Well, I am behind on posting again and have a few minor projects I should probably post on, but I'll start out with the results from my New Mexico hunting applications.
New Mexico isn't like most of the other Western states that work on a bonus point system where you have very limited chances to draw some of the tags in the best units until you "build points" by applying year after year and after a while you have so many points that you are almost guaranteed a tag. In New Mexico it is a pure lottery and someone applying for the first time ever has the same chances of drawing a tag as someone who has been applying for 20 years. Since I already had my Wyoming elk tag in my pocket, I figured I should at least start the process of applying in New Mexico, and since I already had one elk tag I decided to apply for some of the hardest units to draw a tag. That way if I drew I would be willing to put in the extra effort to work that extra hunt in. I applied for 2 super premium units with my 1st and 2nd choices with less than 2% draw odds, and then just for fun threw in a premium unit that had about 10% draw odds as my 3rd choice.
I figured I would also put in for an antelope tag in New Mexico since the drawing odds were so low (about 5%) that statistically I would need to put in for about 10 years before I got to a 50/50 chance of drawing one of those tags.
I also applied for a deer tag in the same unit that I hunted last year. I figured that way I wouldn't be limited to the private property I was hunting and if I saw a monster buck hanging out on state land I could go after it. The drawing odds were about 70% on that tag but I applied for a few super premium tags that had less than 1% draw odds as my 1st and 2nd choices and the unit I hunted last year as my 3rd choice.
Well, guess what? I ended up drawing all 3 tags the first year I applied! I got my 3rd choice for elk and deer and my 2nd choice for antelope! The red "unsuccessful" is from my oryx application earlier in the year. Here's the screen shot from the online draw results page.
New Mexico isn't like most of the other Western states that work on a bonus point system where you have very limited chances to draw some of the tags in the best units until you "build points" by applying year after year and after a while you have so many points that you are almost guaranteed a tag. In New Mexico it is a pure lottery and someone applying for the first time ever has the same chances of drawing a tag as someone who has been applying for 20 years. Since I already had my Wyoming elk tag in my pocket, I figured I should at least start the process of applying in New Mexico, and since I already had one elk tag I decided to apply for some of the hardest units to draw a tag. That way if I drew I would be willing to put in the extra effort to work that extra hunt in. I applied for 2 super premium units with my 1st and 2nd choices with less than 2% draw odds, and then just for fun threw in a premium unit that had about 10% draw odds as my 3rd choice.
I figured I would also put in for an antelope tag in New Mexico since the drawing odds were so low (about 5%) that statistically I would need to put in for about 10 years before I got to a 50/50 chance of drawing one of those tags.
I also applied for a deer tag in the same unit that I hunted last year. I figured that way I wouldn't be limited to the private property I was hunting and if I saw a monster buck hanging out on state land I could go after it. The drawing odds were about 70% on that tag but I applied for a few super premium tags that had less than 1% draw odds as my 1st and 2nd choices and the unit I hunted last year as my 3rd choice.
Well, guess what? I ended up drawing all 3 tags the first year I applied! I got my 3rd choice for elk and deer and my 2nd choice for antelope! The red "unsuccessful" is from my oryx application earlier in the year. Here's the screen shot from the online draw results page.
Needless to say I was pretty stunned to draw all 3 tags. The first thing I had to do is get a calendar out and figure out if any of the seasons actually overlapped each other or not. Thankfully everything actually fit on the calendar without overlapping and as of right now I actually think I'll be able to keep them on there.
I've never hunted elk in New Mexico and am not really familiar with the unit that I drew other than the drawing odds and harvest statistics so I'm working on getting more familiar as much as I can. I've put some overlays of public land maps onto Google Earth and have been scouting using my computer as much as possible. I've been searching for any tidbits of information I can find online and will probably make a trip over to scout in person sometime toward the end of the summer.
I'm going to have to make sure I have things taken care of at work this summer to be able to take so much time off this fall, but I think I can make it work. Of course I already had an extra week of vacation planned this summer visiting family in Kentucky so I'm going to find out how well I can organize getting everything completed on time!
Hopefully my luck will hold out and allow me to actually fill the tags this fall!
That's it for now. Nathan
I've never hunted elk in New Mexico and am not really familiar with the unit that I drew other than the drawing odds and harvest statistics so I'm working on getting more familiar as much as I can. I've put some overlays of public land maps onto Google Earth and have been scouting using my computer as much as possible. I've been searching for any tidbits of information I can find online and will probably make a trip over to scout in person sometime toward the end of the summer.
I'm going to have to make sure I have things taken care of at work this summer to be able to take so much time off this fall, but I think I can make it work. Of course I already had an extra week of vacation planned this summer visiting family in Kentucky so I'm going to find out how well I can organize getting everything completed on time!
Hopefully my luck will hold out and allow me to actually fill the tags this fall!
That's it for now. Nathan
No comments:
Post a Comment