I went on my first elk hunt a few weeks ago to New Mexico with Venatic. The weather was near perfect, and we saw lots of elk. We arrived at camp about 4 in the afternoon on Friday, and we knew that 2 of the guys who arrived Thursday afternoon had already taken nice 6x6 elk. We took quick ride around got back to meet some of the guys in camp for the next few days. That night we had a steaks and baked potatoes get the hunt started.
The next morning we spotted elk on the mountain from the camp, but all small bulls. We spent the day searching and glassing, We did make a stalk on a bull, but he somehow slipped away from us. I only had a cow tag, so I was waiting for the others to get their bulls. One of the guys who had already got his bull, also took a nice mule deer buck. That night I cooked up a big pot of chili for supper.
On Sunday we were back at it, and again spotted a nice bull from a distance and went to make a stalk on him. after about an hour we knew we were close, but we not seeing him. About that time, 5 or 6 big cows came out of the timber onto the wide open hill across from us less than a 100 yards away. Would have been an easy shot if I had my rifle, but since we were making a stalk on a bull I had left it in the truck. We had not even seen the cows we initially spotted the bull. We didn't know where the bull was but figured we must have walked passed him as we stalked in above the draw. I was to circle back and see if I could push him out for a shot. If he did what the cows had done, it would be perfect.
I had barely gone 50 yards when I hear crashing in the thick junipers of the draw and saw a big bull run by at 30 yards and then another! There were 2 bulls, with the second be smaller. The went down to the bottom and then straight up the other side. I was hoping they could see them from there vantage point. A soon as I lost sight on them, I heard a shot from a suppressed 300 PRC. I walked up to the top and saw them walking towards the top. I got there just ahead of them and 25 yards from the top lay a bull. It was a nice 6x6, but not the bigger of the 2. When they saw the first elk hit they top, they shot, know realizing that there was a second bigger bull. But it was still a nice bull, and his first elk,
We called the other guy to bring a trailer, and once they got there we loaded it up and hauled into the processor. When we got back we went in source of another for one of the other guys This time we spotted a group of cows and a single bull down in a canyon. The bull was not a shooter, but so we decided to make a stalk so I could shoot a cow. The were just feeding away from us down the canyon and we had to keep moving to stay up with them. Twice we got set up, just too late as they walked from view. Finally we got into a good position for a shot, and David was ranging for me. We both put in ear plugs in in preparation for the blast of the 300 WM which has a muzzle brake, so we had a little trouble hearing each other.
He told me the range (345 yards) and after dialing, I picked out the biggest cow, and David stopped her with a cow call. She dropped at the shot, and was still had her head up, so I gave her another to finish her. Afterwards, I found out one of other guys had filmed the shot on his phone,
Me and another guy went to gut her while David went back to get the truck and drive down since here was a road in the bottom of the canyon. But once we got done there we realized that she was on the other side 12 foot deep creek cull of brush. We had to circle around to her, but her gutted and found a cedar pole to put between the hind legs. We need to drag her about 60 yards or so thru the trees and down a shallower spot on the creek. Two of us could barely drag her inch by inch. By the time David got there with the truck it was almost dark, but we did get a few pictures before we had gutter her. We had to drive about 30 minutes back go camp, and they were frying fish when we got there.
After good supper of fried fish, put the trailer on the jeep and when to get her. Once we got there, we had to unhook the trailer, drive the jeep through some brush as far as it would go and then run out the winch to pull it to the jeep, and then backed out back to trailer. unhooked the winch, got back hooked up to the trailer, loaded her and back to the camp to hang her up. It was already in the 30s.
The next morning while one truck load of guys was bull hunting, and another jeep load of guys were mule deer hunting, I stayed at camp enjoy the morning and after some coffee, to skin my cow.
About noon, they showed back up empty handed, but after lunch I went back with David and couple of the others trying to get the last guy his bull. They had seen a big herd that morning and saw them go into the timber to bed up. We go to a good glassing point, and after about 45 minutes, they suddenly started boiling out of the timber. We need to move quick to get into position before we moved completely off, We got where we needed to be, but they were a little ahead of us and we had to watch a big herd move away from up just out of range for a good shot. We found another group of elk and got close enough, but all cows except for one small elk. After that me decided to drive around the mountain to check the other side and we busted one group that hit the timber, but found another group of bulls we could make a stalk on. The wind was good, and we slipped up on 3n nice 5x5 bulls. We had a good shot opportunity, but he elected to pass in hopes of getting a better bull in the morning, I have to admit, I would have taken the better of the 3 5x5s, The one you see in the video was not the best one, which was just behind him. But the wind changed just after the videos stopped and the bolted so he had to live with his discission,
But, as luck would have it, he was able to take a nice 6x6 bull early Tuesday morning. All the rest of the guys were heading for home, so we hauled his bull to the processor, and since he would not be able to pick it up until the next morning, we decided to spend the last afternoon shooting some prairie dogs. I had never done that either, and didn’t know it would be as fun as it was. Lucky for them we left David’s good range finder at camp or more would have died. I was having trouble getting my range finder to pick them up past 200 yards or so, but once we figured out the range they died. Had to fire a few text shots to figure out the range, but it was fun. We probably shot 30 or so in the limited time we had.
We even saw a badger.
The next morning we rolled out to pick up the bull from the processor and headed back to Texas.
As always I had a great time hunting with Venatic and hopefully I get to hunt elk and shoot prairie dogs again some time.
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