New Mexico Deer Hunt 11-20/25

Hondo, New Mexico
Chavez Canyon Ranch
Outfitter: South of the Border Expeditions, Cody Tucker http://southoftheborderexpeditions.com/
Hunt duration November 20 through November 25, 2009
Rifle used:
Savage 112 BVSS 7MM STW with 140 grn Berger Hunting VLD over 82 grns of H-1000
Temperature ranged from lows upper 20’s to highs lower 60’s
Species hunted: Mule Deer
Species seen Mule Deer, Barbary sheep, Elk, Rio Grand Turkey

I was fortunate to be invited to go on a Mule Deer hunt in Hondo, New Mexico (Unit 37) on the Chavez Canyon Ranch with five other friends and new acquaintances. The group had loaded two trailers full of five ATV’s and a Kubota mule with all of our ice chest and miscellaneous gear.

Thursday November 19, 2009:
The day of departure arrived and the group picked me up from a truck stop just west of Katy outside of Houston Texas at 5:30 AM and headed west on I-10 for the next 12 hours (729 miles). We had an uneventful trip with just the usual stops for food, fuel and bathroom breaks. We arrived in Roswell, NM to the sure-grin of the aliens and met our outfitter. He directed us to a local restaurant for our evening meal while he completed some details with his family then led us to the ranch. We unfortunately got to the ranch after dark and although we couldn’t see much, we knew we were in the mountains. The air was so crisp and clean and it has been a long time since I have seen that many stars.
Our meager accommodations were truly unbelievable for a hunting camp. There were three adobe style guest houses and we accommodated two of them. The house I stayed in was, to say the least, incredible. Three bedrooms, two baths, fully stocked Santa Fe style home with wraparound porch, overlooking Chaves Canyon. We enjoyed the cold crisp evening with a well deserved night cap and hit the sack so as to recoup from the long drive.






 
Friday November 20, 2009:
We woke up Friday morning to sunrise and view that was breathtaking.



The group finished arraigning our gear and headed into Ruidoso for our hunting license and food for the rest of the week. With the essentials out of the way and food secured, we took the four wheelers and headed down the main ranch road for a quick look at the ranch and hopefully see some wild life. As with a lot of remote ranch locations, with hay barns and gardens at the main ranch house, there were plenty of deer and turkey around. There had to be 20 deer come to the area around the house each day and a flock of about 15 wild turkeys that roosted on the top of the hay barn.
That night we heated up a really good Texas brisket, red beans and potatoes salad then topped it off with several after dinner cocktails. After dinner we set around discussing the trip, the ranch and wildlife we saw and guessing what we would be doing the opening morning.

Saturday November 20, 2009: (Opening day of second season)
We got up around 4:30 to meet the guides at the main barn and get our marching orders. This was going to be a 2X1 hunt, so we each paired up with our hunting partners and was given our guide. My partner was David and he and I were practically the same age (48-49) but had a 17 year old guide (Ty). This was important later in the hunt. The outfitter planned on us to hunt drainages close to each other in the hope that if we pushed a deer out of one drainage and into another, the other hunters may have a shot at it. We arrived at our starting point on our four wheelers after a very cold ride and took off walking to our first vantage point. This is my first western hunt and being from Texas, we do a lot of stand hunting and little walk and stalk, so to say I was excited yet apprehensive is a big understatement. For a bunch of sea level flatlanders the 6300 ft elevation with valleys at around 5500 ft, they soon took their toll on this hunter on our first hunt. As mentioned earlier, our guide was a 17 year old from the area so it wasn’t long before he was leaving us behind. David and I soon gave up trying to keep up and just pushed along at our own pace and just counted on the fact that our young guide would eventually stop or have to double back to get us. We saw several does in the drainages we glassed and walked about five miles round trip. For my first hunt I was happy that the care flight didn’t have to come pick me off the mountain. We headed back to the house for a quick lunch and got similar stories from the two other groups with one seeing a small herd of elk. That afternoon we went back to the same area and hunted the same ridge hoping to catch the deer moving up from the nearby farms and alfalfa fields, but alas no shooter bucks just young small bucks and lots of does. That night we had chicken and dumplings that really hit the spot. After several evening beverages and lots of groans and limping we headed off to bed, full, tired and completely content.

Sunday November 21, 2009:
Same morning routine, up early, meet guides at the barn and get ready to head out at first light. This morning we headed to the eastern side of the ranch that doesn’t see a lot of traffic. As we started up the side road to that part of the ranch, we had just started climbing out of the bottom of the drainage, the outfitter suddenly stops and starts hollering for someone to get a gun, shooter buck. I had my gun shouldered and chambered a round as the buck climbs the opposite hill and stops to look at our group. I am shooting a varmint taper 26” barreled 7 MM STW, not the best off hand shooting gun to have. Luckily the deer was confused to see all the activity and gave me time to shift my stance and re-position the sling to help steady myself. The whole time the outfitter is yelling for someone to just shoot this deer. Just as I was depressing the trigger the deer moved forward behind a bush, as it cleared the bush, it turned away giving me a sharp going away shot and I had to take my shot at that time or lose this deer. At the shot, I lost the deer from the recoil and as I recovered, I saw the deer running over the ridge line side hilling to the back of the drainage. I looked around to see if anyone acknowledged I hit it. I soon got confirmation from several that it was hit but no overwhelming confidence of shot placement. My last minute site picture as I squeezed the trigger was a moving deer and I placed the shot at the last rib, shooting for the off shoulder. We raced up the hill, well, as fast as a 48 year old flatlander could go, looking for any movement and ready to place another shot if needed. One of the guide’s heads up the other side of the drainage and finally spotted the deer down but he was hidden behind a cedar bush to me. I finally made it up high enough to see it rolled onto its back and definitely down for the count.
 
