Shot a nice bull

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

congrats on the 6x6 bull Bill, very nice! that was cool of the other hunters to give you the 411 on the elk herd. great morning read and photo's thanks for sharing!.......tra

 

[XDHUNTER]

Congrats wmidbrook .

a very nice bull and story.

 

[Rodney Hood]

How long before the grin went away............congrats!!!

 

[RVRKNG]

Awsome!!!!

 

[BOWUNTR]

Very nice. Congrats. Ed F

 

[One Track]

Congrats Bill. I am really happy for you. You put your heart and soul into hunting and it's great to see you score on a great bull!

 

[7mm RM]

Outstanding bull, pics and read. Very nice

Was that all public land including the deer? Again, great job

 

[AAA]

I am pretty dang sure i hunted the same area U did last year. I dont want to give away the unit but the cabin U stayed in was it the Horse W****. The pic of the fields would be just up the road a few miles and a road headed of the left at the fields. I had that deer tag last year and also stayed in that place. I might be wrong but i highly doubt it. Good bull and Congrats. I saw a 370 bull killed when i was there.

 

[wmidbrook]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

I am pretty dang sure i hunted the same area U did last year.[/b]

Yeah, small world...lol. Definately the same place. They're selling that location but will open up another at their upper pasture. Did you get a good deer or see any good ones?

There are some big bulls taken but far more raghorns than big bulls are taken. There also is some private ground that charges over $6k but everyone comes out of there with 350+ bulls....some better deals in NM imo.

 

[AAA]

I hunted the last 9 days of the season and could not find a goood buck in there to save my life.I had like 30,000 acres of ranches to hunt and still could not turn up a buck better than 170s. I acually could hunt the Horse W place too and lots of other fields in the area and a crap load of those mountains in the south east part of the unit that were all locked off. Lots of bucks but no good ones. There was 3 of us and no one in my group saw anything big at all. I saw a couple of willow horned 28 inchers but they were not much of a buck. I took a mid 160s 4 point on the last day and that was the best deer i seen killed out of about 20 bucks i saw shot. I wasted my Max points but still had a good time. For #s of bucks the place was awsome. I would see 30 to 70 bucks a day and i did not even count the ones in the fields because they were more like livestock than wild deer. The ranch i was on had tons of elk but i never saw a bull that would go over about 320. They did take a 380 of the place the year before i hunted it. My dad drew the unit about 15 years ago and shot a 350 bull of public ground. Of course back then a 350 was almost hardly ever seen. He made the front page of a well known magazine with that bull and now guys would just say nice bull. Congrats again

 

[wmidbrook]

I actually trekked to the mountains on the SWW side of the unit and saw the magnum buck over there. Otherwise, I'm with you that I didn't see a 180+ class buck. I did talk to the operator of the ranch (Jim?) I think you hunted but I wasn't quite convinced I wanted to spring for the trespass fee (in spite of it being reasonable) when I figured out elk do work back & forth from public lands to private and there was a huge buffer of land in between where vehicles wouldn't pressure the elk off public. For deer, it might have been a better deal....I wouldn't want to have to figure out where I was (public or private) out down around those alfalfa fields.

I do think it would have been a real quick hunt if the goal was only a 300" elk on the private from both what you say and what I heard while out there....there's another huge ranch that pretty much guarantees a 350"+ bull further to the east and a bit north. I also saw a "muley crazy" camp out on the border of one of the big ranches down low on my way back from the opposite corner of the unit...I'm wondering if they had seen something big out in the desert along one of those desert drainages....or maybe antelope.

 

[rodngun]

Congratulations! Awesome bull....It's nice to be in a position that you absolutely know you are going to get a shot....That hunt will stay with you forever.....

 

[AAA]

Yes Jim is the guy i delt with for my hunt. They do have tons of deer and elk. I do know of the other ranch U are talking about too. They say with muleys they will give u a 100% chance at a 180 mule deer also. They wanted 5k for that deer hunt. I talked with a well known hunter that payed them the 5k and said no way was it worth the money. I dont know why there are not more good bucks in that unit. They sure have the #s. I know back in the mid 90s that unit used to pop out some toad bucks out of there.

 

[wmidbrook]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

I dont know why there are not more good bucks in that unit.[/b]

I think it boils down to two major factors. a) the number of tags doesn't fluctuate with population numbers & b) the tagholders drawn are increasingly holding out for larger bucks--seems fewer folks are satisfied with just a "good" deer any more.

Everyone I talked to said the same thing too including the biologists I talked to. I don't plan on hunting deer there at all unless things change.

 

[greyghost10]

That is one fine bull. Great pictures. I would love to have a hunt like that.

 

[montana13]

Nice bull Bill! I hope I get drawn for Wyoming soon.

 

[WapitiBob]

Nice bull. I was wondering how you did.

I got a decent bull on my NM hunt.

 

[wmidbrook]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (WapitiBob @ Nov 8 2007, 11:45 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Nice bull. I was wondering how you did.

I got a decent bull on my NM hunt.[/b]

Heya Bob, I'm glad you got one! I saw it over at another site about 3 weeks after you posted it so you might not have seen my post. It was a real, real good one! Congrats....

 

[bigworm]

Congrats.. good bull, great job. Funny how the real work starts once you pull the trigger..

 

[AZ Jim]

Nice Bull !

Congrats !

Thanks for sharing !


AZ Jim