Thoughts on what NM unit for Barbary sheep

[ClarkW]

I have applied randomly for years for barbary sheep in New Mexico as they have always had my interest. All I have heard is how hard they are to locate on public lands in NM, but I am unable to fund a Texas free range hunt at 4-5k. I'm looking for anyone with experience with the NM units that could point me to the best unit to find sheep in for the upcoming draw. I am juts hoping that when I finally draw a tag that I'm in a unit that has a realistic chance of finding sheep to hunt. I have even had a game manager from over there tell me that 1 unit (34) has less than 10 sheep in it. Pretty tough to expect a real chance to fill a tag in that case. Thanks for any advise, tips or info.

[hunter4life]

Both of the draw hunt areas have huntable numbers of sheep on public land. I think they are about equal in terms of quality of hunt.

The OTC areas have fewer numbers and are more hit or miss. They are getting more difficult to find every year because many people go out and kill the ewes in these areas, but I guess that is the goal of G&F and making them OTC.

Texas also has some self-guided hunts that are in the 2K range that people seem to be having good success on. I have not done any of these myself.

[davidkucharik]

I cant remember the unit number, but when I lived in Alamogorgo, if you went south on HWY 54 and turned down road 506( its the road that has the border patrol check station on it) go over the railroad tracks, and its about 20 miles or so befor you are OFF McGreggor range and onto public land. Theres a lot of Antelope out there as well. But the road splits and one goes to Pinon, and the other goes somewhere else. But at the base of those hills/mountains I always found a heard of sheep while I was hunting Oryx or coyotes. Theres also sheep on McGreggor range, but you need a person with access. And I was told, but never seen any, that around silver city there is sheep.

[davidkucharik]

google map

owen prather HWY

orogrande NM

that is 506

And I believe that is all unit 34

[Rromero84]

On 5/18/2017 at 12:10 PM, davidkucharik said:

google map

owen prather HWY

orogrande NM

that is 506

And I believe that is all unit 34

 

On 5/18/2017 at 11:59 AM, davidkucharik said:

I cant remember the unit number, but when I lived in Alamogorgo, if you went south on HWY 54 and turned down road 506( its the road that has the border patrol check station on it) go over the railroad tracks, and its about 20 miles or so befor you are OFF McGreggor range and onto public land. Theres a lot of Antelope out there as well. But the road splits and one goes to Pinon, and the other goes somewhere else. But at the base of those hills/mountains I always found a heard of sheep while I was hunting Oryx or coyotes. Theres also sheep on McGreggor range, but you need a person with access. And I was told, but never seen any, that around silver city there is sheep.

Hello, I was wanting to get my little boy an OTC sheep tag this year being that neither him nor I drew anything in the NM draw this year! Any info on where we can possibly get on some sheep in OTC hunt would be awesome!