New Mexico Elk - Live Hunt

[npaden]

It's a lot prettier in real life than on google earth! Did get a little snow up high, but not sure if it will be enough to really be a game changer.

Got 4 miles in this morning just poking around. Some pretty country. Some decent sign, but not exceptionally fresh. Did find a little raghorn shed.

Came across this crazy looking bear sunning himself on a rock. Almost looked like he was stuck or something. We got about 150 yards away and he looked at us, but didn't ever get up.

Drove into Questa for our last hot meal for a while at the wildcat's den, it's no dairy queen, but it will have to do.

Couple other pictures from this morning.

We'll put another couple miles on the boots tonight and hopefully have a plan for in the morning.

Not sure when my next update will be, still haven't figured out an easy to get to spot with reliable cell coverage out there.

Wish me luck in the morning.

 

[WBouldin]

good looking country! the bear photo is awesome

 

[ashersdad]

Good luck in the morning!! Looking forward to the updates. Cool pics so far, especially the bear.

 

[kansasdad]

The bear photo reminds me of the (St Louis?) zoo bear exhibit.....the bears would climb up for a sunny siesta spot.

 

[npaden]

Well no luck so far. Got a tiny bit of signal so I'll try to post.

Saw a small bull and 2 cows right at dusk last night. Put in a total of 7 miles and 1,550' elevation gain when it was all said and done.

Of course the guys who just hung around at camp saw 3 nice bulls and a dozen cows from the camper while we were out scouting. They all have deer tags, so we decided to go after them in the morning.

Got where we wanted to be about 15 minutes before shooting light, and had about a dozen cows in on us right before daylight. Several were less than 50 yards away. Saw what I'm assuming were the se 3 bulls from the night before getting shot at by folks in 3 or 4 different vehicles as they crossed the road heading our way. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I saw they got off 20 shots at those bulls as they crossed the road. The crazy thing is that I don't think they hit any of them! I watched all 3 slow to a walk after they got into the trees. We moved along the ridge line to try to intercept them, but lost them.

Just 3 miles on the boots so far this morning, but 2,000' of elevation gain. Sitting here at 10,000 feet eating lunch right now. We are just going to hang around up high this afternoon. At least we know there are elk around. Hopefully we can get back on them this evening

 

[npaden]

Managed to get a picture uploaded.

Here's the view from the lunch room.

 

[JohnCushman]

It's beautiful out there...best of luck!!

 

[kansasdad]

Boggles this 20th century brain this technology of same day/instant photos. Sounds like fun. Keep your orange on!!!

 

[jabber]

My son did a youth hunt across the road from there 2 years ago. We saw a ton of elk down on the flats late in the evening in the WMA. Of course it was after Christmas and I am sure the pattern will be diferent now.

We ate at the Wildcat den one time and both felt that the guy working there was a bit to friendly for our taste. The rest of the meals were at the cafe in town. Decent food and didn't have to keep an eye out behind me.

Good luck

 

[npaden]

My son did a youth hunt across the road from there 2 years ago. We saw a ton of elk down on the flats late in the evening in the WMA. Of course it was after Christmas and I am sure the pattern will be diferent now.

We ate at the Wildcat den one time and both felt that the guy working there was a bit to friendly for our taste. The rest of the meals were at the cafe in town. Decent food and didn't have to keep an eye out behind me.

Good luck

Same guy still works at the wildcat den. Hope you boys had a good burger at least!

 

[npaden]

We are still after it. Stayed out until after dark last night and left out in the dark this morning. We thought we had the skinny on a 6 X 0 that one of the deer hunters at camp saw yesterday, but we got skunked this morning. Pretty view though!

Really pretty spring fed pond, but really not much activity around it.

We thought we might have an offhand chance if some bulls decided to run the gauntlet and cross the road heading for the hills this morning, but there were 7 vehicles staggered out along the road and either the bulls crossed earlier in the dark or after getting shot at yesterday figured out a safer place to cross.

Here's the view where we sat last night.

Last night we stayed up high until 25 minutes after sunset and with nothing moving at all we headed back down to try to use at least a tiny bit of light with 1,000' of elevation to drop through the brush. Of course we get back to camp and several folks saw our headlamps coming down the mountain in the dark and thought we were crazy. Even worse the said that right at the end of shooting light 3 bulls came over the saddle to the left of that picture in the oak brush. Coming down in the dark i was thinking we should have left out earlier, I guess we left 5 minutes too early. Seems like they must read our play book and know where we are going to be in advance or something.

Trying a different spot this afternoon. Maybe we'll see something at least. Tomorrow we are going to go all the way back in hitting the trail at 3:30 am if we don't get something today.

 

[npaden]

Here's the view right now.

I can see another ridge to the north too, but I'm thinking the elk should come out in the oak brush early this evening hopefully.

I forgot to put my gps totals in for yesterday. Only 7.75 miles, but just over 2,700' of elevation gain. Nearly the entire day was bushwacking, maybe 1/2 mile on the trail.

