New Mexico Ibex experience?

[shanevg]

Anyone have any experience hunting the NM Ibex in the Florida Mountains? Archery ibex looks like a spot and stalk archer's dream hunt. I know success rates are low but wondering if anyone has any first hand experience.

 

[shaun]

Been watching it for sure it does look like a blast

 

[Nick Muche]

Been watching Zac Griffith's hunt and chatting with him quite a bit about it. I think it will air on TV sometime this spring, you might want to catch it if you haven't seen it already. Amazing footage and the man just never gives up! Great hunt, would like to do it someday, just not sure when!

 

[Juan_ID]

Haven't actually looked into it much other than looking at pics online and such but I think it's something I'd definately like to do too! Prolly the only ibex hunt a guy like me could ever afford, but it does for sure look like fun!

 

[fire arrow]

Buddy of mine drew an archery tag last year. He has spent a lot of time above tree line. He and his partner spent a lot of time scouting and shooting long distances. Neither filled a tag. They both said trying to hunt them like deer above tree line wasn't working out so well. They eventually figured out they had to pattern them. Find areas where the sun warmed up first thing in the morning, and be in position when the sun came up. They would bed down in areas that were not spots for an archery shot. Most bullies were spooky after the rifle hunters left. They both said with a rifle, easy hunt. Bow, a fun hunt but very difficult to get a reasonable shot.

 

[Florida Mike]

Fire arrow gave a good description. I did it last year but only scouted a few days before the season began then had a foot issue that prevented anymore climbing. The main problem is New Mexico F&G lets all the rifle hunters go first, then they let the archery guys go hunt in January. The problem is the Ibex move into unreachable areas after the guns start blazing. Also, spot and stalk is a bad dream, only option is find a likely travel spot and try and ambush them. Couple that with 30 to 40 mph winds and you can see why only 1% of archers score. Also, This year the F&G bozos gave out hundreds of ewe tags to try and reduce the herd size. Ibex is the only animal in North America that I know of that archery hunters hunt last after all the rifle hunters have flushed the animals into the cliffs. I called NM F&G last year and they said they like the archery hunters being last, when I asked why, I was told "because thats the way its always been".... Anyway, if your looking for an extreme challenge then you found it with an Ibex archery hunt. Goodluck, Mike