We have hunted an adjoining ranch that shares a fenceline with Vermejo since 1998 and have had great success. However that ranch is being sold, hence, our booking with Vermejo. We will be on the 7th hunt, the week before Thanksgiving. I was wondering about the hunt itself, quality of bulls, terrain, etc. I imagine it will be much like our old ranch but would love to hear from some folks who may have hunted Vermejo and their impressions. I have taken bulls from 280 class up to 310 class in the past, all 6x6's. I know this ain't White Mountain or San Carlos, but would love to get an idea of what's in store, as I have only gone past the place on the way to our ranch. Gosh, it sure is big.....we go past it and see the sign that says 558,000 deeded acres!

Many thanks in advance!

Hank,

I have not hunted it, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Seriously, I did get to see a truck with 20 sets of Elk racks from Vermajo on the way to the taxidermist in Texas. He pulled up next to me at the gas station.

I couldn't help myself, I had to ask him what the story was.

He explained that this was just from "last weeks hunters". The 18 wheeler with the meat wasn't far behind.

I couldn't get over the sight of this pile of antlers in the back of this truck in order to determine what these Elk were scoring. Also, it was a bit difficult to tell one rack from the next. In a nutshell, these were about what you have been taking. I would guess 300 to 330 maybe??? I am sure there were bigger and smaller.

The guy gave me a shed off a 310 or so inch Bull.

I took a couple pictures, let me see if I can find them. It was an impressive sight. The racks were piled up higher than the cab of the truck.

Found it!





Here he is pulling out the shed he gave to me.

Getting excited....looking good so far!

I appreciate your reply.
Hank

What's it cost now to hunt in 'ol Teds park?

9K...

I never hunted Vermejo Park, but in the mid-70s I had to drive about 20 miles back into the ranch to service a drilling rig. The Companyman told me the night before to "watch out for elk". I had never seen a wild elk, but had hunted mule deer for years. I was wired...couldn't sleep that night.

I stopped at the ranch gate early the next morning and talked to a one-eyed foreman that had worked on the ranch most of his life. He had some great stories.

I drove on in, and after getting back into the mountains a ways I had a 6x6 bull jump out of the creek bed into the road and run to the tree line about fifty yards away. Then he spun around and faced my car. I was speechless. I watched him. He watched me. I finally decided to spook him. I rolled down the window and slapped the outside of the car door. The bull dropped his head, shook his rack, and pawed the ground like a brahma. Wasn't sure what to do next. I put the car in gear and slapped the door again. I got the same response. I did it a third time, and I think the bull decided I wasn't worth the effort. He just slowly spun around, stuck his nose in the air, which laid his big rack right along his flanks, and he disappeared into the tree.

That is one of my two favorite memories of Vermejo Park. The second involved a coyote about two hours later.

I hunted with Bob Daughtery, who has a slice of the park in Colorado, but you have to drive through Ted's place to get to it. I had a great time, but it was several (5) years ago.
Don

I've hunted cow elk at Vermejo Park for the past 6 years. But I never got to hunt very long, usually had my elk by 9:00 am on the first day. I've seen many good bulls there - sometimes it was harder to the find cows than bulls. At $9K+ the antlers are too rich for my blood. Here's what it looks like:

Bigasanelk,

What dows a cow elk hunt run there?

Looks just like East Moreno that borders it. Gosh, I hope I have half as good luck at VPR as we had at East Moreno....thanks for the pic!
Can't wait!

quote:

What dows a cow elk hunt run there?

$900 for the hunt + $340 license.

I took a 320 pt bull from Vermejo 3 1/2 years ago. It's expensive, $12K +, but if you can afford it I can't say enough good things about the whole experience. From the ranch manager on down through the guides and domestic staff they are all first class.

Jim Baker and his #2 man seem like first class acts as far as I can tell. Man I am getting fired up for this hunt!

Five of us hunted Vermejo last year. We had the 3rd rifle hunt. Jim Baker and his crew run an extremely first class operation. There was not much rain last year and the bulls were averaging 20 inches or so below normal. The have a system where your guide picks an area out of a hat every morning so you may or may not hunt the same ground twice...which can be good or bad. The ranch is absolutely ginormous. Sometimes we would leave 2 hours ahead of time and spend nearly that whole time in the truck. Our guides were very good. Biggest elk out of our group was a 350 and the smallest a 280 but the experience of Vermejo put that place on my top 5 list of all time favorite hunts. Easily saw several thousand elk during my stay. Good luck!

Sorry, but I don't see myself paying $9-$12k for a 330 class bull. In fact, I don't think I see myself paying that for anything less than a chance at a 400 class bull. That's a LOT of $$$.

after two not very successful elk's hunt in the West, the Vermejo is one of my dreams. But this people is very difficult to reach though e.mail. I have tryed many times but they dont answered me.

Good Morning (afternoon?) Mario,

Have you tried the Vermejo Website?

http://www.vermejoparkranch.com/

They have always been good about returning calls, etc......Jim Baker is the hunt manager and seems like a very nice guy. (505) 445-9440 is the number I have used to reach him.

