Bear tag in northern New Mexico late Oct?

[RyanT26]

Picked up an elk tag in 52 for the late October 21-25. That late in the year would it even be worthwhile picking up a OTC bear tag for that area?

 

[Felix40]

Bears will still be out unless something crazy happens this year.

Edit to add: I’ve bear hunted all the way into November with success.

 

[RyanT26]

Sounds good, I’ll grab one just in case.

 

[RuggedYogi]

Definitely worth having a bear tag in your pocket if you’re out there hunting elk IMO.

 

[Joryalan]

Bears will still be out unless something crazy happens this year.

Edit to add: I’ve bear hunted all the way into November with success.

Howdy sir, I've got property in Taos Ski Valley that was just passed down to my wife and I, a cabin her dad built back in the 90's.. sad deal overall, but was thinking of doing my first archery backcountry hunt out there for a black bear since I have somewhat of a home base.. Is that a decent area to start with?

 

[RuggedYogi]

Howdy sir, I've got property in Taos Ski Valley that was just passed down to my wife and I, a cabin her dad built back in the 90's.. sad deal overall, but was thinking of doing my first archery backcountry hunt out there for a black bear since I have somewhat of a home base.. Is that a decent area to start with?

I’m up in that area all the time and have never seen an actual bear. I have seen some bear sign, but not much. Archery hunting for bears around there would be hiking with a bow, in my opinion.

 

[Joryalan]

Thank you so much for the quick reply.. Well, shoot. I thought based off of the harvest data the units around there were decent.. what about elsewhere in NM? Can it still be a good hunt in other areas? I don't mind going a completely different direction with it. A spot and stalk bear hunt just sounds really fun.

 

[dtrkyman]

A few zones have reached the quota, 1,10 and 7.

I hunted 1 a bit, only finding sows with cubs and one really small boar. Acorns all over where I was has me thinking the bears didn't need to move much!

I spent a few days south of Taos and covered a lot of miles, only found one track and some old scat, weather was amazing and had fun anyway, but it did feel like bow hiking.

Bear and Cougar quota info, 877 950 5466