We may learn that we don’t want to apply for that hunt code again. But the unit looks pretty accessible—perhaps too accessible. We won’t know for sure where the elk are until we go. I’m a little jealous of your access to local hunt units. Awesome elk pics!
New Mexico Elk
- Thread starter Okie_Poke
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- elk new mexico wapiti
We may learn that we don’t want to apply for that hunt code again. But the unit looks pretty accessible—perhaps too accessible. We won’t know for sure where the elk are until we go. I’m a little jealous of your access to local hunt units. Awesome elk pics!
Rubone
Member
Don't be too jealous, Northern NM is a tough place to exist. But my family has only been in the new world for the last 14 generations and in the northern part of NM for 12 so we are starting to get the hang of it.
With a titanium hip, the other failing, and a destroyed lower spine the high altitude hike all day hunts are a thing of the past for me. I spend a lot of time with glass, and despite claims, most Elk I kill are within 200yds. I don't think I have ever exceeded 400.
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courtgreene
Member
thank you!
N555
Member
If I ever got drawn for the Maine moose hunt I could have made it look easy too. Sporting 2 man buns.Hence the "Man Bun". Stay home, you'd fail here.
I have been to northern new Mexico. Seemed mild compared to maine.
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If you sport two man buns that’s a princess Leah. In any case everything that Rubone has said is spot on and he knows the NM elk hunting.
Conelrad
Member
We have property in NM, close to "The Narrows", about midpoint between Grants & Pietown. More towards the Western part of the state.
I don't hunt, but have seen great herds of Elk there, and even had one of the biggest bulls I've ever seen just walk thru a 3-wire fence on our property like it didn't exist.
The area around there is a patchwork quilt of alternating BLM and private sections, and hunting is always going on in season around there. You might check what hunt units are listed there.
I don't hunt, but have seen great herds of Elk there, and even had one of the biggest bulls I've ever seen just walk thru a 3-wire fence on our property like it didn't exist.
The area around there is a patchwork quilt of alternating BLM and private sections, and hunting is always going on in season around there. You might check what hunt units are listed there.
Hugger-4641
Member
Following this with great interest. My first visit to NM and I am totally surprised. I was traveling this road yesterday and had to stop 3 times for bulls in rd. We had at least a dozen cross in font of us on this road, and saw several small herds in fields, and cows on side of the road every mile or so. Not exaggerating one bit when I say we saw at least 50 Elk within 45min of driving 40mph.
This pic of a young bull not very good as I was driving very slowly and holding my phone out the window. Included a scenic pic for fun to see if @Rubone knows where I was.
This cow was in a totally different area in a town called Ruidoso, just grazing on the flowers on these folks front walk.
This pic of a young bull not very good as I was driving very slowly and holding my phone out the window. Included a scenic pic for fun to see if @Rubone knows where I was.
This cow was in a totally different area in a town called Ruidoso, just grazing on the flowers on these folks front walk.
Rubone
Member
Isn't that overlook down by Cloudcroft?
Hugger-4641
Member
Ding, Ding,...yep!
I figured it'd be too easy if I used this pic:
Hwy 82 was full of Elk the whole way through the mountains.
Had one big bull blocked the road for several min.
So I have two questions:
1. Is any of this area open to out of state draw?
2. We were traveling East just before dusk and all of the elk that were moving were headed North up the slopes. Is this thier normal daily pattern or something else?
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Rubone
Member
Ding, Ding,...yep!
I figured it'd be too easy if I used this pic:
View attachment 1154767
Hwy 82 was full of Elk the whole way through the mountains.
Had one big bull blocked the road for several min.
So I have two questions:
1. Is any of this area open to out of state draw?
2. We were traveling East just before dusk and all of the elk that were moving were headed North up the slopes. Is this thier normal daily pattern or something else?
1. All units are open to out of state applicants. There are certain hunt dates however only open to residents, mostly late season cow hunts.
2. Best answer is, sometimes. They often come down out of the trees into the flats late afternoon or early morning to feed, then go back into the woods to spend the night. Various things affect that, especially in the Spring when calving is underway. Also storm patterns and full moons. The young Bulls are wandering around and the older Bulls tend to bunch up through the summer, sometimes you might see a dozen hanging out together. By Fall they all hate each other again and are sparring. But shifting from trees to prairie and back is pretty normal. However some groups live in desert areas and bed down in river bottoms and the like. There is a resident herd at Chaco Canyon, the middle of nowhere and no big timber.
I've run across groups mid day cruising across the sagebrush flats from one range to another. As an old rancher friend used to say "Elk are where you find them".
Hugger-4641
Member
Thanks for that response and info.
My daughter and Sil are residents in Hobbs, but of course, I would be out of state. After this trip, I'll be pressing him a little harder to set up a hunt.
Rubone
Member
Other opportunities are Oryx in the White Sands Missile Range Area, and Barbary Sheep in the Guadalupe Mtns southwest of Carlsbad. And Mule deer all along those mountains by Cloudcroft/Ruidoso/Capitan.All in easy distance from Hobbs.
Hugger-4641
Member
We actually saw some Barbary sheep on the way out of Carlsbad Ntl Park. I don't have any current desire to hunt them or Oryx, but ElK and Mule deer are definitely at the top my list for now. We also saw quite a few Muleys and some white tail along hwy 82 mixed in with the Elk. I'm thinking it would be awesome if we could draw tags in the Cloudcroft area and just stay there in a cabin for a week or so.
NMachine
Member
We actually saw some Barbary sheep on the way out of Carlsbad Ntl Park. I don't have any current desire to hunt them or Oryx, but ElK and Mule deer are definitely at the top my list for now. We also saw quite a few Muleys and some white tail along hwy 82 mixed in with the Elk. I'm thinking it would be awesome if we could draw tags in the Cloudcroft area and just stay there in a cabin for a week or so.
