2014 DIY New Mexico Elk Hunt - The Land of Enchantment

[NoWiser]

Wouldn't be much fun shooting a 380" the first morning down in the flats would it?

No, that wouldn't have been any fun at all... I'm sure had I shot that bull I'd have been really depressed being stuck in the fishhouse on that rainy day having to stare at a set of antlers that wouldn't even come close to fitting in the back of the truck...

Ozzie, I'll wrap this up tomorrow so the next guy can take his turn! I look forward to being part of the audience.

[triggertrav]

Great stuff - makes me even more excited to try archery elk. now just a few more years of applying for points or a lucky draw and i can sit on the side of a mountain trying to convince myself i am not crazy.

cant wait for the rest of the your trip!

[BLACKJACK]

Excellent read so far Nowiser!!!! You're doing a great job of painting the picture of the hunt and conditions!!! Just curious, did you take notes every day or is this all coming from memory?

[NoWiser]

Day 7

The rain came and went all night long while we slept. It was during one of the breaks when the alarm started beeping. Our clothes were still about as wet as they could be but we pulled them on anyways as we got ready. My plan for the day was to head straight up the mountain from camp and get to the area where I was the previous evening. It seemed as good of a place to start as any. As I started the climb the rain started again, and ended about the time I got to my destination.

With no real plans I decided to sit and wait for a bugle to chase. I hiked up to where a couple of draws came together, figuring it would be a good place for an elk to cross. I found a good log and sat down, my wet clothes clinging to my skin. It was already shooting light, the hike taking much longer than I anticipated. While sitting there I made a decision. We had 2 days left to hunt, no tags filled, and we really wanted elk in our freezers for the winter. If I got a shot at a cow or a spike from this point forward, I would gladly take it.

10 minutes later, as if in cue, a group of 6 cows came down the mountain in front of me. The path they were taking would only put them about 70 yards from me but I had a feeling they'd turn and angle up the hill, right in my direction. So, I quickly ran up about 15 yards to get to the side of a bush that would offer cover for me as I drew the bow. Just as planned, they hit the bottom of the draw, turned right, and came right for me. It was happening quick and I came to full draw when they were about 50 yards away. They didn't have a clue I was there. Within a matter of seconds they were coming into view, well within my effective range. They kept walking towards me and soon I'd have a very close, broadside shot at the lead cow. But, it's never quite that easy. She suddenly froze, knowing something wasn't quite right. I was still at full draw and had a decision to make. The elk was at 14 yards, quartering towards me. Maybe straight on a few more degrees than a 45 degree angle. At this range I can put arrows into the size of a quarter every shot. I know it's disputed but I had done a lot of research before the hunt and had studied many diagrams. Some of the most successful elk hunters take many elk with a quartering-to shot and have great results. I was confident I could put the arrow where it needed to be, so I steadied my pin, and released...

The sound was like the arrow hit a block wall, and it cartwheeled over the cow, landing on an elk 15' behind her. The herd took off down the hill, thundering away. I was completely confused and immediately assumed my arrow had hit a branch and deflected over her back. I watched the herd for close to 5 minutes in my binoculars as they headed north and none of the cows looked injured. I decided to go down and find my arrow to figure out what had happened. Being it all happened so close, it didn't take long to find it. To my surprise, the broadhead was missing and there was an elk hair on the shaft along with a barely discernible bit of blood. I felt sick as it was then that I realized I had hit the cow, but did so right in the shoulder. I compared the arrow to the rest in my quiver and it did not break. The insert pulled out. I had gotten about 1" of penetration at the most. Though I knew the cow was not hurt badly and would survive just fine I was [PoorWordUsage] at myself for the decision that I made. I was sure that I could make the shot, and I had been wrong. It drove home an important lesson that I had already known - that once you release that arrow, there is no taking it back. You have to live with the consequences of your decision.

