DIY New Mexico Gila Elk

[bdphunt]

Awesome bull. Congrats. Glad you made it happen. Looking forward to the story.

[jakeb03]

Congrats! Bull of a lifetime!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JTeLarkin08]

Day 1 Friday
We woke up this morning and got to the continental divide as the sun was rising. We threw out a few locator bugles with no response. We began glassing some of the flat tops to the north and immediately located some elk. They were on the boarder of the public and private land. We took off that direction and after about a mile we came to a steep nasty canyon.
We knew there was no way around it so down we went. After getting 20 yards down the steep face we heard a elk running down in the bottom. We stopped and continued watching and listening when all of the sudden the biggest bull I've ever seen in my life runs up the opposite canyon wall. He stops and looks back at us from around 125 yards and I could not believe what I was seeing. This bull was every bit of 360". He was amazing.

We get down the canyon and continue on to where the elk were. In the bottom we found a water hole that a hunter had successfully killed a bull from the first archery hunt. We get up on the ridge where we think the elk were but they are nowhere to be found. We made our way to the private boundary to glass a little and hopefully see if they crossed over to public or stayed on the private. We went and checked a few more water holes and made it back to camp around 1pm. 7.5 miles of hiking done by 1pm. Not bad for a fat kid lol.

We took and nap and decided to check out another area farther south for the afternoon. We hiked about 2.25 miles in and didn't see anything. I did find a really nice set of mule deer sheds that were almost still brown though. On the way out right at dark about a 3/4 of a mile from the truck we were coming off a ridge and we bumped another bull. I looked to my right and he was about 30 yards. We both saw each other simultaneously and busted down in the bottom and out of our lives. He was another solid 300+ bull.

The elk are silent. They aren't bugling st all and both of the big bulls we saw were solo. We are going to hike into the area up north before daylight tomorrow. So off to bed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JTeLarkin08]

Day 2 Saturday
We made the 2.5 mile hike up north before the sunrise and got to where we thought we might hear a few bugles. As we were coming in one bull bugled directly above us. We got in position but he circled down wind and we never saw him. We headed west of the pond and let out a location bugle and nothing. A few min later we gave a second bugle and a gnarly old bull fired off just up the ridge from us. He was close. It was my day to shoot so I hustled up the ridge and got into position while james called. The bull was standing his ground bugling every so often so I tried to sneak in closer. I got within 80 yards when he let out his last bugle but never saw him. He didn't bust out or spook but just made his way off in the timber. This was the first experience I've ever had with calling and being close to a elk and it was awesome.

I didn't know this at the time but at the same time I was working my way in on this bull another big 6 point was coming in on james side of the ridge. He got within 75 yards or so and made his way up the hill. James actually saw this bull and said he was a really nice 300" ish 6 point. The bugling stopped and we went back to camp around noon to see how another spot looked.

We drove 15 miles or 1.5 hours down south on the forest road and made our way up to the continental divide. We almost got my truck in a really bad spot trying to make it up the trail and ended up having to back about 1/4 mile down the road to where we could turn around. We then made the 1.25 mile walk up to the divide to start hunting. We hiked a little over 5.5 miles that afternoon and didn't see much sign so we won't be hitting that area again. We went back to camp and plan on hitting our spot up north again in the morning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JTeLarkin08]

Day 3
Today we woke up a little earlier to get a head start on our 2.5 mile hike to where we have been starting off each morning. We got in position and the same bull who was down wind the morning before sounded off right after sunrise. We couldn't go for him because he was still in a bad spot for our wind. After hearing 4-5 more bugles way off in the distance we hiked some drainages bugling every so often hoping for a response. We never got one and at around 11am my buddy James said that he can't make this hike every day. He was in a car accident in his twenties and has a bad hip and even though it hadn't flared up yet he said if he kept up this pace it would. I told him ok no problem let's go check out a few more spots that he knows of and I'll make my second meeting with my guide Jordan on Monday. I also told him if we didn't get on any elk I may come back in here and finish out the week solo. We packed up camp completely and made the 2 hour drive to the main road.