This is my 5X4 (11 pointer for those back home)




The shot was father back into the stomach but the deer only ran about 80 yards and upon field dressing the deer, the 140 grn. Berger Hunting VLD penetrated up into the chest disintegrating the heart and severally damaging the onside lung and had a bullet fragment went through the other lung. That bullet traveled 20 plus inches into the vitals. I had taken a chance on choosing this bullet, but it performed as it was marketed and in my opinion, even better since it wasn’t the most optimal shot recommended. We got the deer down to the four wheelers and since we hadn’t even got to the hunting area I elected to place the deer under a tree down in the creek since the weather was so cool and continue on with the group. We hunted several drainages and walked and climbed farther than we had for all the first day combined. We saw a few small bucks, does and some Barbary sheep. We circled back to the rest of the group and loaded back onto the four wheelers and headed back down the mountain to my deer. As we started down the last ridge line the outfitter once again jumped off his ATV and started hollering big buck. We were pretty strung out and before anyone could get a gun shouldered this buck and a few does snuck around the corner. Most of the group bailed off into the drainage and up the other side, I wasn’t that mad at this deer and so I elected to glass from the safety of the four wheelers with another of our party. Someone needed to guard the rest of our gear right? This buck outsmarted the group and moved out the back of the drainage before they could gain the top of the other side. I and the other smart hunter took our ATV’s to the bottom of the ridge and picked up the group and transported them back up to their rides. We headed back down and loaded my deer and went back to camp for lunch. I got my deer skinned and washed up, then hung him up in the shade of the hay barn while the rest of the group ate lunch and rested for the evening hunt. Since I was killed out, I stayed back at camp to prepare the evening meal. That night we had an Italian chicken meal with potatoes and green beans. After we stuffed ourselves, we set around for the complementary evening cocktail and recap of the day and hunt so far.

Monday November 22, 2009:
We are not at this point, just jumping out of bed, more like rolling out and limping to the bathrooms and coffee pots, to get the creaking joints lubricated and sore muscles stretched. We however have desire and won’t let the others get the better of us, so we grimace and limp around to greet the coming dawn. Since I am shot out, I elect to help glass for one of the others. I headed out with Cope, back to the same area I shot my deer and we stopped up the ridge we saw the deer the earlier evening and waited for shooting light and started glassing. We saw several does and a couple of small bucks, but alas no shooters. Part of the other group came in to the drainage from the back side so we elected to head on up the draw to walk the next ridge over. We slowly walked several miles stopping to glass and enjoying the morning. As normal we saw several does but no shooter bucks. We worked both sides of the ridge and made or way back to the four wheelers then slowly started back to camp stopping from time to time to glass. We headed back to camp for lunch and I elected to go exploring to part of the ranch I hadn’t seen and that nobody would be at. I saw some amazing country and even got into some elk. I found some old line shacks and am glad for the comforts of today. Setting looking at the surrounding country side and imagining what it was like as a cowboy alone at the line camp for weeks if not months on end.




One of the other hunters, Mike, put a tall 4X4 down and on ice and David got a quick shot at another deer but the shot hit low. The rest of the group saw the usual small bucks and does. As we all got back to the camp we ogled the deer then head up the hill to our meager abode and start dinner.  
Mike’s Deer on the Right


That night we dine on marinated rib eye steaks, baked potatoes and salad. We choked this meal down, as we had the others, then enjoyed our evening after dinner drinks and stories of each ones day. Later we moved to another house to catch the end of the Monday night football game. I however let the evening meal and drink get to me so elected to head to bed.

Tuesday November 23, 2009:
With the lack of shooter bucks sighted so far and the punishment we had taken from the previous hunts, the group elected to hunt only one more morning then pack up and head back to Houston. As the dawn arose, only two hunters actually rose to the challenge. The rest of us stayed back to start packing for the trip home. We got everything ready and all the ATV loaded by 9:30 AM, so all that was left was packing the trucks with our personnel belongings, so we headed out of the ranch for some sightseeing. We drove to to Lincoln and visited some of the local historical sites.
Sharp shooters station, designed by one of the land barons to place snipers in to guard against raids from the opposing warring land baron in the Lincoln county wars.


Our adventurous hunters struck out this morning but not for the lack of trying. As they got back to camp we threw the last of our bags into the truck, thanked the outfitter, ranch manager and ranch hand for their hospitality and company and headed back to Texas. We drove about half way to Ozona, Texas and grabbed a room then woke up early Wednesday morning to get back to Katy and the place the group picked me up by 11:30 AM. To tell you the truth as I write this tale, there are visions of the trip flashing into my mind. I can still smell the odor of the elk hidden in the thick brush; the cedar breaks as you walk to another ridge. I can still feel my lungs trying to expand to get enough oxygen and feel my heart racing as I charged up the hill after my buck, the silence at night as I gazed at the billions of stars that looked within my grasp. These are but some of the memories that I will keep for the rest of my life and will be able to relive the images in my mind over and over. The comradely of my fellow hunters, sharing in the on the jokes and getting the jokes played on you, sharing a meal and an after dinner drink are the joys of the deer camp that I always enjoy and hope to enjoy many more times.

Glad to hear you had a good trip -- congrats on your buck!

Looks like you had a great time and got a great deer. What does something like this cost?

This was an introductory offer. Hunt and lodging, no food, 2X1 guides $2800 plus tips each. Food was $350 we bought at store(bought way to much)plus what we brought from home. Each hunter was responsible for one evenings meal. License was $274. I haven't got the news from the organizer of the trip what my share of the gas is?

Was probably a cheaper hunt than most but was the first western hunt I have ever been on so I can't compare to anything else.

Nice buck and pictures. An excellent accomodation also.