New Mexico

J

Jet

Active member
I’m planning to travel to NM the 1st week of February. Never hunted desert birds before so any and all advice is appreciated.
Aside from the hunting aspect I’ll probably try and boondock while I’m there. Obviously it’s situational but is it safe to leave my camp set up for the day while I’m hunting or should I plan on breaking it down everyday?
 
Jet said:
I’m planning to travel to NM the 1st week of February. Never hunted desert birds before so any and all advice is appreciated.
Aside from the hunting aspect I’ll probably try and boondock while I’m there. Obviously it’s situational but is it safe to leave my camp set up for the day while I’m hunting or should I plan on breaking it down everyday?
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I've been there, haven't hunted there. Relatives there have related there's a lot of poverty and substance abuse. Crime can be bad. But this more pertains to the big city. Absolutely beautiful country. I'll be interested to hear if anyone chimes in with hunting experience.
 
Jet said:
I’m planning to travel to NM the 1st week of February. Never hunted desert birds before so any and all advice is appreciated.
Aside from the hunting aspect I’ll probably try and boondock while I’m there. Obviously it’s situational but is it safe to leave my camp set up for the day while I’m hunting or should I plan on breaking it down everyday?
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There are places in nm where I would leave the keys in my truck… and others where I carry a pistol.. not sure where you are going but I can help with your question if you want to get specific
 
Quailnerd said:
There are places in nm where I would leave the keys in my truck… and others where I carry a pistol.. not sure where you are going but I can help with your question if you want to get specific
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Nerd,
I’m tentatively looking at the area between denning to silver city to truth or consequences to las cruces. Since I’m hunting public and camping I like to stay flexible so I can move if needed. I definitely want to have a shot at gambles and it seems like that I25 corridor area is about the eastern edge of their preferred range from my research.
 
First off very cool country and I admit it’s further south than my normal range, but if gambel’s are the goal that’s where you need to be. That’s classic big desert quail country, tons of public land. I would absolutely boondock southern nm and have before, but it’s a different part of the world. Reservation land, southern border issues, and the wrong license plate will put a sign on your back with a certain crowd. Reach out to Dustin mudd on the forum, he spends a lot of time in the sw corner. By all means go, but put thought into where you sleep
 
thank you for the insight. I definitely have no desire to put my dogs in a dangerous situation so I’ll definitely take that info into consideration.
 
My biggest advice on hunting would be do a lot of driving, and avoid taking blind walks without seeing birds from truck or sign on the ground. Be super aggressive, listen as gambel’s are vocal, don’t worry about bumping birds. Most of your success will be because you find them after the covey flush, if dogs are getting hung up on scent when birds are running hunt side or down wind to stretch them out
 
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I have not hunted NM, but I did hunt Gambles in AZ a lot while I was in graduate school. My experience comes from hunting amongst prickly pear and saguaro. Some of it may translate to New Mexico. They are an adaptable bird so you will find them beyond what I describe below but this was my approach in Tucson and the surrounding area.

Do some internet scouting of the areas that you want to hunt. Specifically look for cattle tanks on the imagery. They say that gambles are true desert birds and don't need water but at the same time, if water is present they will use it. My experience is that you are more likely to find them with in a few hundred yards of water. That said you can also find them a good distance from it just not quite as likely. I used to mark the cattle tanks and make them my objective to hunt towards.

Get out at first light. This is when they are most vocal. In Tucson they would roost in mesquite as fewer birds and then call to covey up at daybreak, calling in order to locate one another. Along the same lines, buy a quail call. You read where people say to call after the flush. I never had that work. What I have had a lot of success with is to get them to repeat the call so I get a better bearing the second or third time I heard it.

It depends on available cover but in the absence of cover they can run like you wouldn't believe. If you can see a covey running 50 yards in front of you do whatever you can to break them up even if it means running straight at them or firing a round in the air to startle them. The singles generally hold tighter.
 
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I've hunted north of the areas you are considering for the last two years. Quite a few folks camp on public land without issue, but I wouldn't leave a gold brick (or your guns) out in the open. You never know. The Rio Grande corridor is notorious for illegals and drugs, but generally they don't get very far away from the main travel routes. I suggest you make your life a whole bunch easier and go the NMGF department's website and download their "CarryMap" application. It is updated annually showing landownership, roads/routes, fences and water for the entire state. It isn't fancy but I've found it very valuable and it is a download so you don't need cell service.

