Deer Hunting in Unit 34 2011

In Texas now they build 8-10 ft. fences to keep the deer from escaping and then ride around in ATV's and run them down to shoot them. They call it " hunting" but that's now what I call it. Drive around central Texas and see how many farms and ranches have put in so-called "exotic" farms so they can build those fences. Have you ever seen an "exotic" deer? I haven't.

on the road going south out of Edgewood towards Carona I saw these animals that looked like gazels or something like them they had these two long pointed things that went strait up in the air about 2 feet long does anyone know what they are and are they native to NM do people hunt them they looked awsome?

I think you saw the Oryx (a species of Antelope) that we have in New Mexico. I believe they were brought over from Africa years ago & put on the White Sands Missile Base & they have thrived in NM. I've read they're sometimes called the Pronghorn Antelope. They seem to be cropping up in lots of NM places over the last few years. There might be a very short hunting season where you can hunt them on White Sands Missile Base land, but you'd have to check with them about that.

LibraK wrote:

I think you saw the Oryx (a species of Antelope) that we have in New Mexico. I believe they were brought over from Africa years ago & put on the White Sands Missile Base & they have thrived in NM. I've read they're sometimes called the Pronghorn Antelope. They seem to be cropping up in lots of NM places over the last few years. There might be a very short hunting season where you can hunt them on White Sands Missile Base land, but you'd have to check with them about that.

Thank You ,they are very interesting to look at.Now I remember that someone told me that years ago when I saw one in a restruant in Carrizozo.We saw Buffalo on the way to the Tramway in Albuquerque.I wonder if they were from here in the old days.we saw many of them in Wyoming.Our backyard looks like a warner bros cartoon as we have rabbits,roadrunners,skunks,the se little prairie dog looking chipmunk things and pegions and even seagulls It gives our dog a purpose in life chasing things.

sensible wrote:

In Texas now they build 8-10 ft. fences to keep the deer from escaping and then ride around in ATV's and run them down to shoot them. They call it " hunting" but that's now what I call it. Drive around central Texas and see how many farms and ranches have put in so-called "exotic" farms so they can build those fences. Have you ever seen an "exotic" deer? I haven't.

That's why I seldom hunt in Texas. Worse than the ATV's is shooting them under feeders. Regardless, there are places to hunt in the Palo Duro Canyon and West Texas where the ranches are "fair chase". Not everyone in Texas likes these fenced hunts and this is why my group (most of them from New Mexico originally) try to come back home to hunt and spend our money in the local communities. We have walked these mountains for years near Timberon and I shot the biggest deer I have ever killed walk hunting above Ben Williams Canyon--the same area where 8 of us saw 0 deer this year. If all the other hunters we talked to had not told us the same story about seeing no deer, we might have believed it was just us. However, before people go on this site with all their knowledge and criticisms, they might take a trip up to this area which is rather rugged and has few springs and see for themselves. All parts of the Forest are not the same.

Do you suppose the fires in the region and lack of rainfall have an effect on the game.Also is there any illness that would effect the birthrate.I have been reading about mountain lions or cougers in the region, could it be that the deer have run away from the preditors?I would like to ask a game warden or park ranger about this as I think they study this stuff. There is this one big buck deer that likes to watch me work in the Alto area near little creek and I can get about 50feet from him before he runs away otherwise he just likes to stare at me work for hours at a time.He looks very heathly but I have seen some skinny looking mule eared deer in the last few years.

Cope wrote:

Do you suppose the fires in the region and lack of rainfall have an effect on the game.Also is there any illness that would effect the birthrate.I have been reading about mountain lions or cougers in the region, could it be that the deer have run away from the preditors?I would like to ask a game warden or park ranger about this as I think they study this stuff. There is this one big buck deer that likes to watch me work in the Alto area near little creek and I can get about 50feet from him before he runs away otherwise he just likes to stare at me work for hours at a time.He looks very heathly but I have seen some skinny looking mule eared deer in the last few years.

The fires didn't go this far west. You may have a point with the mountain lions. We saw more tracks and droppings for cats and bears than we have ever seen before in this region. There was plenty of forage for deer. It was also strange that we did not see many elk--a total of 8. Usually, this area is running over with elk. We did see one disturbing animal off Lick Ridge Road--a feral hog. In this area, you could see where they had torn up a lot of land rooting around. If these get started as they have in Texas, they just take over and multiply faster than you can trap or shoot them. In the suburbs of Houston, they have hired professional trappers to try to get rid of them. So far, the hogs are winning the battle.

