Silly New Mexico question

[JohnCushman]

I've been researching New Mexico hunting websight and am thinking about putting in for a pronghorn hunt in the next year or two. There's a couple of units that I'm looking at because of higher tag allotments and draw odds. My question is this.....

On the map where you can click on individual hunting units and it's got a color coded lay out of the unit that pops up in another window. There is a blue shaded area that in the key says 'state land'. Does that 'state land' mean it's public land to hunt on?

The units that have the larger tag allotments seem to have more of the blue 'state land' areas in the unit maps.

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

im not sure of the state land issue,,,however most non-res draw odds are gonna be 40% less tag alotment because of there senate bill they passed last year for us d.i.y. hunters,that should effect the tag draw considerably.6% tag allocation for d i y non-res.

 

[WapitiBob]

NM handles their State lands a little funny. They are off limits unless you have a permit. The Game dept has negotiated an all encompassing permit for hunters so you can hunt that land.

 

[JohnCushman]

Thanks. I didn't see anything on the websight about a permit for land access. I'll go back and check it out.

 

[bulls1]

You don't need to get a permit. He was implying that the g&f gets a permit from the state land office. You can hunt any state land so long as you have a valid permit and there is access from other public land. If the state land in question is surrounded by private, they do not have to allow access, and generally won't. There is no camping allowed on state land unless you have written permission from the lessee.

 

[JohnCushman]

Thank you!! A couple of the units I like are within 2 hours from where I live in CO, so I was thinking about checking the situation out.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

You must be talking about the area down south of Raton and west of Clayton where there should be a decent number of goats if you can draw the tag.

 

[JohnCushman]

South of Raton and east of 25

 

[drthornton]

John,

Are you looking for an archery or rifle hunt? For archery you can hunt all the blue and orange(if there is any) in the area you are looking...also note you cannot camp on the blue. For rifle, you are assigned a private ranch and cannot hunt the public.

 

[JohnCushman]

I would put in for both rifle and archery for better chances of drawing a tag. Where can I camp? lol

 

[schmalts]

John, almost all pulic land regardless of where it is in that area will be off limits during a rifle hunt unless you are are assinged to that area or ranch. Archery is different though. But what usually happens is the F&G will lump some private and public together into a "ranch" and send you a map. You dont know where and how big it will be when you apply so it is kind of a strange thing.

 

[drthornton]

You can camp on BLM(orange) and National Forest(green). Last year during archery I camped on the only little piece of BLM around...I think it was only a 40 or 80. You could also ask permission to camp from a landowner. I asked the warden last year about it...he laughed and said "I'll give you his number but he is not too keen on hunters".

 

[JohnCushman]

New Mexico sounds more and more like a pain in the ass...lol

 

[drthornton]

Oh yeah another bad thing about the changes this year in New Mexico is the leftover Outfitter tags now go to the resident pool. In the past they have gone to the non-res pool which helped out in the eastern units during archery.