npaden
Well-known member
Well, I'm going to try to see if I can pull off one of these live hunt threads. I'm chomping at the bit here getting ready to head out Thursday evening on my New Mexico elk hunt.
I've debated posting as a live hunt because that pretty much tells folks that I won't be home and they can go rob my house, but the family is staying behind on this one so they should be able to keep the house safe while I'm gone.
My friend Ben is coming along with me, he's about 20 years younger than me, so I'm counting on him to help pack some loads out hopefully if we get lucky. He was will me on my New Mexico elk hunt last year and was dumb enough to sign up to go back with me again this year. Went grocery shopping at lunch today and ended up buying $185 of junk food pretty much, but based on last year's New Mexico hunt I know we will be too tired to do any cooking when we get back to camp so the only thing we are going to have to heat up to eat is we bought a few cans of soup for evening meals.
I have a packer lined out if I get one on the ground too far back, and I talked to him on the phone today and he said that the 3rd hunt week is going on right now and pretty much everyone is striking out and going home early. Most are saying they haven't even seen any animals. I'm going to be hunting the Urraca WMA and it's only 13,000 acres so it's not like you can really go somewhere else if the animals aren't there so sounds like most folks are just packing it in early. This sounds like both good news and bad news to me, I picked this unit and these hunt dates based on drawing odds and pretty good success rates the last several years, but last years success rates came out after I already drew my tag and the 3rd hunt ended up with a 70% success rate last year while the 4th hunt (the date of my hunt this year) ended up with a 10% success rate last year. With the 3rd hunt date being a bust this year, maybe that will mean that my hunt dates will be better. Some weather is supposed to be hitting tomorrow that will hopefully help to change things around there.
I've got a list of honey do's to get done before I take off and still have quite a bit of packing to get done so I'm not sure how much I'll get posted before I leave, but I checked and I'm supposed to have decent cell phone coverage there so I'm hoping to be able to keep this updated as I go. I setup a photobucket mobile account so I hopefully will be able to take pictures and upload them while I'm there as well.
I've been working out pretty hard over the summer and fall and hopefully I'll be ready to tackle the steep elevation gains waiting for me this weekend. I'll be camped right around 8,000' and I expect to be working up in the 9,500' - 10,000' elevation range to be into the elk and I might even end up over the 11,000' mark if we end up having to work all the way to the back of the WMA.
I've never stepped foot or even laid eyes on this property before, everything I know about it has come from talking to folks on the phone and looking at maps and google earth. I feel like I know it pretty well from the time spent looking at it on google earth though!
Here's a overhead look at the WMA.
Here's some elevation shots from google earth.
Can't really tell much from this, but here's the entire front of the WMA looking back to the east.
North side - still looking east.
There are 10 bull elk tags for this 5 day hunt as well as a mule deer hunt going at the same time. Not sure how many deer tags there are. There is only one designated camping spot and that is right at the end of that road that you see in the screen shot above.
There is no motorized travel allowed other than driving into the designated parking spot and there is a road that runs north and south about 1/2 mile to the west of the mountain front. There are several old logging roads, but they are off limits to anything but horses and people on foot.
Here's the center - still looking east.
Supposedly that pond in the middle has been dry pretty much for 2 years now. Not sure what the status of it will be this weekend if they get some rain and snow tomorrow.
Here's the south side - still looking east.
I'm going to have Friday to scout before the opener on Saturday, but that's where I'm currently planning on spending opening morning. It's the roughest looking area in the WMA and it is for sure the steepest area. Fartherest you can get from the designated camping spot and vehicle roads. Not much in the way of closed off logging roads, and once you get back a ways there is some pretty dark looking timber and a hidden pond way back at the back.
New Mexico just passed a new law where non-residents will no longer be able to hunt their WMA's so if this turns out to be a honey hole it won't matter to me as I won't be able to hunt it any longer, so no point trying to keep any of my plans a secret. If it turns out to be a complete bust, at least I'll have given it my best.