To be safe I followed the tracks of the elk to where I had last seen them almost 1/2 mile away. As I had predicted, there wasn't so much of a speck of blood on the ground. The cow would be ok and I'm sure the broadhead did not stay in her but I'm sure it hurt like heck, and I felt bad for it. I went back to my log to sit for awhile longer, and watched a bachelor herd of some nice mule deer bucks walk by.

Had I thought there was any chance the shot on the cow was fatal, my hunt would have been done then and there, and I'd have spent the rest of the trip looking for her. I knew that wasn't the case and still had two days left, so I decided to make my way up the mountain, kicking myself the entire way. When I got to the top the sun poked through the clouds so I stopped to make myself an early lunch. I had brought my favorite meal of the trip with. A packet of tuna with mayo and mustard, wrapped in a tortilla. With my socks and boots laying in the sun to dry I enjoyed a snickers for desert and washed it down with a few gulps from my water bladder. I was hoping the reappearance of the sun would mean we'd seen the last of the rain for the trip. I made up my mind to keep a positive attitude as I laced my boots back up, and continued up the ridge.

Within about 200 yards I stopped to glass an opposing hillside and saw the telltale light tan patch of hair from a bull. I carefully scanned the surrounding hillside and it looked like he was alone. He was a funky 4X6 with large antlers that we had not seen before. Getting to him would require a steep descent, another climb, and another steep descent, which would put me in a position to sidehill my way towards him, at the same level as him. I dropped down to chase him and 45 minutes later found myself getting close. I just had a short climb to get to his level and the stalk would be on. But, I saw him get up and start to half heartedly rub a tree. He moseyed on down the mountain at which point I noticed he did have cows. About 5 or 6 of them. Possibly the same herd as I had seen in the morning. I crept as close as I could possibly get but knew it would take some sweet talk to get him to close the last bit of distance. I let out a few soft cow calls to get his attention. And, as if they'd read the script written for the hunt, the cows immediately headed the other direction. I ran up on the herd and bugled right at them, trying to turn the bull. He was neither intimidated nor mad. He just lazily followed the cows as they left. For 3/4 of a mile I chased this herd, bugling at them whenever I got close. He never ran away and never got mad, just continued his course. Finally I had to give up the chase when they headed into pinion juniper country and I lost track of them. I found a spot in the sun, took off my boots to dry some more, and updated the journal of the trip. I checked my GPS and realized I was a long, long way away from camp. It would take nearly the rest of the day to hunt my way back. With less than 1.5 days to hunt, the thought of tag soup was creeping into the back of my mind.

I grabbed my pack and headed back towards the top of the mountain. By this time in the hunt I was feeling absolutely great. My legs were stronger than ever, I had my wind, and I was thoroughly enjoying the climb. As I neared the top my mind was wandering and I was staring at a far off ridge when two cows ran right in front of me, about 30 yards away. I quick drew my bow, hoping for another, but they were alone. I dropped down over the top of the ridge to keep track of where they were going when I heard a distant, barely discernible bugle. Then another. It was crunch time so I headed straight for them, running when I could, but mostly walking as the ground was strewn with lava rock from the size of a baseball on up. It seemed as if I was dropping elevation forever before I started getting close. The landscape changed from a high, open burn area to a meadow with huge ponderosas growing throughout. I continued the chase down and soon found myself in pinion juniper country. I was getting close by now. Real close. The familiar stench of elk filled my nostrils.

Like that, I found myself in the midst of a herd of elk gone crazy. The cows and calves were whipped up almost in a state of panic, the deafening sound of bugles surrounded me. I ranged two cows at 60 yards. Too far, so I quickly ran towards them. They spooked but it didn't matter. Like that the familiar groan of the old monster we'd watched scouting rang out, right in front of me. Of all of the elk, this was one I had wanted the most throughout the hunt. I could see him 60 yards in front of me, walking away. I ran right at him, the wind safely in my face. Without warning he turned right at me and let out his telltale bugle, his eyes rolled back and slobber dripping from his mouth. And then, he ran right at me...

