Southern NM near Florida Mountains Advice

[Smith_Hunt]

Hello everyone! Long time reader, listener, and consumer of the forum, podcast, and show. I just moved from the Midwest land of white-tails to Western Texas to work at the local university. Started hunting 2 years ago after moving out of California for work (thanks goes to Randy learning to hunt, never knew a hunter growing up).

I drew my first out of state archery tag for any fork deer within the Florida mountains area to El Paso, TX. (suggested to avoid listing GMU)

Been out to scout a couple times during my two weeks since moving here and am prepping to go out for the season (Sept 1 - 24). I hiked around and glassed the Cox and Potrillo without any luck. As expected, this is very different country and hunting style than I am used too (tree stand the past 2 years).

I am considering checking out the East side of the Florida Mountains and planning to find a peak to glass from. While scouting, I continually had trouble getting good eyes out due to the rolling hills, brush, etc. The other problems I had was getting away from roads. As I hiked in, I kept running in to dirt bikes, roads, and some cattle etc. Does anyone have any advice, suggestion, tips, or experience they are willing to share? I would greatly appreciate any help or guidance. My goal and what I would consider a success is to get some eyes on a deer and *hopefully* attempt a stalk.

Thanks everyone!

 

[dwatling]

Welcome to HT! Those roads around the Florida's are pretty nasty. 4 wheeler recommended. Ive only been out there in January hunting ibex but saw a couple deer on the east side of the mountains like your planning. Not sure where they would be in September but if you can find some water they won't be too far away. It's dry out there.

 

[Smith_Hunt]

Welcome to HT! Those roads around the Florida's are pretty nasty. 4 wheeler recommended. Ive only been out there in January hunting ibex but saw a couple deer on the east side of the mountains like your planning. Not sure where they would be in September but if you can find some water they won't be too far away. It's dry out there.

Thanks for the advice! Been trying to find some watering holes on the maps with too much luck. Going to just have to hike and glass for deer as well as water now =) Luckily this is the rainy season it appears, hoping that some natural watering holes pop up.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Welcome to HT!

 

[Smith_Hunt]

Welcome to HT!

Thanks!!!

 

[kylemcintyre67]

Welcome to ht. I'm out here in the same boat with you. Been bouncing around the desert to the west of he Floridas today and I haven't seen anything. Took a 4 mile round trip into the carizarillo hills just west of Columbus this morning and all it got me was interviewed by the BP twice. I did spook up a small herd of antelope this afternoon. That kind of surprised me. Good luck.

 

[Smith_Hunt]

Welcome to ht. I'm out here in the same boat with you. Been bouncing around the desert to the west of he Floridas today and I haven't seen anything. Took a 4 mile round trip into the carizarillo hills just west of Columbus this morning and all it got me was interviewed by the BP twice. I did spook up a small herd of antelope this afternoon. That kind of surprised me. Good luck.

Thanks! Yeah I have been having similar experiences. Lets hope they're just waiting to put on a show tomorrow morning! Good luck!

 

[Smith_Hunt]

Update:

Went out and put some hours behind the glass. Saw one other group of hunters and that was about it. Saw more snakes than deer (5 vs 0).

ISSUE: I hiked to 4 different water sources, all of them were dry with no signs of recent use. I did see a water line running through the desert with a check value. Water was running through it, but all resivoirs were dry. Clearly, the lack of water means the area likely doesnt hold any deer. Is the lack of man-made water sources typical throughout the region or did I just luck out

 

[kylemcintyre67]

I did come across a small bachelor group of forkies to the south of Demming. I got in a hurry and blew the stalk. They are out there, the High Desert Outfitters guys were posting pics of one guys buck on fb, not sure what part of the unit it was in but it was nice. All of the tanks and water guzzlers out that way are full and flowing, but the deer were not around them. Also spotted several groups of does and fawns. i only found the one snake, and never did actually see him. The intensity of the rattle had me running on my toes for a few hundred yards to get clear. I'm headed back out Friday evening to give it another go.

 

[Smith_Hunt]

I did come across a small bachelor group of forkies to the south of Demming. I got in a hurry and blew the stalk. They are out there, the High Desert Outfitters guys were posting pics of one guys buck on fb, not sure what part of the unit it was in but it was nice. All of the tanks and water guzzlers out that way are full and flowing, but the deer were not around them. Also spotted several groups of does and fawns. i only found the one snake, and never did actually see him. The intensity of the rattle had me running on my toes for a few hundred yards to get clear. I'm headed back out Friday evening to give it another go.

Thanks for the update and good luck! I am with you on the snakes... haha Anyways, i appreciate you update and good luck this Friday! Let me know how it goes.

You have much luck hunting in the evening in the hot weather? This is by far the hottest environment I have been in. I have been going out primarily in the mornings because I figured the evenings they stayed bedded until nightfall (I hope I am wrong because then I can sneak out of work early and go every so often! =)

 

[kylemcintyre67]

I stayed at it sun up to sun down. The bucks I got into were up and feeding in the late morning. It was 930 when I first spotted them. They bedded down around 1130 or so before I blew them out. I spent the afternoons mostly covering ground in the truck and glassing hill sides looking for bedded bucks. I did see some doe movement even in the afternoons but not a lot. I know it was in the 90's all weekend but the wind was nice and cool so the morning hikes I went on were pretty great. I guess I have been down here long enough.

 

[prhunter]

PM me for some general info on the area.

 

[BrianID]

I've spent a fair amount of time in Unit 25. There are some nice bucks in the unit but the September archery hunt would be a challenging hunt. Overall the deer density is very low. Some areas are basically void of deer. There are more areas with water out there then you would think. If you see cows, there will be water somewhere near by. Send me a PM.

 

[Smith_Hunt]

Good call on the cows. Clearly I made a mistake as I saw some grazing cows and moved away figuring they competed with the deer.. I will ahve to rethink this now because thats a great point.