I drew a 16C third rifle hunt that starts out on the 24th of October.

Tuesday night I arrived in the unit to do some scouting and hopefully kill a bear. The NMGF shut down the black bear season in my elk area on the 20th as the quota had been met. Good thing I looked it up before I left Truth or Consequences on my cell phone.

I have to say I am not excited about the prospects of this weekend. I spoke to several hunters that were finishing up their season on Wednesday, none of them had seen an elk, nor had the seen any poop, tracks or heard an elk bugle.

I drove about 80 miles over the unit, looked at about 20 water sources and didn't see a single track or piece of poop less than a month old.

Hiked into 3 "elk sanctuary" (recent burns) areas, on several trips totally about 8 miles. No elk and no sign.

The other thing I didn't see was any gut piles, or big groups of ravens/crows tearing up gut piles.

So I am headed up on Friday to see if the opener will be any different. It supposed to stay hot until next Wednesday.

Beyond the lack of elk, I did see two different small airplanes circling the unit. The fucking outfitters in New Mexico are allowed to scout with an airplane a few days before a season opens, I think anyone can do it. To me this is really dirty. Nothing fair chase about it.

I can’t believe the jump off date is here.

It has been hot this year. It got 92 degrees here today.

I hope you beat the airplane boys.

La Nina weather sucks for hunting in the southwest.

I have hunts in late November (turkey and Aoudad) and javelina in January. Hopefully it will cool down at some point.

I am tired of killing scorpions in my house.

BWW:

Move to the desert then bitch n moan!

Up here it's supposed to chill down to
23/8 with snow Monday. Might drift that far
south for you.
Have fun regardless.

George

Don't know anything about your unit but you are going to be hunting post rut for sure. If you are looking for the bigger bulls they are going to off by themselves in some gnarly area where most hunters won't go. They are going to be as close to feed and water as possible.
I hunt northern NM and have for the last 6 yrs. I have noted that there is not a lot of sign but they are there and with the pressure from hunters up to this point they are keeping a low profile. I used to sit on parks/meadows early am and eve. The am routine was fruitless because they are leaving as I come in. The evening they feed edges till just at or not legal shoot time. I adjusted and started trying to catch them going or coming to feed. The last four years I have killed four bulls from 9:00 and 12:30. Also, the success rate on public ground is around 10%. So its uphill starting out. Good Luck for success

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
I drew a 16C third rifle hunt that starts out on the 24th of October.

Tuesday night I arrived in the unit to do some scouting and hopefully kill a bear. The NMGF shut down the black bear season in my elk area on the 20th as the quota had been met. Good thing I looked it up before I left Truth or Consequences on my cell phone.

I have to say I am not excited about the prospects of this weekend. I spoke to several hunters that were finishing up their season on Wednesday, none of them had seen an elk, nor had the seen any poop, tracks or heard an elk bugle.

I drove about 80 miles over the unit, looked at about 20 water sources and didn't see a single track or piece of poop less than a month old.

Hiked into 3 "elk sanctuary" (recent burns) areas, on several trips totally about 8 miles. No elk and no sign.

The other thing I didn't see was any gut piles, or big groups of ravens/crows tearing up gut piles.

So I am headed up on Friday to see if the opener will be any different. It supposed to stay hot until next Wednesday.

Beyond the lack of elk, I did see two different small airplanes circling the unit. The fucking outfitters in New Mexico are allowed to scout with an airplane a few days before a season opens, I think anyone can do it. To me this is really dirty. Nothing fair chase about it.

Seth, good luck. Hope the arrival of this storm front on Sunday night gets the elk moving a bit. I agree it sucks that outfitters can scout from the air just as the season opens.

The good and bad thing about that unit, is that there are roads everywhere, the northern 80% of the of the unit is covered in roads.

A lot of these roads are closed to vehicle traffic but that doesn't stop people from going in there with their vehicles.

As for scorpions, I actually went to high school here before joining the military. I thought it would be spiders, which to me are a bigger pain in the ass. Scorpions generally leave you a long when you sleep. I used to kill spiders in my sleep as they would run across my skin in California. About 1 in 3 would end up biting me. At least it was never a brown recluse.

I have not been bit by a spider in the 18 months we have lived here. But a couple of scorpions have stung me when I was walking barefoot through the house.

Orkin guy comes once a month, but I think he sprays sugar water.

We have a beautiful house, with a view of the mountains, and my job is great. Probably move in a year or six months because, I have never lived anywhere more than 2 years.

I completely fear and hate spiders, scorpions, big beetles.

I just can’t stand bugs/spiders.

I only worry about predators that can kill you.

Snakes, scorpions, spiders and centapedes cause pain, but are mostly harmless.