I dropped to my knees to get under the canopy of trees and found a shooting lane through the junipers as he got closer. He turned left to briefly beat up a juniper. I ranged him at 41 yards and came to full draw. I needed him to take 3 steps to the right and he'd be mine. Just as I finished that thought, he turned to the right and took two steps. I had a perfectly clear shot except for a finger sized branch going horizontally across his chest. I needed him to take that third step!! But, he stopped. More than anything I wanted to release that arrow and chances are it would have cleared the branch, but I told myself "Jim, you've messed up the last two shots you've taken. Don't be an !diot. Wait until he takes the step." A minute passed and the bull hadn't moved. I rested the bottom cam of my bow on my thigh to give my arm a break. Then, I felt the breeze hit the back of my neck and knew it was over. Within seconds he tensed up, turned, and trotted 10 yards downhill. I let down my draw and was just getting ready to give chase when I heard something. A monster bull came absolutely flying from my right full speed at the retreating bull. My bull barely had time to turn his head and absorb the impact. It sounded like two cars collided. The second bull was intent on killing the first. This was no spar, this was a knock down, drag out fight. Grass was flung 10 feet in the air, rocks were flying, branches were snapping. I saw my opportunity and ran as fast as I could, right at the two. I came around the last juniper tree and ranged the fighting bulls at 35 yards. With an arrow already knocked I clipped my release on and started to draw. And, at that moment, one of the bulls (I don't even know which one at that point) dodged the antlers of the other a last time and hightailed it to the east. I wasn't even 1/2 drawn and the winner turned to stare at me for a split second. I had no choice but to try to finish drawing but he knew something bad was about to happen, and took off to the west. The mountain went silent.

I was shaken up, bad, from what I had just witnessed. I couldn't believe what had happened and I couldn't believe I hadn't gotten a shot off. My wobbly legs carried me down the mountain where I tried to get in on a couple of cows, but the swirling winds made it impossible. I needed to sit down and collect myself a bit, so I found a pine tree and was so distracted that I almost sat on this.

After 5 or 6 minutes to rest I got up again and tried to make something happen but, as mentioned, the mountain was perfectly quiet. I stumbled upon this

It was the first wallow I'd seen on the entire trip. It had been used within the last few hours and the smell was overwhelming. I marked it on my GPS and continued down the mountain, hoping for another elk encounter. Not another elk was seen, and the rain started up again, and hard. I made my way back to the fishhouse by way of headlamp, anxious to hear if Dad had made anything happen. Unfortunately he had not, though he had played cat and mouse with a 5X5 for much of the afternoon, never getting within 50 yards.

I laid down for the night, knowing that nightmares of the evenings events would come back to haunt me in my sleep. We had one day to get it done. It was the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, with two outs. The pressure was on.

[NoWiser]

Excellent read so far Nowiser!!!! You're doing a great job of painting the picture of the hunt and conditions!!! Just curious, did you take notes every day or is this all coming from memory?

I keep a small notepad and pen in my pack and every day or two jot down the main events of each day. It really helps to jog my memory when I put these stories together. Otherwise, I'm sure everything would seem to run together and I'd have no idea what happened each individual day.

[ozzie]

I can't say enough how fun it is to read these stories!! I am sure glad that you didn't shoot something the first day as the story would have been way to short!! haha can't wait for the last day of the hunt

[BartmanMN]

That had to be insane to see those two bulls fighting like that so close. Man I wanted to read that you took one of them.

[NoWiser]

Day 8

It was the last day of our season and we'd yet to put an elk in the freezer. The weather was still wet and we really didn't have a good plan for what to do.

