Buying New Mexico Elk Land

[MLAH]

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[Bulldawg87]

Those pics are postcard worthy. If postcards were a thing. Congrats! Wish I could do the same.

Thanks! I keep telling everyone high end Androids smoke an iPhone but nobody listens....lol

Seriously though, there were some other places I could have bought for a little less, but having a view if I'm buying in mountain country was important to me.

[Bulldawg87]

So time for an update now that year one is complete! When I bought the properties, I thought I could turn in a water habitat improvement that would, one, raise my ranch score for the EPLUS program which increases my odds of better draws results (Bulls / Archery). Secondly, could generate a bonus tag. The NMDGF did not grant me this and scored my larger of the two properties at the program minimum. My smaller property scored a point higher, as it has a mutli season water feature.

At the very end of June, landowner tags were released. I got two cow tags...kind of huge disappointment, especially on the smaller property as it scored higher. But I am in the program, and there was a lot of meat on the bone so to speak with the habitat improvements I could easily do to these properties. A lot of potential still exists.

At the end of June a good friend and I took our boys out to camp on the land. We setup several drinkers to the solar well that was existing but not hooked to anything, plus had some damage from a freeze. We put out two rainmaker water troughs (they have internally floats which are protected from animals). We set out a few game cams, enjoyed the view and made a couple wallow area. Then next day we took off to the Cibola NF to camp. The landowner tag list had just come out and my phone started blowing up from people wanting to buy a tag.

I ended up able to move the cow tags easily and had the opportunity to get a bull tag from my neighboring landowner. So now I had a plan, I would be back in October with a rifle tag for the 1st time as all my other elk hunts have been archery...but I was limited to 300+ acres of Ranch Only with his tag. I was really excited however to see what happened with the water and the wallows in time.

It took a little while, but this was the 1st elk I got on camera...and he looked really good!

Soon after other animals started hitting the waters! Mountain lions, Pronghorn, Muleys...I have every big game animal except black bears on camera. No Merriam's turkeys in this area unfortunately.

Had I gotten a bonus bull tag, one of my relatives told me, "I'll buy it I've been dying to elk hunt". When that didn't happen, he ended up buying a last minute hunt for 1st archery with a pretty big name outfitter. They only had 1st week of 1st archery available though. I knew it was gonna be a tough hunt this year. The moon was super big and bright that week and the weather was unseasonably hot. He did 6 days fully guided and they just had a terrible hunt. No bugles, nothing moving, tough conditions. I told him, his unit wide landowner tag was actually good for 14 days total so go home for a few days and fly back out and I will meet you and more or less guide the hunt the last few days of the tag. Me personally, I have constantly been in elk the last for 3 years, just holding out for a big one (or missing opportunities)...so I felt good with my abilities to help him on this hunt.

He finally called and said, "I can make it back out on the morning of the 13th...we can hunt that afternoon, and the 14th!". That was all the tag was good for...I told him if they were bugling and the conditions were better, we can make it happen. This is story for a whole different post, which is incredible, but he ended up shooting a 384" class 7x7 with a small 8th on one side on public land and pretty much the two of us DIYing it. Long triple fronts, 22" thirds...just a monster.

I was only one unit over on his hunt so I checked my cameras on my place, as my rifle hunt starts Oct 7th. Things were starting to looking good for me, even though I had to hunt my neighbor I knew some of the bulls on camera would be on his place too. Elk were consistently hitting the water now and hammering one of the wallows I created.

When I went back out for my hunt, I also planned to add more water and complete a fencing project by adding a bunch of elk jumps to improve passage for animals.

On the 4th day of my hunt, I ended up shooting a bull that was with 6 cows. His rack was pretty busted up, which I didn't know, when I pulled the trigger but I was happy with him as it was my 1st bull, on my Bday of all days, and my plan for creating a way to annually NM elk hunt had essentially worked out. Below is the bull I shot before he got busted up and me with him after he ran 10 yards on a 40 yard shot!

During the October elk hunt, we would go back to the camper during the day and spend our mid days working on the projects. I added another water trough and 14 elk jumps. After adding the elk jumps, I immediately started to see way more pronghorn on camera too. I think raising the bottom wire of the fence really made the property more accessible for them.

[Bulldawg87]

Last year, when I purchased the 1st two pieces of land, my original goal was to buy three pieces as I wanted to have tag opportunities in three units. As luck would have it, my third option didn't work out. But I never stopped looking for that 3rd piece of ground. Again, land is relatively cheap in the right areas of NM. Ownership costs are low when it comes to taxes. One of my places is in ag as the original landowner still runs cattle on it. The taxes on that 1st property in ag were $5! for 2023. My larger place is not in ag, taxes on that were under $500.

