I'm really conflicted on which unit to apply for this year. Myself and a buddy are looking to do the January archery deer hunt. We don't need to kill monsters, anything around or above P&Y mins would be great. Really mostly looking for good opportunity, if we were trophy hunting we would be not be looking in any of these units.
I'm looking at 34, 36, 37 and wondering about 32 and 30. Here's what I can ascertain so far.
34 has a lot of public land. It can be rough and has some high mountains, but the elevation change within the unit means you are going to have to move around a bunch depending on snow fall amounts. The downside is they issue 800 tags for this unit! This means there could be a bunch of competition in the woods to find deer. There are also a lot of deer near town, but they probably don't venture far enough to get ventilated.
36 less public, state issues 300 tags. Both 34 and 36 border the Mescalero indian reservation. Less tags, less public land less people, still can be rough terrain.
37 has not much public land and only 200 tags. The advantage here is you have smaller isolated mountain ranges, so you can work a variety of elevations on the same mountain. Possible all the deer will be off public and on private.
These late hunts are around the time of the rut, so if you find does, you should be able to find bucks if the timing works out.
32 and 30 both are lower, flatter desert country. Both will have scattered deer that may be tough to locate.
Anyone late season archery hunted these units? What advantages/disadvantages?
I'm looking at 34, 36, 37 and wondering about 32 and 30. Here's what I can ascertain so far.
34 has a lot of public land. It can be rough and has some high mountains, but the elevation change within the unit means you are going to have to move around a bunch depending on snow fall amounts. The downside is they issue 800 tags for this unit! This means there could be a bunch of competition in the woods to find deer. There are also a lot of deer near town, but they probably don't venture far enough to get ventilated.
36 less public, state issues 300 tags. Both 34 and 36 border the Mescalero indian reservation. Less tags, less public land less people, still can be rough terrain.
37 has not much public land and only 200 tags. The advantage here is you have smaller isolated mountain ranges, so you can work a variety of elevations on the same mountain. Possible all the deer will be off public and on private.
These late hunts are around the time of the rut, so if you find does, you should be able to find bucks if the timing works out.
32 and 30 both are lower, flatter desert country. Both will have scattered deer that may be tough to locate.
Anyone late season archery hunted these units? What advantages/disadvantages?