You guys should do alittle more searching. 12K is ridiculous.

Reloader

Don't knock the price until you have been there. This is not a fenced ranch hunt, just a hunt on a 400,000 acre place that is extensively managed for elk, mule deer, antelope, turkey, black bear and bison. If you can afford it, go.

I have spent too much time in the Bridger Teton wilderness area and not seen the elk that are supposed to be there. For the time and money, Vermejo is a great place to go.

I have tryed many times without answer. I will tray again.
I have a doubt:
I dont know if the Vermejo is the best Ted's elk hunting property. Seems the trophy quality in the Bar None and in the Flyng D is much better.

Ted, as in Ted Turner or what?? Sorry to be uneducated.
- mike

I'm not paying 12K to go there Reloader...a good bit less than that. With respect to actually paying a large sum for a quality fair chase hunt I can only compare it to the hundreds of guys that I have talked to that all have the same story...it basically goes like this: "Man, you ought to come with us huntin' sometime. We all get our 4-wheelers and throw 'em in the back of our trucks and head to Colorado for some kinda goood elk huntin. We get out there and go straight to Wal Mart and get our licenses and, shoot, we ain't out but, oh $1,200 for the whole hunt apiece, including gas!" "Well, how many elk have ya killed doing that?" "Oh, 5 or 6 of us go every year now for the last 8-10 years...I saw two cows last year and about 4 years ago I DID see a 2x3 I think. My buddy Billy killed him a nice 3x3 two years ago, but other than that, thats all we've seen."

By the time you do that 5 years in a row you have spent enough $ to really take a good hunt. Thats just my way of thinking, and it certainly won't be for everyone.

I got a friend that is headed to CO this year on his first elk hunt....National Forest...third week of gun season. I wish him luck, but suspect he will only have great memories of camping in those beautiful mountains...not too much trigger time.

quote:

Ted, as in Ted Turner or what??

Yes, the owner of Vermejo Park Ranch is Ted Turner. All 560,000+ acres of it.

On another forum I read something about Ted Turner being "anti-gun" and "anti-hunting." Sort of funny in a way - I've hunted on 3 of Turner's ranches (the Flying D & Sandhills for bison and V. Park for cow elk.) Shot and killed 8 animals (with firearms!) and Ted didn't seem to object at all.

There's a reason that Vermejo Park can charge the kind of $$$ that they do. The elk are there! The only complaint I have about my (low cost) cow elk hunts there is that they were over too soon. These are sold as 3 day hunts but out of the six hunts that I took, there was only one time when we had to go back out after lunch on the first day.

He is the single largest land owner in the state of Nebraska. Good for him, he will not live forever, so take advantage. Some of the "holyer than thou's", think a fenced hunt in Texas is a canned hunt, what is the difference from one of Ted's ranches, versus an exotic hunt in Texas? Not much, elk are animals of habit, much the same as a whitetail. I hunt and kill elk in the same 2000 acre pasture, when I draw a tag, they never leave or venture far from the same area, but yet some think they are wild.

Where can i book a hunt in Vermejo ( Agent , Web Site ) ?!

Seloushunter

here the website of Arnaud outfitters
http://www.arnaudoutfitting.com/hunts/elk.html
They hunts in both Ted's (Turner) ranches Flyng D and Bar None

quote:

Hank H.: I got a friend that is headed to CO this year on his first elk hunt....National Forest...third week of gun season. I wish him luck, but suspect he will only have great memories of camping in those beautiful mountains...not too much trigger time.

If your friend is willing to put out the effort then he should be able to find an shootable elk. The biggest problem that most people have coming to Colorado is they are not in shape for the hunt. If they aren't able to spend the hours humping their butts off in the hills then they probably will never have much success.

quote:

Where can i book a hunt in Vermejo ( Agent , Web Site ) ?!

Anything you want to know VPR is right here:
Link

Taylorce1,

I sure do hope you are right. Just about every story I have heard from guys hunting National Forest in CO has the elk heading for the next zip code over once the bullets start flying the first day. I have heard it more than once regarding the bow season as well.

I do agree with you though: You got to be willing to put forth the effort to stand a chance...

Last year I only paid 3500 to go on a fully guided 1x1 Bull hunt in CO. That included a nice camp(wall tents w/: cots, air mats, heaters, port-a-jon, portable shower, stove, skinning equip, skinning rack, etc...)

There were only 4 bull hunters on over 20,000 acres of private property during the hunt.

I saw over 40 elk within 30 minutes of the first morning and had a 6x6 on the ground before the sun had risen above the trees.

I'm sure I was quite lucky but, my point is there are several very good hunts for less than 5k, you just have to search a bit.

I'm going 1st rifle bull in 08 and MLer in 09 on the same ranch.

If you find a good outfit, it will probably be 2-3 years before you can get a spot booked.

Buy a BGA magazine and call a few of the outfits: http://www.bgamag.com/

That's how I found the outfit I'm hunting with in CO for the next 3 years.

Good Luck

Reloader