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naturebob

New Mexico deer!

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Didn't seem like many stories from N.Mexico this year. I am looking forward to hunting it again ,and maybee as a resident. When I leave N. Dakota oil field gonna try to haul oil in SE New Mexico so I can get residency and not Texas. Its been 3 years since I hunted 23. Coues or Mulleys ,lets see some photos or stories. Used to be alott NM. chatter on here..Thanks ........BOB!

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Well I din't get any photos except some video of coyotes that didn't know I was around. Almost had one come into the blind so I stood up and coughed and he jumped back to about 20 yards. Decided I would take my .22 with me next time instead of taking a $20 arrow to him. Here is how my archery elk hunt went. I started out on the Az. line towards Luna the first day. I was sitting on a waterhole about 30 minutes before legal shooting light. Had a bull to the south coming in and heard cows chirping. Somebody on a four wheeler pulls up on the road about 300 yards away and hits a bugle call. Elk head south without me seeing them. Head east and run into another hunter. Go find a point where I can look into a valley and find a turkey feather. Sitting there looking at GPS to figure out where to go I notice something tan below me on a trail on the other side of a tree 5 yards away. Watch a bobcat go down the trail without knowing I was there. So I moved to a different area after running into 6 other hunters.

 

Day 2 I had moved camp so in the afternoon I was in a saddle north of camp. Elk sign so I pulled up a shady spot to snooze until later in the evening to hopefully ambush elk moving through the saddle. Four wheeler comes by and parks about 200 yards from me. Early enough in the afternoon I walk down the road to find other hunter or what is at the end of the road. Run into other hunter at water tank. Too bad I am bad with names as he was a heck of a nice guy. I know he lives in Cliff,NM and was going on an Az. hunt so he would be pulling out before me. We had to laugh as our cell phones were hitting Az. repeaters and changing our clocks off NM time to Az. time. He told me a spot where elk were seen about a half mile from camp and I told him he could have the tank the whole time he was there. That way we would not be walking over each other hunting.

 

Morning of day 3 I was walking down forest road before daylight when I heard bull bugle. I got off road and waited about 10 minutes. I bugled and cow called. Waited about 5 minutes and bugled again and cow called again. The bull answered but was heading south away from me. I have about 10 minutes until legal shooting light. I am standing where two big pines are growing close together almost making a v and I see a cow elk looking at me about 30 yards away. She has no idea what I am in the darkness and comes to about 20 yards with a big Blue Spruce between us. We play looky-loo for about 15 minutes and just when I feel comfortable for a shot she just walks down the hill. This is my first year bow hunting so I did not have the confidence I should have had.

 

I go south into a pine park, find where trees have fallen and make a blind. I cow call, chirping and mewing, hoping to find the bull. I find a herd of cows where a yearling runs thirty yards from me. Starts getting suspicious close to where I walked in and then yotes start howling to the west. The yearling decides the yotes were to blame and heads back to the herd. I sit for an hour anywhere from 60-100 yards from a herd of cows watching them feed but too open for me to stalk closer. Finally the lead cow calls the herd to bed for a day and they leave.

 

One evening I am sitting about a mile south of camp during the evening hunt. I have a ground blind I set up. I occasionally bugle and cow call hoping to ambush an elk on the way to a dry wallow. It was really dry as far as wallows and waterholes went. I look to the east and see a nice deer. I don't think too much about as I have a muzzle loader tag in a different unit a month later. I see a second buck and start watching them with 6-8 does. It hits me they are not mule deer. Antlers are main beams, tines without forks, ears are small, white around eyes and nose, and then the tail confirms it, COUES! I had them at 30 yards and was turning on the video when a doe behind me and slightly downwind bust me. They are gone burt not excited enough to give me the flag goodbye.

 

I go to the water tank one morning. I am sitting in a ground blind and from the early morning shadows three cows magically appear at the tank. They are skittish with one always having it's head up. They are feeding about 20 yards the other side of the tank 30 yards from me. I watch them waiting for a shot but they blow out. The wind was in my face and I had not moved so no idea why they blew out until about 20 minutes later a bear comes to the water. I watch him for about 15 minutes with a dead camera battery.

 

I go back to the dry wallow for an evening hunt the last night I am out. I am sitting in a ground blind dozing in the afternoon warmth waiting for the sun to go down and the elk to move. I notice something in the tall grass 100 yards south of me. I watch three coyotes jumping and pouncing as they hunt for field mice. They are out there for about an hour roaming and moving closer until the beginning of the story. One got upwind about five yards from the blind. The rangefinder would not tell me how far so I figured it was closer than 6 yards. That is when I stood up and coughed. The last night as I slept under the stars a bull bugled coming from the south wallow to the water tank. Soft and far away at first getting louder as I followed his bugles across the mesa to until he bugled crossing the road about 300 yards from camp and dropping into the canyon where the cows bed.

 

I put in for the draw and this year I hope to draw the same elk hunt but I put in for a Coues tag at the same time. Knowing my luck I will either draw a different elk hunt or just see mule deer. Either way I am going to start hunting them little deer.

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