Mescalero Rez Hunting in New Mexico

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Jstocks
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Joined: July 16th, 2017, 5:27 pm

Mescalero Rez Hunting in New Mexico

Post by Jstocks »

Anyone ever hunted at the Mescalero reservation? I was looking at Inn of the Mountain Gods Website. Just curious if anyone has any first hand experience there.
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GobbleNut
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Joined: July 15th, 2011, 8:58 am

Re: Mescalero Rez Hunting in New Mexico

Post by GobbleNut »

Yes,...I have hunted it numerous times. Good hunt, but the permits are limited and by drawing, and the drawing does not occur until mid-March,...which makes it difficult for out-of-staters to make plans for the hunt when they won't know if they drew for a couple of weeks before the hunt. In addition, it is $250 for one bird with the hunts being only three days long. The hunting is at altitudes between 7,000 and 10,000 feet which means there is always the possibility of a blizzard coming in during the hunt. Hit it wrong and you can spend the entire hunt holed up in camp hoping for a break in the weather.
hookspur
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Joined: August 15th, 2011, 6:12 pm

Re: Mescalero Rez Hunting in New Mexico

Post by hookspur »

I hunted it in 1990. It was only a hundred bucks back then, and in a single word, the hunt was phenomenal!!! I'm not sure now many gobbling turkeys I heard during those 3 magical days, but it must've been close to 200. It was also the first time I'd ever been in "real" elk country. There were elk EVERYWHERE, and even that early in spring you could tell a bunch of them were monsters! I think an elk hunt back then was $15,000; you couldn't shoot anything less than a 5 x 5; and they were running 98% success rate for the past 20 years.
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RapscallionVermilion
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Joined: February 17th, 2013, 4:24 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Mescalero Rez Hunting in New Mexico

Post by RapscallionVermilion »

I drew to hunt there last year. The woods were exceptionally dry. A shovel and fire extinguisher in every vehicle was mandatory or you weren't allowed to hunt and they didn't tell you that until you checked in. Bird numbers were okay and we had a good time regardless, but nothing like the old days Doc experienced. We met a number of guys that had no luck at all. We did better off the reservation. There truly are some phenomenal elk there for those that can afford it. Way out of my reach.
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GobbleNut
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Joined: July 15th, 2011, 8:58 am

Re: Mescalero Rez Hunting in New Mexico

Post by GobbleNut »

RapscallionVermilion wrote: October 20th, 2018, 4:46 pm I drew to hunt there last year. The woods were exceptionally dry. A shovel and fire extinguisher in every vehicle was mandatory or you weren't allowed to hunt and they didn't tell you that until you checked in.
Not only that, but as far as I have been able to tell, they do not send you anything to let you know if you drew a permit or not. You have to contact the hunt department after the drawing to see if you were successful. I suppose if someone just assumed they would be sent something to notify them that they drew a permit, they might not ever know that they drew the hunt.
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GobbleNut
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Joined: July 15th, 2011, 8:58 am

Re: Mescalero Rez Hunting in New Mexico

Post by GobbleNut »

hookspur wrote: October 19th, 2018, 5:48 pm I hunted it in 1990. It was only a hundred bucks back then, and in a single word, the hunt was phenomenal!!! I'm not sure now many gobbling turkeys I heard during those 3 magical days, but it must've been close to 200. It was also the first time I'd ever been in "real" elk country. There were elk EVERYWHERE, and even that early in spring you could tell a bunch of them were monsters! I think an elk hunt back then was $15,000; you couldn't shoot anything less than a 5 x 5; and they were running 98% success rate for the past 20 years.
The elk are still there,...for the rich guys. :(
The turkey population is not what it was back in the 80's and 90's, however. ...Three things happened. The tribe logged the hell out of a lot of areas on the reservation starting in the 90's and the turkey population began to decline in those areas. Secondly, a good deal of the country has burned from a handful of forest fires in the last twenty years. And finally, water availability and the nutrition base has declined over much of the reservation. The forest ecosystem is drying out,...a continuing decline in snowfall/rain has dried up a lot of water sources, and the plants/insects that kept the turkeys sustained in a lot of places are not there reliably any more,...just not getting enough soil moisture to grow what used to grow over a large area of what used to be fantastic turkey habitat. Places that you could reliably count on hearing lots of gobbling (and see lots of turkeys) two decades ago now have ZERO turkeys there. In the places that were covered up in turkeys years ago,...and still have them,...the turkey numbers are probably 10% of what they were then.
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