A recent observation, and this happened last year, though a bit later (early February). The Gambel's disperse away from their wintering areas. They move out of the draws and go somewhere. I have no idea where, but right now, quail hunting in this area is tough. I walked 4 days in areas that had enough sign to look like a quail farm a month ago, without seeing a track (sandy bottoms of draws/arroyos. Even the covey that hangs around the RV park we stay at is gone. They'll slowly start drifting back, but I haven't figured out where they go (yet). There are a few scaled quail in this area, but not enough to determine if they are doing the same thing.

Good luck!
 
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Chemist,
Good info! First I’ve really heard about about using a quail call. I knew they were out there but hadn’t really heard of anyone using them.

Powderhorn,
Really interesting observation about them dispersing, first I’ve heard anyone talk about this. Also great suggestion on the carry map app! I was just talking about cell service or lack thereof to someone else today and was wondering how to solve that issue other than downloading a bunch of onX stuff.

Thanks to everyone that has replied with advice of any sort. The more info heading in the better! I’m starting to get excited about getting on the road, it’s gonna be a long next week and a half.
 
Powderhorn's reply got me thinking about when you are going, which you stated in your original post but I didn't think enough about. My comment about orienting to water does not hold nearly as well in February as in October.

I have found the Chi-ca-go call to be useful on both California and Gambles quail. It is their assembly call. I mainly use it to locate a covey or to get them to repeat a call I already heard. After the initial covey rise I have not found it useful unless I am passing back through an area an hour later and they have not fully reassembled. I have never tried to use a call on scaled quail, mearns or bobwhite.

What type of dog do you have? Is it a pointing breed? I am assuming you know this but Mearns hold tight for a pointer, Gambles less so.
 
chemist said:
What type of dog do you have? Is it a pointing breed? I am assuming you know this but Mearns hold tight for a pointer, Gambles less so.
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I’ve got a couple Gsp’s. I would be very happy if I stumble upon some mearns but my main focus for this trip is going to be gambels and blues.
Is there a certain brand or type of call that you would recommend?
 
I have no idea on the brand of call I have. When I lived in Tucson about 15 years ago I bought a cheap one from sportsmans. I was making $18k a year at the time and am frugal by nature so I doubt I spent more than $10. I still use it for the valley quail up here in WA.

I find the quail call much easier to get a realistic sound out of than a duck or turkey call. I would just buy whatever is cheap and you can put on a lanyard.
 
Lohman used to make them. They are hard to find now.
I used them very effectively last week on Gambels here in NM. They can really help you out. Broken coveys will answer a call call ten mins after being dispersed. lots of birds around this year. Hunt the heavier cover for Gambels. Check the sandy washes for tracks. Its been on and off raining this week so you should find fresh tracks and good scenting for your GSPs. Consider booting your dogs. Lots of empty state park campgrounds along I25. Caballo, Elephant Butte, Percha state parks all mostly empty this time of year.
 
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I have hunted those areas a number of times this year. Has been a down year due to drought but there are birds......mostly gambels. I found 2 decent covies yesterday , the garmin says I went 8 miles and the dogs more than twice that. Make sure to have good forceps to remove Cholla cactus from dog legs before they bite them out and get them stuck in the mouth and to possibly remove porcupine quills ( I saw 2). Dont leave anything in camp you cant live without, an acquaintance of mine had his dog trailer ( with the dogs inside) stolen from the parking lot of a nice hotel in Las Cruces, luckily he got his dogs back. If your dogs dont have really tough pads you might consider booting, it seems everything in NM has a thorn or a bur or spines. I agree with the other posts about exploring arroyos until you see tracks and then hunting. Going to have to try the quail call someday that seems fun. I found one of the covies yesterday by hearing them first and hunting the dogs that direction.
 
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I'm finding more scaled quail up in the grass than Gambel's down in the arroyos and brushy cover right now. That makes for lots of walking, and those little suckers make roadrunners look slow. Great end of the season hunting, though. For those looking for quail calls, I found a number of them on Amazon. I purchased one made by Primos. Not sure how effective it is as I am pretty much deaf to higher pitched noises, so I can hear the call, but not return calls from live birds. My dog knows this and will stand and listen for me. If she signals, I'm onto something.
 
Quailnerd,

What did the podcast say about crippling rates? I think they're higher than we would think across most of the upland hunting spectrum.
 
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