Do any of you have any thoughts or insight into elk hunting at Jicarilla? How good is the hunting and the trophy quality? How difficult is it to get a license drawn for there?
Thanks!

Had a friend Luis Castillo who hunted there about 16 or 17 years ago with a guide Larry Panzy. He did very well on Elk and mule deer. The Elk seemed to be about 320 ish if memory serves, the Muledeer was a 220 gross. I remember talking with Larry's son at an old SCI convention and was impressed at the time.

There is no public draw hunting on the reservation but the Jicarilla do sell hunts, conducting their own draw. Here's a link to the instructions on how to get in on it:Jicarilla Hunting

I had a friend that hunted there a couple of years ago. One thing you HAVE to be aware of, according to that person is make damn sure of your guide, as most of them are alcoholics. You may get there, have "Bubba" assigned as your guide, show up next morning for your hunt and Bubba is laying out drunk. Supposedly, there is nothing you can do at that point except be PO'd at the world and wait till tomorrow. This may or may not be true next season, but it did happen to my friend previously. That person's word of advice is to do your homework way, way in advance and check references and get a guide that does not drink. Just what I was told by one that hunted there.

Hank,
I see you live just a few miles from me. Was you friend that hunted at Jicarilla from SW GA?

Nope...South Carolina, where I am from originally.

Give me a buzz sometime and we will swap lies.

Take it easy

I've hunted elk twice on the jicarilla via the courtesy of good friends with a guest tag. I still had to hire a local guide. My guide was up and ready every morning. His method was to drive res roads at a fast clip and look for a shooter. Sometimes we would see 50+ bulls a morning. My guide could spot a potentially "good" elk while doing 50 miles an hour down a rocky road. He would constantly whip up his binos and say, "Only a meat bull," after a 2 sec. glance. Once we found a shooter, then we would get out and stalk it.

The first one I got was a 300 class 6X6 bull that we had to hike about a mile up the mountain to locate and shoot. The second was a raghorn 6X6 shot in the fading light of the last day of my hunt. The presenter of my guest tag wanted some meat. It was a great experience. I saw hundreds of elk each day, but it wasn't a classic rocky mountain pack-in hunt.

The main topic of conversation between the guides was the size of bulls their clients brought in. The less experienced guides would be labeled as a "rookie guide" when they let their client shoot a ho-hum elk. So I recommend finding a guide with many years experience and securing his services. The good ones are hard to get.

quote:

Originally posted by dimrod:
His method was to drive res roads at a fast clip and look for a shooter. ...
The good ones are hard to get.

Huh?

I hunted next to the Jicarilla Res once. Spectacular hunting indeed. But I was solo hunting.

Brent

How can you solo hunt there? Are you a native american or is there a loophole of some sort?

Also 12K for a Mulie is pretty pricey. What sort of average do they bring in?

I said "next to" as on the East border.
Brent

Whoops my mistake.

I did unintentionally trespass on the res when scouting the day before the season opened. There are no signs, no fences, nada in some areas. Came out on a nice promentory, pulled out a map, and when Oh shit!

It is a grand area.

Brent

quote:

Originally posted by Brent:
I did unintentionally trespass on the res when scouting the day before the season opened. There are no signs, no fences, nada in some areas. Came out on a nice promentory, pulled out a map, and when Oh shit!

It is a grand area.

Brent

I did that several years ago up in Oregon, we were hunting right by the reservation and same thing no signs. So I'm wandering around and I came to a clear cut and I'm thinking to myself the USFS hasn't logged up here in years and that is when the light went off. I was on the reservation so I bee lined it back to where I came from. I did spook some elk and they headed straight to where my dad and them were at. For some crazy reason the Tribal Police get a little upset when they catch you wandering around on the reservation.

John

Gets kinda hairy when they catch ya 323! From hunting in that area between Chama and Eagle Nest, you hear all kinds of horror stories. Obviously you know that since it is a reservation, you operate by their rules.....

My worst episode, not too bad really, was taking my family back to the ranch where I elk hunted previously for a summer vacation. We took a day trip to the Taos Pueblo reservation...went in, walked around with the rest of the tourists and I whip out my camcorder and start videoing away. I panned the viewfinder past the village's cemetary and they damn freaked!!! They came up to me and the family (had not stopped the camera so I got this all on film!) tried to sieze my camera and keep it. In my best Ron White imitation I basically told him "I don't think so Scooter". I got pissed, but remembered I was definately in the minority there, and just told the wife & kids "lets just head on back to Eagle Nest...nothing we need to see here". Lucky a group of them didn't follow us out to the truck and slit my throat.

My only elk ever taken was on that Res. My brother in law and I drew cow tags there a few years ago. The tags were $250 and guide was 200 per day with a three day min. We both shot 4 year old dry cows. We had a great time. Wonderful country. Would like to go again.

Best of Luck; Allan