New Mexico Elk - Live Hunt

[shoots-straight]

"Well earned bull", I'll + 1 on that statement. Good job.

 

[jarheadhunter]

Congrats man way to get it done.

 

[highmountian]

Effert=success!!! Congrats.

 

[npaden]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I've really enjoyed posting this.

Got home last night right at midnight and been fighting fires at work this morning, but I'll try to get this finished up now. I'll start back up where I left off with the narrative last time leaving the Wildcat Den in Questa to go back to try to hook up with some elk Tuesday night.

Tuesday night we ended up going up pretty much the last spot that we hadn't hit on the WMA, the canyon on the very south side of the area. We headed up several hours before sunset with no intentions but to hike up until we could find a good lookout spot and then wait for dark to see if anything would come out. We got going pretty good and about 1/2 mile up the trail we got on a track of a wounded elk. I'm assuming a bull, but it wasn't an exceptionally massive track and there were no dew claw marks in the snow so I won't guarantee it. The season was for bulls only though so someone really messed up if they wounded a cow. The track was at least a day old, but the snow made it pretty easy to track and it was staying right on the trail so that made it even easier.

We followed the blood trail for over a mile and found one spot where it had stood there for a while and then instead of following the switchbacks, it had just gone right up the side of the hill so I didn't think it could have been hurt too terribly bad. Then I came to a spot right in the middle of the trail were it had laid down and there was a pretty good amount of blood there and I wasn't so sure.

Here's a picture where it laid down. Looks like it was bleeding from the right hindquarter. I know the snow makes it seem like more blood, but it looked like a lot of blood to me. It was walking on all 4 feet and when walking there was usually 2 or 3 drops of blood on every 4th step. Hopefully it's still alive somewhere.

We ended up following the blood trail for at least a mile and a half and that elk was still moving steadily up the hill. We never did see a good lookout spot and it was pretty close to sunset so we decided to quit the trail and started heading back down hoping that we might have a chance to see something moving. I was cow calling and bugled a few times but didn't get any responses.

It was right at the end of shooting light and we were going down the switchback that we had skipped following the blood trail on the way up and I let out a cow call while we were walking and a bull lit up about 200 yards off the trail. I tried some more calls and never could get him to talk again and it was too dark to see him even if he did so we headed on back down for another unsuccessful day spent on the mountain. We logged 12.5 miles for the day and 2,700' of elevation gain. Again, it seemed like we were putting in too much effort. We had followed that blood trail up to 9,800' and then on the way back down we hear the bull at 9,300'. If we hadn't been following the blood trail up the side of the hill instead of taking the switchbacks would the bull have piped up when we walked by earlier? Lots of second guessing.

We debated back and forth on where to go on the last morning. Since another bull was shot at the pond that morning we figured the elk wouldn't be back in there the next day and it would be pretty discouraging to hike 3 miles back there and not see anything. Our packer that we had lined up was also going to be unavailable that afternoon and I really didn't want to have to stick around an extra day if I got a bull down back there either. We had seen elk in the front corner the morning before and really had the best opportunity of the week there and no shots had been fired to keep them from coming back so that's where we decided to head in the morning.

I'm going to run out of characters so I'll start another post with the last morning's hunt.

 

[npaden]

We had scouted out a few good spots to setup the morning before during the daylight and had marked it on the GPS so we decided to get there at least 30 minutes before shooting light. We got to sleep in late and headed out at 5:30 since the spot we had marked was only a mile from camp. The spot we picked out was right at the edge of the pinions at the base of the mountain because once they got to the pinions it was almost impossible to really be able to move in on them so we wanted to intercept them before they got there.

We ended up getting to our spot 45 minutes before shooting light and hunkered down and tried to be as quiet as possible. For a second the wind got behind us and I worried everything was going to be for naught, but then it turned and started blowing right in our face. The sagebrush was so tall in front of our spot that we had to stand up to get a good view. We had a pinion pine for a backstop and started glassing about 10 minutes before shooting light. We adjusted our spot a little as it got shooting light and heard some elk moving in the pinons already. I heard an antler click on a branch not very far away. I decided to try to go after them and headed in their direction. I let out a soft cow call and got an answer less than 50 yards away, but the pinons were so thick I couldn't see anything. I tried to follow for about 100 yards and cow called a few more times, but didn't see or hear anything and decided to go back to the original spot.

