16c New Mexico Elk

[Nick28]

My dad and I drew a couple of the late rifle tags for 16c this year. We have never hunted in New Mexico before and we are really looking forward to it. Just curious if any of you guys have any experience in this unit and if you'd be willing to share some information with me.

After doing some research I feel like the majority of the elk will be towards the southern end of the unit (less roads, thicker trees, and tougher terrain). It also seems that it may be hard to glass much in this unit because it is so thick with trees. If anyone has experience here it would be great to know how hard it actually is to glass bulls out of that country or if we really should just focus on walking a lot of miles each day and covering ground. Lastly, I'm curious on how bad the hunting pressure is. I see there isn't a ton of tags issued, and I've read that most the pressure is just resident road hunters, because they get almost all the tags anyway. Any help at all would be really appreciated! Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Crimeny]

Sent you a message about the area.

 

[ND_Hooligan]

pm sent

 

[TexanSam]

The southern end is indeed, thick and hard to glass. When I had that tag in 2017, I walked all over the area I was camped and didn't see any elk until the last day, and that was just a few cows.

I was pretty inexperienced then, (not like I'm any more now lol) and I wish I could have more to say to help. I will say though, that I wish I would have got in the truck and tried a different area after going a day or so without seeing any elk.

 

[cedahm]

I put a writeup on here about 16C a couple of years ago. Early rifle vs late so slightly different.

Your assumptions are all directionally correct. There are glassing opportunities all over the unit, but you'll be looking at smaller swaths of country than you'd expect. Not a lot of places you can glass them from a mile away and make a stalk plan.

The elk there are not really migratory. They DO, however, move 3-10 miles each way every day from bedding cover (high and out of the way) to food and water and then back again. The tactic that eventually worked (despite not harvesting) for me was to figure out what the endpoints are, and which canyon complex they are using most frequently between those two points, then cover it from top to bottom.

Cover a lot of country and you'll find elk. The elk densities in that unit are impressive - but when they spread out you might think they have all been beamed up by alien spacecraft.

 

[Nick28]

Thank you guys for the information! Really looking forward to this hunt. Just a little nervous about how to hunt elk in the late season without being able to glass large areas. Will just have to hope to hike a lot of miles and run into big hank.

 

[CForest]

Never hunted in C but close to it. I would definitely say the southern end would probably be best. And as mentioned don't be afraid to move!

 

[vinihunt]

Try Cooney Point and you can camp at Wolf Hollow Campground it is nice area..u can stop at Beaverhead Ranger Station and ask if they see any elk recently..

we see some bulls when we go for youth encouragement...

 

[ND_Hooligan]

Any luck on the hunt?

 

[Nick28]

No luck on the hunt. Saw some elk and on the morning of the day we saw a very broken up 6x6, looking back on it I probably should have shot it. Oh well, didn't see any bulls after that, just some cows and a couple nice muleys. Some really cool country out there and it was just a lot of fun to spend that time hunting with my dad!

 

[ND_Hooligan]

Glad you enjoyed your experience and it truly is some amazing country.