2011 New Mexico 6x6 Bull Elk
- Thread starter MX Racer
- Start date
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,100
- 5,472
That's a great looking bull. Congratulations. Give us an account of your hunt when you get the time.
Oldtrader3
Ammo Smith
- Nov 6, 2009
- 8,406
- 5
Nice bull, congratulations!
- Nov 4, 2004
- 24,678
- 7,369
MX Racer
Congratulations on a beautiful NM bull.
Give us the details of the hunt.
JD338
Congratulations on a beautiful NM bull.
Give us the details of the hunt.
JD338
Greg Nolan
Handloader
- Nov 25, 2004
- 2,143
- 18
That head and rack must not be very heavy because you're smiling like it 's light as feather :lol:
Congrats on a great bull.
Greg
Congrats on a great bull.
Greg
- Oct 30, 2004
- 24,148
- 2,773
Nice bull, congratulations! :mrgreen:
Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,610
- 5,179
Very nice bull, taken in truly special country. I need to go spend some more time in New Mexico.
- Thread starter
- #12
This was my second time hunting unit 15 in New Mexico, the first time was in Nov 2007 with a muzzleloader. I've used Eric Kern outfitters each time to help in drawing a tag and as a guide for the hunt. If anyone is interested in using a guide I would definitely recommend him and any of his guides. In 2007 I had my chance at a nice bull at about 60 yds and must have had a bad case of elk fever because when I fired I had a clean miss. What made it worse is as I started to reload for another shot the bull proceeded to start walking directly at my guide Ryan and myself as we were trying to push the stuck saboted 250 grain shockwave bullet all the way down the barrel. That being my first time to muzzleloader hunt I didn't realize the powder fouling from the first shot would make it that hard to reload. So as the bull continued on a straight line towards us you can picture the both of us kneeling down in the wide open with all four hands on the ram rod trying to seat the bullet against the powder being as still as possible. Well the bull got to about 10-15 yds in front of us and then angled 45 degrees to my right and did a little getty-up kick with his rear legs as if to say I see you and know you can't shoot me. About that time we got the bullet seated but I still needed to load the primer. The bull walked another 20-25 yds or so to my right and just as I loaded the primer he must of saw, heard or finally smelled something because he took off up the hill and I never got another shot at him. But I have remembered that situation for the last 4 years and was not going to let it happen again, it makes a great story though.
Well I was very happy to say the least when I drew the same tag this year only it was a month earlier in October. Eric has since started mainly guiding on a private ranch but put me in the hands of another guide named Jeff Campbell who did an excellent job. We had been glassing one area where we had been seeing about 5-6 bulls with their 30 or so cows for a day and a half, but none of them were very big so we decided to try another area where he had seen a larger bull about 10 days before. That afternoon we were on a high ridge line overlooking the valley below and the slopes across from us when at about 4:45 pm Jeff spotted the bull he thought was the one he had seen the week before about 1-1.5 miles away at the base of the slope on the other side of the valley floor. We decided there was enough time to drive over to another access road that could put us withen a mile or so of where he thought the bull was headed for water. After about a 45 min drive down to the access road we parked and proceeded to walk down the access road which went along the creek bed. We came across a small group of horses that were watering and spooked on up the hill in front of us and ultimately alerted what turned out to be a second bull of about the same size who was by himself. I tried to get a shot at him but he was up and into the trees before I was ready. We continued for another 5 minutes or so when we heard a close bugle coming from in front of us and to the right about 1/4 mile away. We knew this must be the bull and started to slowly and quietly put a stalk on him. We got to withen about 50 yds of the creek when I noticed a cow elk stairing us down from the slope on the opposite side. Oh no I thought we're busted but she along with another cow never spooked and just slowly turned around and eased there way back up the slope as the bull continued to bugle and head for water. I made it behind a large pile of boulders when I noticed the bull come out of the trees and waited what seemed like forever but was probably only a matter of a few seconds for him to come clear for a good shot. The T/C pro hunter .50 cal sounded off in a cloud of smoke when the bull came clear at about 70 yds. Once the smoked cleared the bull had climbed up the slope about 40 yds and was facing pretty much straight away and not moving. So I quickly reloaded another round and remembered to lick the sabot before trying to push it in and whala I was good to go for another shot. I placed it on his left hip angled towards his right front shoulder and fired again. That did it, he stood for about another 20 seconds or so before he fell over with a loud crash...my first bull elk was down!