One reason for optimisim that morning was that a front was coming in and we were hoping the elk would be feeding later that morning so it was pretty disappointing to have a group of elk move in before shooting light. The big herd that has sticking to the private land was still out on the alfalfa field though and we thought there still might be a chance. They started milling around and a car parked out on the highway and that seemed to bother them a little. They worked right then left then started moving out and were staying on the wrong side of the fence.

About that time I saw a cow elk headed our way and it was already on the right side of the fence! Then I saw a decent bull following behind her!! Our plan might actually work! He wasn't a monster but after all the hard work and lack of any real opportunity all week any legal bull was going to be in trouble.

They were about 400 yards away and moving south and where we were setup I was thinking they might cross about 200 yards out in front of us. Looking some more there was also a raghorn following back about 100 yards behind the cow and the larger bull.

We got setup and started watching the opening where they were going to have to cross. I had my shooting sticks up and was on my knees to stay above the sagebrush. It seemed like an eternity and they still weren't showing up! I was a little worried about the cow being out front that she might spot us and turn back before we got a chance on the bull. I was so tempted to try to stand up and see if I could spot them, but stayed put.

Out pops the cow in the lead VERY close. She is looking straight at us! We stay perfectly still, but we have absolutely nothing for cover in front of us, just the pinion behind us to block our outline. She looks for a good 30 or 40 seconds and then starts walking a few yards then stops and looks, then walks a few yards then stops and looks for what seems like forever. The wind is perfect and she knows something is odd, but can't figure us out. The bull is still no where to be seen. She ends up traveling about 30 yards and I'm barely able to see her in my peripheral vison but I don't dare even move my head.

Finally the bull shows up and is just walking by completely oblivious. He's a 5X5, nothing impressive, but a decent but and plenty of meat on him. He's so close I don't even try to stop him, just take the shot as he is walking steadily. It's a solid hit, but he's still on his feet and moving, so I chamber another round and hit him again. He goes down. Right before he goes down he takes a breath and you can see the exhalation going out 2 seperate holes in his opposite side. It's over. All the effort put in over the previous 5 days and we now have a bull on the ground less than 1 mile from camp as the crow flies. The GPS reads 1.15 miles and less than 200' of elevation gain for the day! When I went over to where the bull was down I used my rangefinder and it was a whopping 65 yard shot.

It's about 20 minutes after sunrise but the sky is overcast and there are a few snow flurries starting to show up. We got the pictures taken and started working on getting him quartered up and packed out. There is one spot where the road ends up only .76 miles from where he went down so we'll go ahead and pack him out on our backs. It's pretty open and slightly downhill too.

Here's the glory shots from the real camera.

Here's my friend Ben with me.

And the start of the short packout.

I'm going to go through my pictures and will probably post some more and I'm going to try to get my tracks uploaded and put onto google earth to show how much of the area we ended up covering when it was all said and done as well, but I've got to get back to getting some work done now.

Thanks for coming along for the trip with me. Nathan

 

[Goldtip]

Congrats on a hard earned trophy, should keep the freezer filled for you!

 

[jabber]

Congrats on a well earned trophy.

 

[npaden]

Thought I would add up the totals from each day on the mileage while I was at it.

Friday - Scouting - 7 miles and 1,550' elevation gain. (no packs that day)
Saturday - Day 1 - 7.75 miles and 2,700' elevation. (most of this was off trail bushwhacking)
Sunday - Day 2 - 5.5 miles and 1,500' elevation. (bushwacking again on most of this)
Monday - Day 3 - 14.6 miles and 3,500' elevation. (Much of this in 4" - 8" deep snow)
Tuesday - Day 4 - 12.5 miles and 2,700' elevation. (this seemed like a pretty easy day)
Wednesday - Day 5 - 4 miles and 500' elevation. (Of course the easiest day including packout!)

