Unit 24 Management Hunt

[PthLesTrvld]

Howdy everyone. My father and I hunted this fall in unit 24. Unfortunately, it was a lack luster year for mule’s even as the locals saw it. Saw several young forties but never a shooter. By the time we decided it best to fill the freezer we couldn’t close the deal on any of the forkies either. Was still a memorable hunt with my father and met a few new fellow hunters.

Both my father and I have the military deer tags and on it we have the option to return in Jan-Feb for a doe management hunt in a “management area”. Looking at the map it’s 90% private with a few patches of BLM around Pinos Altos. However, all the roads going into BLM appear to run through private.

Anyone hunted this in the past or have intel on where to start or even the insight to say “not worth the time”; we’d greatly appreciate it. Just looking to put meat back in the freezer. Cheers.

 

[Muleman]

It’s not worth the time if you don’t have private to hunt on. If you do it’s a easy hunt. Hunt was designed to allow Land owners to have deer killed on their property since there is a ton of deer in town.

 

[Reuben_Soady]

Last minutes of the season, driving along one of those more-rural city streets just starting on the 5-hour drive home:

"Dad, can I shoot that buck?"
"Well, what's in front of and behind your target."
"Just that house."

"And what about trespassing?"
"Can we knock on the door and ask?"
"And what happens if you hit the buck and it jumps that fence before it dies?"
"Do we have to ask the neighbor too?"

 

[PthLesTrvld]

It’s not worth the time if you don’t have private to hunt on. If you do it’s an easy hunt. Hunt was designed to allow Land owners to have deer killed on their property since there is a ton of deer in town.

As sensible as that sounds the tags don’t go to the land owners and the city perimeters are not included. Likely the larger land owners, ranches, and trusts beyond.

If these owners are having such issues with deer then I would hope the D of G&F would have a contact list for those wanting such animals depleted to have those who’ve drawn these tags to help “manage” the deer numbers. I’ll attempt calling the district office there or Gila.

Thank you Muleman for you’re insight.

 

[PthLesTrvld]

Hey y’all,

As I’ve been working on getting more intel about this hunt I was blessed to have been approached about a cow elk hunt for disabled veterans and got a tag for Unit 15 this week. Anyone have any recent knowledge on the road conditions within the unit? I plan to head down there Monday and see that it’s gonna rain this weekend. I have chains, winch, and some recovery gear but not sure if this would all be necessary for the area. Anyone’s experience with the unit would be appreciated.

 

[PthLesTrvld]

Well,

Roads were pretty bad throughout the area we hunted and capitalized on the freeze in the morning to move into areas we wanted to hunt in the morning. The elk were ranged in pockets. If anyone has the next muzzy feel free to PM me and I can share where we were finding the animals and likely camp sites.