The interesting part of this business is the people that you meet, visit with, talk with, and the situations that occur or could be prevented if things were handled differently. With this in mind, these are my thoughts on various subjects and hopefully they will assist you in planning your hunt.
The Application System for Public Land Hunts
The first step in the application system is to be honest with yourself about what you desire in a hunt. If you only want a huge bull or buck, say so. But if you want to hunt elk and don’t care on the size of the bull or buck, say so.
There are no hidden gems and little spots in New Mexico that are easy to draw, have large animals, low hunter pressure, and have high success rates. The units that have more and bigger animals are in high demand and your odds of drawing are low with some areas giving less than 1% draw odds. Some units have a high draw rate, but that’s because there are a limited number of elk, low harvest success rates, and usually have high hunter numbers. Hunters take some animals in these areas, but your hunt can be deemed successful if you simply see a legal animal.
So,
- Utilize your three options on the draw.
- You have three choices and all are valid. When they pull your application they will look at all three choices at the same time and the first one, in the order that you put them, that has licenses is where you go. You’ll want to try for a high demand, big bull unit as your first choice, then go with higher percentage draws.
If you use a booking agent:
Booking agents are very knowledgeable about the hunts but may not have all of the details. If you have questions call the outfitters directly and talk to them. If you want a lodge hunt and the camp is a tent camp then ask the outfitter to be sure what it is. Outfitters are businessmen and most are very honest and truthful in what they do though some are not. As stated before, be honest. Just as you expect the outfitter to be honest, the outfitter expects you to do the same and explain what you are looking for. Some historic and true examples of this “honesty” are:
- “My son wants to hunt and has some leg issues but gets around well,” then shows up using a walker.
- “I have been working out and can do two to three miles walking without any problem,” then shows up with an oxygen tank.
- “I want to spot and stalk but won’t get out of the truck.” This hunter’s idea of spot and stalk is to spot it out of the windshield and stalk it by getting out and shooting.
- “I don’t think you know how to hunt elk because you have no heated blinds on the mountain.”
- “I can shoot comfortably at 500 to 1,000 yards.” This is from a bench with sandbags and not prone on a pack or off a set of shooting sticks.
- “I know you said that no alcohol consumption during the day is allowed, and no alcohol is allowed in the hunting vehicles but Uncle Bob likes to ride around and drink beer all day and you would make an exception.” No, Uncle Bob just cancelled his hunt.
Honesty
Just be honest on what you expect and how you like to hunt and your capabilities and we will suggest hunts for you or we will tell you that we do not hunt that way.
The best way to ensure you will not kill an animal
This is pretty simple: just insult your guide, degrade your guide, explain that you have hunted several times and know more than the guide, tell them that in some other state this is how we hunt, and overall make your guide not want to hunt with you. You may be very knowledgeable in your hunting ability and good at it and you may have been on numerous hunts but your guides hunt somewhere between 30 to 60 days a year and have done this for upwards of between 5 and 20 years. These guys know what to do and should be regarded with respect. They are very good at what they do and are going to try to get you an animal, whether a two-day guided or fully guided. If you make the guide dislike you or you alienate him, I can bet that you will not kill because he will not try. This is just human nature no matter what profession you are in.
DO you harvest animals in the first two days of guide only hunts
Yes we do this very often during the seasons. The guides are there to hunt and to take animals during their time with you. The guides try hard and we try to send the best guides with you to get an animal.
If I am unsuccessful the first two days of the hunt can I hire the guide for additional days?
Possibly, but there are a number of items that have to occur. First is that a new contract must be prepared for the Game and Fish Department. Secondly, a new itinerary must be prepared for the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management and lastly someone needs to be around to prepare these documents. We also do not do it by the day. If you want a guide for extra days then you need to decide on how many days and we do it once.
Are seasons going to change dramatically next year?
The answer to this is no. New Mexico does a four year hunt structure and the only thing that changes is making the dates for the hunts correspond to the day of the week. Rifle and muzzleloader hunts start on Saturday and end on Wednesday in most cases.