On our way back to the main road we came across a couple of guys in their 20s we had talked to multiple times on the main trail. They were from Albuquerque and had neither one ever killed a big game animal. We passed their camp and one of them came out to say high. Before I noticed it hanging in the tree the boy said what do you think of my brothers deer. I kinda looked around for a second and noticed a mule deer hanging in the tree. As my eyes moved down to its head I couldn't believe it. The boy had been sitting a water hole and had the buck come in at 25 yards. It was a giant. Probably 165-170" class buck with double forks on its left side. I am glad that we stopped because the boys didn't really know much about meat care and cleaning a deer. They had planned to let it hang all night and with temps in the 80s if they would have let it hang another hour it would have been a goner. Luckily he has only shot it 1.5 hours earlier. James and I grabbed our kill kits and our knives. I showed one of the boys how to quarter while James showed the other how to d bone. We got the meat in coolers and they took it to a meat locker. I couldn't believe that the boy who shot the buck only wanted a euro on this bad boy but hey, it's his deer.


We drove up another road to a mountain jordan had told us about. We got there and I right away knew if james couldn't hike the last spot we def weren't hunting here. I'll be honest it was so big and steep that I'm not sure I could hunt it either and I definitely wouldn't try it alone. There is no way I could pack a bull off of this thing solo. Of course just to rub that fact in as we're sitting there glassing a 300"+ 6 point decides to move his group of 30 cows across the face of the ridge 1000 yards across from us. It was a awesome sight to see and I wish I would have had my camera ready.



We headed off the mountain and set up camp at a area james has hunted before. We had just enough time to walk the road before dark to listen for bugles. I took my bow with me and literally 100 yards from camp a bull fired off. Wearing shorts and t shirt I took off after him while james called. He must have had cows because he pushed them right up the mountain and away from us.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nimrodtracy]

Very nice!

[Redraider]

Thanks for the right up so far.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[JTeLarkin08]

Day 4

This morning we had planned on waiting until first light and seeing if we could get in on the bull just above camp. That plan was quickly ruined by the flood of ATVs running roads after the sun was up. I know New Mexico is called "the land of enchantment" but it should really be called the "land of the clueless." The stuff you see here is truly amazing. The number of ATVs is only surpassed by the morons operating them.
After a good breakfast of sausage and eggs I tell james bye and head to town to meet Jordan my guide for the second meeting. I take a quick shower at the store in town and start making my drive back to our first camping spot. I am going to be solo for the rest of this trip. I had a blast hunting with James but I just couldn't leave the number of big bulls we found up north. He understood and has a few more spots he wants to check out. Hopefully we will both get on a bull. I get back to where we had camped before and started packing up my stuff. A few guys that we had met on the way in stopped and talked to me and I told them my plan of hunting the waterhole for the rest of the trip. They said they have a camera on it and that would be a good plan. The guy hunting that has a tag has killed 2 bulls over 400" and said me and James were the first two people he had ever seen up in this area. He is holding off for a 350"+ bull or will eat his tag. He saw the same bull we saw day one and agreed it is over 360".

I decided to load up my pack to spike out for a few days and got everything ready. I hiked about 1.5 miles to where I was going to set up my tent and quickly threw it up. I got in the shed at the waterhole at about 4pm. I didn't see anything that evening and hiked back to camp. When I got to camp I realized that I had brought my battery charger but forgot my phone chord. I knew if I was going to sit for 13+ hours a day I needed my charger. Also I needed to have it charged to txt my wife goodnight the next night with my sat txter. Combined that with the fact that where I had set up camp was really creepy in a dark cliff canyon I kinda got a little freaked out. I pulled down my tent and hiked back up the the truck and re set my camp up there. It is only a extra 30 min hike each morning and evening and I sleep much better on my air mattress than I do my sleeping pad. But apparently I'm kind of a *****. Lol.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JTeLarkin08]

Day 5
I got up at 4:40 and immediately started my hike to the waterhole. I learned that if I load my pack the night before and sleep in my clothes I literally just wake up, throw on my boots and hit the trail. I also learned I don't like breakfast on the mountain. I got in the blind about 45 min before sunrise and didn't hear any bugles or have any action until about 9:00am. I looked over to the left of the waterhole and to my surprise a group of mule deer bucks were headed in to drink. 2 dinks and 3 bucks all at or over the 150" mark. It was really cool to see 3 awesome bucks come to drink. My chair in the blind broke around 2pm and I was able to fix it with a piece of wood from the shed.





At dark I walked over to the camera the guys had set up on the water hole. It didn't look like it was locked and since they told me about it being there I was going to throw the card in my camera and see when elk had been coming in. It was locked so those guys got a real good pic of my face trying to open it I'm sure lol. Surely they will know I wasn't trying to steal it since I'm still hunting here. No more action to be noted for the day. 2.5 mile hike back to camp in the dark and off to bed.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JTeLarkin08]

day 6
Up at 4:40 for my hike and off to the trail I go. I must have still been a little sleepy because I slipped twice going down the steep ridge, something I hadn't done at all up to this point. I get in the blind and the sun rises and nothing is moving. No bugles or deer everything is just quiet.

