NM Mule Deer "what am I missing"

Question for experienced New Mexico mule deer hunters. In my personal opinion it seems that many New Mexico mule deer hunters on this site have extremely negative reviews reguarding the quality of hunting in New Mexico. I have hunted many western states for mule deer and I am fairly experienced in doing proper research in learning about unknown units. Every year I create a spreadsheet of plans for mule deer hunting for the current year. When it comes to doing my research I find nothing but fair draw odds and fairly good harvest success in many of New Mexico's mule deer units. Yes, there seem to be less photos of trophy mule deer coming out of New Mexico, "than say Co" but I still find a few.
I guess my question is why is there so many very negative reviews regarding New Mexico's mule deer on this site but yet I find nothing but optimistic information every else I look???
What am I missing???
I have never hunted New Mexico and have never even put in for the draw mostly because of what I see Here.

Ahhh!!! So it's working!!! Well, continue to not put on for the draw here please!!!

>Ahhh!!! So it's working!!!
>Well, continue to not put
>on for the draw here
>please!!!

Very possible, one of my good hunting spots, I to this day can not find a positive thing anywhere online or by anyone who hunted there and have had great results.

So I could believe it to be true!!

I think most of it has to do with a decline that many of us are witnessing.

I would say that these are the good old days of elk hunting, but deer is just not as I've seen it in years past.

Yes, many units have gotten better and better for elk over the years and worse and worse for deer.

IMO 36 is kinda like that.

With the habitat the state has there is no reason it shouldn't be producing slammer bucks all over like AZ or CO.

I think its too many tags personally. Which is fine if you are in the north and shooting CO's deer, but not fine anywhere else....

I'll say it again.
NM used to have the Best mule deer in the country,IMHO Quality & quantity.
Not now.Not near.
Elk is a different story.

I could easily fill a tag with a decent buck or two every year in CA too.Still deer there but quality has gone down too.

UT went south too.I used to see 10 big bucks a day in old days.

Come to NM and enjoy your trip.Just don't be bummed if you only take a dink while jostling with others.

Look at the thread in the NM forum entitled "16 success rate for deer". All your questions will be answered there. I've hunted deer in NM all my life. I hunt every species in NM and deer is my least favorite by leaps and bounds. Honestly, I would rather hunt Javelina than deer. Just me...but that's how bad my deer hunts have been. Very few deer, no quality left and way to many people. Yes good bucks are killed each year and yes people will argue against it, but the reality is our deer herd is in major decline and has been since for a decade or more. I live work and spend a tremendous amount of time out and about in the southern units of this state. In most areas, you'll be lucky to see a handful of deer during a hunt and finding a quality buck takes scouting, miles and miles of walking and boot leather and even more skill and patience. The deer just aren't around. If you're willing to shoot a forkie, you can probably tag out. If you're after a big quality mature buck, you'll struggle in most units. If you're after a 180-200" buck, you better have some help, time to spend, money to invest and be lucky in the draw.

Now if you live in unit 5 or 2b in Nov-Jan, I'm sure you'll argue the opposite, but that's not the norm in this state.

Pretty simple really--over last 16 years since I've moved here, I've seen huge declines in both quality and quantity.

LAST EDITED ON Feb-02-17 AT 07:31PM (MST)[p]DoeNob has it right on unit 36. Last Thursday we took the horses and hounds up into the wilderness from day light to dark looking for a cat. Covered a lot of country and never saw a deer.