NM Muzzleloader Elk Hunt

[LopeHunter]

I usually have a bit of anxious tossing, turning and dreaming as Result Day nears for a hunt application draw. Each Results Day for me is a miniature Birthday or Holiday event. I do not draw many tags. I tend to now only apply for hunts near the rut or which offer an older age class of critter or there are only a handful of tags. The odds are often under 5% though when apply to enough of those tags then can draw one somewhere from time to time. Hope springs eternal until see a results screen full of “Unsuccessful” labels. I see several dozen Unsuccessful results each year.

April 17 was when New Mexico posted results. I drew my 3rd choice though was still a heck of a choice as was a muzzleloader bull elk tag for early October. Odds were around 1 in 40 as a non-resident not applying in the Guided Draw.

I decided a few years ago to go on fewer hunts and to never again pack out a moose or elk solo. Once I determined my older brothers were not available then I sought out a guide for this hunt. I spoke with over a dozen prior hunters by calling and emailing the names on the lists provided by Epic and Huntin' Fool. I heard the same outfitter's name mentioned positively a few times so I called him up and arranged for a guide.

A month later the Nevada results were released and lo and behold I drew a muzzleloader bull elk hunt there, too. Time to get in better shape.

I worked up the same exact load for my two identical Thompson Omegas .50 calibers. One of the Omegas has a scope while the other uses iron sights. I would use the scoped muzzleloader in NM.

The next three months flew by while I focused on the NV hunt. NV was a memorable hunt and as notched that tag I realized was less than one month to go until the NM hunt. The little finger on my left hand was a casualty of the NV hunt so sported a splint through the rest of September.

Drawing the NM tag with a five-day season was a bit bittersweet. My 40th high school reunion was scheduled for Homecoming football weekend which happened to also be the first night of the NM hunt. If I went to the reunion then I would lose the first two of days. Since the rut is winding down during this hunt I figured the earlier you hunt the tag then the better. About 50 bulls would be harvested with the 104 tags and my hunch was most of those would fall on opening day.

I grew up in a small, rural town and our class reunions combine four consecutive classes so is more like a family get together every five years than a stuffy brag-a-thon. We now are losing a classmate about every three months and that pace is gradually increasing. You never know when might be your last chance to see a buddy. I almost missed the prior reunion when a CO mountain goat hunt took a while to fill that tag.

I opted to not go to the reunion. I am on the planning committee and emcee the event so I swore one of the other members to secrecy and he agreed to emcee as well as announce that afternoon to the committee that I would not be attending. He did a wonderful job and sent me lots of pictures of classmates that attended.

I gathered up my gear in Phoenix and tossed the gear and a big cooler into a rental truck for the drive over to NM the day before the season began. Google Maps suggested the shorter route though a LOT of winding, undivided roads where were not many services. Was amazingly scenic. I made a note to route home through Flagstaff which would be mostly interstates after the first hour.

Some of the scenic stuff on the drive.

Leaving Phoenix


Gaining elevation


Sage flats in NM


Ancient lava flows


My Geology 101 classes were a long time ago though think the red seam is sand from the erosion of the then Alps-like Appalachian Mountains that became sand which flowed west after the first Rocky Mountains had eroded away. Or not.

 

[LopeHunter]

I arrived at camp a bit before sunset and met up with the outfitter and his guides and the cook for a nice dinner in the wall tent located a mile from the motel we would stay at for the hunt. I was one of four hunters in camp. This adventure was an “elk hunt of a lifetime” for two of the hunters which drove over from Georgia and were retired. We shared stories and a few jokes as is typical when hunters nurse down a few beers around a roaring fire. Temperatures were cooling towards 40F. Stars glowed above in clear skies after about 3 inches of rain earlier in the day.

The motel had hot showers and a half dozen television channels. Unless the electricity failed which was once or twice a week per the owners. Cell phone coverage was iffy but there was wifi. Very nice set-up. Almost too comfortable for a hunt, though.

A general store shared the gravel parking lot with the motel. The nearest eateries were about a half hour away. Slept great dreaming of bugles.

