New Mexico Unit 12 2nd Archery Dream Hunt

Wallydeuce said:
It's maddening, I know. That crap happened to me half a dozen times on my Utah OTC spike hunt.

I'm enjoying your narrative. Keep it coming and thanks for the follow along.
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I guess finding enough cell to write about this hunt helps me to decompress when negative stuff happens. I just need the rut activity to increase and it will make everything better.
 
The start to day 4 was awesome. We decided to hunt near camp as there was a fairly good amount of water on some nearby private. I crested the ridge and stopped the truck on the county road. We sat with the windows down for a few minutes and then let out a couple mews. Instantly, I got responses from several bulls. We knew they were at the water on the private so we moved up the road towards some public ground. We stopped the truck and I was rolling down the windows, we could hear five to six different bulls bugling. One of the bulls was close enough that you could hear him glunking and breathing super heavy as he was chasing cows. Unfortunately they moved to the north towards another piece of private. They definitely know where they are safe. We moved on to the next spot and as we turned onto another road, we heard a bull rip a bugle less than 50 yards off the road. He may have been closer than that. He was standing on public and just minutes later, he walked across the road onto private. We looked at the map and saw that we could go a half mile to the west and try to draw the bull towards us. Well, it almost worked. As it does many times in the elk woods, the wind swirled as the bull walked inside 40yds. I could his legs as he ran by me.m, but that was it. The herd split and I started cow calling. Of course all the cows stopped and walked towards me stopping at just 7 yds. It doesn’t matter if it’s a cow or a giant bull, have any elk that close instantly makes you shake. Too bad the bull wasn’t with them or I might have let an arrow fly. Now we’re back at camp having a little lunch and then back out for the evening hunt. You would think that these bulls are about go into crazy rut mode pretty soon.
 
So awesome to hear that you have been in the heavy action. Currently hunting unit 13 and it’s been pretty uneventful out this way.
 
I'm enjoying the hunt report. Sounds like you are having a great hunt so far (despite a little frustration with some other hunters).
 
Good luck!!! Sounds like a great trip so far. Killing a bull will only make it sweeter.
 
Awesome follow. I’ve been hoping the bulls would get fired up as well. I left my hunt in Wyoming and plan on returning tomorrow night and give it til the end of sept hoping to catch some hotter action. Good luck, rooting for you stickbuck.
 
Well, things got away from me there. I’m back with the updates. Day 5 sure didn’t disappoint. It was about as good as it could get. We got some intel on a new spot to try out that we had driven by what seemed like a hundred times. When the alarm clock went off at 3:30am, I knew I had to get up and avoid hitting the snooze button. Everyone knows what it’s like when it’s been a long hunt and your mind and body beg you to hit the snooze button. I jumped up, changed and staggered out of the tent with my eyes about half shut. I walked over to dad’s tent and woke him up. The sound of his voice when he looked to see what time it was said it all. It was going to be a long day for both of us. Well, we left camp just a few minutes after 4am and started heading south. Not sure if I stated it, but we are camped in just about the center of the unit. Driving to either the west or east end of the unit is about an hour and a half drive.

We made a quick pit stop for gas and continued on. We arrived to our destination just before 5:30am. I rolled down the windows and was greeted with the sound of bugling bulls. They were bugling in every direction too. With an hour until daylight, I just stayed in the truck and listened to the bulls sounding off repeatedly. My heart was anything but steady. Dad said he’d stay back at the truck and before it could get light I started walking to the north. Almost instantly my heart sank. The wind was straight at my back carrying my scent directly at the raspy bugles. I knew I had would have to swing far to the east to get around the bulls. Just when I thought I had gone far enough, another bull would bugle ahead of me. Finally, I had gone far enough to the north that all but one of the bulls were upwind of me.

