WoolyRunner - how did your hunt in NM end up in 2018? Did you find any decent bulls? I drew unit 51 1st rifle for 2022. Any areas you would stay away from?
I had that tag a few years ago. Depends on your definition of "decent". We saw a handful of 5 and 6 points, but nothing over 300".
My recommendation...get there ahead of time and be prepared to pull the trigger on the first day. The rut was still trickling along on the opener for us (about October 8 or 9), but then we had a cold snap and a few snow flakes and that was it. All the bulls went into their deep, dark hiding places to recover. I spent the last few days trying to find solo bulls in the timber, that was not fun.