Guadalupes-Unit 30

[stevie]

Hello NM hunters. I'm new here but have been hunting NM for about 25 years. I began hunting muzzleloader in the Guadalupes in 1994. The hunting as great then, but it went steadily downhill with the drought. No doubt you all noticed the same trend throughout Southern NM. I went back this year for a primitive muzzloader hunt. I hunted 5 days and saw 3 does and 3 spikes.

I am not a great hunter, but a rather a guy who loves to hunt. But I at least used to find many does, many small bucks and a few decent bucks in this unit. It appears that the Guads have a long way to go in recovering from the drought.

Anyone have any better reports about Unit 30?

 

[Cookie2]

They still have a good ways to go to get back to the eighties numbers but they are making a pretty good comeback. I haven't been up there this year but in February I saw a couple of fair bucks off the rim. Maybe things are starting to come back, and maybe the lions moved on to somewhere with more deer!

 

[NMHUNTNUTT1]

Cookie2 you said a key word , "lions". I know some hound doggers often say lions have a smaller effect on deer than we think , but I do believe thats an area where lions do have a huge impact on the deer....

 

[Cookie2]

I'm gonna put in some serious time up there after the first of the year trying to put a tag on one of those bad boys! Gotta do something till the bulls drop their horns!

 

[stevie]

Something of great interest however did happen on our muzzleloader hunt in Unit 30. A member of our party ran into a HUGE BULL ELK. He counted 7 points on one side, but did not get to count the other before the bull took off. He had several cows with him. My buddy said this elk was truly jaw dropping and no hunter on earth would pass him up.

My dad also saw an elk, a cow, earlier the same day.

It is true that the National Park has some elk. However, these elk were about 500 yards from the ranger station near Queen. Another member of our party has been hunting that same area for over 50 years and has never seen an elk.

My guess is that they wandered down from the Sacramentos.

 

[NMHUNTNUTTG]

Wouldn't surprise me in the least to see elk outin that desert.Unit 38 right out of Corona now has a pretty decent elk herd and grows some giants bulls.10 years ago, elk talk in this unit would have been laughed about....

 

[Bigbuck9]

My buddy has pictures of elk all the way down in the desert south east of Queens in some draw, I want to say black water but I can't remember for sure. They saw them a couple years in a row about 6-8 years ago.

 

[Texasdeerhunter]

Hello, Well i had a little diffrent than u all had i guess went up on the first rifle hunt saw nothing but bucks and no does. Shot a 4x4 on opening day and saw about 12 nice bucks all day which 5 had at least 22 inch spreads. The problem with this unit is know one wants to get out and walk.Have hunted this unit for about 10 years near Queens and i have to say the unit has gotten alot better. Let u know how we do on the secound hunt with my dad. And about the mountain lion problem i was talking to a ranger about that and he was telling that they had trapped 30 lions out of that area last year so that should help a lot. Hope u all have better luck next time, Thanks

 

[qbeamit]

i hunted it last year and barely saw anything. saw some does, biggest buck was a spike all week.

plenty of snakes though.

 

[stevie]

Well qbeamit, apparently we both should have gotten out and walked more.

 

[qbeamit]

you can only walk so much...i made a pretty new pair of boots look like they were 10 years old.

needed a horse.

 

[Cookie2]

LAST EDITED ON Dec-25-07 AT 09:58PM (MST)[p]I posted in the Photography forum what I saw yesterday....all unit 30. Hey stevie, look familiar?
Under photo safari...

 

[stevie]

Cookie2,

That certainly does look familiar.

I too was in Unit 30 last weekend hunting quail. While there I saw something that I did not see much of during deer season...DEER. I saw 27 in a day and a half. One buck was real nice, about the same as the nice one you photographed.