Good muley units in NM

Hello All,

My friend and I are long time hunters and have recently decide to do expedition style hunts. For our first hunt we are going to apply for mule deer in NM. Neither of us have ever hunted mule deer or New Mexico. I was wondering if any of you would be willing to help us narrow down or units. We are not looking for huge trophy muleys, but we would like to know which units offer decent draw odds and the chance to see lot of animals and POTENTIALLY some nice bucks. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you describe and "expedition style" hunt to me? I grew up in NM and still apply there every year.

patxarano...Sorry if that was confusing. It's just a backpacking hunt. We want to go somewhere we can hike in a mile or 2, set up a camp and hunt out of the camp for a few days. We would move the camp as necessary to find animals. So, it's just a backpack camping hunt. We just have no idea where to go as far as units.

>patxarano...Sorry if that was confusing. It's
>just a backpacking hunt. We
>want to go somewhere we
>can hike in a mile
>or 2, set up a
>camp and hunt out of
>the camp for a few
>days. We would move the
>camp as necessary to find
>animals. So, it's just a
>backpack camping hunt. We just
>have no idea where to
>go as far as units.
>


Unit 45 pecos wilderness. Good draw odds and decent amount of deer. Good "expedition"type unit.

Hey Swampokie, thanks for the info! It's much appreciated

I have only hunted NM once, and it was the worst deer hunt I have ever had anywhere. The forest service was actively eliminating deer habitat by burning off all the underbrush and leaving nothing but ponderosa pines with grass under them. It was good for cattle and elk, but not for deer.

People we talked to said it used to be good deer hunting in that area, but not anymore. We asked a forest service man who was doing a controlled burn on some underbrush where the deer are and he said "there are no deer, I repeat, there are no deer".

There was exactly one nice deer shot in the whole area. It was shot right at the crack of dawn on opening morning, and shot right from the road about a mile from where we were camped. I guess somebody had him pegged ahead of time. Other than seeing that one after it was dead, we didn't see anything bigger than a small three point during the whole hunt.

We lost a ball joint on the truck 30 miles from the nearest paved road and 50 miles from the nearest town. We ended up wiring it together to get out of there and ended up having to drive 150 miles to the nearest place where we could get it fixed. That was quite an experience and it cost us the last 2 days of the hunt.

Good Muley unit in NM ? Decent draw odds ? Wow... you need to find another State. No even fair units left anymore and draw odds of nada For a NR
Don't waste your time/money unless you can afford private land.
Best unit is 3 but will set you back 35 or 40k
Jack

Idaho