Please help my scatter brain....

OP
Lostinthewoods
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
363
Location
Coast to coast
I guess I'll chime in from a different perspective. Which county in New Mexico will you be hunting? There is only 1 county in the entire state of NM that is noted for trophy class B&C muledeer on a regular basis. If the ranch is inside Rio Arriba County you may have struck gold. Obviously the timing of your hunt and location of the ranch may make or break bucks available. Is there migration or any other factors that may effect your hunt?

I consider myself a "trophy hunter" no matter what species I hunt. The first thing I do when researching a new species is to look at a B&C record sheet so I can properly judge and score the species. Next I look at as many photos, sheds, mounts, etc of B&C animals as possible. I put a tape on antlers to figure out what confirmation and measurements contribute most to the score. You will learn that long points, INSIDE spread, and main beam length all have significant bearing on muledeer score. Just because a buck is 30" wide doesn't mean he will score squat! I'd guess that 90% of muledeer hunters aren't aware that INSIDE spread and not OUTSIDE is the proper spread measurement for B&C muledeer, I've looked at enough trophy muledeer that I can instantly tell if a buck is 170 vs 180 vs 190+. Obviously if score isn't important to you it doesn't matter. If you are concerned at all with score you owe it to yourself to research and learn how to field judge and score muleys. If it doesn't matter look for an impressive buck, enjoy your trip, and let're rip!


Jimss,

This is Quay county. It's in the northern part of unit 40 right on the border of unit 41.
I had printed out the B&C sheet and started looking at lots of mule deer harvest threads, guess the score threads, and "how do you estimate mule deer score" threads. What I can tell you is I will probably not get within 5"....maybe not even 10" of the correct score, but I feel I can definitely tell the difference between a mature deer vs. immature. I also feel like I know what would push over 170".

I battled back and forth on what I wanted, but as it gets closer I am going in with Landyacht's mindset that "I'll know the buck when I see it."
Which based off a lot of the pictures that I've seen online, it's probably not going to be anything smaller than 160" just because anytime I saw one north of that it got me fired up. That doesn't mean I won't end up shooting a 150" freak horned buck, but with all I've been looking up, it seems like once they hit 160+" they get me excited.

On public land in 40 not many bucks are taken, but of the ones I've seen I don't think the unit generally carries much for width. I think the biggest one I've seen taken in there spread wise was 26". The one's I've seen pictures of taken from there go carry some decent mass.

The owner showed me one picture of a deer his family member shot and I think it would go mid 60s.
Then two years ago he said another family member shot one that was about 20" larger than that. I havent seen that picture yet.

I'll keep scouting it hard and trying to make a good plan, but with all of your guy's help and lots of thinking, I think I've got a solid idea of what I'm going into this hunt for.

Thanks for that link by the way. I've been on the site numerous times, but I have never come across that section.
Pretty cool to see where all the large bucks are coming from.... I have an elk tag for up there again this year. I always keep my eye out for large mule deer up there!
 

thom9719

FNG
Joined
Jun 7, 2017
Messages
1
Location
East west side
Shoot the first one you'd like to keep, bring a camera and go photo hunting for the rest of the time. That way you get meat in the freezer, get to keep "hunting" and learning the area (and the species). It also gives you some fun documentation of the trip for future reference during the non-hunting months!
 
OP
Lostinthewoods
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
363
Location
Coast to coast
Shoot the first one you'd like to keep, bring a camera and go photo hunting for the rest of the time. That way you get meat in the freezer, get to keep "hunting" and learning the area (and the species). It also gives you some fun documentation of the trip for future reference during the non-hunting months!

Hey, now that's a great idea!
Thanks thom9719!
 
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