We move big rattlesnakes about a mile or two away and release them. The little baby ones get killed, as they are nasty and relentless like they have small man disease and something to prove.

Living on the border I mostly worry about the two legged predators.

I have a couple of sanctuaries locked into my GPS for this weekend. I am leaving at 0330 am tomorrow to see if I can find a bull elk dumb enough to stumble into me. Hopefully courage holds over stamina and I can shoot worth a damn.

The ones I hiked into on Wednesday were empty.

Snakes don’t bother me. I would not try to kiss a Black Mamba, but they do not incite fear.

I killed the copperhead that but me. I never saw the Brown Recluse that bit me.

Ok, so back early for work.

Between scouting and the two days I hunted I saw exactly 0 elk, about 50 hunters, 0 deer, 0 bears and 2 small airplanes.

It is a huge area, and I think if you draw this tag during one of the archery seasons you'd have some good success.

I never found an elk sanctuary, I have a couple of places on my GPS where I think they could have gotten into but I never personally got there.

Several times I got 6-8 miles in and said, this is way further than I have the ability to 1. pack out an elk by myself, and 2 get back to my truck to sleep.

I had a comfortable camp in the back of my truck, with a mattress and water.

As hot as it was I don't know that I could carry enough water to stay hydrated for the distances I covered.


In the end it was my first solo elk hunt as an adult. I had some ideas, I had paid for Cory Jacobson's Elk101 series, and gone through it. Watched every Randy Newberg video, and I don't think I really had considered how much harder it was going to be. It wasn't physically that hard for me, I walk 3 round trip miles everday back and forth to work.

I had a good trip, and I came away from it with three conclusions.

1. I wouldn't hunt that area on the last rifle hunt again.

2. The weather was not my friend.

3. The Gila is big, and my unit was but a tiny part of it. I really think that if you are serious about success an elk solo, is a lot to bite off of. I think if I'd had a pair of horses or mules, or 6-8 llamas it would have been something a lot easier to accomplish. Packing an elk 6-8 miles from the parking lot is not something I can do with my back injuries at this point in my life.

It was a really cool adventure for me, and I can't wait to go back. Just need more time on the mountain to learn it.

6-8 miles in is a full march.

It's mostly flat. I dropped into a big canyon system and followed it for miles on the NW side of the unit. Was really cool, but kind of scared me as no one knew I was in there if I had gotten hurt.

Sorry to hear it BWW...I was hoping you'd get a nice one!

Hunting anything in the mountains solo is never easy...but I enjoy it the best! You're only one set of eyes / legs, and you can only be in one place at a time! I'm sure we miss a lot doing it that way?!

Next time have a Garmin Inreach and link it with your cell phone too. Then you never have to worry about going anywhere alone...you can always text, and hit the SOS button if you have a real emergency.

Thanks Aaron!

True wilderness is quite an adventure no matter where you are.

Sounds like you gave it a full go and prior prepared, that's all you can do. The remoteness issue should always be considered if you get down. The upside is when you do bingo DIY it makes it that much sweeter.

Thank you!

I have points in Arizona and Wyoming, should have another shot at elk next year.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
Thank you!

I have points in Arizona and Wyoming, should have another shot at elk next year.

How many Arizona points do you have? I’ve hunted elk in AZ 7 different times (twice on my tag and five times with son/friends). I may be able to help you with some ideas on good units.

With regards to New Mexico, there are other Gila units where you can kill an elk and drive your pickup right up to it. I know as we’ve loaded several right into the pickup there, including the biggest bull of my life so far, which was a 12 year old bull that scored 386” and weighed over 1,000 pounds. I can help you with some better New Mexico ideas.

Bummer to hear. This is also unfortunate for me. My son is scheduled for an Encouragement Hunt (antlerless) in this unit over Thanksgiving. I sure do hope conditions and local populations change such that he has a chance. In years past, we have filled a number of tags in this unit, so I'm hopeful.

I had a tough hunt in NM GMU 18 during the 2nd archery season. 10 days. Public. Hunted there many times before, dry this year and no rut/bugling.

Finally found a honey hole that most people didn't know existed. Covered with elk, but they weren't responding to calls that well. Passed on on 2 +/- 300" young bulls because we had seen a 340 and 380. Was close on the 340, but he stopped at the last minute when we had a shot lined up. The 380 kept sending his satellite bulls out. The one evening we had a chance at the 380, a f'in bear busted into the herd. Oh well. Had fun. Know where they are now and have private land access lined up next time.

I switched to private ranch hunts only from now on. Price is higher but no public hunters. Have killed one elk in CO and one in NM this year. Saw plenty, but the elk know where the boundaries are....

Seth, glad you got in and out in one piece. That becomes a concern on a solo hunt -- and well nigh impossible when you get to be my age with my crummy back.