Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Silver City, NM

Pretty nice little town, at least as long as the mines hold out. Little University there, old 1920s architecture in the older parts of town. Usual fast food places, lots of mexican food. Close to the great outdoors.

anyone know how the hunting is?

How hard to get a deer tag?

Quail country?

Thanks,

Sycamore

Deer Tags were easy to draw 10-15 years ago when I last drew there as a non resident. Plenty of public land, ok but not major league deer numbers. Not a bad option depending on what you’re used to.

Last time i hunted that country was 1984. Im sure lots have changed since then.

Elk are the hot ticket, and residents are favored in the public draws. Cow tags are for residents only. Mule deer have rebounded in recent years and if you get a tag, it's not too hard to fill. Whitetail hunting is decent, and there is a lot of accessible public land to hunt, unlike in the Boot Heel units where most of the public land is landlocked by private. Quail hunting is pretty decent, as well, but you need to do your homework to find them.

The down side is that there is a hard core of liberals of all stripes that pretty much control the downtown, where the best restaurants and bars are. There used to be a flourishing art community there, but it has tapered off in recent years, as the people who have money to buy fine art quit going downtown. My wife still does art classes up there once a month, but she hasn't sold any significant amounts of of her art there in several years.

Nonetheless, I would not mind living there, but my wife is adamantly opposed for personal reasons. However, don't feel sorry for me--I'm not suffering down here in the Boot Heel.

The hunting in Silver City is poor, as is much about the town - and the "university" there looks to be about third rate - if that. I know of two good eating places in Silver - there may be more. Some good deer hunting west and north of there - in the Burros, up further in Unit 23 and up in the Gila. Maybe good south and east of there too - no experience with that. But, seems nowhere as hot for deer as it was 30 years ago. Public land ticket is by draw and NM Game and Fish seems to have screwed that up as a money-making effort. Some say that they tend to cater to out-of-state folks with $$ - don't know that to be true, but if so it could be good for you.

downtown reminds me of downtown Globe. Past the glory days for sure, but the buildings still have a lot of character. looks like it could be a good town for retirees, not sure how the medical is there. lots of open country. being from Arizona, I don't expect too many deer near a mining town. when the mine is hiring, everyone has a gun, when the mine is laying off, everyone has a family they need to feed. mighty pretty, quiet, dark drive from Silver city to Springerville. Never found a "great" place to eat, but I was only passing through.

Sycamore

Never hunted the area but found a decent little Mexican joint when I was down there last year.

I killed a thirty inch Mulie there last Fall on private land.

I was born there.....

Allright, Gene, you know the routine, pics or .......

I have pics on my phone and I posted some on FB but it’s too much of a hassle to to learn how to get them on here.

I just texted you a picture.

My neighbor got a nice Mule deer from the Burros this past year. He was very lucky in getting a hard to obtain tag.

The deer season is only 5 days long so best do lots of scouting beforehand.

There are land owner tags for sale for elk, antelope and deer if you prefer to hunt without the crowds, just be prepared to pay some serious money.

To me the real draw for a resident would be the exotic animals you could hunt along with the native game. Oryx, Ibex and Barbary sheep. The costs for out of state hunts on two of the three are quite high: resident Oryx $160 . .non resident Oryx $1,623 resident Ibex$160 . .non resident Ibex $1,623

Here is a link from NM Game and Fish showing the list of what you can hunt:

http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/hunting/information-by-animal/

As for quail the regulations say there are four species. I don't hear much anyone doing much with any but scalied quail but I live in Az.


Would like to hear from some residents if mearns hunting is good or spotty.

We had access to all the land owned by the mine which is several hundred thousand acres I was told.

Never saw a quail.

One guy leases all the land owned by the mine, except for what is actually being worked at the present time, and he subs the hunting out to another guy who we leased from. He furnished a nice camp house and the evening meal and hunting was self guided.

Price was 1800.00 and hunting was for deer and bear only with a five day season.

Been in Silver City about 10 years. To me, it is a 'boom and bust' town in lots of ways. The mines obviously, but also businesses, restaurants, real estate-- everything seems to have peaks and valleys. Don't know how many different restaurants have closed in the last year-- mostly local ones, but this is about the only placed I've lived where corporate places like KFC, Burger King and Taco Bell(!) have gone out of business. Retirees come and go. Some realize that winters aren't nearly as warm as they expect for being as far south as it is (6,000' elevation does that), and the quality of health care can be an issue and if you need a specialist you are probably making the drive to Tucson or Las Cruces.

Still, I like the town and the best aspects of it-- the remoteness and access to magnificent public lands-- will never change. Pretty easy to draw a resident deer tag in nearby units and the overlap of Coues whitetail and mule deer in the same units keeps it interesting. The massive forest fires in 2011, 2012 and 2013 opened up tons of new habitat for deer and elk alike.

I've gotten into mearns, scaled and gambels quail all within an hour of town. I'd say that gambels are probably most common, but if you are a dedicated mearns hunter you'll find them scattered throughout the Gila-- just never in great numbers. Scaled and gambels rely on the winter precip which has been inconsistent lately and truly awful this year.

My grandaddy lost his dad when he was nine years old and ended up living with his older married sister for several years in Silver City. He told me the story of a hanging that took place there...it had to have been the early 1920s, when he was about twelve. He announced his intent to go witness the public hanging, but was forbidden. He snuck away from the house anyway and approached the area from a direction so as to not be seen, and climbed up a stone wall to gain a vantage point, and saw tje whole thing. He said he wished he had not done it.

Is the Buffalo Bar still open? Last time I was in Silver, I had quite an evening there.....next day was a rough one....

Been closed a year or two now, along with all the other "rustic" drinking places,

salsola - thanks - seems like an accurate description to me. Most folks may not know about the Coues/Mule Deer overlap in several of those areas - and I've seen that as far up in 23 as Pueblo Creek. Seems more common in the lower end of the Gila. Thanks for the info on the quail - I've seen very, very few up this way and it makes sense that you have those at your elevation and vegetation.

Gene/curdog - did you bag that Mule Deer near Tyrone or some other mining setup? South of Silver? How far?

Thanks CCCC I was gonna ask Curdog same question if he was over toward Tyrone. We hunted in the south Burros. kinda NW of Tyrone. Best I remember. Last hunt there was 83 ML season. The critters were a bit stressed then I believe from pressure of folks trying to feed their families when mines were laying off folks.

Last year (84) we moved up the highway toward Pleasanton and hunted the rim.

83 would have been bad. ton of layoffs in 1981 (low prices) and big strike in 1983. lots of deer probably eaten