Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting My New Mexico Elk Hunt

We left Wisconsin on Dec 10th. The hunt started on the 12th but we had a long drive. The hunt was on a private ranch in north central New Mexico. I left with 3 other guys and we all had ranch tags for cows only.

This was the first time I have been elk hunting so I did not know what to expect. We stayed on the ranch in campers. I knew the weather could turn on a dime so I packed my good old Wisconsin ice fishing gear along with my bow hunting clothes. I brought my Tikka 300 WSM for my gun of choice.

Upon our arrival we saw elk on the way in to the ranch along with many mule deer.








The first day of the hunt was about 20 degrees and the sky was clear. I knew the day before the animals seemed to be on the moved. Perhaps the cold weather earlier in the week brought them down from the mountains into the meadows.

This is a picture from the 1st day of the hunt. We had to be patient as we had a lot of bulls, spikes, and club elk. The best thing I did before the trip was I bought a pair of Swarovski EL 8 x 32 binos. These binos are unreal!! Light and clear as a bell. I had to fight the other 3 guys from trying to take them from me. The $500 binos they bought will probably be posted for sale soon.

Back to the story. I saw over 100 elk opening day. I was so excited to see such a majestic animal in its element. We had a good chance to see what was big and what was BIGGER. All elk are huge compared to the whitetails I am use to seeing around Wisconsin. We each shot an elk opening day. We had our tags filled 1 hour and 20 minutes into the hunt. Here is a nice cow that was shot.

[img]http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s346/baker53555/photo2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s346/baker53555/photo5.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s346/baker53555/Elk%20Hunting/DSC_0327.jpg[/img]



It was probably a good thing that we all got on the 1st day. The next day we woke up to 8" of snow. The weather forecast that night it was a 0% chance of snow. The weather man was wrong!

[img]http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s346/baker53555/photo8.jpg[/img]


In conclusion, for those that are going out west for a hunt, I have some advice. Prepare for all types of weather. Optics are important. Elk are big but good optics out west are essential. Also, make sure you can shoot your gun 300 yards.

I hope you enjoyed.

Thanks,
Robert