I made the bold, and perhaps foolish decision to go to the wallow that I'd found, and spend the day there. With the rain overnight it would still be plenty sloppy to attract a bull. Elk were in the area. And, if one did decide to come in, I'd be in position to have an easy shot at a relaxed bull. I hated to put all of my eggs into this one basket but I truly felt it would give me my best shot at a last minute bull. When I left, my dad and cousin did not have a plan for exactly what they would do. We wished each other luck, and I was off heading up the mountain in the dark, the soaked grass cool against my legs. I only had 3/4 of a mile to go, so I'd be there in plenty of time before shooting light.

As I neared the wallow I could hear the herd from the previous night about 1/4 mile to the east. I forgot the wallow for the time being and went after them. But, as was so often the case, they were more interested in getting up the mountain than playing with me. I was able to stay on them in the dark, but as shooting light neared, they picked up their pace. Try as I might, I just could not catch up to them. I finally gave up the chase and headed to the wallow. If they bedded close, there was a good chance one would come check it out during the course of the day. I arrived and built myself a small blind underneath a juniper tree 25 yards west of the wallow. I inflated my little seat, and waited. And waited. And waited. Before I knew it I looked at my GPS and it was 4:30. I hadn't seen or heard an elk all day. Panic set in. I should have heard the herd by now if they were coming down this way. I hastily threw on my pack and ran up the mountain, desperate to find an elk, any elk, to chase. I had found throughout the trip that the best way to elicit a response from the bulls was to do a light chuckle, so as I made my way up I threw out a few of them. It was soon answered by a cow call. Then another. I quietly made my way towards the noise when some movement caught my eye. It was my dad and cousin. They cow called again and I answered with my loudest, meanest sounding bugle. I laughed at their expression and stepped out to greet them.

They had experienced an awesome day of elk hunting! Putting on an incredible number of miles they had encountered numerous bulls and had gotten very close to pulling off a shot at a couple. At least one was foiled by a last minute swirl of wind. But, close doesn't put elk burgers in the freezer and they didn't have anything on the ground. Having covered much of the area we were hunting they had come to end the day where I was hunting, after I'd told them about the action I had the previous evening. But, I hadn't heard a bugle yet and it wasn't looking good. The three of us decided to end the hunt together. Way on the other side of the mountain was a draw they had not hunted, so we decided to hightail it over there and try to arrive before shooting hours ended. I had fresh legs and it felt good to hike, but the two of them were already hurting a bit, especially my dad, whose feet had been soaked for 3 straight days now, to the point he was pouring water out of his boots in the evening. Nevertheless, it was our last chance and we made very good time.

As we arrived we kicked out two cows about 100 yards ahead of us. The light was fading quickly and we started to hear a few faint bugles. With the wind and the time we had left we knew chasing them wasn't an option. We decided our only chance was to spread out and wait, and hope to intercept something.

As I stood there, reflecting on the trip, a bugle rang out to my north. Then another. It was heading right towards Dad. About every minute or two he would sound off. I was crossing my fingers that we'd pull off a last minute elk and, from the sound of it, it wasn't out of the question. I heard one last bugle from the bull sounding like it must have been almost on top of them, and then he went silent.

I waited in my spot until I could see the headlamps of the other two bouncing towards me. Shooting light had long since been gone and I walked up, waiting to hear the good news. Unfortunately, the encounter had ended like so many. The bull was headed right for them and they were ready for it, with my cousin there to call out ranges and my dad with the arrow knocked. As the bull closed the distance to under 100 yards, one last minute uphill thermal gave them away and the bull vanished. The sun had set on our New Mexico elk hunt.

We hiked back to camp in the dark. It had been an incredible hunt. No doubt the taste of tag soup was especially bitter with a hunt like this when the only ingredient is so hard to come by. But, we were still all smiles. We'd got the chance to spend 14 days in an area many elk hunters only dream of hunting. We'd seen more big bulls than we probably will in the rest of our lives. Not to mention, in 8 days of actual hunting, I'd only seen two other hunters, over a mile away. How can a guy be disappointed with an experience like that? Though we didn't come home with a giant set of antlers or coolers of elk meat we came back with memories and stories that are even sweeter. It truly was the hunt of a lifetime that was made even better by sharing it with my dad and cousin. I'm incredibly grateful to have just been given an opportunity to do a hunt like this.