The pack out was actually pretty easy and probably why I was smiling so much! We were able to get a four wheeler right up to it and load all the quarters, backstraps and tenderloins and drive those out and I carried the head and rack about 1/2 a mile to the truck.
Like I mentioned before the muzzleloader I used was a t/c pro hunter .50 cal with a nikon omega bdc scope. Winchester t7 209 primers with 3 50grain pellets of pyrodex propelling a 250 grain barnes expander bullet.
Happy hunting :grin:
Well I was very happy to say the least when I drew the same tag this year only it was a month earlier in October. Eric has since started mainly guiding on a private ranch but put me in the hands of another guide named Jeff Campbell who did an excellent job. We had been glassing one area where we had been seeing about 5-6 bulls with their 30 or so cows for a day and a half, but none of them were very big so we decided to try another area where he had seen a larger bull about 10 days before. That afternoon we were on a high ridge line overlooking the valley below and the slopes across from us when at about 4:45 pm Jeff spotted the bull he thought was the one he had seen the week before about 1-1.5 miles away at the base of the slope on the other side of the valley floor. We decided there was enough time to drive over to another access road that could put us withen a mile or so of where he thought the bull was headed for water. After about a 45 min drive down to the access road we parked and proceeded to walk down the access road which went along the creek bed. We came across a small group of horses that were watering and spooked on up the hill in front of us and ultimately alerted what turned out to be a second bull of about the same size who was by himself. I tried to get a shot at him but he was up and into the trees before I was ready. We continued for another 5 minutes or so when we heard a close bugle coming from in front of us and to the right about 1/4 mile away. We knew this must be the bull and started to slowly and quietly put a stalk on him. We got to withen about 50 yds of the creek when I noticed a cow elk stairing us down from the slope on the opposite side. Oh no I thought we're busted but she along with another cow never spooked and just slowly turned around and eased there way back up the slope as the bull continued to bugle and head for water. I made it behind a large pile of boulders when I noticed the bull come out of the trees and waited what seemed like forever but was probably only a matter of a few seconds for him to come clear for a good shot. The T/C pro hunter .50 cal sounded off in a cloud of smoke when the bull came clear at about 70 yds. Once the smoked cleared the bull had climbed up the slope about 40 yds and was facing pretty much straight away and not moving. So I quickly reloaded another round and remembered to lick the sabot before trying to push it in and whala I was good to go for another shot. I placed it on his left hip angled towards his right front shoulder and fired again. That did it, he stood for about another 20 seconds or so before he fell over with a loud crash...my first bull elk was down!
The pack out was actually pretty easy and probably why I was smiling so much! We were able to get a four wheeler right up to it and load all the quarters, backstraps and tenderloins and drive those out and I carried the head and rack about 1/2 a mile to the truck.
Like I mentioned before the muzzleloader I used was a t/c pro hunter .50 cal with a nikon omega bdc scope. Winchester t7 209 primers with 3 50grain pellets of pyrodex propelling a 250 grain barnes expander bullet.
Happy hunting :grin:
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,100
- 5,472
Great account. You have every reason to smile. Again, congratulations.
Gm weatherby man
Handloader
- Dec 19, 2010
- 287
- 0
Great bull, congrats, one one the ground is just the beginning of a fever you'll have for the rest of your life. Lol. 8)
cloverleaf
Handloader
- Sep 10, 2006
- 4,352
- 970
Beautiful bull. Congrats! CL
Woodycreek
Handloader
- Aug 2, 2007
- 2,240
- 0
Congrats on your hunt.
