NM Elk 13 Late Muzzy

[Browning55]

First time poster here. appreciate all the information and all the help everyone does around here. Well as luck would have it and much to my wife's dismay, I drew a late nov muzzle loader tag in 13. Looks like I will have 19-25 to scout/hunt down in NM. Any information on what to expect or some starting points are always helpful.

A little background, I hunt archery elk every year OTC here in CO and usually sprinkle in a leftover cow tag as well for rifle. I am no stranger to the mountains as I operate a fly fishing shop/guide service and spend lots of time hiking the Rockies. I have been successful in locating and harvesting elk here in my home state but I have never hunted elk outside CO. I assume this will be a very different hunt than I am used to as I normally spot and stalk in dark timber. I am looking forward to getting behind glass and locating elk as its not something I do much of here in CO. Anyways, again I appreciate any information as a starting point, I should have at least one chance to go down this summer and drive/camp the unit so that I am not going in completely blind. Anyone with knowledge of unit 13, I could also point you in some good places for OTC Archery Elk or CO 1st rifle.

Thanks
J

 

[mdeerjunkie]

Welcome aboard! Congrats on the tag, can’t help you out any. Being your first post, you probably won’t get too much advice from any of the others. What kind of fishing do you do? Pics?

 

[JohnCushman]

Welcome to HT

 

[Browning55]

Welcome aboard! Congrats on the tag, can’t help you out any. Being your first post, you probably won’t get too much advice from any of the others. What kind of fishing do you do? Pics?

I run a fly shop here in CO. We mostly focus on trout. I like to chase pike on the fly along with salt water species when I get the time. My fishing in the fall has taken a back seat to hunting.

 

[JohnCushman]

I run a fly shop here in CO. We mostly focus on trout. I like to chase pike on the fly along with salt water species when I get the time. My fishing in the fall has taken a back seat to hunting.

Where's your shop?

 

[mdeerjunkie]

I run a fly shop here in CO. We mostly focus on trout. I like to chase pike on the fly along with salt water species when I get the time. My fishing in the fall has taken a back seat to hunting.

Super fun, I love going after cutts in the high alpine lakes. But hunting sure beats everything.

 

[prhunter]

Welcome. PM if you'd like for more info.

 

[Browning55]

Where's your shop?

Minturn, CO and our second location is Denver

 

[Browning55]

Welcome. PM if you'd like for more info.

thanks for the replies and welcoming me. Hopefully I can also contribute and pull my weight around the forum as well.

 

[hank4elk]

Howdy,welcome from next door to 13. Hunted it a couple times.
Check out Randy's video on llama hunt here in NM.
Territory looks familar to me. Just sayin.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Welcome!

 

[Phoneman]

Buddy and I hunted 13 same tag as you 2 years ago. We only had 3 days to hunt. I'd never been before so I knew nothing. Got 298yds from one the first afternoon but ran out of cover. I was confident to 200 but didn't wanna try. We saw several herds. Mine was unit wide so we could hunt some of the ranches that participated in that program. Onyx was the ticket but then it didn't show the landowners so we had to look for signs. There wasn't much traffic other than the occasional doofus scouting from the road. Deffinitly hit up pie town and get a new mexico apple pie. We were just up from Datil. Store there has good food. If you can shoot 300 with your ML you should be fine. Several told me to be prepared to shoot at good distance. It is beautiful country. PM me if you have any questions i'll shoot you all the info I can

 

[Browning55]

Thank you all for the replies and input. I spent quite a bit of time with ON X last night and my research has me thinking I will focus on the southern half of unit between pie town and Magdalena. Between the national forest, BLM and state lands I will have a bunch of land to weed through. there are a few pockets in the sugarloaf mountain and maverick canyon that look like they could be a good sanctuary for the bulls come November and a good hike in away from the roads.

If anyone is willing to help, I am a little stuck on what bulls seek in this type of country and what you all look for in good glassing spots. Should I be focusing on the tops of mesa's etc. If this were CO i would look to big bowls on north facing slopes with water between 8500-10000ft. This country looks to all be 7500-8500 at the most extreme elevation changes.

In addition, need zones for feed and water.... would you focus on water tanks?

again thank you all for the help. This will be a fun challenge adapting my limited knowledge to a new state.

 

[mdeerjunkie]

Have you seen Randy’s 5 seasons of elk hunting, pre rut, rut, post... they might be some good vids to get you started on what to look for down there. His e scouting vids are great too.
Remember you don’t always have to get far off the roads, you just have to find those places hunters don’t want be. I’ve killed many animals just 1/2 mile off the roads in some of the worst junk that nobody wanted to venture through. Find sanctuary and food, the bulls will be in survival mode and are trying to put on the food sack again before winter.

 

[Browning55]

Have you seen Randy’s 5 seasons of elk hunting, pre rut, rut, post... they might be some good vids to get you started on what to look for down there. His e scouting vids are great too.
Remember you don’t always have to get far off the roads, you just have to find those places hunters don’t want be. I’ve killed many animals just 1/2 mile off the roads in some of the worst junk that nobody wanted to venture through. Find sanctuary and food, the bulls will be in survival mode and are trying to put on the food sack again before winter.

so i have seen those series and I have a bunch of identified sanctuaries... could anyone chime in on types of food elk seek in NM during this time of year and what to identify on map. While I have identified my sanctuaries or as i call them Hell Holes... this is somewhat different than I am used to in the sense of how to identify food in this terrain (i am assuming northwest and east facing slopes will have best feed in nov) in addition, i am assuming it will take a few days prior to season to get in and see what tanks hold water?

 

[Browning55]

been doing tons of scouting. I would say I seem focused on both Madre mountain and Sugarloaf Mountain. I found myself mostly scouting the National Forest would anyone be willing to share if its a mistake to over look the BLM in the northern end of unit

 

[hank4elk]

Yes.

 

[QELKhunter]

First time poster here. appreciate all the information and all the help everyone does around here. Well as luck would have it and much to my wife's dismay, I drew a late nov muzzle loader tag in 13. Looks like I will have 19-25 to scout/hunt down in NM. Any information on what to expect or some starting points are always helpful.

A little background, I hunt archery elk every year OTC here in CO and usually sprinkle in a leftover cow tag as well for rifle. I am no stranger to the mountains as I operate a fly fishing shop/guide service and spend lots of time hiking the Rockies. I have been successful in locating and harvesting elk here in my home state but I have never hunted elk outside CO. I assume this will be a very different hunt than I am used to as I normally spot and stalk in dark timber. I am looking forward to getting behind glass and locating elk as its not something I do much of here in CO. Anyways, again I appreciate any information as a starting point, I should have at least one chance to go down this summer and drive/camp the unit so that I am not going in completely blind. Anyone with knowledge of unit 13, I could also point you in some good places for OTC Archery Elk or CO 1st rifle.

Thanks
J

Hi there! I grew up in this unit and spent a lot of time in Magdalena and Datil. I never hunted elk in this unit but sure would like to. I no longer live in this unit or NM for that matter but applied for hunts this year (2021) hoping to get lucky and draw any NM tag. This happens to be one of the hunts I applied for.

I was hoping you would be willing to share your experience on this hunt. The goods the bads and just your over all experience. Feel free to shoot me a direct message if you would like.

Thanks!

 

[Browning55]

I will do a write up on the hunt for sure. Been a combination of being slammed with work and being lazy

 

[Browning55]

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.