The three of us will be back next year. It probably won't be New Mexico, but we'll be chasing elk somewhere. Stay tuned for the story....

[DaveT]

I'm so bummed for you guys but at least you had a ton of action. Great story, thanks for sharing.

[NoWiser]

I'm so bummed for you guys but at least you had a ton of action. Great story, thanks for sharing.

No need to be bummed! If I measured the success of a hunt by whether or not I killed, I'd have quit hunting long ago. I'm just that much more determined now. Next year will be my year and it's going to be sweet!

[DonBo]

I can only hope when I finally draw in AZ, that we will have half the excitement you had on this hunt. Thanks for taking us along!

[Scoot]

What a great adventure, Jim! You're so incredibly lucky to have pulled such an amazing tag and even though you didn't shoot an elk, you had the experience of ten lifetimes! You had more elk action and education on this hunt than most people get in a lifetime of OTC or general unit hunts. There's little doubt you learned a ton and are a much better elk hunter now than you were a month ago.

It's always amazing how things can go wrong when elking hunting with a bow. You need a lot of things to go right to shoot one with a stick and string and if just one doesn't, you're SOL. Swirling and unpredictable wind (the bane of all elk hunters), unseen sticks, cows spotting/smelling you, another hunter goofing up your set, Mother Nature messing with you, and on and on... it all can go wrong and work against you. But when it comes together, it's pretty dang awesome. You'll shoot a bull next year. You've learned a ton and know enough to get it done, no doubt. You just need the stars to align and for bad luck to stay away and fickle wind to cooperate for an extra minute. It'll happen!

Congrats on a great experience and thanks very much for sharing your experience with us. I really enjoyed the story!

[NoWiser]

It's always amazing how things can go wrong when elking hunting with a bow.

No truer words have ever been typed.

We found on this hunt that it is very easy to get within 100 yards of an elk, and only moderately difficult to close the distance to 70 yards. It's those last 40 after that to get within easy archery range that are so dang tough! But, that's also what makes it so fun.

With a rifle this hunt would have been over an hour into the first day. We'd have had freezers full of meat and two trophy elk for the wall, but not 1/10th of the memories. I'm glad we had the archery tag.

That said, our first choice for NM next year will be a rifle tag Our second two choices will be archery tags for this and an adjoining unit. We'll be applying regardless of whether we draw another state beforehand. We want to go back, bad.

[rbs]

Great story! Kept me coming back. Glad you had a great hunt!

[rundrave]

thanks for sharing your hunt regardless of the outcome. I know it takes a lot of time and effort to just put your hunt into words to share with the rest of us.

[ozzie]

Awesome hunt and again thanks for taking the time to share the experience with us!!

[Coach1310]

Wow! What an adventure. Thanks for taking the time to share. It is amazing how many encounters you had and better yet you got to spend it with your cousin and Dad. You are the master of the cliffhanger and have a knack for keeping us on the edge of our seats. I can't wait to hear about your next adventure!

[mrklean]

Great story one of the best I have read on here

[Fishalittle]

Truly great adventure! Thanks for sharing!

The closest thing I can think of to what you got to experience in the wild was a trip during the rut to Yellowstone before the herd plummeted and that is not the same at all.

In your stories it seemed you had all the right tactics and gave it 100% even in rain and bad weather. A great thing for an elk hunter to have persistence. It didn't pay off this time but it will.

One question I do have is the last couple encounters you said once you called to the elk when in that 100 yard range they took off away. Do you think the hunting pressure had them to the point they ran away from unknown elk (you the caller)? After this would you have approached those final days in a different way or chose a different tactic?