That's it for now. I'll try to keep this updated as it goes.
Wish me luck.
Thanks, Nathan
I've debated posting as a live hunt because that pretty much tells folks that I won't be home and they can go rob my house, but the family is staying behind on this one so they should be able to keep the house safe while I'm gone.
My friend Ben is coming along with me, he's about 20 years younger than me, so I'm counting on him to help pack some loads out hopefully if we get lucky. He was will me on my New Mexico elk hunt last year and was dumb enough to sign up to go back with me again this year. Went grocery shopping at lunch today and ended up buying $185 of junk food pretty much, but based on last year's New Mexico hunt I know we will be too tired to do any cooking when we get back to camp so the only thing we are going to have to heat up to eat is we bought a few cans of soup for evening meals.
I have a packer lined out if I get one on the ground too far back, and I talked to him on the phone today and he said that the 3rd hunt week is going on right now and pretty much everyone is striking out and going home early. Most are saying they haven't even seen any animals. I'm going to be hunting the Urraca WMA and it's only 13,000 acres so it's not like you can really go somewhere else if the animals aren't there so sounds like most folks are just packing it in early. This sounds like both good news and bad news to me, I picked this unit and these hunt dates based on drawing odds and pretty good success rates the last several years, but last years success rates came out after I already drew my tag and the 3rd hunt ended up with a 70% success rate last year while the 4th hunt (the date of my hunt this year) ended up with a 10% success rate last year. With the 3rd hunt date being a bust this year, maybe that will mean that my hunt dates will be better. Some weather is supposed to be hitting tomorrow that will hopefully help to change things around there.
I've got a list of honey do's to get done before I take off and still have quite a bit of packing to get done so I'm not sure how much I'll get posted before I leave, but I checked and I'm supposed to have decent cell phone coverage there so I'm hoping to be able to keep this updated as I go. I setup a photobucket mobile account so I hopefully will be able to take pictures and upload them while I'm there as well.
I've been working out pretty hard over the summer and fall and hopefully I'll be ready to tackle the steep elevation gains waiting for me this weekend. I'll be camped right around 8,000' and I expect to be working up in the 9,500' - 10,000' elevation range to be into the elk and I might even end up over the 11,000' mark if we end up having to work all the way to the back of the WMA.
I've never stepped foot or even laid eyes on this property before, everything I know about it has come from talking to folks on the phone and looking at maps and google earth. I feel like I know it pretty well from the time spent looking at it on google earth though!
Here's a overhead look at the WMA.
Here's some elevation shots from google earth.
Can't really tell much from this, but here's the entire front of the WMA looking back to the east.
North side - still looking east.
There are 10 bull elk tags for this 5 day hunt as well as a mule deer hunt going at the same time. Not sure how many deer tags there are. There is only one designated camping spot and that is right at the end of that road that you see in the screen shot above.
There is no motorized travel allowed other than driving into the designated parking spot and there is a road that runs north and south about 1/2 mile to the west of the mountain front. There are several old logging roads, but they are off limits to anything but horses and people on foot.
Here's the center - still looking east.
Supposedly that pond in the middle has been dry pretty much for 2 years now. Not sure what the status of it will be this weekend if they get some rain and snow tomorrow.
Here's the south side - still looking east.
I'm going to have Friday to scout before the opener on Saturday, but that's where I'm currently planning on spending opening morning. It's the roughest looking area in the WMA and it is for sure the steepest area. Fartherest you can get from the designated camping spot and vehicle roads. Not much in the way of closed off logging roads, and once you get back a ways there is some pretty dark looking timber and a hidden pond way back at the back.
New Mexico just passed a new law where non-residents will no longer be able to hunt their WMA's so if this turns out to be a honey hole it won't matter to me as I won't be able to hunt it any longer, so no point trying to keep any of my plans a secret. If it turns out to be a complete bust, at least I'll have given it my best.
That's it for now. I'll try to keep this updated as it goes.
Wish me luck.
Thanks, Nathan
