2025 Chama NM Elk Hunt - Milligan Brand

Here's the teaser - we had some success on this hunt.  And a warning - this blog post got long.

When I retired in January of this year, I realized that I hadn't booked any hunts for the fall. So I called around and most hunts were already all booked up.  I called Brian at Hunt Nation (Hunt Nation (used to be Butch Manasse)) and he hooked me up with a first rifle week hunt in Chama New Mexico for my son Eric and me. The outfitter was Milligan Brand (Milligan Brand Outfitter - MBO).  Brian has put me on a number of very good hunts over the years and I have had previous successful hunts in this area.

I made a plan to drive out and bring all the gear while Eric (the working man) flew into Colorado Springs.  This created some family consternation over the 15 hours of solo driving but I was not concerned.  Joan and I had just completed a two week western sightseeing drive trip of 5,000 miles.

I left Mason and drove to Kansas City on the first day .  I went to a pizza place for dinner and ordered a draft beer.  It was the most sour, nasty beer I had ever tasted and I sent it back (I don't reject many beers).  It seemed like the taps hadn't been cleaned in months.

The next morning when I woke up, I had some nausea.  I also had some lower right belly pain that made me think about appendicitis.  I knew that I would be driving into the boonies and I was reluctant to start while feeling ill.  I waited a couple hours and the symptoms went completely away.  So I headed on down I-70.

After about 3 hours, the symptoms came back suddenly and in force.  I barfed in my coffee cup and got off at the first exit.  I pulled into the only place at the exit (an unbranded truck stop) and headed into the rest room crouched over from belly pain.  At the front door, I stopped to barf in a trash can. I went to the rest room, rinsed my mouth, got back to the car and the belly pain was worse.  I googled the nearest urgent care/ER and found one in Hays, KS about 38 miles west.  So I got back on the highway and drove on down the road.

I made it to the ER, got admitted, gave blood and urine and was sent for a CT scan.  They gave me nausea meds (Zofran).  Symptoms resolved and tests were normal.  The CT scan was eventually read by the radiologist and a 3mm kidney stone showed up in the bladder.  Probably wasn't the beer - I was probably just passing the stone.  

So the worst was over, the Dr said I was good to go, and I headed on down the road.  I spent the night in Colorado Springs and picked up Eric in the morning.

We had a few spare hours so Eric made us a plan for lunch in Pueblo, CO followed by a side trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

We pulled into the visitor center (red circle) and looked out on the dunes. It was a little hard to judge the scale of it all.

We moved on down toward the dunes.  The picture above was taken from the same spot as the one below just facing opposite directions.

We kept trudging toward the dunes and spotted people with snowboard like devices. Dunes Walk

As we got closer, we could spot people climbing the dunes to ride back down - they were huge.

Anyway, that was a pretty cool stop and then we drove up over the pass from Colorado into Chama, NM.

We spent the night in Chama and then met up the next morning at the Milligan Brand River Camp.  We had lunch, met Ray Milligan and the guides, and had a safety orientation.  Then we moved on to the rifle range at Ray's house for sight-in.

After sight-in, we caravanned up the mountain on a two hour drive off pavement.  We stopped at this spot for the last cell coverage.

There was a deep crevasse that came almost to the road.  If you peeked into the crevasse, there were treetops from below.

But it was a cool view down into the valley at Chama.

The road got rougher and rougher the further we went.  I bottomed the Yukon out a couple times.  We went thru several locked gates but eventually pulled into camp.

It had two bunkhouses for hunters plus others for guides and the cook.  I shared this one with Mike and Matt from Texas.  Eric shared another one with Charles and Derrick from Tennessee. 

The cookhouse is up the ramp in the below photo.  The toilet/shower house is on the right.  The generator was run for several hours each day and that's when things like showers were functional.  The water was pumped out of a creek.

Our guide was Waylon who was from Chama and he brought the family dog, Copper, to camp.  He hopes to train him into a blood tracker someday.

The camp manager was Matt and his brother, Mike, was the cook. They were a retired cop and fireman.  The other guide was Jack and he knew Matt and Mike from their home in MN.  First night in camp was steak night.

