Rocky Mountain Elk

CLOSE CALL IN NEW MEXICO

Even with all of the preparation for this hunt, nothing could have prepared me for the events that were about to take place. It was a shock, to say the least, and almost resulted in the loss of my trophy Elk while bowhunting at a private ranch in New Mexico.

A Hunt Cancellation

This hunt began with my Quality Hunts business partner and friend Joshua Treadway sending me an email about a hunt cancellation. He knew I wanted to go Elk hunting and had been looking for a ranch with an opening in the fall of 2017. Since it was late August with September quickly approaching I had all but given up on hunting Rocky Mountain Elk this year. I wanted to find a place with a consistently high success ratio and an opportunity to harvest a respectable bull. I had been to New Mexico and bow-hunted for Elk before and came home empty-handed. This time had to be different.

I had just returned from British Columbia, Canada two weeks prior to Joshua informing me of this new hunt opportunity, so this left me little time for preparation. To make matters worse, I had difficulty returning home due to a hurricane that had just made landfall in Houston, Texas where I live and work. Fortunately, I would be a passenger on this trip which made things a little easier since I didn’t need to get my truck ready for the long 12-hour drive. This left me time to focus on work, washing clothes, packing and practicing at ranges up to 70 yards with my Mathews Halon 32. I was very methodical about making sure that I shot every day for at least 30 minutes. I had recently changed to a different type of broadhead with great success and wanted to make sure this would continue. If I didn’t get an Elk this year, the cause surely wouldn’t be because my broadheads weren’t flying correctly. Someday in the near future, I will manufacture and hunt with my own broadhead design but not on this hunt.

Arrival

My journey to New Mexico began with meeting Joshua at his house then leaving at midday and traveling halfway to our destination. After getting dinner and a good night's sleep in a hotel, we proceeded to the ranch where our Elk hunt would take place.

Upon our arrival, we met the staff including the ranch manager, the cook and our guides for the next five days. After being shown to our room I quickly unpacked and shot my bow a few times so I could rest assured that everything was still in perfect working order. Then came dinner with a glass of wine, a nice hot shower and straight to bed to get a good night's sleep so I could be rested for my first day of Elk hunting in the morning. We had an early wake-up time of 4:30 am.

Morning and Cool Temps

When morning came I quickly got dressed, had a cup of coffee then loaded my pack and bow in the Polaris Ranger. The weather was a cool 43 degrees as we took off on the hour-long ride to where we would be hunting. We arrived 30 minutes before dawn and walked to a meadow where we found ourselves in the middle of an Elk herd. There were a few small bulls and one average size bull with several cows. As I moved closer I kept looking for something larger but soon realized the wind had shifted, and we quickly backed out. As the day progressed we moved to several new areas looking for Elk but with no luck in finding them.

Day 2: Kept Moving, Glassing, and Calling

As day two arrived the weather was much warmer, and the Elk had stopped bugling. This made it very difficult to almost impossible for us when trying to locate the Elk. All we could do was keep moving from one location to another while glassing and calling. Over and over we bugled with no response. With late morning temperatures on the rise, we headed back to the lodge for lunch and to discuss a new plan. After much thought, we decided to go up on top of the mesa where the temperatures were a little cooler. There was a lot of Elk sign but we only heard one distant bugle as the sun dropped below the horizon and day two ended.

Day 3: Cold and Bulls Were Bugling

Much to my surprise when I woke up on day 3 the weather was much colder and the bulls were bugling again. This was great news for me but didn’t mean much to my hunting buddy Joshua as he woke up in the middle of the night with food poisoning. This meant he wouldn’t be hunting that day.

When I went to breakfast I discovered that our cook and ranch manager had called my guide to let him know a herd of Elk had crossed the road by her house about 5 am.

My guide Daniel and I choked down a piece of toast and some coffee then loaded in the Polaris Ranger and took off to find them. Although we couldn’t see the Elk we did get them to return our bugle which gave us a direction. We threw our backpacks on and took off up the mountain. I’ve been told my entire life that it’s impossible to run down an Elk herd if they are in front of you. Never say never!

Daniel and I stayed on the herd for a few hours that morning and finally caught them. We knew we had to be close so we slowly and quietly proceeded.

Black Bear and A Herd of Elk

All of a sudden Daniel froze and said “Black Bear”. We had stumbled on a Bear only 20 yards in front of us. The Bear was feeding and unaware of our presence so we made a slight noise to get his attention. When he spotted us he immediately ran off, so we continued on the trail towards the Elk.

A short 50 yards farther I grabbed my guide by the shirt to stop him as I had finally spotted the herd. Unfortunately, they had spotted us too and took off down the hill and out of sight. Well, that was fun, but it was time to head down the mountain and regroup for the afternoon hunt.

A New Area

After lunch, my guide, Joshua’s guide and I piled into the Ranger and headed to another new area for my afternoon hunt. This particular hunt would prove to be wild and exciting but also very disappointing.

The drive was about an hour long over some very rough and rocky terrain. After stopping about a half mile from the waterhole I checked the wind direction, unpacked my bow, threw on my backpack and off we went.

The plan was to walk into a large meadow that had a waterhole near one end then set up and start calling. Hopefully, I would get a response and eventually coax a large bull Elk in for a shot.