The only bull still downwind of me sounded like a five-year old kid playing with a bugle tube so I felt confident in my decision to focus on the bulls back to the south. I let out a few cow calls and got an instant response from what sounded like a big bull. Just as he bugled, the his nearby cows started mewing. The intensity of the mews had me a little worried that they would show up before the bull did. As his cows drifted towards me, I let out a bugle and he instantly bugled over the top of me. Yes, it worked. He’s pissed! The cows continued my direction and the bull would scream at the them hoping they’d retreat. My wind was great and I knew he would only need to come 40-50 more yards and he’d be visible. A few more bugles from the bull and his cows moved back to him. At this point, I was a little worried because my gut told me they were heading towards a nearby knob to bed. As they moved away, I decided to let them go and live to see another day.

I pursued a few other bugles in the area, but they just didn’t want to play. I kept thinking to myself, it’s the third week of September. These bulls should be cranking, but they just weren’t. It hasn’t helped that the daytime highs have approached 90 everyday and the lows have only gone below 60 once. After a little bit of a sight seeing excursion, I retreated back to the truck for a snack. It was approaching noon so we headed to the location of where we saw the big bull the day before the opener. Dad stayed at the truck and I started up the ridge. I was gone for two plus hours and made a huge loop around the top end of this drainage. Lots of elk sign and wind. Every time the wind would die down, I would bugle or cow call to no avail. It was getting hot so I texted dad to pick me up where we had parked the truck on Tuesday.

I was looking at OnX when a bull bugled to the south. It was 2:05pm and this bull was up and moving. I hurried the rest of the way down the hill to the meet point and dad was standing outside the truck. He had heard it as well. This bull was less than 200yds from the truck. I jumped across the road and walked straight at him. I got within a 100 yards and slowly would reposition with his every bugle. I finally got within what seemed about 70-80 yards. As I set up, I could hear cows mewing as they milled around this little bench. I cow called a few times and the cows started moving my direction. It wasn’t long and the cows were inside 40 yards and the bull was pissed. He would bugle and I would respond. This went on for what seemed like ten minutes. Finally, I knew I had to make a more aggressive move. The wind was getting shifty so I let out a raspy bugle right over the top of him as he bugled. Instantly I knew I had intimidated him beyond what he could handle. He grabbed his cows and moved to the east. His next bugle just a few minutes later was at least 150 yards from where he had just been. I tried to coax him back, but he had made up his mind.

I headed back towards the truck as it was really getting hot. Just as I got to the truck, my heart sank. I had left my rangefinder up on the hill where I was last sitting. My dad headed up the hill with me and we tried to locate it. Of course I didn’t have my OnX tracker on so I was just going from spot to spot attempting to locate it. It didn’t help that everything looked the same. We looked and we looked and I knew the clock was ticking. It was now after 3pm and I really didn’t want losing my rangefinder to blow up my evening. Just as we were about to give up, there it sat. I was so thankful to have found it. I always lose gloves in the woods, but it would have really sucked to have not found my rangefinder. We got back to the truck, made a quick sandwich and then headed to explore some new ground.

Hunting a unit you’re not familiar with is tough as it feels like you’re burning valuable hunting hours trying to scout new ground. It wasn’t very long and I looked at the watch. It was hard to believe that it was almost 6:30pm. The thought of an evening hunt was slowly fading with the setting sun. We came along a patch of timbered BLM and I stopped the truck. I let a bugle and instantly got a response. Within a few minutes, we had at least five or six different bulls bugling. My single bugle seemed to send the entire canyon into a frenzy.

I grabbed my pack and sprinted up the hill straight at them. I got setup within 200 yards and began cow calling. It didn’t take more than a few minutes and the cows were heading my direction. Of course the bulls got irritated and began trying to coax them back. It just wasn’t working. The cows wanted to keep heading my way. The biggest sounding bull was running all over bugling and glunking. After a few minutes, he had enough. I slowly drifted down towards a saddle all by himself. The other bulls took full advantage of him walking away and they tried to round up the cows. One of them was successful and pulled them back away from my setup. As darkness faded, I knew my opportunity to get a shot was fading too. Just after dark I headed back to the truck and we headed back to camp. I almost couldn’t believe how much activity we had witnessed. That made it even harder to believe that I didn’t have a shot opportunity. As we ate our Mountain House and sipped some whiskey back at camp, we were all smiles knowing that tomorrow could be just as entertaining. Night night!
 
