Just got back from NM and had the best hunt a person could have as far as animals and quality, then the tresspassers and poachers and unethical guides and outfitters . It re-enforced my faith in the integrity and honesty of critters and re-enforced my lack of faith in same of people. I did pass shots on 6 legal bulls to go after 2 monsters , and one was chuckling at me the morning after the hunt was over. Awesome. I just hope the warden gets those a-holes that effed up my hunt. I gave him the GPS co-ords of the 3 gutpiles of poached elk and he now has samples to compare with ALL the elk taken from area 44/45, and they say they are serious in finding these a-holes. good. won't do me any good . But I still had every elk book and video scenerio thrown at me. 5 herd bulls bugleing back at my cow calls the second day. Stalked to within 20 yards of a herd on my belly in an open meadow, stayed with one herd of 60 for a day without being detected. Awesome. Just couldn't chance a gutshot elk with the erratic winds the 2 times I did have semi clearshot at the big boy. I know I can't afford the hunt I had paid for anymore, but won't have to. I know I can do it myself without getting an un-guided drop camp. Because I got a unguided place... his camp was ripped off, meaning mine . And I wasn't about to go out and loose a day of 5 to complain. I did it myself. I know I've heard it all , you should get a written contract,blah blah blah... in this day and age of computer shi... I have one thing I trust, a MANS word and my gut feeling. It seems I don't meet manyMEN these days. I get lied to all the time. I'll still hunt and will get a cow tag next year to go with the muley tag, I found a place I saw 6 30" bucks in a 2 hour drive scouting, didn't see a doe or a person. Across the highway from cow elk landowner heaven... next year is planned,by my self.
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predatorhunter21
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Happy you had a somewhat good time!
I had a great time . And like I said I past on the bulls. A 320+ bull or two in an area known for 300 trophies is a no brainer to me. But those guys had spooked all the other elk off the mountain and you can't go back in time... as much as I'd like too. Like 150years... And I'm planning my 09 NM hunt starting last week. It will include mulies. I've been asked not to comment anymore on the ongoing investigation. For the time being let's just say , "They won't win , and I don't lose easily" I was looking at the BC book ratings in Eastmans and that big 6x6 could have been 340 and the 5x5 had wider and longer rack, just not the mass. Awesome animals... I'll ALWAYS have that hunt. And he was there at the end of the 2nd rifle... maybe he'll be there again.. Maybe I will.
I don't know about all over the place ? But will expand at the right time. Lets just say my private land drop camp was sabatoged, no fuel, radio working and the outfitters lanterns were stolen. Luckily I only really rely on myself so I had my own gear too. But I wasn't going to go down off the mountain to complain and waste a day of hunting out of a short 5day elk hunt up at 10K +. My outfitter was told as soon as I came out and G&F informed of problems. And I had a unit wide tag and could have gone elsewere. Would you leave an area with bulls bugleing , even with others pushing and probing the place? I just know now that DIY means do it ALL myself , and will from now on...
Here's the story. Last year in Oct. I started looking into a bull elk hunt in NM. Got info and leads , found a outfitter with a private land drop camp, 300 acres .USFS land on 3 sides and up against 3000 acre other private ranch.That ranch had land owner tags and they could only hunt the ranch3000ac. I drew a 2nd rif. unit wide tag MB, which means I could hunt public land ,the whole unit and the 300 acres I was on. Perfect the whole place to myself...5 day hunt. Well the word was out about a couple big bulls taken during archery and muzzleloader seasons. This is an area known for a," 300BC bull is a trophy". And I" heard" of a 383 and a 400 taken, no confirmation . Any way the Thursday before the start my outfitter calls and says I can go on into the ranch , the last hunter is out from 1st rif. and its all set up ready for you . Great I've got all my gear and am ready for anything I drive up to the gate and the local cowboys are loading stock onto trailers at gate. I wait and we BS and they know my outfitter and grew up with him in Pecos, they give me some tips. I guess they were suprised I was alone unguided. Anyway they laft. no cows on the place at least.. Drive up to cabin on ranch at base of 2 huge meadows going up the mountain. 9700ft, the peak at top of ranch 10,666. all to myself. Awesome place. I see some mulies that day but have still yet to see or hear an elk. Little activity at NF campground up at wilderness trailhead, 2miles away. great the locals don't come this way and the packer guys go up into the Pecos Wilderness, just like I was told by everyone. The camp had been sabatoged, No lanterns, radio dead, no cooking gas and the hot h2o system had been frozen. I had my own gear and wasn't going to drive all the way off the mountain and complain. I'll just do it myself as I had my tag and nothing was going to stop my from going on my first elk hunt in 30 years. The dawn of the day before opening, there is a 6x6 320+ bull and 60+ cows calfs and spikes in the meadow, til 9AM. 100yards away. At 2Pm a second bull brings his harem to drink and hang out. A huge 5x5, rack bends way out past body and the tips of his 5th are resting on his but when he goes back up into the quakies . Increadible.. By nite fall there are 5 bulls bugling on this ranch alone and the upper Pecos river is a concert of them. HEAVEN, I'm golden... I'm out at 4:30 to go cut the big 6x6 off at the saddle. On these guys 3 hours and they never knew I was