Daughter's Youth Encouragement cow elk hunt

[mcelweed]

My daughter just picked up a Youth Encouragement cow elk hunt in NM. Its in GMU 16A (pretty psyched about the area) in late November. Last elk hunt in the area is late October and I have a deer tag there the first weekend of November. I have never hunted elk before and most of the information focuses on bulls. Any tips or pointers on how to hunt cow elk? Will they be herded up at that time of the year? Should we try spot and stalk or just set up on feed and water locations? She will be shooting my 30-06, unless I can manage to get her a .308 or 7mm between now and then. I plan to try to get at least a mile or two from roads to get away from NM road hunters. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Dougfirtree]

How old is your daughter? In my head I'm imagining that she's 13 or 14 and that a .30-06 might make practice no fun. Do you handload? Maybe work up some light loads... Or, maybe an inexpensive 7mm-08 is in your future?

I can't help with NM. I've never hunted that area. In general, if there's a lot of snow in the mountains, you'll find cows in larger herds, down lower, at that time of year. If the snow's not deep up high, they could be anywhere. Hope it's a great hunt!

 

[mcelweed]

How old is your daughter? In my head I'm imagining that she's 13 or 14 and that a .30-06 might make practice no fun. Do you handload? Maybe work up some light loads... Or, maybe an inexpensive 7mm-08 is in your future?

I can't help with NM. I've never hunted that area. In general, if there's a lot of snow in the mountains, you'll find cows in larger herds, down lower, at that time of year. If the snow's not deep up high, they could be anywhere. Hope it's a great hunt!

Dougfirtree,
She will turn 15 in October. She shot her antelope with my 30-06 with Hornady 125 grain Custom Lites last summer (She is probably a better shot than I am.) At 300 yards its still pushing 2300 ft/sec with about 1455 ft lbs.

She's 5'7", so she can handle the rifle. I'm just not sure yet about the round choice. I figure I will let her try my 165 gr Hornady Superformance and see how she handles the recoil.

As far as how much snow that time of the year in the Gila, its hit and miss. Could be 70 degrees, could be 3 feet of snow.

 

[mcelweed]

I haven't been able to get into handloading yet. Maybe in the next year or so. I've been looking at getting her the Ruger American rifle in either .308 or 7mm-08. That should be able to handle everything she will hunt in the future.