Day 6 update. This one is not going to be fun to type. It is one that I would much rather forget about. We decided to hunt near camp so we slept in until 4am. Groggy and eyes half shut, we left camp and headed east. We drove a few miles and parked the truck near where we had a lot of action just a few days prior. I cow called and bugled and didn’t get a response. I was dumbfounded. I got back in the truck and we moved a few miles to the east. I parked the truck and again bugled into the darkness with no response. Where the heck had they gone? As the sun began to rise, we had heard just two bugles in an hour and a half of trying to locate bulls. Unfortunately the two bugles were well onto private land so called an audible.

We headed back to camp and filled our bellies with breakfast burritos. At least our stomachs were happy. Grabbed a few extra waters out of the cooler and off we went. We headed south from camp and just before we hit some private, I stopped to bugle into a north facing canyon. I ripped a bugle and got an instant response. I grabbed my pack and bow and off I went. About a 100 yards into the hike, I look up the hill and see a cow standing there staring at me. She instantly bolts right in the direction of the out of sight bull. I called a few more times, but he was silent. It was after 9am and it was getting hot so I hurried back to the truck and off we went.

We spent the next 6 hours driving around glassing trying to locate a bedded bull. It just wasn’t meant to be. It felt like the day was shaping up to be a complete train wreck where you’re trying to keep the panic from creeping into your mind. We decided to head back to the same canyon as the night before in hopes of coaxing those same bulls down the hill. I got out the little Camp Chef Stryker and boiled up some water for a Backpacker’s Pantry Jamaican Jerk Chicken and Rice. Oh how that hit the spot giving me a little extra motivation for the evening hunt. I started up the canyon and it wasn’t long and I was all setup.

The wind was just okay and I sat there patiently waiting for the elk to show themselves. The next few hours were about as quiet as it could get. Not a single bugle. As it neared 7pm, the sun had drifted below the canyon rim. Just as the sun sank, a bugling bull sounded off one finger ridge to the north. What a welcome sound it was. Unfortunately it was in the canyon just to the north of me, but I felt good about my chances. 15 minutes later, an elk barked up the draw. My wind was good. I just couldn’t figure out what the problem was with this elk. The bull to the north kept bugling so I packed my stuff and jumped into the next canyon. The barking elk followed me over to the other side. I stayed out of sight, but something had definitely gone wrong. I was pissed, but that’s elk hunting. Two more bulls bugled on the back side of this canyon so I ran up the side hoping I could catch a bull before I he saw me. I bugled and kicked every rock as I ran straight towards him. The frequency of his bugles increased and he kept coming closer. As he got closer, I recognized his bugle from the previous night. He was still all alone. I rolled rocks down the hill behind me and kept cow calling, but it just got too dark. With legal shooting light passing, I grabbed my stuff and headed back to the truck.

It had been a decent day, but it just wasn’t what we had hoped for. Hopefully day 7 will bring a change to the rutting activity so we could forget all about the previous day. Have a good day everyone!
 
You are for sure on them. They just gotta zig,instead of zag.
My buddy just left after getting them 100 yards away before they zigged. He was pretty stoked to have had bulls close several times on open ground. Bulls every day. Good ones. Cows every day,but no real rutting yet.
The last day bull was a good one for sure. I could see his rack with my eyes @ daylight @ a quarter mile. The Zeiss binos confirmed a huge 6x6,maybe 4' wide with mass.
 