I ran OnX tracks both on this hunt and my previous hunt in this area.  It was really surprising to see how close together these two camps were.  Milligan Brand Outfitter (MBO) and Rio Bravo Outfitter (RBO) are both shown in blue below.  This is my blog on 2022 RBO hunt. Rio Bravo Elk Hunt 2022

Here's a little closer look at this hunt with the first pin being sight in and the blue house being the camp.

On the first morning, we headed out in the dark to walk thru some meadows to try to call up a bull.  The air was thin at over 10,000 feet.

It was crisp and gorgeous.

We saw some cows at about 1000 yards and I got in 9500 steps.  Uphill was difficult.

We went in for lunch and learned that Charles drew first blood on a 5x5. Matt got him strung up in camp.  They open the hide up for cooling but don't skin it.  As the day went on and the sun hit the carcass, the flies and bees found it - here's a quick video.  Bug Activity  That didn't seem optimal to me but might have been fine in colder weather.  At RBO, they skinned, quartered and bagged the meat before hanging it.

Mike had spaghetti for us for lunch. The plan for the afternoon was for Eric to sit at Waylon's Wallow and for Waylon and I to sit a meadow while he called.  Eric took a 4x4 and we followed him down to the trailhead.  When we got there, Eric realized that he left his bino harness at the cabin with the magazine for his rifle (doh).  

It wasn't too far from camp so he rode back and got it then found his way back.  He got in to the preset hunting chair with time to spare.

Waylon and I drove up high to a meadow across Cow's Creek.  We set up with my rifle on Waylon's "Death Grip" Bog tripod.  He started calling and we had a cow walk in on us at 15 yards.  Awhile later, Waylon called in two spikes who first appeared at 275 yards.  They just kept grazing in toward us and finally bolted after getting about 5 yards from us.  We also had a 4x3 come into the end of the field at 450 yards.  

Waylon felt that the main body of cows had skirted the end of our meadow and moved on. So while there was a little light left, we jumped in the truck and started heading back down toward Eric.  I asked Waylon if we would have heard a shot from Eric since he was hunting with a suppressor. He said maybe not.

As we were driving, we first spotted a couple cows at about 100 yards.  We stopped to glass them and saw a bull behind them.  He turned and started to go the other way.  He got out to about 500 yards and Waylon called him back to about 80 yards.  He asked me if I wanted him and I passed.  He was definitely a legal 5x5 but he wasn't as big as 3 other ones already on my wall.  The cows passed within 30 yards of the truck and we dubbed his truck as the "mobile blind".

Light was about gone when we got to the top of the hill above Eric's trailhead.  Waylon called on the radio into Mike to give him our status.  When he did that, the radio lit up with a call from Eric to say that he had one down in the wallow.  We later learned that Eric had called multiple times but had been unable to raise us.

Meanwhile, Eric had killed and photographed his 5x5.  And while he was doing that, another bull came in bugling looking for a fight with the bull that Eric had just killed.  Eric Bull Down  All Eric could do was video him as he came in bugling. Looking For A Fight

We got to the trailhead in the dark and left the truck.  Waylon jumped on the 4x4 and told me to climb on the rack. In the pitch dark, we rode down a steep and tight trail bumping over downed logs and crossing a creek.  But we found Eric and his bull.

I initially thought he was a 6x6 because his lowers were so substantial.  But it was just a relatively small "whales tale" on the top of great lowers.

Waylon gutted him in the dark, opened up the hide for cooling, and left some human scent around to ward off coyotes and bears.  We planned to return in the morning for the recovery. It was already pretty cool and likely to get into the 30's overnight.

We were into camp pretty late but Mike had dinner waiting for us with pork chops, rice and peas.  Cherry pie for dessert.

On the morning of Day 2, we headed out in the dark to find me a bull.  The plan was to recover Eric's bull at the end of the morning hunt.  We went up high past Cow's Creek again.  It was a beautiful morning.  We spotted some cows and mule deer.  We also bumped into the same 5x5 that I had already passed.

