It must really suck to be a New Mexican cow elk!

This elk was killed on 12-22-08 at Vermejo Park Ranch. I took the Amtrak to Raton and had to borrow a rifle (Ruger .300 Win Mag) as firearms of any kind are forbidden on the train.

Big girl there! Congratulations! Never thought of taking a train to go hunting. Looks like it was a great hunt.

Nice. Looks like the weather was good too. I'm pretty fond of those big girls myself.

Does Vermejo Park pretty much turn you lose to hunt cows or are you "escorted"? Noting the location, was the train ticket the cheap part of this hunt or are they real proud of cows too?

The weather was great, especially considering the foot of snow we got in WI the day I left for the hunt. Just the see the sun out all day was a treat in itself. Here in the midwest it's cloudy most days from November through February.

If you're familiar with Vermejo Park Ranch you probably already know that their bull elk hunts start at $10,000 and go up from there. Of course an operaton that caters to that sort of clientele cannot be bothered with lowly cow elk hunts / hunters. An outfitter out of Raton handles the cow hunts.

This was the 7th. cow elk hunt I've done at Vermejo. All of the hunts came to a successful conclusion on the first morning. The price for the fully guided hunt is $1,000 + $345 for the license. In my opinion that's quite reasonable. I realize that there may be cheaper options for a cow hunt but I don't have any friends or family that are interested in hunting and I don't really enjoy hunting alone.

This was my 25th. Western hunt. I've always driven but decided to take the train, mostly because of the weather. The motel where I stayed picked me up and dropped me off at the train station, which was convenient since Raton has no taxis or car rentals. This was probably the only time in the last 35+ year that I went for a week without driving a vehicle of some kind. Going for meals meant going for a nice long walk (not at all a bad thing for an overweight, middle aged desk jockey!)

Using mass transit added at least $500 to the cost of the trip. The biggest extra expense is shipping the meat back home. It's being air freighted to Milwaukee at an expected cost of $250 - $300. I'll then have to make a 250 mile round trip to pick it up. (Luckily I have a friend in MKE who will pick the meat up at the airport and store it until I can come and get it.) The processing plant in Raton assured me that will be no problems shipping the meat but there's still an uneasy feeling in my gut that something might go wrong. The possibility of going without elk meat for a year is depressing, especially since I already paid $250 to have it processed.

All in all, under ordinary circumstances I don't understand why anyone would fly (or for that matter, take the train) on a hunting trip within the continental US. This was a relatively simple and inexensive trip but nevertheless I worried about making connections and getting at the right place at the right time. Then there are the issues of scheduling ahead of time and geting the meat home safely. I scheduled 3 days for the hunt but tagged out the first morning. The rest of the time was spent in the motel room.

Had I driven the fuel would have cost less than $200. (2400 miles @ 23 mpg, $1.75 per gallon) Add another $75 for a motel room on the way out and back. At least on paper it comes out way cheaper than $396 for train tickets and $300 for meat shipping. But the first half of the drive this year would have been a white knuckle trip (alone) through a blizzard and then an ice storm. So maybe it was worth it after all. The train ride was relaxing and fun. And isn't relaxation and fun the object of a vacation?

Sorry about the rant..

Ah, that wasn't a rant. Just an interesting narrative on your perspective of what works for you. I never realized that Amtrak would have such a restrictive firearms policy.

I take it you were hunting in a group setting?

"I never realized that Amtrak would have such a restrictive firearms policy."

The regs say no firearms of any kind allow on board the train. Not even as checked baggage. The funny thing is that there are no security searches of passengers or luggage. No X-ray or metal detector searches. No strip searches or shoe removal. You just step on board, ticket and photo ID in hand. Packing a pistol and lots of ammunition on one's person would be no problem at all.

"I take it you were hunting in a group setting?"

Nope - just me and the guide.