TAM

Treestandman already knows my guess, but just for the record I'll post it here. 87 3/8" gross B&C.

I'm sticking with my .270 Weatherby Mag. 130 grains at 3400 fps out the barrel is like hitting those little guys with a bolt of lightning! They never take another step.

What will the main methods of hunting be? Glassing open hill sides a mile away or stalking through the trees hoping to jump a deer? In general what is the type of terrain on the ranch? If you don't have pictures of deer perhaps you could post some pictures of the terrain and landscape to give us a better idea what type of hunt it would be. Thanks.

I'll bet that squirrel tastes just like chicken!!!

Because of our mild winters here in Arizona bears don't always go into a full on hibernation like they do in most other parts of the country. On years like this one where the weather is warm and there is little if any snow they will stay active. Pregnant sows will den up to give birth and the boars will den up during the cold spells but it is not uncommon to see bear activity in Arizona year round. Nice pic's!

Pack your bow and sidearm into the field on any archery big game hunt and just tell the game warden you are varmit hunting. Coyote season is year round and you can legally use a gun or bow.

What an awesome buck!!!! He really has that old gnarly look going for him. Sundevil, I agree with your estimates, but you forgot to factor in the cheaters. I think I can see at least 2-3 inches from the picture and if there are additional stickers we still can't see as was mentioned in the original post then I think it's possible for this buck to hit the 120 gross mark. But..............you never know for sure till you put him on the ground. Good luck!

Not me, mine says BULZEYE.

If you "smoked him" on the 2nd shot why did you even take a 3rd, 4th, 5th, and last shot?

If you do go chances are you won't see a lot of deer. Especially compared to Utah. Deer numbers are pretty low in this unit but the genetics tend to be very good. I've personally gone several days without seeing any deer at all. Good luck!

I'll just add that in my two years of experience with several models of trail cameras (both film and digital) you will always get some false pic's. There is not much way around it. In my best guess I'd say as many as 10-15% could be nothing. If you are getting any more than that you may want to tweak your set up.

I think there are a lot of factors that can move the "peak" of the rut forward or backward by a few days each year. In my experience I've found the peak of the rut to be about the first week of January. Could change a little each year or vary by location, but if you plan for that time frame you should see some real good rutting activity. Good luck!

I'd hunt the first week of January if I were you.

I don't know the first thing about NM unit 24. I do know that several of the areas we hunt coues in Arizona are unglassable. At least as far as the high power binos are concerned. In heavy forrested areas you just can't glass for deer that are a mile away like in more open country. Look at some of the pictures that I've posted on the trail camera section of the photogallery and notice that the majority of them are in the tall pines. Also look at the trailcam discussion board and look at the pictures posted with the non typical big elk. We have two 100 bucks coming into that same salt lick. We hunt the thick areas from tree stands. Perhaps NM unit 24 is this type of terrain?

Yep it's salt. We usually use salt pellets and powdered deer cocaine. You can't see it very well in the pic's but right in the middle of the salt pile is a purple colored rasberry flavored salt block. The elk really seem to like it while the deer seem to prefer regular salt.

Jamaro, At this point I'm not sure what ranch we've been assigned to or even when we will find out. This area was our second choice, we applied for the Gila as first. I'm not too picky though, I'll shoot the first one I see over 90 inches!

I drew the general antelope hunt for the NE portion of the state. Anyone have any experience with how NM assigns ranches? They sure have a goofy way of distributing antelope tags. Does anyone know if the NE part of the state lives up to NM's reputation of monster bucks?

I don't think that the bucks are actually coming into the salt during the rut. I think the does are still coming into the salt and the bucks will follow the does. Also, yes carp will hit salt just like whiteys. We've got recent trail camera pic's of carp at a salt hole.

I think a common problem with hunting water is that a buck may hit a tank almost every day early in the summer, but as the monsoons hit there peak in mid to late August water sources increase and deer don't need to hit the tanks as often.

Treestandman and myself have several active salt licks that get hammered by deer. A couple of them get very very little buck action throughout the year and the bucks only show up during the rut. We have a couple that get visited regularly by good bucks throughout the entire year, and we have at least one that gets a lot of small to medium bucks year round but good bucks during the rut. We also have a few tanks that have good bucks visiting on a consistant basis throughout the summer, and other tanks that seem like they should produce good bucks that rarely get hit. We know this information because we have trail cameras on them for months at a time and are constantly monitoring the activity year round. To answer your question... either (salt or water). Set up over which ever stand the big deer are coming into. Spend the time scouting or invest in a trail camera. I already know which stands I'll be hunting from in August and one is over water, and one is over salt. Bucks will come into both at that time of year.

I got hit on Friday evening for $196. Looks like I'll be going to NM to rifle hunt antelope. I wish they'd post the results so I can see what uint I'll be hunting.

I can't remember, does NM usually post their results early or are they like Utah and stick to the date in the regulations?

That's weird about the battery. I've had mine out for three weeks with the same battery and it still had some juice left. In that same period it took well over 300 pictures. I got the solar panel anyway just so I wouldn't have to keep changing batteries.

It's one of the new Moultrie digital's. I got it at sportsmans warehouse for $165, but I've seen them since then on ebay for $139. It's only a 1.3 megapixl, but it still takes good pictures and the video feature is pretty cool as well. If you give me your email address I'd be happy to send you some samples. It takes one of those big 6 volt batteries which last about a month and costs about $3.50 each and they also have an option where you can buy a rechargable battery and solar charger so the battery will basicly go on forever without replacing it. It's not going to take the quality of picture to win any awards, but it will do just fine helping me find a big buck to put an arrow in this fall.

I just got a new trail camera set up that takes 10 second video clips. So far I've gotten about 100 clips. Nothing to great because all the bucks have dropped their antlers. It adds a new dimension to trail cameras.