Eventually we called it a morning and went to the wallow trailhead.  We met up there with Jack who had a Ranger.  The 4x4 was still there from the previous night. Waylon lead the way on the 4x4 and we followed in the Ranger with Jack.  It was a lot better in the daylight but still a little bit hairy. Ride in for the Recovery

Waylon's scent marking worked and the carcass was untouched.  It had cooled nicely overnight.  First they winched him into the creek bed. Winching the Bull

Then they dragged him up the bank. Drag the Bull

Then they ran the winch cable over the roof and dragged him right into the bed.

We drove him up to the trailhead and transferred him right into the truck bed.

Earlier in the morning, Mike (from Texas) had shot a bull. Waylon and Jack took all three bulls right into the processor and made it back in time for the afternoon hunt.  

First we set up at "Eagles Nest".  I watched a ridge at about 300 yards that was a normal travel route from bed to meadow.  It was a little difficult staring straight into the sun but nothing was moving there.

We moved back to the meadow where the spikes walked in on us.  We watched until dark and saw nothing.  Mike had schnitzel, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn for us. 

On the morning of day 3, we left camp at 5:20am.  We headed to the "north end". Jack and Matt were headed in the same direction.  We dropped Waylon's truck in the dark and started working downhill thru meadows as the sun came up.

We walked thru about 5 meadows stopping and calling along the way.  It was beautiful but we heard absolutely nothing.  We got to the edge of a huge meadow and were about to start back uphill.  I decided it was time to peel a layer and, as I was doing it, Waylon heard a bugle.  We looked and listened.  There were coyotes howling and cows running around in the middle of the meadow at about 700 yards.  Waylon spotted the bull.

In anticipation of a scenario like this, Waylon had Eric carry his rifle.  When he saw that it was a good bull, he said we can shoot it with his rifle.  My scope is definitely not set up for long range shooting.  I consider 400 yards to be about the limit. I had told him previously that I had never killed anything beyond 360 yards.

Anyway, there was very little time.  The coyotes had the cows on the move from right to left across the field.  The bull was bugling and trying to herd the cows.  Waylon set up the Death Grip tripod and thru his Remington 700 on it.  It was a 7mm RUM (correction - 300 RUM, I finally looked at the spent case) with a Leopold scope.  The scope had the custom turret to just dial the yardage.

He was trying to get a range on the bull but his bino's couldn't resolve it.  I tried with my new Swaro's and it came back 621 yards.  I got on the scope and he called to stop the bull.  A cow stepped in front of him.  They started moving again and Waylon called and stopped him.  He turned full frontal and stared at us.  Then he took a slight step and was quartering just a bit.  I let the shot fly and he went straight down.  Eric got it all on video.  You can see the cows moving at the start of the video Tom 621 Yard Shot

I never thought that I would take a shot at a live animal at that range.  A number of things came together to make that shot possible/successful.  Critical factors, probably in order of importance were; 1.) dead calm winds, 2.) the Death Grip tripod was rock solid, 3.) an accurate range, 4.) the Leopold 20x scope with custom dial turrets, 5.) a hot cartridge in an accurate rifle (300 RUM).  Anyway, the hit was right on mark and took out the jugular.

It was a long walk up the meadow to get to him.

I really didn't know how good he was.  I didn't have time to study.

It turns out his left side was a little nontypical.  The normal G2 was missing but there was a small G2 just under the G3.  The right side was a classic 6 point. I guess I'd call him a 6x5.

He had good length and mass.

Waylon got him gutted and then went for the truck.

Here's the hardware.  Bogpod Infinite carbon tripod with Death Grip.  Remington 700 in 300 RUM.  I'm not sure which model of Leopold it was.

Waylon came back with the truck plus Jack and Matt to help.  We got him loaded up.  Tagged out on the morning of day 3.  It turns out that Derrick had shot one the night before and it was also recovered that morning.  Matt made it a clean sweep for the camp on the morning of day 4.

We dropped off at the taxidermist/processor.

They didn't waste any time getting to work on him.

Here's the OnX for our 3 days.  I marked up where my and Eric's bulls were taken. The blue house pin is the cabin/camp.