there. had one chance at 40yrds, and as I took off safety, my scope fills with brown. A cow is standing 12' ft. in front of me blocking the shot. She moves he moves, I move ... I have a great time for two days. On both these bulls and I still haven't blown them. I'm in the spot at corner of ranch at sunset .Calling him to me with estrous calls. Behind I hear a snap and think Sat. bull. Turn and look at some guy and his guide coming over the bwire fence towards me. I flag the guy, he hadn't seen me, and ask ," What the F do you think your doing?.. Oh , we'll just go around.. They march off and the elk are gone. People drive into the ranch as I'm getting on them and they spook them and leave. Then the wind and freezing temps hit. No more treaspassers but nothing moving around in 17 degree and erratic gusty wind up to and over 50mph. Last day see a herd of cows and spikes go over the saddle I'm watching at dawn, no other elk allday. Big bucks does but no elk and no bulls. not a peep from any in 2 days. badd. I've passed on 6 different smaller bulls. Second guessing myself . Last hour I go along bottom to gate. nothing ,no tracks anything. I go up to the old cabin at bottom of meadow, and the is a cow, no threee.. I drop and shrug pack and crawl to within 30yrds of her . no bulls or even legal anything. She looks back at the grove they came out of and I see the heard slowly moving my way. I waited till an hour after last shooting time and he came out. That big 6x6 with that thick rack . Awesome. He was there the next morning to say good by and chuckle at me. I had a great time and will be going again.. BY MYSELF DIY. I hope they catch the a-holes that wrecked my trip and others in area. I wasn't only one that had similar exper. The NMG&F have been great before and since . the tips and leads I got from them and the people of New Mexico was great and I'll be making my tenth trip this next year. But from now on all will have a tag included , not just great scenery,food and the friendliest people.. how many game and fish offices can you walk into off the street and talk to the HEAD of game managment, for an hour with coffee? I can't even talk to a field rep here in CA. I hope my outfitter gets his gear back and I hope he calls sometime. I won't call him. It was his job to give me a un-guide drop camp on private land. By my self. Without folk's coming and going on it. I'll get a landowner tag or if I get lucky and get drawn for primo area I'll save and hire a guide. You know a local rancher.Maybe my outfitter, if he man's up and tells me what happened. He came highly recomended. Like I said I had every scenerio in the book and had a hunt of a lifetime. just didn't filltag...this time.
The camp was NOT READY, I was NOT the ONLY one on it, as I was told I would be, and the clowns that took the elk on the ranch WITHOUT written permission to be there let alone take an animal there are, POACHERS . They pretty much screwed it up. And bad weather is part of hunting, so... when I get drawn again next year in NM I'll do it ALL myself, the rest seems to be a joke. And it's not that hard to draw an area in NM, maybe not the Gila or Chama first time but a chance at good game. I was drawn my first time on my 2nd choice. Try and draw Goodale or any decent tag in CA., and these NM tags are gimme's JHMO
wmidbrook
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Your tag was a UW (unit wide). Technically, any one with a tag either public or UW can hunt on any lands owned (yes, private lands) by those granted UW tags in NM. It's in the regulations. Still, respect of others should be held in higher regard and acted on.....there's a frustrating erosion of that (due in part to the big $$ in hunting).
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I have had one or two myself. Too bad the outfitter/client had no gentlemanly sense of letting you work the herd you were on alone AND first one there--to me, guides should be held to uphold higher than legal ethical standards while out in the field.
I rent a cabin from a rancher when in northern NM who has a parcel landlocked by NF lands. His cabin was broken into and is glad to have someone up there during the hunting seasons because otherwise, hardly anyone else other than ranch hands are up in that country. It could have been someone other than outfitters having vandelized the drop camp. Could have been locals preying on huntings or ticked at "outsiders" coming into "their" areas.
Nonetheless, sounds like you had mostly good times and I hope those are the more permanent of your memories.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I have had one or two myself. Too bad the outfitter/client had no gentlemanly sense of letting you work the herd you were on alone AND first one there--to me, guides should be held to uphold higher than legal ethical standards while out in the field.
I rent a cabin from a rancher when in northern NM who has a parcel landlocked by NF lands. His cabin was broken into and is glad to have someone up there during the hunting seasons because otherwise, hardly anyone else other than ranch hands are up in that country. It could have been someone other than outfitters having vandelized the drop camp. Could have been locals preying on huntings or ticked at "outsiders" coming into "their" areas.
Nonetheless, sounds like you had mostly good times and I hope those are the more permanent of your memories.
I had a great time. I hear you on the NM property issue, found out about that after paying for drop camp, but this ranch is one of the few that is completely fenced and posted, as per regs. It's what you said with unlicenced guides and outfitters with no ethics. They have a couple hundred thousand acres outside of a 300 acre private place... that they had driven all the elk onto scouting from trucks and atv's. And I'll always have those bulls coming in ,in my dreams. Next Time. I don't give up.