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stickbuck said:
Just a quick update for day 3 as it was pretty limited on elk encounters. Dad wanted to sleep in this morning after he walked 9 miles on day 1 and then 8.5 on day 2. I left camp at about 4:30pm and started the drive to the morning destination where we had hunted the prior two mornings. I got my stuff on started hiking. About a half mile in to my walk, it appeared there was a set of headlights heading my direction. I was hoping they would see my truck parked and turn back, but that wasn’t the case. I watched their headlights pass my pickup and then continue down the old worn out sandy two track. As the pickup got closer, I figured they would see my headlamp and turn around. Unfortunately they did not and they kept coming towards me and proceeded to pull up next to me about a mile from my where I had parked. The passenger rolled down his window and asked me the direction I was planning to hunt. I told them I was going to continue to the north. The driver assured me that they were going to park a few hundred yards up and proceed to the west. They had already drove past several bugling bulls and mewing cows. It wasn’t the best case scenario, but at least I knew there were 4-5 bulls bugling another mile to the north so I continued on in the dust trail of the Ford pickup from Oklahoma. I was nearing a large meadow that I would have to cross and pleased to hear at least three throaty bulls bugling ahead of me. The wind was great and I pushed on before the sun came up over the hill. Just as I started to cross the meadow, I look to my right and those two gentleman from white Ford pickup were standing just 40 yards away. They hadn’t walked to the west, but instead decided to walk to the north where we agreed I was going. I was a little upset as the younger guy told me they were going to cross the meadow and go after the bulls. I didn’t have anything good to say so I bit my lip and retreated two miles back to the truck. It was just one of those crappy mornings that happen every once in awhile. Hopefully everything is positive from here on out.

The evening hunt was fairly uneventful. I got a hundred mosquito bites and the elk didn’t move to the water until after dark. Kinda was par for the course considering how the morning hunt started.
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Public land has no rules re fair play. You get to see the same array of good and unfortunate characteristics of the general population when encountering hunters. Sorry a chunk of your plans and your day got screwed up. Do know that you are the guy I never minded sharing a camp with since you obviously pull your own weight and want to see other people have space as well. I have a family member that can't help himself when it comes to accumulating money so ethics are compromised at the expense of other family members and society. Is just the hand of cards we get dealt and is sad to see though the consequences ripple though his life. I will think good thoughts that you get extra good luck on this and upcoming hunts.
 
Day 7 update. At the time I write this, it is September 21st and we have been gone from home for the past ten days. With three young kids at home ranging from 8 to 12, there is always a tipping point on these hunting trips. With work, getting the kids to school and then all of their after school sports and activities, sometimes my leash can grow a little short. As the kids get older, each year gets easier for her, but it still can be a lot for one person to manage while I’m gone on my hunts. I hope she knows how much I appreciate everything she does.

With the elk activity near camp almost ceasing to exist, we again woke up at 3:30am to make our hour plus drive. We left camp just after 4am and arrived to our destination. I rolled the windows down and was greeted with the sound of bugling bulls. Since it was only 5:15am, I knew I would have to stay in the truck and let the elk do their thing. With about 20 minutes until shooting light I started my trek to the north. Just as it was two days prior, the wind was not going to be in my favor from the get go. The bulls were directly to my north and I would have to skirt around them. Piece of cake! This time I opted not to go as far to the north in hopes that the bull from the previous would take the same route to bed. It sounded like he no longer had his cows. As he neared, I could tell the bull wasn’t as raspy as the bull from two days ago. Either way, I was fixing to get in position for a shot in case he came into range.

My best shot would be to the right of the juniper I was setup behind. He went right like a smart bull would trying to keep the wind in his favor. Of course the south wind had laid down and the wind was no longer providing an insurance policy for the small amount of movements and sound I was about ready to make. Just as he went around a small 7 foot tall tree in the middle of the clearing, I drew my bow. Of course he stopped with his entire body behind the small tree. All he needed to do was take two steps and the arrow would be on it’s way. Seconds later he wheeled back the way he’d come and the gig was up. I let down and put my arrow back in my quiver.

It was just minutes after 7am so the day was young. I set off to the west with the intention of hooking around a large chunk of private. I called every 15 minutes, but the bulls had gone silent. Hard to believe that the bulls could shut down the bugling so soon after daylight. The only thing I could think of was that the pressure in the area had caused them to go quiet. I walked and walked, but just couldn’t turn anything up so I turned around and headed back to the pickup.

I got back to the pickup just after 11am and was surprised to see that I had already logged 8 miles in just over 5 hours. After drinking what seemed like a gallon of water, we headed out for our next destination. We sat water the first three nights with varying success. We had only seen younger bulls and cows and felt more comfortable chasing bugles instead of putting all our eggs in one basket. That too had worked, but I was intrigued to find a waterhole used by another forum member. It took awhile, but we were able to locate it on OnX and were glad to see that it still had plenty of water.

