Finally have a little time to download pics of my NM elk hunt. Got lucky and drew a first season muzzy tag with a good buddy of mine drunknstupid . Scouted for 5 days and hunted all 5 days. We were into elk every day and bugling was hot for a majority of our time in the unit. The elk would bugle for the first couple hours of light and then shut down for the rest of the day. If we were lucky we would get some action in the evening 30 minutes before dark. While scouting we found only one decent bull for the area that both of us would have a hard time passing on. It was a heavy and wide 5x5 with great tine length. Still not the potential quality of bull that we had seen harvested by other hunters in past years. As the season got off to a start we left the big 5 be and continued looking for something bigger but never came across anything close to what our goal was. We noticed a significant drop in bugle activity on the third day and never heard a bugle on the 4th or 5th day. Finally, after moving to a completely new area on the 4th day we found a water hole 1.5 miles from any open roads and it had a lot of fresh elk sign all around. We decided to sit that hole that evening and knowing I at least wanted meat and my partner was in it strictly for the horns I said I'd shoot the next bull that presented opportunity. With about 45 minutes of light left this bull came into the water on a run and I dumped him. He made it 20 yds before hitting the dirt. As I let my muzzy down here comes a larger but still raghorn 5x5 right behind him. Too small for my partner so he let him go. I guess if I'm changing goals from horns to meat the smaller should be better eating right?
Turns out he was the smallest bull we saw the entire trip. Average bull we saw was around 260. Found a lot of average bulls with one or two cows and only a couple above average bulls with 6+ cows. We spoke to a few guides and everyone was seeing the same. Was told the drought had a big effect on antler growth. Never imagined it would be that bad although I'm sure a few giants still exist in there today. The bull to cow ratio was amaizing which made for a fun and exciting hunt even though we could not find Mr Big. Oh well, we learned a lot about the areas we hunted and hope someday we can make a trip back down when the drought isn't so bad.
Valley floor
Wilson Arch in Moab on the way down
Would like to thank those Hunt Talkers who helped us plan for this hunt. You know who you are. Thanks a million!
Turns out he was the smallest bull we saw the entire trip. Average bull we saw was around 260. Found a lot of average bulls with one or two cows and only a couple above average bulls with 6+ cows. We spoke to a few guides and everyone was seeing the same. Was told the drought had a big effect on antler growth. Never imagined it would be that bad although I'm sure a few giants still exist in there today. The bull to cow ratio was amaizing which made for a fun and exciting hunt even though we could not find Mr Big. Oh well, we learned a lot about the areas we hunted and hope someday we can make a trip back down when the drought isn't so bad.
Valley floor
Wilson Arch in Moab on the way down
Would like to thank those Hunt Talkers who helped us plan for this hunt. You know who you are. Thanks a million!
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