GMU 34 in NM was my old stomping grounds. I lived in the area from 1991 to 2001 then again 2013 to 2020. So, 17 years of hunting Lincoln National Forest and adjoining BLM lands. There can be a high amount of hunting pressure in that unit. The state issues quite a few nonresident tags there, especially for deer. Most nonresident hunters in the unit are primarily inexperienced and just road hunt. You have to be willing to put in the work and hike 3-10 miles out away from the “war zone” to get into solitude and mature animals. The last 7 year stint I did in the area I only drew one cow tag as a resident. The state claims it only allotted 10% tags to nonresidents, but my own eyes tell me that is not true. Out of state license plates are thick on the Forrest Roads during any hunting season. There are some great herds of elk widespread through the unit. High numbers of mature 6x’s in the 330”-370” class. Deer numbers have steadily declined in the unit due to mismanagement and too many big cats. Elk numbers have risen steadily and have pushed the bigger deer down into the box canyons in the lower elevations. NM doesn’t have a point system for tags, but as a nonresident I would say you still stand a good chance of getting drawn. Best of luck to you!
OP here with an update: My brother-in-law and I were (halfway) successful this past week. We filled 1 of 2 tags and got a nice 6x6 bull down and recovered! Five years of public land, self-guided hunting and we finally got one. Temps ranged from 25 to 72 in the same day. Some bulls were still with cows and bugling before daylight. We saw and heard a lot of elk in the dark, but finding them during shooting light was tougher. They are smart critters. For example, one morning we got to watch a presumably old lead cow take a bunch of cows and a nice bull from private to public through a path of depressions and timber that hid the whole heard from view from the roads. Folks driving around in pickups and ATVs couldn't see them and had no idea they were there as they headed from food and water up the mountain just after first light. That cow knew right where to stop the herd when she heard a vehicle coming to keep them out of sight. From where we were at, she looked like she was stopping them in the middle of a valley or in thin timber, but from the road you couldn't see that spot. Amazing, really.
Several of you had lots of good information and tips. Re-reading this thread after our hunt, some of the advice given was spot-on and I wish I had internalized it better before I went. I won't give away too much detail about the unit, but I'll answer a few of my original questions. We did not hunt the lower elevation wilderness area in the east, and until there is a bunch of snow on the ground I wouldn't expect to find many of them there. I could be wrong; we just didn't have any reason to go over there and check. We saw elk and fresh sign at about every elevation in the unit. They were generally eating and drinking down low over night and escaping up high during the day, but that's a generality. Best time to hunt was the first 15 minutes of shooting light. They'd be on their way back to bed from feeding all night. After that, the only place we could find them was in places you didn't want to go, but in the shade. Water was a limiting factor. We went out and scouted in August and there was a lot more water and vegetation then than when we hunted in October. There are lots of roads, and lots of people driving the roads hoping to get lucky. There are places to hunt them where it's flat, but there is a lot steep country, some of it really steep. If you don't think an elk can get up somewhere because it's too steep and rocky, you're probably wrong. Some of the places we wanted to hunt we weren't able to because of how steep it was to get up there. The elk were up there somewhere (we followed them up as high as we could), but there are places where they can go that at least I can't.
My BIL shot the bull on the point of the shoulder (elk quartering toward him) at 80 yards with a 308, 180 grain trophy bonded tipped. The shot took out both lungs and the heart but the bullet did not exit. Elk was dead on his feet and we recovered him about 60 yards away, though there was basically no blood trail at all until right where he fell. Found the bullet, textbook expansion, under the hide on the opposite side.
I appreciate your prior advice. Good luck to all who still have tags this fall.
Several of you had lots of good information and tips. Re-reading this thread after our hunt, some of the advice given was spot-on and I wish I had internalized it better before I went. I won't give away too much detail about the unit, but I'll answer a few of my original questions. We did not hunt the lower elevation wilderness area in the east, and until there is a bunch of snow on the ground I wouldn't expect to find many of them there. I could be wrong; we just didn't have any reason to go over there and check. We saw elk and fresh sign at about every elevation in the unit. They were generally eating and drinking down low over night and escaping up high during the day, but that's a generality. Best time to hunt was the first 15 minutes of shooting light. They'd be on their way back to bed from feeding all night. After that, the only place we could find them was in places you didn't want to go, but in the shade. Water was a limiting factor. We went out and scouted in August and there was a lot more water and vegetation then than when we hunted in October. There are lots of roads, and lots of people driving the roads hoping to get lucky. There are places to hunt them where it's flat, but there is a lot steep country, some of it really steep. If you don't think an elk can get up somewhere because it's too steep and rocky, you're probably wrong. Some of the places we wanted to hunt we weren't able to because of how steep it was to get up there. The elk were up there somewhere (we followed them up as high as we could), but there are places where they can go that at least I can't.
My BIL shot the bull on the point of the shoulder (elk quartering toward him) at 80 yards with a 308, 180 grain trophy bonded tipped. The shot took out both lungs and the heart but the bullet did not exit. Elk was dead on his feet and we recovered him about 60 yards away, though there was basically no blood trail at all until right where he fell. Found the bullet, textbook expansion, under the hide on the opposite side.
I appreciate your prior advice. Good luck to all who still have tags this fall.
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BreechFace
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Nice! Well placed shot to take out both lungs and heart, nice to see the 308 dumped all it's energy into the animal but no doubt an exit hole is nice to have if one has to track.
NMachine
Member
Congratulations! Way to be diligent. Looking forward to pictures.
Nice bull! Congrats!
courtgreene
Member
So glad you followed up and I’m glad you were successful