Opening day began with a 4:30am alarm. The guide, James, drove up right on time at 5:30am with a freshly made breakfast burrito. He drove for a while then found another truck parked where the guide wanted to hunt towards an active wallow he scouted the prior couple of days. He drove a mile further and parked at the base of a ridge that went up to over 10,000 feet elevation. He said the other truck was near a wallow he had checked out this week. We sat in the truck and the wind rocked the upright, dead trees which were sounding as if a 1,000 rusty door hinges were being open and closed.

Shooting light would be at 6:35am but we were in the shadow of the sunrise so was just before shooting light as we exited the truck and crossed the three-strand barb wire fence to begin hiking through dew-soaked undergrowth. Some logging roads ran along the ridge and uphill but lots of time would soon be spent navigating deadfall from a series of fires including a hot burn about 15 years ago.

We were walking to our right about 100 yards inside the fence. Had taken maybe 500 steps. We heard a bull bugle. Sounded like a bull rather than a hunter. Boom. A shot went off about 200 yards from us right with legal shooting time. The guide looked at me with a “is everyone hunting here today?” look. We pivoted and hiked up straight up the ridge. And hiked. Thousands of pine seedings with a protective plastic cage dotted the ridge. The sound of angry hornets could be heard and realized this was several chainsaws on the other side of the road where we parked and firewood was being gathered. The saws never stopped.

James cow called. Bugles answered in about five directions. We worked our way to right and found a logging road headed up the ridge. Was 7:15am.

Bumped a small, solo bull at 140 yards but hard to judge with the lodgepole pines, living and dead, between us and the bull. Heard 3 more bulls. Heard two more shots. Elevation was affecting me with some huff and puff but my legs were holding up, possibly because I only had about 30 pounds of gun and gear along for the day.

A summer of eating more sensible and treadmill work three times a week helped to make this day easier to enjoy. Nothing really turns back the odometer of age, though. A friend likes to say to young whippersnappers that your worst day in your late 40s is like your best day in your late 50s. He has a point and we both will soon be soon be in our 60s.

We reached the upper logging road at over 9000’ elevation. 8:05am. We been hiking up an incline for about 90 minutes. Had gained over 2500’ elevation and hopped countless deadfall trees. We were now only hearing two bulls and one was basically at the very top likely to cross over to the other side to bed. We used the logging road to turn back to our left to get closer to the other bugling bull. Or hunter. Sounded like a bull. The wind was in our face at about 15 mph. Trees were creaking loudly.

 

[LopeHunter]

The bull sounded again at about three hundred yards or so. Was definitely below the road somewhere ahead of us. Definitely was on the move. The bull had traveled faster to us the past 10 minutes than we had towards him. I was to the uphill side of the road so did not skylight to the bull below. The guide was about 15 feet ahead of me and the bull had not bugled for a few minutes but we still had a lot of distance to cover. The logging road curved around a bend at about 80 yards ahead. We paused waiting for a bugle.

Just then a cow elk appeared on our logging road walking in our direction and froze. We dropped to a knee. Another cow appeared. A third appeared and bumped the second. All three cows walked down the road our way. A bugle sounded just beyond the bend in the road. Soon three more cows appeared. The bull’s head and front antler tips now appeared. Another bugle. Decent bull then stopped with a cow in front and one to the side and one now lagging behind. They began to move again. Soon those three cows and the bull were with the first three cows. At 40 yards the lead cow decided to get squirrely. Another cow joined in. Left face. Right face. Left face. The four cows and the bull soon faced towards a downhill plunge off the road through the deadfall. Still no shot. Then the bull stepped 2 feet closer to the downhill side of the road while the cow in front of him stayed put. I had a few inches of front shoulder in front of the leg crease.

I want to mention my guide, James. A decade older than me plus some. Served in Nam. Two tours. Door gunner on a Huey. James beat the odds to survive. He saw a lot of things there none of us should experience. Lost a lot of buddies. He had been up since midnight from some stuff. And as the bull stepped forward James was 15 feet ahead of me just 8 feet to my side as I looked through the scope at the bull’s shoulder. James had the Trigger Stick so I was free-handing the gun. James was not in the path of the bullet if all goes well but muzzle blast would be unpleasant even if he had not spent his youth hanging partially out of a chopper taking incoming fire for 18 months. The guide was leaning to the downhill side of the road almost melting into the soil while looking back at me mouthing “shoot”. I shot. Smoke cleared quickly in the wind. Empty road. Sound of branches breaking as elk crashed away. Then, only the sound of creaking trees and distant chainsaws. 8:20am.