So at around 8:30 I decide to hike up the ridge and glass. After I get up on the ridge I hear a bugle. I spot a spike and two cows just below me but can never find the bull. I sat down and had some food while listening and the bugles stopped. I headed back down the ridge and jumped up 3 javis, a mom and two babies. I didn't even think about those stinky boogers being in the area.
Just after that I hear the bugles start to fire off again. I bugle back and he responds instantly. I run down the ridge and drop off into the canyon and climb back up the next ridge over. I fire a bugle and he responds so I cut him off. I am almost running trying to close the distance. I get as close as I think I can without being seen and start raking a tree. The bull fires off and is close so I cut him off with a bugle. I'm not sure if he just went silent or moved his cows off but I never heard from him again. I waited about 15 min and then started my way back to the waterhole. As I was going down the spine I was on I jumped a good 5 or 6 point at the bottom. He ran up the other side and stoped. He didn't smell me and he never looked at me so he may have just heard me and got confused. He climbed that ridge like nothing and I hurried back around the mountain to the waterhole thinking maybe he was headed there. The bull must have went off the other way because he never showed up at the water hole. Sat at water until dark with nothing to show for it and hiked back to camp for dinner.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Redraider]

Man, you were in the game

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[JTeLarkin08]

Day 7
Woke up 20 min later this morning since I was going to go chase bugles instead of sitting at the water. I got down to where the trails cross. Left goes to the water hole and right goes down the canyon. Just before daylight I heard a bugle close to the water hole. I hiked up and got a second bugle but he was moving away quickly. I turned around and headed down the canyon. I heard a bugle that I thought was on the ridge to my right. So strait up I go about 300 ft in elevation. I get to the top and let out a bugle and the bull was on the ridge I was just on. [emoji23] So back down the 300 ft drop I go and head to the bull. One thing I have learned on this hunt is I don't have the best hearing. When James and I were hunting together he couldn't believe how many bugles I couldn't hear. Oh well I can hear them when they are close enough to go after. Probably has something to do with me working in a machine shop.

I have the wind perfect and I'm being super aggressive trying to get close so that I can challenge him. I spot the bull about 150 yards up on the opposite side of the draw. I bugle and he lets out a scream and turns my way slightly as if he is going to come in. There is about a 10 ft gap between trees that I want to scoot through. When he isn't looking I move closer, but just as I get through the opening I freeze. At the bottom of the ridge less than 100 yards a second bigger bull who was coming to my calls is starring right at me. I'm busted the gig is up. They both move over the ridge and I'm off to look for another bull to chase. In hind sight I should have know both bulls were there. I distinctly remember one bugle having a chuckle at the end and the other not. I guess I just thought it was one bull making two different types of bugles.

I covered a ton of ground and never found any more bulls so I got back in my blind. As I was sitting waiting and looking at my map on my phone I noticed a pond not marked on onx but showing on the topo feature. I decided to hike to it. It was almost two miles away, four miles from camp. When I got to it I was pleasantly surprised that it had water. It looks like elk have been in it so I made a spot to sit 40 yards from the pond. No elk to the water.

The four mile hike back to camp sucked tonight. I also just found out that the wife and both kiddos have a fever. I am going to bring my spike camp stuff with me tomorrow and hunt all day tomorrow. Spike out up top and then come out sat around 10-11 am. I really need to get home and in all reality if I were to kill a bull sat night or Sunday morning that would put me a extra day late getting home after cleaning and packing packing it out. So I'm gonna leave around 11-12 Saturday to start home no matter if I get a bull or not. I'll probably grab a cheap hotel somewhere and finish my drive early sun morning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MarkV]

Awesome write up so far and a stud of a bull. Congrats.

[bps3040]

Great write up so far, looking forward to the rest. Congrats


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[JTeLarkin08]

Ever since my mom passed in May, every night when I say my prayers I also talk to her. Thursday night when I was saying my prayers I told her that both kiddos were sick and if I was going to somehow get this done it would have to happen soon.
I was feeling pretty run down when I woke up this morning. I hit snooze on my phone and woke up about 10 min late. I put my boots on grabbed my pack and headed down the trail. I took the canyon east to the spot encountered the two bulls the morning before. There were no bugles or activity of any kind down low this morning. I climbed the ridge strait up and headed for the top.

