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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Trophy Mule Deer Hunt Offers The Ultimate Adrenaline Kick

By Patty Goff


Hunting is one of the oldest sports or human activities. Although most people do not have to hunt for their food anymore, the sport is as popular as ever. Boasting with a coveted trophy in the form of the head of a lion, buffalo or elephant against the study wall, is to some big game hunters the ultimate reward. For trophy mule deer hunt, there are few better places than the mountains of Northwest New Mexico or those of Southwest New Mexico, also known as the Gila.

These two regions are world-renowned for the huge, big-horned mountain mule deer that flourish here. Two to five day hunts on foot or from horseback to score those trophy antlers are increasingly popular. Hunting from horseback has the advantage that hunters can cover vast stretches of this open country with minimum physical effort.

During season, most ranches accept only a limited number of hunters to make the experience exclusive and to offer them privacy and the free run of the ranch. Two hunters per guide is the general ratio, but one can also get your own private guide at an additional cost. Your changes of scoring that coveted trophy in this areas are a whopping 70% if you know what you are doing.

Five day hunts are the most popular and generally cost between $5,500 and &6,500. Meals, accommodation and other necessities such as landowner tags, state tax, guides, transport on the ranch and state licenses are included in the price. Other luxuries such as gratuities, game processing and taxidermy are charged separately.

The mule deer was named for its large donkey-like ears and is indigenous to the west side of North America. Apart from their bigger ears, they are generally also bigger in size than the ancient white-tailed deer from which they are believed to have evolved. Adult males can weigh anything from 92 kg - 210 kg, while the females can weigh from 43 kg to 90 kg. The mule deer also has a typical black-tipped tail that differentiates it from the white-tailed species.

After shedding its antlers around mid-February, it starts to regrow almost immediately. A typical characteristic of the mule deer is the way it moves with all four feet coming down together - called pronking. Adult males weigh on average around 92 kg but trophy specimen can push the scale up to 210 kg. Females are smaller and average between 43 to 90 kg. They are herd animals and especially the does travel in herds of around five.

Finding the truly big bucks - those with racks wider than 30 inches or that have more than 190 inches of antler - is not so easy. Several measures - including drawing for tags - have been put into place since the 1990's to prevent the species from becoming extinct due to over-hunting, predators and famine due to weather conditions.

Besides humans, their major natural enemies are coyotes, gray wolves and mountain lions. Opportunistic feeders such as bobcats, wolverines, American black bears and brown bears mostly prey upon fawns or injured deer. Thanks to altered tag allotments and other joint efforts by most western state game departments in conjunction with conservation groups, the mule deer population has recovered significantly and the hunting record books are healthier than ever.




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