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New Mexico Elk Hunt

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    New Mexico Elk Hunt

    I just got back from our ranch in New Mexico (Unit 34). My dad, brother and I went for a 5 day elk hunt. A little back story here.....

    I am not very patient when it comes to hunting. I like our South Texas ranch where you see 20 deer per hunt and can usually find your target animal over a reasonable period of time. Elk hunting is my nemesis since it is nothing like hunting South Texas whitetails.

    Both my dad and brother have killed bulls on previous hunts including our ranch record of over 350”.

    I on the other hand have been skunked or outsmarted on multiple occasions.

    Day 1 - Daylight came with a nice thunderstorm, so we sat on the front porch and waited it out for about 45 minutes. Once the rain quit, I quietly worked my way to a ridge overlooking a canyon and quickly found a bull and 2 cows working up the opposite side of the canyon. Unfortunately the bull was already 834 yds and moving away. I planned to sit a nearby pond in the evening hoping he would come for a drink and a bath.

    Unfortunately he didn’t show, but I did get to see a huge bobcat and a fox. I will also note we finally caught a lion on camera. First time in several years of running cameras. We have had bears but no lions.


    Day 2 - My morning started with a bull blowing up just a few hundred yards from the lodge. I had a plan to intercept this bull as I thought I knew his route back to the forest. My plan was perfect except my brother intercepted the bull and toyed with him for 20-30 minutes with dueling bugles and cow calls. He ended up being a small 3x4 and was not mature at all. Other than that, my morning was uneventful.

    The bulls were still very vocal and lots of bugling was going on around me. The weather began to turn and storms and wind were on the horizon.

    That evening I went back to the waterhole and was prepared for a long sit. Almost immediately I spotted a good bull and 5-6 cows bedded about 3/4 mile up near the top of a large bowl. I seriously thought about a stalk, but I opted to wait and see if they would come to water.

    The wind was howling at this point (25-40 mph).

    The herd eventually got up and I lost sight of them as they milled around.

    I figured it was a 50-50 chance they would come to water.

    About 2 hours later, a lone bull popped out of the canyon and was clearly headed to water. At this point, I definitely felt some nerves as I decided to take this bull. He was not the biggest bull (5x5), but he was the biggest bull in front of me at that moment. :-)

    He quickly presented a shot and the rest is history.

    My brother and dad are still hunting. My brother saw 8 bulls today, but is holding out for a 320+. Overachiever.....

    They have one more day and I am sure they will ride it out until the end.


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    #2
    That is so awesome!!! Congrats

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      #3
      Supercool! Congrats

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        #4
        Congrats!

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          #5
          Fantastic! Congrats!

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            #6
            Nice


            Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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              #7
              Nice bull...Congrats!!!!

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                #8
                This is a dream hunt for me. One day. Congrats on the bull! Would like to see the pics of the lion as well!

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                  #9
                  Awesome!

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Stickslinger92 View Post
                    This is a dream hunt for me. One day. Congrats on the bull! Would like to see the pics of the lion as well!
                    I will pull the pics from the camera cards and post some updated pics tomorrow.

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                      #11
                      I would say that unit 34 is probably as close to the elk hunting equivalent of south texas whitetails as you can get. Awesome country and bull!

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                        #12
                        Congrats

                        Looking forward to lion pics

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                          #13
                          Awesome

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                            #14
                            Nice bull! Congrats.

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                              #15
                              Congratulations. Very nice bull.

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