NM GMU 47

[JoPark55]

Hello all,

My dad drew an Antelope tag for August 24-26 in Unit 47. He lives in TX and I live here in NM, so I will be the one doing most of the research for his hunt. This is the first year that they do not assign you a private ranch to hunt, and can only hunt the public land. I have OnX and have stared looking into how and where to hunt this unit. Its looking like the northern part of the unit has most of the very limited public land (state land). Has anyone hunted this unit on Public land? Is it feasible to think there is enough public land to fill a tag? Should he be looking into having an outfitter who may have access to private ranches as well as the state trust land? Any help would be appreciated.

Hope you all had/have more luck than I did drawing tags this year.

 

[EliAGrimmett]

We used to hunt the Smith Ranch and the Craft Ranch in the north eastern corner of the unit. There are quite a few antelope up there. I don't remember exactly where the public land was, but I'm sure you can access some of it and find some bucks to chase. You probably won't be chasing any monsters. Typically they had smaller heads and bodies than most antelope and looked bigger than they were. Good luck.

 

[pojoaque40]

Hi Jo-

I haven't hunted 47 before, but i'll be there for the archery hunt Aug 4-12. I was thinking the NE quadrant as well, maybe the around the canyon. I'll post an update after my hunt.

 

[JoPark55]

Hi Jo-

I haven't hunted 47 before, but i'll be there for the archery hunt Aug 4-12. I was thinking the NE quadrant as well, maybe the around the canyon. I'll post an update after my hunt.

Sounds good. I am gonna try to get a few days up there with boots/truck on the ground and get a better lay of the land. If I get up there and figure some things out Ill shoot you a message if its before your hunt.

Thanks

 

[3855WIN]

Does NM no longer award tags for a certain ranch? Are the ranches now getting more tags?

 

[JoPark55]

They no longer assign you a ranch to hunt. You now can buy an over the counter tag for private land only. Fish and Game is now letting the landowners manage the Antelope for lack of better terms.

 

[Blackcats06]

We used to hunt the Smith Ranch and the Craft Ranch in the north eastern corner of the unit. There are quite a few antelope up there. I don't remember exactly where the public land was, but I'm sure you can access some of it and find some bucks to chase. You probably won't be chasing any monsters. Typically they had smaller heads and bodies than most antelope and looked bigger than they were. Good luck.

Eli, couple questions if you don’t mind. Is unit 59 in the same ballpark as 47 with smaller heads, bodies and horn size? Have you guys hunted 59 in the past?

Also , what do you think will happen to size quality with an unlimited amount of private land tags available.

Thanks.

 

[EliAGrimmett]

We've only hunted the far western edge of 59. I remember that we killed a buck that looked 90 and scored 85 and that was our biggest buck up in that country. I can't speak to the rest of the area, but I'd guess it's similar.

As for what will happen - that's a tough question. I know everyone thinks it'll just go downhill, but there's too many variables to know for sure.

In the areas in the west there's very little private land. If those ranchers sell unlimited tags there won't be anywhere for hunters to hunt and it won't affect the antelope population. I can see a situation where those hunters might try to hunt on public land and get cited from G&F if they aren't fully aware of how things have changed.

In the north east (and other big blocks of private) I kind of think ranchers will do the same as they've always done because that's what they're used to doing. There's several ranches up in that country already that get 20-50 tags each year and only hunt 10-12 of them. Unlimited for them wouldn't change anything.

There might be a few ranchers that try to give out as many tags as possible, but how long can that really last? None of those hunters would come back to that ranch the next year after a botched hunting experience because of the crowded area. And then the rancher would have to try to sell his access to an entire new group the following year and repeat that every year. Most ranchers like to try to get leased in with an outfitter to avoid having to go through that every year. And the outfitters aren't going to screw themselves by hunting too many hunters. The smaller ranches that only get a couple tags might try to do that, but they'll have the issue again of too many hunters with too little land to hunt and the bucks will probably just move to the neighboring ranches.

The problem is going to come up I think with ranches that are 50/50 public to private where the public access is land locked. They'll be able to lock their gates, keep everyone out, and possibly hunt the entire ranch without hassle. I have no idea how G&F would enforce those hunters to only hunt private land.

I think congregating the public hunters onto only the public land could create an issue if too many bucks get harvested from certain areas where there's no real funnel for other bucks to move into the area. Those areas, if the public hunters know about them, will get wiped out pretty quickly - at least for good bucks and genetics.

The biggest issue (as far as quality) that nobody seems to acknowledge is that all the hunts are now before the biggest bucks get to breed. I know some of the biologists I've talked to seem to think it doesn't matter, but I disagree because of what I've seen happen in a lot of areas. Now it seems all the best bucks will be gone and then the smaller and less mature bucks will do most of the breeding each year. I'd think that in 4 years, when they're able to change the system again, the genetics might take a hit.

But only time will tell