I grabbed all my gear and dad grabbed the blind. The wind was out of the west and was fixing to shift out of the north by the end of the evening. We picked a good spot and tucked the ground blind into a patch of junipers. We spent the next 20 minutes brushing it in until it blended in with all the other ones. Dad took off to head west with the intention of checking the cam we put up on a ridge top drinker. This would be dad’s first solo cam check so we went over a few things before he left. I crawled into the blind and got everything situated as dad drove out of sight.

I looked at my phone and it wasn’t even 1:30pm yet. This would be an interesting 6 plus hour sit. The only drawback to sitting this wind direction is that I would have the sun in my face for a few hours until it went down. I decided to pass the time playing on my phone and then realized I hadn’t finished the hunt updates from the previous days. I was deep in thought as I caught movement to the west. It was a cow and a calf sprinting down the hill towards the dirt tank. I leaned on my side and put on my face mask and quickly noticed I hadn’t even nocked an arrow. Thankfully it was just the two of them for the time being. They were definitely thirsty and both of the drank for at least five plus minutes. The cow wandered out of the tank and began feeding while her calf decided it was playtime. The calf rolled and splashed while mama fed on the green grass just on the fringe of the water. After about 20 minutes, they slowly moved off and out of earshot. I definitely was not anticipating any elk activity at 4:45pm, but I’ll take it. As lighted faded and the moon began to creep over the horizon, I was in disbelief that the sit started out so good and just fizzled. Anyone who has been through this part of the state can attest to the amount of water and feed. These elk don’t have to focus solely on just one or two water holes. They can pretty much close their eyes and find it with how much we’ve found. Hoping that day 8 brings more opportunities!
 
Day 8! Only three days left! Dad got in my head a little last night about hitting up the spot where I had the encounter with the boys from Oklahoma on day 3. I had hunted it the first two days of the season and the elk activity and opportunities had been awesome. The encounter with those guys turned me off and frankly I didn’t want to go back there if there was a chance we’d be hunting on top of each other again. We woke up at 4am and the wind was pushing out of north and occasionally from the west. It was a perfect wind for the spot so off we went. It had rained on day 4 and 5 and we were shocked to see that nobody had driven into this spot since the rain 3 days earlier. This definitely lifted my spirits and proceeded to drive up the road and park where I had met the guys from Oklahoma. This ended up cutting about a mile of walking, but there was the possibility that we’d drive past some elk too.

I parked the truck and immediately opened the door. It took less than a minute to hear a bugle. I didn’t respond and we just sat in the truck for the next hour waiting for light. I had every intention of hiking 3 miles to the north where the big herd would come off the private to bed, but I wasn’t about to leave all this bugling that was just a few hundred yards from the truck.

As it began to get light, off I went. Dad said he’d stay back at the pickup and take a nap while I was gone. I headed west towards the bugles. Several times I setup snd cow called, but the bulls just kept working west. I ran after them and finally closed the gap to less than 200yds. Instead of letting out a couple mews, I ripped a bugle and several bulls responded. I could hear one cow mewing with the bulls, but that was it. I bugled on top of them several times and this set them off. All of a sudden I could hear what sounded like several elk running. At first I thought they were running away, but it turns out that they were running straight at me. At 10yds, I drew my bow on a 270ish 6 point and he skidded to a stop at 6yds. If he had been head on, I would’ve let it fly. Unfortunately for me, he was heavily quartering to and there’s no way I was taking that shot. He wheeled and ran out to 80 and stood behind a pinion juniper. They just kept coming. Turns out that it was the same bachelor group of bulls that I had encountered the first day of the hunt. I was so close to letting an arrow fly on a small 5pt, but I passed. It was just after 7am so I was excited for what the day in store for me. As the bulls finally winded me, they grabbed the lone cow and headed west. Knowing that the group was a bunch of smaller bulls, I elected to move to the north.

