Mescalero - A hunting tale of the Carrizozo Malpais

[GoatGuy]

Mescalero - those lava flows in the Malpais maintain some nice deer. Also javelina, coyotes, foxes, rabbits, bobcats, mice, quail, seemingly every species of cactus known to man…most of it being cholla…and a considerable population of rattlesnakes! Also, take note, a very small population of hunters, a good thing as it reduces hunting pressure on the deer.

I hunted deer there a few seasons. You are right it is really rugged country, but the deer can be worth it. I never got a big one, but my stepsons each took a nice buck out of there. The idea is not to kill one right in the middle of that sharp, rugged, dangerous tumble of lava, but to take one on the edges. Put it down immediately and use nothing smaller that a .270. Shoot true as you don't want to wound one and have a long blood trail into that twisting, winding mess.

It seems almost impossible to drag a big one out of it. A helicopter comes to mind as the ideal mode of retrieval for one that size. My youngest stepson did kill a big 10 point there on one hunt and unfortunately for the four of us, there it was nearly smack dab in the middle of the stuff. No blame on him, it was one really hard to pass up and Mike told him to take the shot of about 70 yards.

We tried to carry it out, intact, after gutting him. No way, Jose. Mike and I resorted to cutting the buck in two pieces. We each packed a half while the boys carried the rifles, four binos, three day packs and four canteens we had carried in there. We went for the closest (eastern) edge of the lava bed, but even then it took us almost three hours to get that deer out of there.

As luck would have it, we had entered, and our our truck was parked, on the western border of that stretch of the flow. Mike, bless his heart, volunteered to go back across to get our truck. drive back to US 380, then east to Carrizozo, then south on US 54 before getting to a ranch property where we were waiting at the edge of the malpais. He finally came to a locked gate, then hoofed it to where we waited. We carried the halves and all our other stuff another half mile back to the truck.

Arriving home in Ruidoso in late afterenoon we posed a photograph by arranging the two halves of the buck together in the bed of the pickup. With Chris holding the front half by the horns, Mike took his picture. Great photo of a worn out boy and his first mule deer. The deer looked a little strange, for by the time the shutter clicked the back half of the deer had collapsed some and it gave the critter a very distorted looking body. Never mind all that, Chris was a happy camper. I bet he still has that 8X10 color print of his first mule deer buck. And, ... the memory of that challenge on the Carrizozo Malpais. I know I do!

[Mescalero]

Wow!
For those of you who do not know the country, they EARNED that deer meat!

[92&94]

Never been in there, just stopped in once at the touristy part where they tell you to not stray off the trails - straying off the trail is half the fun, I just don't get official "recreation areas"

I have been all over the Pinacate field in Sonora, Mex. though. Rough doesn't do it justice. Some of the types of lava cut boots up like nobody's business too - I've forgotten the names of them now, but the kind that is like frozen froth is nasty stuff. I sure wouldn't want to pack anything heavier than lunch and some water in there

[BrentD]

Wonderful country but mighty hard on boots and dogs. Esp. dogs. I carried mine more than once and more than a little ways.

[Blaine]

Build a fire, and start eating....

[GoatGuy]

Build a fire, and start eating....

Why didn't I think of that at the time. It would have been a good way to end that hunt, at least a much easier solution to our challenge.

You know, after writing that I realized that was the last time I deer hunted that wreck of a country. Yes, some varmint calling, prairie dog shoots along the edges and exploring around in it in the spring time of later years, but never again during rifle deer season. It never really called to me again after that trial.

[Pitchy]

Cool story pard, sounds like harsh country alright.

[piller]

The name Malpais means bad country. It is sort of an understatement.

[Mescalero]

I always thought "badlands" was a more appropriate translation, but I may be heavily influenced by local tradition.

[92&94]

Either works I'd say. I always took pais to mean "country" in the geopolitical sense, but that's the great thing about Spanish, you can say something six different ways and still get the gist across. The other thing that seems to happen is that two words put together don't always mean or imply the same thing as the same two words separately - I always figured that accounted for some of the strange looks I got, more than the accent

I remember seeing pretty surprising local variation in Mexico, they'd use a totally different word in one place than another - one time our waitress in a restaurant in Zacatecas had no idea what we wanted using a Sonoran word for "small bowl - as in bowl of fruit". Our sampler from Sonora was a really smart guy and tried the two or three synonyms he knew before we broke out the dictionary. The girl pointed out the word she knew out of about 7 options, and at that point Ramon said yeah, he didn't really think of that one - in his town that was grannie's word for a soup cup or something, but not the word the younger people used (probably because soup and little cups didn't come up in conversation much when sitting around drinking cerveza with the boys).

I guess that's not such a great example of "getting the gist across" is it?

[J35]

I was thinking someone just just didn't know how to spell and was trying to say Malapai rock country.

Not to take anything away from the poster's story, but 3 hrs to pack a deer out would be a easy hunt for me, myself and I.

----J

[Mescalero]

Not across that lava flow, indeginous peoples made tools out of that stuff.
It's broken, razor sharp, lava.
Black as coal.
The road to San Antonio, leads right through it.
Cut right through the lava.
I am surprised Goat guy hunted it, and went out in it.
I would not, and I'm native.

[Mike Armstrong]

In some parts of Mexico they call lava flows "pedregales." Classic badguy hideouts, as the USA found out in the Modoc War in Northern California.
There's a dance club with that name--"El Pedregal" up in Pico Rivera about 10 miles north of me and near my gunsmith. But I've never dared go in it at night...daytime the food is GOOOOOOD.