Totals are 51.35 miles and 12,450' of elevation gain. I think the elevation gain is short a bit as well, on Monday we started at 7,900' and ended at the frozen pond at 10,500' and that sure seems like 2,600' of elevation gain to me, but the GPS said it was only 2,400' of elevation gain and we even had a few ups and downs along the way.

Overall it was great to be in such good shape to put in those miles, but I wonder if I hadn't been in such good shape and hunted lower if I would have probably tagged out sooner?

 

[npaden]

Here's the sheds we found for the week. Nothing great, but better than nothing.

Here's a picture of camp after everyone cleared out after the weekend. If you look at the snowy ridge to the left of the front of the trailer that's where the bulls were supposed to have been on Friday night and Saturday night when we left out too early.

Closer view of that saddle. The oak brush was about 225 yards and across on the opposite ridge ranged from 400 - 500 yards. This is the spot where we were sitting Saturday night and the bulls came out in the oak brush after we left.

This picture is taken from that ridge looking back at camp. You can see the road coming down and where it makes a bend and gets to the trees just over the top of the ridge is where our camp was.

This is a little better picture of the snowy trail up the mountain to the frozen pond on Monday.

I think all I have left is to get the tracks on google earth figured out and I can wrap this up.

Of course I need to get him butchered too!

 

[FishN4Eyes]

Nice looking elk and thanks for taking the time to document your hunt.

Pretty fun keeping updates on these live hunts.

 

[npaden]

Here's the last thing I was wanting to post that I can think of right now.

I tried figuring out how to edit the tracks but all I could manage to do was merge them. The long straight lines on the left of the picture aren't real tracks but where I turned the GPS off at camp and then back on again when we were at a trailhead. Also a lot of the tracks were out and back and just show up as one line on the map, but we covered both directions. You can figure out the real tracks pretty easy though.

I think we got it covered pretty well when it was all said and done!

 

[BirdDogWebb]

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your hunt. I really enjoyed it.

 

[Big Fin]

Congrats, Npaden. Thanks for posting this story.

 

[fishfrey]

Way to stay with the hunt and thanks for taking us along.

 

[ashersdad]

Very cool post. Really enjoyed following along. You definitely earned that bull. Congrats!

 

[krshunter]

Great hunt. Congrats on the results.

 

[jencilly]

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

Hi. Great post! Tons of valuable information here. Thank you so much!! I had no idea what to expect. How did you find out about the camping for hunters?

 

[TN_Rifle_Junkie]

Hi. Great post! Tons of valuable information here. Thank you so much!! I had no idea what to expect. How did you find out about the camping for hunters?

I would recommend sending the original person who wrote this post a PM. This thread is over a decade old and the data while useful, may not be relevant anymore.

 

[npaden]

Until a new member has 10 posts they can't send or receive private messages on this forum. It keeps some of the scams out of the classified section.

I was overly sharing with this live hunt thread and have actually gotten probably close to a dozen people over the last few years that have asked questions on my hunt there. Of course they are all New Mexico residents since non residents are no longer allowed to hunt the WMAs in New Mexico.

As noted this was over a decade ago so things may have changed since I hunted it but I'm more than willing to share what I can remember about my experience.

Thanks, Nathan

 

[jencilly]

I would recommend sending the original person who wrote this post a PM. This thread is over a decade old and the data while useful, may not be relevant anymore.

Until a new member has 10 posts they can't send or receive private messages on this forum. It keeps some of the scams out of the classified section.

I was overly sharing with this live hunt thread and have actually gotten probably close to a dozen people over the last few years that have asked questions on my hunt there. Of course they are all New Mexico residents since non residents are no longer allowed to hunt the WMAs in New Mexico.

As noted this was over a decade ago so things may have changed since I hunted it but I'm more than willing to share what I can remember about my experience.

Thanks, Nathan

Oh ok. Yeah, I get it. I’m just wondering if you talked to anyone about the camping prior to coming to the unit. We went over there to check it out, but it’s closed this time of year.