(This pic you can see the open fields way the heck across. That is what I'm calling the top)


What I call the top is the area we could see elk the first morning. It is where the public land flattens out and opens up into the wide open private grazing land. At the first of the week when the bulls didn't have cows they were hanging out in the canyons and around the ponds but now that the rut has kicked off they have moved up top to round up cows. It was about a mile and a half hike up to the top and as soon as I reached the top I knew the elk were there. They were going crazy!!!!


I dropped my pack and marked it on my gps and snuck up to near the wood line. There is a defined pine/cedar wood line before it opens up onto the giant meadow. The private fence is about 400 yards off of the wood line and the elk are just on the other side of it when I spot them. There are 5-6 bulls and over 30 cows and they are rutting like nothing I've ever seen. Bulls running cows, bulls chasing bulls, all while bugling and glunking their brains out. I move back into the wood line and head a little east to get closer to where I hope maybe they will pass before heading into the timber. I get set up about 10 yards in the timber and the elk are now about 300 yards away and have made their way to the public land. They begin to move closer and for the next 15 min I just sit back in awe watching the most incredible thing I've ever seen. 6 bull elk in full rut chasing cows and each other, screaming their brains out. when they are about 150 yards away I realize I need to move up just a little to the very edge of the wood line. When all the cows seemed occupied by bulls I moved 30 yards ahead and set up between two big cedars.


(I was set up in the nook of these trees)



The wind was perfect as long as they didn't cut into the woods to my east. I range a few of the small trees out in front of me and got ready. The biggest of all the bulls is the closest to me and he is chasing a small group of about 7 cows. Every time one of the cows would try cutting off into the timber to my east he would round her up and push her right down the edge of the timber. I couldn't believe what was happening, it honestly didn't seem real. I was calm as I could be and was soaking in the moment. The cows stepped out in front of me at about 35 yards with the bull still behind the tree. At less than 35 yards he let out a bugle that I will never forget. The seconds seemed like minutes and just before he stepped into my shooting lane I drew. I came to anchor and as he cleared my lane I gave one soft cow call with my diaphragm. He stopped as I centered my 40 yard pin on his lungs. The release went off followed by the hollow thud of the arrow impact but I didn't see exactly where the arrow hit. I began to cow call immediately as he ran off. He stopped after about 40 yards and turned back to look at me. I raised my binos and when I saw the exit hole I began to lose it. Less than 2 seconds later his legs gave out and it was done.


(This was the view of where they passed by. You can see the cedar I was in on the right of the picture)

I began to shake uncontrollably and I'm not to manly to admit it, I started bawling. I put so much work into this bull and all of that emotion was flooding out. It took me about 10 minutes and a few txt msg to regain composure before I finally walked up to my bull. I still cannot believe I was able to kill such an amazing bull. Someone is definitely looking down on me.




(Exit hole)


(IMO the best broadhead ever made)




After the initial shock was over the reality set in. I was 4.5 miles from the truck, alone, with a giant animal dead on the ground. I immediately got to work breaking him down. I used the gutless method deboning and filling game bags as I went. I started with the cape until I got it over the front shoulder. After taking off the front shoulder I skinned down past the hind quarter. I took off the back straps then the hind quarter and managed to flip him over. I repeated the same for the other side. After getting all the meat I finished caping him out to the base of the skull. Luckily I was on a ridge that was getting a lot of cool airflow so I was able to get the meat cool very quickly. After about a 10 minute rest I loaded up my pack for load one. This load consisted of 1 boned or hind quarter, both back straps, both tenderloin and all of my day hunting gear already in my pack. To say it was heavy isn't doing it justice. I had to sit on my butt and slide the straps on before rolling over onto my knees and standing up. I took that first load really slow and steady taking breaks as I went. The last 1.5 miles was brutal. Just down from camp was a 600 ft climb strait up out of a canyon.

Once I made it to camp I drove 45 min to where the guys who had killed the mule deer earlier in the week were camped. They had told me they would be here all week and if I got a bull down to come get them and they would help me pack him out. I got there and of course they had already left. Figures lol. I made the 45 min drive back and had lunch then headed in for my second load.

Once I got there I finished caping out the face. I brought my folding saw and after some time finally got the skull capped. I loaded the cape, and one front shoulder in my pack and rested the antlers on my shoulders and headed in with load two. This load was noticeably lighter than the first load. I was doing good until the **** 600 foot climb. When I reached the top I could feel my body physically trying to shut down. I embraced the grind and made it back to camp just as it was getting dark.

Some idahoan potatoes and soup for dinner hit the spot. One more load in the morning and I'm headed home!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk