New Mexico Elk Hunt

I went with two buddies on an elk hunt near Prewitt, New Mexico.  It is directly west of Albuquerque.  We were in a camp with three other hunters (and one observer) from Wisconsin.  The outfitter was Toby Truby - Red Rock Outfitters.  We booked the hunt thru Butch Manasse Hunt Nation.  The short summary is that one of our three hunters took a bull.  In the camp in total, two bulls and two raghorns were taken by six hunters. I personally never took a shot.  It was beautiful country, we had high expectations for a rifle hunt in the rut, the weather was warm but nice, but the animals were scarce.  A good time was had by all.  Here's the play by play.

 Both the ranch and the outfitter were named for red rock formations.

 It soon became obvious why.

 Bob and I hunted with Stanley.  He worked hard, knew the ranch, could track as well as anyone that I know, did a great job calling, but had a hard time finding us elk.

 The geology was interesting.  There were mesas with steep cliffs but the back side of the mesa was usually a gradually rising  pasture.  The highest elevation that we experienced was 7600 feet.

Our ranch lodgings were adequate but certainly not luxurious.

We had satellite tv.

 Our cook, Della, kept us well fed.

 We typically went out at daylight and drove or walked until 11:00.  Then we came in for lunch and took a rest.  Then we went back out at 4:00 until after dark.

Water was a luxury in this area although this ranch had multiple "tanks" like this one.

 We often found some high ground to glass for elk.  We spent hours staring thru binoculars - usually without success.

 Bob, Stanley and I made this climb to the top of a mesa at a "saddle".  It was really steeper than this looks.  On both the way up and down, I had to resort to all fours to avoid taking a dive.

 You can't really tell but Bob is standing on the edge of a 100' cliff.

 We sat on the edge of this cliff and glassed for elk.

 The elk bed on hillsides and under trees during the hot part of the day.  They get up as the sun goes down.  So we tried to spot them and then we would go chase them to try to get a shot.  Bob and I went 3 1/2 days without seeing an elk at all - not a bull, raghorn, spike or cow.  We covered a lot of ground.

On the way down from the mesa to the truck as the sun sets.  Then a long rough ride back to the ranch house.

 Our buddy Jim shot a nice bull on the first evening at 300+ yards.  This bull had a harem of 13 cows bottled up in a canyon.

 Jim shot a nice 6 x 5 bull.

 Meanwhile, Stanley led Bob and I on hikes all over this 20,000 acre ranch. 

We saw lots of great country and many coyotes.

 We saw 5 mule deer does.

 We finally saw a raghorn bull (4 x 4) on the afternoon of our 3rd day.  He's in the middle of this photo.  We chose not to shoot it looking for something more mature.  He was initially at 263 yards but Stanley called him in to 150 yards before he spotted our truck.

 These are pinion nuts.  They are sort of the equivalent of acorns out there.  Most of the wildlife eat them and so do some people.

On top of a mesa hoping to spot an elk.

 A typical canyon.

 Depending on water, the ground can be barren or covered in juniper and pinions.

 They run cattle on this ranch but the density is low.

 Some of the flora.

 We took the truck into some pretty hairy places.  In this case we had two wheels in the air and had to build up a rock base to try to get some traction.

This trail went around the edge of a 50' drop off.  Toby's Dad, Joe, was at the wheel.

I jumped out to photo/video the passage and Joe thought that was a vote of no confidence.  He's about to drive over a creek wash and the drop off is within a few feet of his left tires.

 Jim had a milestone birthday during the hunt so we had to have a little celebration. 

 The Wisconsin crowd shot one nice bull and two raghorns (one of which Bob and I had passed on).

 The guides made quick work of gutting, skinning and quartering.

Three elk for the Wisconsin crowd.

 It resulted in a full walk in cooler.

They did their own butchering.  They travelled with two freezers and a generator in the back of their pickup truck.

Meanwhile, Bob and I still haven't seen anything to shoot.

 As the guides finished up with the tagged out hunters, Joe joined Stanley, Bob and I to try to get us on elk.

 Our first night was spent driving near a power plant and town - nothing.

On the last day, we saw five spikes in the morning.  Still no cows or mature bulls.

 After about 15,000 steps a day, I developed a blister on one heel.

 We had a roadrunner that really wanted to come into the cabin with us.  He beat his head on the window for about an hour.

The Wisconsin guys loaded up for the trip home.  Three heads on the roof and two freezers full of meat.

 The leftovers on the way to the dump where the coyotes and crows will pick it clean.

Bob and I were disappointed that we never saw a mature bull - or for that matter a cow.  We suspect that the bulls had the cows bottled up in some canyon.  The rut was running a little late.  We went days without seeing any sign.  No bugling.  On our last day, we saw lots of tracks but never got anybody to respond to a call or to show himself.  We don't really know if we were just unlucky or if the animals were that scarce on this ranch.  Oh well.

A couple of semi-interesting videos below.