Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Drew a tag for NM 5A

After six years of trying, I finally drew another non-resident bull elk tag for NM. Drew for the 5A area south of Chama. Anyone have intel on that area?

Its almost entirely private land. I hunted 5B last year. Good area, but i couldnt capitalize. You plan to camp or stay at a hotel?

My wife and I hunted 5A in 2009 on a guided hunt. Saw elk every day and each got one, but they were quite spread out. We mainly concentrated on the northern and western areas of the unit, and did hunt close to private land. It took all five days of hard hunting. I think there are some decent bulls down there but we only saw one that would have scored a little over 300 maybe.

Planning on camping

Hey Rowdy....did you find a guide or you gonna go at it alone??

Haven't settled on a guide yet. Would rather do that than go on our own. I am non-resident and the tags are just too hard to draw plus we never know which area we will get when we do draw.

Well, now I really am looking forward to the NM hunt after getting skunked in Colorado last week. Elk were still way back up in the mountains and you just can't get to them without taking horses or hiring an outfitter. Surely CDOW understands weather patterns. The second week in Sep is just too warm for a decent hunt. They might as well have sold me a tag for a park in downtown Denver. Plus, they keep closing more roads to ATVs every year. (I understand and appreciate the issue with unchecked ATV traffic but they could at least open them up to hunters.) CDOW keeps complaining every year about the dropping numbers of hunters. Well, look at the average age. Think they are going to hike 15 miles back into the mountains and haul out an elk on foot?

Looks like we are going to go back to hunting the rifle seasons. That, or hire an outfitter the next time we want to hunt with muzzle loaders.

I'm expecting better luck in a couple of weeks when I head back out to NM.

Hope you are filling your tags.

Good luck Rowdy. I have an anterless tag for the third season of unit 9. I hope its not too dry. Do you know if its rained lately up there?