akhi5676

Well here I am 3 days and a wake up away from the opener of my first bow season. I am in full on freak out mode right now and could use some of the collected hunting wisdom.

For the background, I have an archery FAD tag in New Mexico unit 25. This is the area on the Mexican border south and west of I10 out to almost Lordsburg. The unit itself is rocky/ sandy desert scrub terrain around 3500-4000 feet with sporadic mountain ranges up to around 5500 feet on average. There is a large volcanic flow area as well. I am taking my last pto day on Tuesday so this will be a four day hunt. The unit was an easy draw because it has very low success rates and almost no non-residents apply. I am mentally prepared for tag soup, but I would like to at least get eyes on deer and hopefully attempt stalking a couple.

I live in El Paso close to the unit and had originally blocked out 4 weekends to scout. Life, as it does, got in the way and my scouting has been limited to a couple afternoons of mostly driving around and seeing where I can get to in my truck. Depending on the rain this week that may have changed some. I will be camping out of my truck and I am in shape enough that hiking a few miles won't be a problem. I have had time to do plenty of map recon, and have some areas picked out. My anxiety lies with the fact that I have not seen any more sign of deer in the few spots I have looked than some very dry scat.

This is where you all come in, I am going to lay out my plan for this opening weekend and let you all point out what I may be missing or doing wrong.

My initial focus area is a spot out near Columbus. There is a small mountain range with several water tanks for cattle and a small agricultural area within 2 miles. I will drive out Friday evening after work and plan to camp in a spot about a mile from one of the tanks. Opening day is Sunday so I will have Saturday to get to know the area. I have spot picked out to hike in before sun up on Saturday that should give me a good vantage on the north facing slopes and draws of this small range. I plan to spend the morning glassing the area for movement. I will spend the warmer parts of the day hiking around to the water tanks and checking for sign. I am not sure how important the water tanks will be as there has been a fair bit of rain out there this monsoon season. My plan gets a little more vague after Saturday and this is where I am looking for advise. If you were in my shoes, would you sit the water tanks? Would you glass the range and move on to a different area if there was no movement? Would you even go about it this way at all?

I will have two more weekends after that as well, and I plan to let the results of this weekend dictate my approach to them. I feel like spending more than Saturday and Sunday on this spot would be a waste if I haven't seen any deer by then. I have some areas to the northwest of Columbus in the Cedar range area as a tentative backup plan. I really have no idea how close I can get out there. Any and all advise is appreciated.

MudderChuck

Don't really know your area, the availability of water, etc. But as a general rule in desert or semi-arid country, they forage at night, spend the days in the draws between the hills, overhead cover if possible. Where I hunted they tended to drink the last thing before heading to bed (daylight).

I'd set up at the base of the draws evenings and on water mornings. Trying to stalk the draws late morning and catching one asleep can happen.

You might want to take a rake with you, sounds funny, but raking the likely paths near the base of the draws and near water shows up fresh tracks really well.

Don't forget your snake proof gators or snake boots.

CalHunter

Let us know how it works out. Always fun to read about others' hunts.