I drilled the bull. 44 yards. Or maybe that trailing cow. I was focused on making sure the muzzle was not on the guide as then closed that eye and touched off the muzzleloader. The cow may have stepped forward. I didn’t think so. I could see a hoof just beyond a bush as the air cleared. Something was dead right there. I reloaded. If I had drilled a cow then I was okay taking my whooping from F&G.

We walked forwards. We were ten feet from the hoof when could see antlers. Exhale and smiles. No way to budge the bull up onto the road. In another five feet would be wedged under some deadfall. At this elevation we had cell phone coverage. The outfitter and one of the hunters reached us in about 30 minutes. I heard another shot while we waited on the road. Five shots so far counting mine.

Bull down. One of the pine tree seedlings is near the nose.



With some help, we got the bull up on the road.



A hunter soon appeared from the direction the elk had walked and said he wanted to look at the bull as he had passed on a shot at 200 yards and wanted to see if he had judged the elk correctly. Perhaps that is why the elk covered so much ground so quickly from the prior bugle. He said he had heard 12 shots. Yet another hunter appeared from the direction we had walked down the road. He had gone up after the other bugling bull elk and never caught up to that bull. James knew the hunter and they spoke for a bit about things.

There are 104 tags. The unit is a lot of square miles. Twelve shots is a lot in one small slice of the unit. Perhaps all the hunters in one small area had kept the elk moving rather than bedding.

We got the bull broken down.



That afternoon, I boned out the meat at camp. Thought about the reunion that would be starting in a few hours and some of the friends lost since the 35th. Went to the General Store to ice down the meat. I would drive back early the next morning.

The next morning at 4am I began the drive home and was 38F. The best part of driving the interstate route home was my stop in Black Canyon City to grab three of the world’s best pies at Rock Springs Café. Amazing pies.

I cut up the elk the next day on my own then the following day ground elk burger with 20% beef fat. A total of 19 hours of processing though I am particular how the meat is cleaned, trimmed, ground and vacuum-sealed.



No more hunts this year. Time to start planning for 2020. I will apply with this guide in next year’s draw. My odds will be about 1 in 6 rather than 1 in 40. We’ll see if the Tag Gods are happy with me.

 

[cahunter805]

Awesome story and congrats on a nice bull!

 

[JLS]

Great photos and nice bull.

 

[Jape]

Well done and congrats! That's a good amount of shooting for one area on opening day.

 

[fulldraw]

Congrats on a great bull.

 

[noharleyyet]

That's how you show and tell....good job

 

[HighDesertSage]

Well done and congrats!

 

[Addicting]

Congrats!

 

[tteel]

Very well written! I know you probably do not want to put the guide info public but I would be interested in his services in teh future.

 

[kansasdad]

Congratulations

Your elk seems to be very darkly haired and even his skin might be black. Product of the burn area?

 

[LCH]

Great trip and good looking bull!

 

[LopeHunter]

Congratulations

Your elk seems to be very darkly haired and even his skin might be black. Product of the burn area?

Not sure. The pictures are mostly shaded as the mountain ridge was tall and this was early in the day. The bull fell at 9200'+ elevation. Maybe elevation impacts the color. Was very dark and long hair down neck to belly. I am getting a Euro so left the cape with the guide in case another hunter had issues with their cape.

 

[sdkhunter]

Great story! Sounds like a heck of a year!

 

[rtraverdavis]

Excellent story telling. Congratulations Lopehunter.

 

[hank4elk]

Cool!

 

[Sytes]

Very nice! Grats on a great bull! Sounds like it was tight quarters from all the shooting.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Steelhead]

Sweet bull. Nice shot.
“not applying in the guide draw”?

 

[wyflyguy]

Congratulations on a great bull. Thanks for sharing.

Steelhead - New Mexico reserves 84% of tags for residents, 10% for non-residents who have contracted with a guide/outfitter, and a mere 6% for the non-resident DIY guy.