Well, the 2014 elk season for me is in the books. We hunted the first season (Sept. 1-15) for our first ever elk hunt... and we were dumb enough to try it with a bow! My buddy and I hunted up in the NW part of NM for elk with my uncle and some of his buddies. We figured we would need all the help we could get, and we were definitely right!
The weather this year wasn't ideal by any means. It was 80 every day and sunny, with just enough wind to swirl and mess everything up. Not only that, but they had lots of rain before we got there, so the elk were scattered and could hit a number of water holes without coming back to the same one for a week. Let's just say the hunting was definitely tough.
I'm not really sure what we expected, but we brought enough coolers on the trip to bring back two mammoth size elk. Luckily, we were able to fill two of the ice chests with my buddies first elk... a cow. We had some of her the day after he shot her and she was delicious!
We ended up hunting for 10 days and were in the mix every single day, but couldn't ever make anything happen. We would watch them bed, or follow their tracks to their bed, and get within 20-30 yards of the elk, but could never get a shot and would get winded or seen. Had several nice 6x6s, one good 6x5 and a respectable 5x5 by anyone's standards, but for my first elk, they would have all been waaaaayyy too good!
There were only a few mornings we heard bugles and figured out it was always one bull. He is a great 6x6 with great swords. We ended up stumbling into his herd one afternoon as we were getting in position for the afternoon hunt. I had him in a small shooting lane about 2 ft wide at an extremely sharp downhill angle (later we used the range finder to find out he was at 55 yards on a 30 degree slope). He stood up from a tree and faced directly at me, never offering a shot. I still see that bull staring straight at me wondering why a cow had just run past him. We ended up getting another stalk on him, but got winded with a wind shift around 80 yards out.
This year was a great learning curve for elk hunting and I couldn't have asked for more than the opportunities we had. I actually had the misfortune of missing a massive cow at 30 yards that is still haunting me as well. Not sure how I did it, but I cleanly missed the cow by about 3 ft left of where I was aiming. Only thing I can think of is that I anticipated the shot in the heat of the moment and pulled my bow arm. Thankfully it was a clean miss, but I'm sure she would have been tasty too!
We also found a rock that had several pieces of broken pottery placed on them. The area we hunted had several indian ruins, but we actually found the rock and pottery up in the forest in, what we thought, was a very random spot.
Here are some pictures of the scenery, my buddies cow, and the big bull I had a stare down with. All I can say is, how long until next elk season? I guess I'll have to start chasing some of these white tail to take my mind off of the elk!
The weather this year wasn't ideal by any means. It was 80 every day and sunny, with just enough wind to swirl and mess everything up. Not only that, but they had lots of rain before we got there, so the elk were scattered and could hit a number of water holes without coming back to the same one for a week. Let's just say the hunting was definitely tough.
I'm not really sure what we expected, but we brought enough coolers on the trip to bring back two mammoth size elk. Luckily, we were able to fill two of the ice chests with my buddies first elk... a cow. We had some of her the day after he shot her and she was delicious!
We ended up hunting for 10 days and were in the mix every single day, but couldn't ever make anything happen. We would watch them bed, or follow their tracks to their bed, and get within 20-30 yards of the elk, but could never get a shot and would get winded or seen. Had several nice 6x6s, one good 6x5 and a respectable 5x5 by anyone's standards, but for my first elk, they would have all been waaaaayyy too good!
There were only a few mornings we heard bugles and figured out it was always one bull. He is a great 6x6 with great swords. We ended up stumbling into his herd one afternoon as we were getting in position for the afternoon hunt. I had him in a small shooting lane about 2 ft wide at an extremely sharp downhill angle (later we used the range finder to find out he was at 55 yards on a 30 degree slope). He stood up from a tree and faced directly at me, never offering a shot. I still see that bull staring straight at me wondering why a cow had just run past him. We ended up getting another stalk on him, but got winded with a wind shift around 80 yards out.
This year was a great learning curve for elk hunting and I couldn't have asked for more than the opportunities we had. I actually had the misfortune of missing a massive cow at 30 yards that is still haunting me as well. Not sure how I did it, but I cleanly missed the cow by about 3 ft left of where I was aiming. Only thing I can think of is that I anticipated the shot in the heat of the moment and pulled my bow arm. Thankfully it was a clean miss, but I'm sure she would have been tasty too!
We also found a rock that had several pieces of broken pottery placed on them. The area we hunted had several indian ruins, but we actually found the rock and pottery up in the forest in, what we thought, was a very random spot.
Here are some pictures of the scenery, my buddies cow, and the big bull I had a stare down with. All I can say is, how long until next elk season? I guess I'll have to start chasing some of these white tail to take my mind off of the elk!
