mapsjanhere
New member
It was supposed to be a hunting trip for the ages. An elk tag in the best public area of New Mexico, a free condo to stay in right in the area, and a secret spot from a guy who has the trophies on the wall from there.
Making my way up the mountain the first thing I noticed was the quality of the road, much better then I was let to expect (and had invested 1k for new truck tires for). The second hint that not all was well was the signed post to the secret spot, complete with new road, and a half dozen cars camped there already. So I found myself a nice meadow about 300x300 yards, with a good spot downwind, and started waiting. Alas, a car came by about once every 5 min, most undisturbed by the fact that the area clearly already had all the attention it needed. 10 h and 100 cars later, no animals, and worse, not a single shot fired anywhere in the area. Next day no different, so I finally decided to hit the road myself, up a pass across the mountains that no reasonable guy should drive with an SUV. Met 7 other hunters driving the pass, and went home in disgust.
From all I could tell, the reason it's the richest elk area in the state is the utter lack of accessible roads, meaning that anybody with horses gets a fantastic hunt, and the 150 other tag holders are limited to about 3 valley roads with 30 miles of steep canyons you can't get out, especially this time of year with snow on the passes.
That's why it's called hunting I guess, not shooting.
Making my way up the mountain the first thing I noticed was the quality of the road, much better then I was let to expect (and had invested 1k for new truck tires for). The second hint that not all was well was the signed post to the secret spot, complete with new road, and a half dozen cars camped there already. So I found myself a nice meadow about 300x300 yards, with a good spot downwind, and started waiting. Alas, a car came by about once every 5 min, most undisturbed by the fact that the area clearly already had all the attention it needed. 10 h and 100 cars later, no animals, and worse, not a single shot fired anywhere in the area. Next day no different, so I finally decided to hit the road myself, up a pass across the mountains that no reasonable guy should drive with an SUV. Met 7 other hunters driving the pass, and went home in disgust.
From all I could tell, the reason it's the richest elk area in the state is the utter lack of accessible roads, meaning that anybody with horses gets a fantastic hunt, and the 150 other tag holders are limited to about 3 valley roads with 30 miles of steep canyons you can't get out, especially this time of year with snow on the passes.
That's why it's called hunting I guess, not shooting.