As I walked further and further to the north, I wondered if I had made a mistake to leave elk in search of more elk. It was only 7:30am and all the bugling bulls had quit talking. I continued the march towards the private. Occasionally I would hear bugles a mile or so to the east, but I knew the bulls were in the wide open and probably not killable.

I was 300 yards from the private boundary when a bugle rang out at 10:30am. It was getting hot and had to be approaching 80 degrees already. I turned in the direction of the bugle and let out a couple mews into my bugle tube. The bull instantly responded. With nothing else going for me, I headed in his direction. I had to cross two openings that were both 300-400 yards wide. I knew there was a chance he could see me, but I knew I wouldn’t pull him across either one of them. As I finished crossing the second one, I stopped and called. He responded and I could tell he was much closer than his previous bugles. I didn’t respond. I decided to cut more distance as quickly as I possibly could. He kept bugling and every bugle was closer closer. Finally he let out a bugle and he was inside a 100. I got all setup and cow called briefly. When he got to 50, I could see his legs and then his body. At 40, he had no idea I was there. I drew my bow and settled my third pin right behind the shoulder. I took a deep breath, cow called to stop him and pulled the trigger. As the arrow hit perfectly, he wheeled back in the direction he came from. I cow called and bugled immediately in an attempt to stop him and it worked. I could hear him walking through the brush and it sounded like he was struggling. All of a sudden I could hear gurgling. Lungs!! It was right then I knew it was a great shot leading to a quick death. He wasn’t the biggest bull I had seen on the trip and I had even passed on bulls larger than him. It was just one of those times where it worked just as you dream it would.

As I followed his tracks, I came to a big opening. I hoped and prayed he wasn’t laying dead in the wide open. I was excited to see him laying a short distance away in the shade of several large pinion junipers. He was taking his last breaths as I approached him. He was a beautiful 4x5 with a good frame. It had been an amazing hunt so far and I was I incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to take this animal. I notched my tag and began the 2.5 mile walk back to the truck.



About a third of the way back to the truck, I looked at my phone and was becoming worried about the heat. It was now just after 11am and the clock was ticking. I knew I had to get back to the truck very quickly. I took off my camo jacket and pack and laid them next to a tree near the road along with my bow. This allowed me to move quicker and I ran the rest of the way back to the truck. When I got there, I think dad was shocked to see how I looked. I shared the good news with him and we quickly gathered all of our meat care supplies. We were able to drive within a half mile of where my bull died. This saved us a ton of time and energy. After some field photos, we broke him down and got all the quarters on ice in the cooler.



This capped off an amazing 8 days hunting elk in SW New Mexico. Once back to camp, we started prepping all of our gear for the breaking of camp the following morning. Still high on adrenaline, we went to bed about 11:30pm that night. The alarm went off at 4am and man was it tough to get up. It took longer than expected, but we pulled out of camp just after 5:30am. As we drove out of the unit, the elk were everywhere. We saw a ton of elk driving out in the dark and it was fitting that this would happen. It was like they were taunting us or were they trying to remind us of what we were leaving behind so that we would be excited to return. Either way, we kept pressing on to the north. We still had 1,500 miles to drive to get home. We stopped a lot for gas and old man pee breaks. Had a few double doubles and fries at In N Out in Salt Lake. We kept pushing north and the sun began to fade. I couldn’t believe that I was still driving. As it neared midnight, we had to stop and close our eyes. I had been driving for 19 hours and I had finally hit the wall in Yakima, WA. We parked the truck and closed our eyes for two hours. Just after 5am, we pulled into the driveway almost 24 hours later. It was great to be home!!! I now have an incredible amount of knowledge of the area and can’t wait for what New Mexico has in store in the coming years. My first ever out of state hunt was a success and I was able to share that with my father. Looking back, I will always wonder what would’ve happened if I would’ve held out until the last day. I have never been much of a coulda, woulda, shoulda guy so it is what it is. Maybe this will fuel me when I return back to the great state of New Mexico! Thank you for letting me share my hunt with you. My apologies for taking so long to wrap it up. It was chapter that I just wasn’t ready to shut yet. Enjoy the pictures!
 
Awesome. Congrats. I was hoping you were going to finish the write up. Glad it ended on a high note.
 
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