My First Out West Hunt Pt. 1

[Treyn]

Let me tell you a story about my very first out west hunt. I have spent my whole life growing up hunting whitetail in Oklahoma with my dad. We have had years of success, lots of good bucks have hit the ground, and countless memories have been made. I am now 24, and while whitetail season is always something I look forward to, it has lost some of its luster for me. I enjoy going still, and especially now since my wife has taken up the love of hunting. But I wanted something more. In 2021 I drew for the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge Walk in Elk Hunt. It was an amazing once in a lifetime experience! My dad younger brother and I had an amazing time and had huge success! My dad and I both tagged out on nice bulls the first two days! This is when I started longing for more during hunting season.

The very beginning of this year I jokingly threw out the idea of applying for a western mule deer hunt to my dad and brother, to my surprise they both wanted to apply for a tag and see what happens! We did a lot of research deciding which state we wanted to focus on for our first trip, we decided on New Mexico since it was a short drive away and tags were not expensive. We looked at draw odds in all the units for what seemed like months, and finally decided on Units 34, 32, and 37. We applied for rifle and muzzleloader tags thinking with a gun in our hands it would give us a better chance to punch tags.

Unfortunately, my younger brother had to back out on applying for the draw because he got accepted into a A&P mechanic program that he had been on a waitlist for. My dad and went on with our applications, paid our draw expenses and played the waiting game. We waited for what seemed like years just hoping for a conformation email. Then it happened! I got a call one morning from my dad while I was at work and he had excitement in his voice, I remember him saying you might want to check your New Mexico Wildlife Department account! So, I took a break logged in and sure enough! We drew a muzzleloader tag for unit 32! I was thrilled, it was finally happening! We were going out west for the first time to hunt!

Neither one of us owed a muzzleloader, so we began scrambling to find the rifles we wanted. We both purchased nice long-range rifles and peep sights to pair with them, spent time researching loads, and sighting them in. The time we spent learning about black powder rifles has convinced me that this is a style of hunting is something I can get behind. It has been a lot of fun learning about what all goes into these guns.

Being a whitetail guy all my life I knew very little about Mule Deer, knew very little about their habits and how they lived, let alone how to find them and hunt these beautiful animals. So, I began reading articles, watching YouTube videos and reading books to understand more of these animals. I had convinced myself the hardest part of the hunt would be finding deer in an area I had never been, because so many people made mule deer seem like an easy animal to hunt. Boy was I wrong!

 

[Treyn]

PT. 2

We started out on our trip Friday the 18th of October, packed the truck and left Oklahoma around 12:45 that afternoon and set out on our adventure. We traveled through a lot of beautiful country, had lots of good conversation on the 6-and-a-half-hour trip, and arrived in Roswell NM around 7 pm that evening. We filled up the truck with diesel in town and then headed north of town to drive to our camp spot we had picked out on OnX. We drove some BLM two tracks in the dark, and did not realize just how bad these roads could be. We offroaded my 2013 F250 pretty hard, and soon learned the spot we had picked out was impossible to drive to because the road had washed out into a deep canyon. So, we turned around, tired and frustrated that our first plan had failed. Lesson learned about assuming E-scouting does not give you enough information in every instance! We found a spot to pull off the road finally around 9:45 that evening and slept in the truck, itching to put boots on the ground the next morning and find some deer.



"You awake?" I heard my dad say around 4am Saturday morning, confused (because it was so early and still very dark) "I said yes I am now". he replied "Great, buckle up I found a new road I think we can drive to get where we planned to spend out first morning." So, I raised my seat, rubbed my eyes and said, "let's get on the road then." Excitement began filling my body, as we approached the end of the new road we found and put the truck in park it finally hit me, we are actually doing this, we are actually hunting mule deer today! As we geared up and ate a quick breakfast, we had no idea what we were fully about to experience.



That first morning as the sun began to rise behind us, we started to glass. We noticed our spot apparently was the spot everyone else wanted to hunt as well! we counted 3 other trucks on the road with guys glassing our direction. So, we decided while we still had a little cover of darkness that we would hike to the other side of the ridge where we knew there was not a road close and could have a good draw through the mesas to ourselves. We settled in, set up our glass and got to work. Not long after we set down, I noticed what at first, I thought to be deer getting out of bed. They were close to a mile and a half away; I got my dad's attention, and he positioned his bino's in the direction. He exclaimed "Son that's not deer! Those are cats!" I looked harder and sure enough it was three mountain lions prowling the hill side opposite us! We were in awe, what at the odds that we find 3 apex predators that few people get to see, before we find deer? Not long after we began seeing deer, two does hurried down the ridge we had been sitting on and fed out into the creek bottom in front of us. As we watched them disappear into the timber line, a two x two buck ran out into the clearing from behind us as well! We knew then that this was the chance we needed. I grabbed my gun and skirted down the side of the cliff and started my stalk. Little to my knowledge I had no chance of getting this buck.



