Well I am extremely late with this but here it goes... I have never done a write up before so go easy on me.
As far as the pointers people gave thank you! it def helped me get acquainted with the unit.
I started my trip on 11/18 and made the trek from Colorado down to New Mexico. I had all the grand plans to come down and scout the unit overt the summer but due to COVID and the fact that the fishing industry went nuts last summer (I run a fly fishing outfitter) I could not make it down. The trip started out well all things considered, My original hunting buddy bailed on me last minute but another good friend I have guided with decided to hop on a plane and meet me in NM. After picking him up to ABQ we were off to Pie Town where we would be parking out camper and using that as home base for the next week.
We got in super late so I didn't get any first impressions driving in. Our day one plan was to get the lay of the land and start knocking out pins I had marked. First morning was a success as we made it to the first pin with no unexpected road closures and were up glassing by 6am. We got set up and within 45 we had cows in the scope and could see some small bulls off to the distance. I was feeling pumped, first morning in a new state and we were in ELK! I thought to myself wow, locating elk is so much easier here than CO. We did not turn anything up that was what I was looking for so we decided to move to new pins and get a feel for the unit. Confidence levels were high and we decided to make our way up to the northern end of the unit to dive into the BLM sections.
Later that day we checked the 0 on the muzzy and then dug into a new spot for the evening glassing. Here is where I will say the elk gods got their revenge on us, feeling cocky and all pumped from our morning, the next 2 days were brutal. We got humbled real fast running the canyons and glassing from sun up to sun down to find 2 cows. The whole New Mexico is easy to find elk comment had me eating my words. We covered many miles on foot and on the truck and were coming up empty.
After 2 days of scouting, season opener was knocking on the door. Besides the first morning, we had not really gotten into any bulls and we were taken back by how big the unit is. Staging out of pie town was good for amenities and hook ups for the camper but in hind sight it made for long drives and hindered us a little. If I could do it all over again, I would not have chosen a camp until I located elk. The unit is massive and you need to be mobile.
We decided to hunt the first morning back on the natl forest where we were in elk the first morning. We got back up to the same ridge and decided to glass. This is a very new thing for me as I usually hunt dark timber in CO and mostly archery. This was a very hard task for me to stay put and cover ground with my eyes. Just as I was going stir crazy my buddy yells "BUll, Big BULL I THINK" sure enough it was what I would have considered a shooter. He looked to be about a 325"-330" and for everything we had heard would have been a great bull for 2020. He was wide and had most of his points on each side. He was barely broken, only missing about half a brow tine on one side and half of his g3 on the other. So as I told my buddy before the hunt, if the elk makes me excited than he's a shooter lets not sit here and score it and get all caught up in that nonsense. I was here to have fun and kill a nice bull regardless. This bull was bedded with another small bull close by and we knew we could not get into position before dark unless he fed down towards us and we waited for the thermals to switch. We decided to watch him and make sure we were in position for the next morning. As it was getting darker we saw some cows come over the face of the ridge we were watching and start feeding, we were getting excited because that bull started moving in their direction. Watching the elk it seemed the bull wanted to keep the cows in sight but didn't want to be with them. He wanted to have his 200 yard buffer. As time went on we could feel the thermals change and we started to think about making a play. Just as we began thinking about it, that bull stood up and trotted with purpose over into the next drainage. As we looked puzzled, we then saw two hunters walking above him with the thermals at their back and no clue the bull was even below them. With the first day in the bags, we were bummed but excited. We turned up a mature bull, surely there would be more opportunities.
Well those opportunities never came, for the next 4 days we covered ground and saw many many elk. Given the conditions, we could not turn up a bull that wasn't extremely broken. The unit was hit hard by drought and I was seeing bulls with whole beams broken. On the last day we did get into position on a very broken up rag horn and after a brief discussion, we decided this hunt would be a good lesson for me to practice. I was going to pass on an elk. I had a goal and we hunted hard, we had an opportunity but it wasn't meant to be.
All in all, we had a great time. Unit 13 is challenging but fun, I cant wait to come back.
I will add to this post as I remember things, if you have any questions please ask and I will chime in. As I said I struggle with write ups but I am forever grateful for all the help from this awesome community.