Let me know if you get to talk to any game rangers. Ask them about this area for me and the water. In the past, all the tanks have had water and we have seen a lot of deer.

My high school friend works for one of LBJ s propertys off of the Colorado River in the Hill Country and he killed one of those hogs you are talking about and it was about 7 feet long it was this big nasty looking thing.I don`t know if they are heathy to eat but if they are you could feed alot of hungry people.I would not want to confront one of them by mistake.I know that God made them and all that, but if you went out and got rid of all of them today ,I would be happy.I will try to get a Ranger to talk to me if I see one and try to find out what is going on.Back to the subject of Texas my friend took me to Cabela`s in Buda Texas and he bought these motion triggered cameras that you put one the areas that you want to monitor and then you can see wildlife movements.(also people too).they are a neat tool.

The hogs in the Sacramentos are well established, no getting rid of them now and they are very tasty!:)

Cope, those critters with long pointy horns and clown faces are Oryx, native to Africa but have run wild in NM since the 1960's. They bred much faster than expected due to little to no natural predators. Stay away from them, any critter that has to defend against lions will stomp a mud hole in your back side. "Pronghorns" are native to NM, they are small running 100 pounds, they have forked horns, orange color with white butts. One of the fastest critters on earth at 60mph+. Their skinny legs are stronger than a beef cows leg.

Last I heard we have around 8000 mountain lions in the state, each will kill a deer every 10 days or so. Do the math and you'll see why we don't have many deer between them and the drought conditions. Bobcats are capable of and do kill deer, we have a lot of them since the fur trade dropped off. Bears kill more elk than they do deer and put a huge dent in the spring calves.

The fires themselves are the best thing that can happen for wildlife and is as natural as rain. What's unnatural is our desire to suppress fires, no matter their cause.

90% of what's wrong with our forests and wildlife can be traced to the environmentalists and well intentioned but ignorant animal rights groups.....O.L.

I am learning alot of cool stuff,about NM wildlife.I have always liked the outdoors.I lived near the foothills in the Santa Monica Mountains for years( that is where they filmed MASH ,little house on the prairie,and the dukes of hazzard tv shows),so if you ever watched those shows you would regonize the terrian.It is all chaparral.the most dangerous animal there is the rattlesnake and mountain lion ,the bears just run away if they see you.Every once in a while someone gets eaten by a mountain lion and then the they go out and kill it if they can.When ever any group gets involved with something the loudest voices drown out the other voices.In Malibu Ca Barbra Streisand is buying up as much land as she can,but mostly she gives money to lawlers to make trouble for all her nieghbors regarding how the land should be used.One time this Actor named Martin Sheen had a rally to support homeless people then the very next week he had a rally to try to stop a huge housing development from being built.I cracked up when I read about it in the paper.So I agree with what you are saying.In NM it is so quiet that you can hear the air moving from birds wings .You can`t get that kind of quiet in most places.There is always this dull background noise that drowns out the sutle noises.You what else is cool about NM is the fact that at night you can see all the stars .along the coast there is a marine layer that blocks the sky.

I remember when CA outlawed cougar hunting. The thing about these top predators, if you don't hunt them they lose their fear of man and begin looking at us as dinner. Which I'm all for personally. Now that the average person can't go buy a license and hunt lions, the game dept pays private folks to kill them and they kill more lions now then they did when they allowed public hunting. When that side thinks they are doing something "good", the opposite happens because they don't understand nature. We pay those with degrees in biology and other disiplines to manage our wildlife then let activists influence political views and ignore the experts we (hunters) pay good money for. By the way lions (mountain lions, cougars, puma, whatever name you want to call them) from an table fare standpoint is as good as the best veal you ever had.

What many don't know, Jaguars are being seen in NM on an increasing basis.......O.L.

I worked on a Navy base in Ventura and I met these guys who had these advanced degrees .All they did was go out and pick up dead birds ,fish and other wildlife and put them in a freezer and then studied them to determine the cause of death to see if it was related to events on the base.That was the best job on the base as far as I could tell.Easy money!