muzzelk..
New member
NM 5x5 Bull Elk..(pics are on now)
whats going on fellow hunters... i am new here just thought i would share my 2004 elk hunt story with you all. Well it all started on October 9th, my much anticipated Muzzleloader bull elk hunt in westcentral New Mexico. Well opening morning i went to hunt an area where during the September bow hunt my dad and myself had called in some big bulls. But could not get them to come into bow range but they were perfect Muzzloader range. I slowly walked in along an old logging road. I came around the first distinct corner and to my surprise and theirs i jumped a mother cow and here yearling calf. I knew this was gonna be a good hunt. I stayed playing with those two elk for a while then decided i better leave them and go find Daddy. After walking and walking and walking somemore i was getting discouraged. I had not heard a noise and did not see no more animals.
Around noon or so i called it a morning and went back to town to pick up my girlfriend so we could go check out another area. I had known this area to be excellent big game country but i had not had the chance to scout it out before my hunt. When we arrived at our destination we got ready for the evening hunt by doing my ritual spraying of scent shield and having a talk with my girlfriend explaining my plans for this evening hunt. We followed through with the plan hiking about 2 miles along an old trail use mostly by 4wheelers. Along the way i noticed heavy amounts of elk track and tons of rubs. I knew we had found a herd of elk here and it was only a matter of time till we seen them. Slowly we tracked along till we came to the end of the road. I let off a few short cow chirps and heard nothing, then a few more followed by a long but mellow bugle. Then we heard a Bugle answer back in the direction in which we had just came from. I made some cow estrus calls and he would answer but would not come towards us. It was as if he was trying calling us in to him. So we decided we would cooperate and move in slowly making small chirps along the way. After moving in closer he stopped calling back and i thought maybe he had winded us. But being the patient hunter that i am he still slowly moved closer. Then Suddenly I realized that we had just snuck into the middle of the herd. It was awesome until a small bull busted us and took off running crazy. But that did not bother the rest of the herd they just hung around and kept feeding we moved in closer to try and find the bull that was talking to me earlier. We got just a few yards from a calf and another young cow. With the sun going down quickly now I decided we would leave the herd alone and come back the next day. So we slowly found our way out of the herd and headed to the truck. On the way back i could hear the Bull making some grunts and short barks but i could not see him. We got to the truck and decided this was the place to hunt and we would be back early in the morning. to be continued...
whats going on fellow hunters... i am new here just thought i would share my 2004 elk hunt story with you all. Well it all started on October 9th, my much anticipated Muzzleloader bull elk hunt in westcentral New Mexico. Well opening morning i went to hunt an area where during the September bow hunt my dad and myself had called in some big bulls. But could not get them to come into bow range but they were perfect Muzzloader range. I slowly walked in along an old logging road. I came around the first distinct corner and to my surprise and theirs i jumped a mother cow and here yearling calf. I knew this was gonna be a good hunt. I stayed playing with those two elk for a while then decided i better leave them and go find Daddy. After walking and walking and walking somemore i was getting discouraged. I had not heard a noise and did not see no more animals.Around noon or so i called it a morning and went back to town to pick up my girlfriend so we could go check out another area. I had known this area to be excellent big game country but i had not had the chance to scout it out before my hunt. When we arrived at our destination we got ready for the evening hunt by doing my ritual spraying of scent shield and having a talk with my girlfriend explaining my plans for this evening hunt. We followed through with the plan hiking about 2 miles along an old trail use mostly by 4wheelers. Along the way i noticed heavy amounts of elk track and tons of rubs. I knew we had found a herd of elk here and it was only a matter of time till we seen them. Slowly we tracked along till we came to the end of the road. I let off a few short cow chirps and heard nothing, then a few more followed by a long but mellow bugle. Then we heard a Bugle answer back in the direction in which we had just came from. I made some cow estrus calls and he would answer but would not come towards us. It was as if he was trying calling us in to him. So we decided we would cooperate and move in slowly making small chirps along the way. After moving in closer he stopped calling back and i thought maybe he had winded us. But being the patient hunter that i am he still slowly moved closer. Then Suddenly I realized that we had just snuck into the middle of the herd. It was awesome until a small bull busted us and took off running crazy. But that did not bother the rest of the herd they just hung around and kept feeding we moved in closer to try and find the bull that was talking to me earlier. We got just a few yards from a calf and another young cow. With the sun going down quickly now I decided we would leave the herd alone and come back the next day. So we slowly found our way out of the herd and headed to the truck. On the way back i could hear the Bull making some grunts and short barks but i could not see him. We got to the truck and decided this was the place to hunt and we would be back early in the morning.
to be continued...