This was your first trip to New Mexico, correct? Did someone give you insight to this area or did you just get real lucky on picking an elk paradise?

[totally_addicted]

Thanks for sharing!! Now we need Scoot to start his today so we all have something good to read for the rest of the week!

[NoWiser]

Truly great adventure! Thanks for sharing!

The closest thing I can think of to what you got to experience in the wild was a trip during the rut to Yellowstone before the herd plummeted and that is not the same at all.

In your stories it seemed you had all the right tactics and gave it 100% even in rain and bad weather. A great thing for an elk hunter to have persistence. It didn't pay off this time but it will.

One question I do have is the last couple encounters you said once you called to the elk when in that 100 yard range they took off away. Do you think the hunting pressure had them to the point they ran away from unknown elk (you the caller)? After this would you have approached those final days in a different way or chose a different tactic?

This was your first trip to New Mexico, correct? Did someone give you insight to this area or did you just get real lucky on picking an elk paradise?

fishalittle,

I don't know why the elk were responding to the calling like they did, but it wasn't from hunting pressure. We were camped near a guide who was taking a hunter into an adjacent unit. He said in the 15 years he has guided that area, he has never seen a poorer second season. He was having the same troubles that we were in that pretty much no matter what you tried as far as calling, they'd head the other way. We talked to about 8 other hunters leaving the unit at the end of the hunt and none of them, nor anybody from their parties, had gotten an elk. It was the first time one of the guys had NOT tagged out in something like 7 trips to the unit (he was a resident and can draw a tag much easier.) Now, I'm not trying to make excuses because I had my opportunities, but the elk definitely were not acting like they should that time of the year.

As far as picking a unit, this one was always at the top of my list. I had a few discussions with Scoot last spring about an application strategy for NM and we pretty much agreed that this would be a very good 1st choice. Once I drew the tag the research started. I talked to about a dozen people who had hunted this unit and only one had any experience with this area, and he had a great hunt. It was attractive to me because the rest didn't know a thing about it and I knew that meant hunting pressure would be relatively low there. That information, in addition to our 4 scouting days, put us right in elk paradise.

[NoWiser]

Thanks for sharing!! Now we need Scoot to start his today so we all have something good to read for the rest of the week!

Agreed

[Monkster]

Great story, thanks for sharing! Some day...

[Sifty]

Great story thanks for bringing us along.

[Scoot]

Now we need Scoot to start his today so we all have something good to read for the rest of the week!

Sorry, you'll have to sit on Jim's story for a little while. I'm not done writing mine, I don't have any pics uploaded yet, I'm getting crushed at work, I've got company coming this weekend, and I have a conference out of town next week (which I'm totally unprepared for). I'll get to it as soon as I can, but I'll make no promises as to when that'll be.

[sticknstring]

That was a nail-biter... sooooo darn close right til the end! Awesome hunt - thanks for sharing it with us all!

[huntnfish]

Awesome story, Nowiser! I was on the edge of my seat. I forced myself no to check the story until the end and it was worth it. I know that dejected feeling you had. It takes all you can to get back up and get after it. You had an experience that 99% of hunters will never experience.

[HooknHorns]

Great hunt in my book. I'm sure there are hunters out the that have been doing this for years and never witnessed what you did. The battle over a herd of cows would've been awesome to see.

You did right by holding out for a bull. When elk get educated they're tough. The OTC spot that I hunted got pounded by hunters and the other guys in the group that stayed later never saw an elk the rest of the trip.

Your odds of getting drawn has gone done drastically by starting this thread. Good job well put together.

[monstermoose78]

Sounds like you had fun and it is always a win when you do hunting with your day. Thank you for the awesome write up.

[BLACKJACK]

Wow!!!! When you got to the part where the two bulls were fighting.... It had to be incredible to witness!! And to think that the survivor still had enough instinct to recognize danger!!

Thanks for taking the time to write this up!!!