We had a good camp with a good crew and fellow hunters.  We went 6 for 6 on bulls.  Waylon did a super job for Eric and me.  We ate well (thanks Mike) and had fun.  I was a little concerned on the meat handling but ours got to the processor quickly.  The camp is a basic but functional off-grid setup.  The hunting grounds are gorgeous and the elk were plentiful.  I don't regret passing on early small but legal bulls.  Should I have held out longer? I am questioning how ethical it was for me to take a 620 yard shot. It's not something that I had even practiced.  I'm awfully glad that it was a successful shot.

So we were done by the afternoon and we decided to spend the freed up days on a little touring of southern Colorado.  We left the following morning and passed Matt on his way in with his bull. Here's our touring path that Eric marked up.

Our first stop was Chimney Rock National Monument.

It's a mountaintop with a couple of big outcroppings.  But the Chacon people built a large cliff dwelling type place at eye level with the chimney rocks.  There's a ridge-running trail up to this residence that Eric and I considered taking.  As we went up to it, we ran into the interpretive Ranger who was just coming down.  He'd had enough of the howling and gusting wind.  So I elected not to climb and Eric decided not to go alone.

There is a lower paved trail around some archaeological digs.  This amounted to the community that supported and sustained the big house up on the ridge.

It was interesting. Then we headed back down the mountain and stopped for this overlook.

This view is from the visitor center at the bottom.

We carried on to Durango where we had lunch and Eric got his caffeine fix.

And then we started driving north up over a mountain pass toward Silverton.

It was very scenic with the aspens turning and with rock cliffs.

There were lots of switchbacks.

Only one tunnel.  I think that this whole stretch from Durango to Silverton to Ouray is known at the Million Dollar Highway.  Here's a couple videos that give you a flavor for the driving.  MD Highway A  MD Highway B

We passed thru Silverton and Ouray with a quick look about.  We carried on to Montrose and then turned toward Gunnison.  We called a last minute audible to take a short detour up to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

The entrance booth was unmanned as we entered but it was getting late in the day. There had been a recent fire in the area.  But we were kind of stunned when we pulled over and got our first view of this extremely narrow and extremely deep and extremely steep canyon.  It seemed to just show up out of nowhere.

We decided to proceed up to the visitor center and that's when we realized that there was a government shutdown going on.

We poked around there and found a trail down to a viewing platform perched right over the canyon.

So we headed down there (me somewhat reluctantly/gingerly).

It is really steep and a really far way down.  I stayed close to good handholds.

It was a very exciting and rewarding unplanned stop but it was almost dark.  We proceeded on to Gunnison where we spent the night and had dinner.

Ok, beer was involved.  Both the food and the beer were good at this brewery.

The next morning we headed east.  Our ultimate destination was to get Eric to the Denver airport for an 8:00pm flight.  We stopped at this mountain pass and went for a little hike.

We hiked up the access road to the mountain top.  It was a relatively wide trail but still had plenty of drop offs that were scary to me.  Crazy mountain bikers would come up this main trail and then take off down 1 foot wide side trails across really steep drop offs.

We gained about 400 feet of elevation to 11,800 and decided to turn around.  It was a pleasant morning stroll.

So we proceeded on to Salida and had a fine lunch at Simple Eatery.  Elk burgers and a pretzel plate (that turned out to be a loaf of pretzel bread).

Then we drove thru South Park which is an interesting high ranching valley.

Eric decided he wanted to drive up Pikes Peak.  He was good with that until he went around a switchback and the only thing he could see out the windshield was blue sky in all directions.

We made it up to 13,000 feet and we hit our drop dead time to get him to the airport.  So we turned around (didn't bother me a bit).

Very skillful driving.

I was white-knuckled in the passenger seat.

Here's a couple videos that give some of the effects. Pikes Peak 1  Pikes Peak 2

I survived.

We got Eric to the Denver airport in plenty of time in spite of rain and traffic.  I continued on to Burlington CO and spent the night.  I drove without issue to the St Louis area the next day,  And then did the final leg home on day 3.  All without any hospital visits.

We had a great trip and I would do it again anytime.  Final trip count was 3502 miles.