After my poor attempt at a stalk on the small buck Saturday morning we continued to hunt hard the rest of the day, turning up three more does and finding a lot of good sign, indicating the area we were hunting held a healthy number of deer. Full of excitement from our first day and happy with our success in finding deer we returned to camp just before the sun set. As we were walking over the last hill to our tent, we both knew a thunderstorm was blowing in from the south. We had watched the storm form on the radar and were expecting a small 1-inch rain shower that night, little did we know we would experience a 123-year rainstorm! When we woke up Sunday morning we had planned worship services at the Church of Christ in Roswell. As we started to drive out of the BLM land and back to the highway, we realized the road that drove over the top of the once dry bitter creek was flooded and the now ragging creek was flowing across the road. So, we back tracked and found a way around through muddy winding county roads farther north. While we are navigating these roads, we drove past a grass meadow we saw a nice legal buck. Our better judgement flew out the window and adrenaline took over slamming on the brakes my dad jumped out the passenger side door and took off after the buck flowing him over the ridge and into the next meadow. We unfortunately watched this buck casually walk out of our comfortable shooting range and over the hill. So, we loaded back into the truck and continued our trip to town. We made it to the highway and close to town when we saw a long line of brake lights and slowed the truck down and pulled over. The state police had highway 285 closed going into Roswell.

 

[Treyn]

PT 3

"Roswell NM is under lock down" are the words we were told by the state trooper who had the southbound lane shut down. We knew there was a large amount of rain the night before, but had no idea the rainfall in Roswell that night was the largest one time rain the area had ever received and had not received close to that amount since 1901. The destruction and loss of homes was heart breaking, and my prayers go out to those in the area that lost so much. The families of those that lost loved ones I continue to pray for you as you deal with this hard time. Water was said to be above counter tops in houses, vehicles were washed into the river and bridges were washed away. Debride was scattered everywhere on the south side of the city and water was standing everywhere we looked. I was truly in awe of the power of that storm and thankful we did not experience the full power of it while we were in a tent.



We had burned so much fuel trying to get to Roswell Sunday morning that we had no choice but to find the next town to fill up so we could continue to hunt the rest of our trip. Fort Sumner was the closest at an hours' drive, we filled up and decided to grab a bite to eat at Esters Family Diner, if you ever find your way up there, I highly recommend the fried pork chop dinner! Full bellies and a strong desire to find another buck we headed back to camp to gear up and hunt the rest of the afternoon. As we were driving back to camp we decided because we did not push the buck from earlier that morning that hopefully he just bedded down over the next hill, and we could follow his tracks and get back on him. Boy, were we wrong we followed that young bucks track for 3 miles and found where he had jumped a fence into private property. Tired and defeated we decided to hoof it back to the truck rush back to camp and hunt the mesa we had hunted Saturday morning. As we arrived at that mesa, we noticed a hunter walking the timber line we had hoped to glass. Upset that our plan was not working out we made the move to the next ridge. We saw three more does that evening and 1 buck around a mile away across the raging creek just as the sun was setting out of sight.



Exhausted and ready for a hot meal we get back to camp Sunday evening, eat our Mountain House dinners, crawl into our sleeping bags and rest for the next day. Waking up Monday morning I just knew it was the day we were going to make something happen. We made our way to a nice glassing knob and waited for the sun to rise. After seeing nothing but a doe and fawn that morning we decided to go drive roads and hope to find a buck. We drove roads till around 1:30 or 2 pm we decided to go try a new area we had not seen. We hiked in along the Pecos River where it flows under the Clovis highway. We trudged through the soupy mud to a ridge that overlooks the river bottom to the south and the creek bottom to the north. We settled into the shade of a mesquite tree and ate our MRE's as we glassed, we saw nothing. We decided to call it early Monday evening and head back to the truck. As we were navigating the ridge line we saw in the distance a buck cruising across the muddy river bottom. We took off after him gaining ground quickly in the open country. Ankle deep in thick soupy mud we were making our way to the largest salt ceder. 30 yards away from being able to get cover and plan the final stock the young buck spots us and just like that all our hard work was for nothing. Covered in mud and feeling defeated we trudged back to the truck and headed back to town. We decided to get a hotel room Monday night to take a shower and get a good night's rest.



Tuesday morning arrived quickly; this was our last chance to get a deer on the ground. We drove roads till we found a good rise to park on and start glassing. We saw nothing move all morning long, no matter where we looked. It was like the deer were just gone. As noon approached, we decided to call it quits pack up and head back to Oklahoma. As we talked on the long drive back, we were proud of all we accomplished. Finding deer in a state we had never hunted, or even scouted, staying mentally fit no matter how many times we wanted to give up, and proving that even though we didn't put a deer on the ground we could hunt out west.



What I learned from this trip was that the guys on YouTube make it look easy, when in fact it was one of the most challenging things I have ever done. It is just as important to stay mentally strong as it is to stay physically strong on a hunt like this, it can be so easy to just give up after that first failed stalk. Having a plan B ready when the spot you had planned to hunt hard all week is disturbed so greatly by freak weather events. Don't be afraid to go home empty handed on that first trip out west, learn to measure your success in small increments. I think we had a huge success in just the fact that we were able to find deer every day and have the chance to stalk three different bucks. The time I got to spend with my dad will forever be a great memory to me and this trip will be a story I will talk about to my kids one day. Hopefully I will have the chance to take them out west to experience their first western hunt for mule deer.





-Trey Newton