My neighbor on my 1st property, a 5th generation rancher that owns 40k acres and runs cattle on over 80k acres, called me in Sept or Oct and ask if I wanted to buy the adjoining acreage to my original, which doubles the property size. Since I didn't get in a 3rd property last year, this left me available to pickup this property. It also is the same unit we killed the 380 class bull mentioned above. Since I am unit wide, this property will give me another tag, and opportunity to hunt where that giant was shot!

I also think, if EPLUS is ever scaled back or acreage limits are added ect, I will be in a better position in that unit as I now have half section of continuous acreage here.

The EPLUS program I think worked on me exactly as it was designed. I added year round water in two location to increase my scores, I completed a fencing project and because I chose to go unit wide, I have opened up 700+ acres to legal tag holders in those units to hunt private lands.

Yesterday, I sent in my EPLUS land registration packet on the newest property and also submitted my 1st habitat improvement projects on water & fencing improvements. On Monday, I received the package to sign my EPLUS contract for next year, and also request score increases for the habitat work I completed.

For next year, I should get a few more tags, my bull and archery tags potential should be increased!!....now the waiting game begins again.

[Bulldawg87]

Here are a few more good game cam pics and hunt pics since my June trip until now.

[Shane]

Gorgeous country! It sounds like your plan is coming together. That's pretty cool!

[TildenHunter]

Very cool. I love New Mexico and plan on hunting it at least once a year for as long as I am able. Congratulations

[Yak blue]

Jealous…., you sir, are Living my dream…congrats on a great year. I’d do the same thing if I had the $$ means and weren’t tied down to Texas…

curious, is that a photo of an old dugout shelter?

[Bulldawg87]

Jealous…., you sir, are Living my dream…congrats on a great year. I’d do the same thing if I had the $$ means and weren’t tied down to Texas…

curious, is that a photo of an old dugout shelter?

Yea, so right at the Northeast corner of one of my places is an old dug out settler home and that little barn thing is still standing and in good condition. I seems things rot slowly out there. Indian pottery can be found at the base of all the large rocks too. The settlers cabins I have been told are from the early 1900s...but I have no idea if that is true or not.

[Bulldawg87]

Gorgeous country! It sounds like your plan is coming together. That's pretty cool!

What is kinda fun about this elk stuff, you are involved with it for several things over the course of the year. Your program entries / contracts have to be completed very early Jan. Then, the public draw opens and put in for that in around March. Public draw results come out in April, then landowner draw results come out in June. This is nice as you know if you drew a tag before you use one of your own.

Once landowner tags come out, you are deciding what to hunt or sell, if you have some to left over to sell.

Come Sept / Oct hopefully you are hunting. Dec / January start over.

[TexasTK]

I’m guessing you are in a primary management zone ?
I will be looking at a ranch next week in a secondary zone.
Other than archery season I don’t like that you have a 5 day hunting window.

[Bulldawg87]

I’m guessing you are in a primary management zone ?
I will be looking at a ranch next week in a secondary zone.
Other than archery season I don’t like that you have a 5 day hunting window.

I am in Primary. I like it because, that is were most of the elk are in highest densities and my goal is to archery hunt. With the unit wide tags, they align with draw dates. Ranch Only in the Primary Zone allows for more selection of dates.

1st Archery - 14 days
2nd Archery - 10 days
Gun - 5 days

Also, the unit wide tags give me access to probably close to a million acres of Public Land hunting (Places I would have 1% draw odds) where as Secondary Zone is Ranch Only. If I could afford a big enough place in the Secondary Zone, with Unlimited tags, I would love it! I looked at a nice secondary zone property two years ago...but I think, for me at this time, this was probably the better option.

That said, I can OTC hunt my land for Pronghorn, Muleys, Lions too.

[TexasTK]

Thanks for feedback. Congrats on purchasing your properties.
I am a little apprehensive about selling my ranch in S Tx in the heart of the golden triangle. My enthusiasm & drive to keep this place going is not what it once was. I am ready for a new adventure & am looking forward to spending more time in the mountains, especially during the summer.

[Bulldawg87]

Thanks for feedback. Congrats on purchasing your properties.
I am a little apprehensive about selling my ranch in S Tx in the heart of the golden triangle. My enthusiasm & drive to keep this place going is not what it once was. I am ready for a new adventure & am looking forward to spending more time in the mountains, especially during the summer.

This elk stuff has definitely changed how excited I am about whitetail hunting. I still like it, but elk hunting bugling bulls is 10x the fun!

I just wish it wasn't so far away.

[Bulldawg87]

One future plan is to run 3500 ft of poly pipe to a lined pond on one property. Then feed it water daily. That is more in the heart of one of my properties and in the thicker trees. The elk will hammer it once I do that I think.

On the other, I was able to buy water rights to a neighbor and I am in the process of fixing a well and running water to a pond on that property too. That pond will be a primo spot once that happens too.