seasons are what they are because it makes it easier for the Forest Service to manage hunters as opposed to animals.

I drove the northside of Capitan Mnt. from the gap to Seven Cabins Rd and back out to Hwy 246. Every spring had hunters set up on it. Never went up on top of the mountain, but I can only imagine what it was like up there. As we drove up to the gap there were 7 trucks coming down the trail from the top. There's not that much territory up there.

I'm very familiar with that area. I'm going to try another unit for landowner tags next year. Unit 37 has way too much hunting pressure and the herd is showing the results.
PS...I think your right about the state managing hunters and not the game. I've talked to NM residents and they have a hard time drawing in-state tags for elk/deer. Most have to go to landowner tags each year like non-residents who don't draw a tag.

My brother and I where looking at buying a small ranch in NM to run a few head and for hunting. Walked away from the deal once we finished researching the hunting and landowner regs. Short hunting windows just didn't make sense when compared to the $ spent.

Once thought of buying land in the "land of enchantment" but after seeing their tags and hunting regs buying in Texas was a no brainer!

I'm still looking to buy a 100 or so acres there and become a resident in the next few years. It's much easier to hunt Texas as a non-resident than it is NM. Austin ain't the same. Everywhere here has exploded with growth and inflated prices. Even good ol' Luckenbach is a madhouse these days. You can't hardly go far enough west to escape all these people.

Next year, I'm hunting the Rez. They big bulls and plenty of them.

The biggest issue with new Mexico is not the seasons, it is the way they set things up. Deer hunting they have ruined, I don't know who thought it was a good idea to only allow hunting on one sex of a species, but whoever that is - well he is an idiot. They allow cow hunting for elk, but for deer you can only hunt bucks.....so all the meat hunters do is find a little fork and shoot it. People who would be perfectly happy shooting a doe. I've hunted a ton all over this state and you will see does all day long and few bucks. They need to manage that better.

I couldn't agree with you more. I don't get it. It's contrary to every principle of deer management that I've ever learned. The evidence is in what you see. Seldom do you see big mature bucks. You see gobs of does and a few young bucks. I don't understand what they're trying to achieve.

That said, I was up there last week and saw one of the biggest muley bucks that I've ever seen. Main frame 5x5 with a droptine and junk. I counted a 14 points from 200 yards, through binoculars. He was easily 28" inside and well over 40" of mass.

I started hunting NM 20 years ago in Unit 30 when it was still OTC. At that time, it was nothing to see 100 deer a day, even with the hunting pressure and the season was only 3 days then. Then the draw was started. From what I understand, everyone, residents and non-residents had the same chance. The locals were upset because they weren't getting drawn and blamed it on the non-residents. This from several locals I have spoke to over the years. They re-structured the draw so that residents get I think 88% of the allotted tags, 6% go to non-residents who hire outfitters, and the rest go to non-resident DIY hunters of which I am the latter. The only time they actually managed the herd was about 11 years ago a buck had to have 3 points on at least one side before it could be shot. This reg was in effect for a couple years. We actually saw an increase in bigger bucks for a couple years. But again, the locals I spoke with told us people were complaining because they hunted for the meat, not the horns and were going home empty handed. Since I started hunting there, I've seen a huge decrease in deer numbers although elk numbers have really exploded. I've been told the reason is mountain lions, over hunting, the drought, and fires. I have seen some huge bucks, but few and far between.

Sounds about right.

My brother lives there, hunts there, and is a member of the Ruidoso Ridge Runners Jeep Club. They do a lot 4-wheeling, tail maintenance and improvement, etc. They work with the Forest Service a lot. They're always frustrated that the Forest Service frequently closes trails and access to parts of the forest. The FS gives varying reasons but it really boils down to the fact that the FS lacks the funding and personnel to service parts of the forest, so they just close it. He says they've been told by employees that the fuel budget gets blown and all they can do is sit at the office and twiddle their thumbs.

If all that is in fact true, I think it gives some insight into why the hunting seasons are being so poorly managed.

I was just up in unit 2B a month ago and I have never seen as many deer in that unit as there is now. Some very nice bucks where killed. I think mule deer are managed differently that whitetail because they migrate. Every doe had one or two fawns with them so I don't think having enough bucks to breed is an issue. They have severely over hunted the southern units. I used to hunt in 30 and 34, now I just drive through and go to 2B.

2B is a tough unit to draw. It is a high demand/high quality unit for Mulies.
Most of the mulies are coming off the Colorado range when snow hits the Rockies.

If you've been lucky to draw that unit, consider yourself one of the few.

I've hunted 2A on an elk draw and saw more mulies than elk during my hunt.

Yeah, we put in every year for 2B since 2010. So far we've drawn 2010,2011,2014,and 2016.

Bingo, makes it easier/cheaper to manage. NM just does not have the funding or resources, if the managed it a little better they could.

Consider yourself very lucky. 2B is a prime mule deer draw.

It makes perfect sense ... NM "makes" money by artificially shortening the seasons and having more seasons ... thereby making the licenses more desirable and thus more expensive.

They control the number of animals killed on the public land by controlling the number of licenses in a particular unit. If they want more elk cows killed in a unit, they give out more tags.

Evidence supporting your theory is obvious in how they regulate even non-native species like Oryx. They regulate the heck out of everything and attempt to make money on it coming and going. Even predators require licensing, tagging and then you have to get a special permit to possess hides. It's crazy.

I wish the Feds would treat the State of NM the same way and stop hunting on Federal lands until the state shares it's tags(like 50%) with non-residents.

Why? The wildlife belongs to the residents of the state, they can manage game how they see fit. Do I like the tag allocation? Absolutely not but it doesn't matter who owns the land, the wildlife is held in trust for residents. Now, what I would like a closer look at is Wyoming's requirement for nonresidents to hire a guide to hunt in designated wilderness areas.

If it doesn't matter who own the land then why do private landowners think it's their right to get all the tags to hunt on their property? Both land and wildlife are equally important for hunting to occur and if the state residents want to be selfish with permits then the only recourse is for the Federal landowner to stand up to them.

Do you think it's "blackmailing" for the state of NM to require landowners to give the public access to hunt on their land before they'll issue permits? Yet, the state of NM is hypocritical enough to think Federal landowners don't deserve the same respect it gives private landowners.