Today is going to be pretty light, we are at 4 miles right now and 1,350' of elevation gain and it's pretty much downhill back to the truck and it's only 1 mile away. I think we'll make up for it tomorrow though if we don't get lucky tonight. Was really hoping to make it back for Halloween to spend it with my 4 year old son, but it's not looking good right now.

 

[noharleyyet]

That is a beautiful area of New Mexico.

 

[npaden]

About to head back to the truck. Didn't see or hear a thing this evening.

 

[npaden]

Well we are still at it. Maybe we are putting in too much effort.

Yesterday was our big day, we had the line from some other hunters on some elk up on a small pond that had been in there pretty thick. We woke at 3:00 am and actually started up the trail a little later than I wanted at 3:50. At 1.25 miles in we came to a fork in the trail and started to go left like the other hunters had said, but after going up the trail another 1/4 mile or so we second guessed ourselves and went back and took the right fork. I really should have sprung the $10 for a nice hard copy Topo map of the area instead of trying to talk to them with patchwork Topo maps on my phone. I navigated right to the map se had talked about on the map on my phone, but it was the wrong pond. 6 miles one way in and 2,700' of elevation gain walking through up to 8" deep snow to get to a frozen pond. Oh well, live and learn. It was really pretty though.

Here's the walk in:

Here's the frozen pond.

We had it figured out where the right pond must be, andheaded back around the back of the property to find it. We got the right around noon with 11 miles on the boots, again with much of it spent trudging through snow. We were tired. We hung out and dried out and ate lunch and scouted around for good spots to sit. Someone had made a litte rock blind about 150 yards above the pond. Here's the view from there.

One bright spot in the day was that we met up with another hunter on horseback while we were on the backside of the property and he said that he had been at the right pond that morning and he hadnt seen anything, so all the side trip cost us was a lot of wasted effort. Since the elk hadn't been the that morning, we decided not to sit the pond that evening, but hunt the oak brush over the ridge from it instead.

Here's the view we we sat yesterday evening.

It was a bust. Probably left too early again, but we were tired and thought we could hunt on our was back to camp after sunset. It was our biggest day by far in terms of miles covered and effort put in. Saw 1 cow elk and 2 doe deer. By the time we got back to the truck we had 14.6 hard miles in with over 3,500' of elevation gain and much of it spent slogging through 6" to 8" deep snow and even worse some 4" to 6" crusty snow where you break through on every step.

At some point we talked ourselves out of going back to the right pond this morning and tried another spot on the north corner of the property where the elk were supposed to travel from the crop fields back into cover in the mornings. There was a good chance that they would be on private property, but at this point we were excited to just have the chance to actually see some elk.

We slept in and left out at 5:30 this morning and got setup in a good spot about 30 minutes before shooting light and just before shooting light we actually saw an elk! It was too dark to see antlers, but based on the fact that it was by itself I was going to assume it was a bull. It was 600 yards away and moving south so I decided to go after it. About that time we saw 20+ elk with several bulls moving off onto private property. We were distracted for a second and the lone elk we had seen disappeared into the pinons. I told Ben to watch the elk on private to see what they would do and I went after the lone elk.

I sidehilled for about 1/2 mile and thought I had lost it, but I caught a glimpse of tan hide moving through the pinons. I waited for a bit thinking at a little draw, thinking it might come my way, but after a bit I decided it wasn't going to and started sidehilling again.

I got to a spot with an opening and caught sight of it again, it was a bull! At first I thought it was a raghorn, but I'm pretty sure it was a 5 or 6 point on the left side with a pretty nice main beam and nothing on the right side. It was 450 yards away and moving pretty quickly and I didn't take the shot. He obviously knew I was there and was moving out. The worst thing was that he was closer to where our travel trailer was parked than he was to me. On our way out this morning I ranged it from where he had been the last time I saw him before he disappeared into the pinons again and he was 355 yards from camp! According to my GPS I walked 5.8 miles this morning and a bull went within 400 yards from camp about 30 minutes after sunrise. Crazy. It seems like we are putting in too much effort, maybe we should start road hunting!

Even worse, some guys on horses went back to the pond where we were last night and shot a little 5x5 this morning. Wrong place at the wrong time.

Came into Questa to drop off some trash and eat at the wildcat den again. Their green chili burger is worth the guy at the counter being a little too friendly. Maybe our luck will change for the better. Trying a different spot tonight and not sure about tomorrow yet. A cold front is supposed to blow in so maybe that will change things up for the better.

Wish me luck, I for sure need it!

 

[Oak]

Was beginning to think you might have gotten lost.

Their green chili burger is worth the guy at the counter being a little too friendly.

You are way too easy. Don't ever hunt with Dink, whatever you do.

Good luck.

 

[jabber]

Good luck.........with the elk, that is.

Or maybe you could use the other to change your luck

 

[twllin]

When you took the right fork did you see the fresh bear track on the road? He must have crossed there about a couple hours before we did. Would have been nice to see a bear up there. Good luck! Too bad you didnt get a shot at the famous 6X0

 

[CABugle]

Great updates, hopefully everything will payoff for you guys. Good luck

CABugle

 

[krshunter]

I know this story. Text me and I'll tell you the ending...