Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting 400+ NM Archery Bull

Here's the link:

ESPN - Monster Bull



Interesting to note in light of recent discussion on here about leaving an animal overnight, that's what they did with this bull...

huh, didnt say much about how greatful he was to have all that delicious Elk meat.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> maybe I missed it!!! 721

Seems to me that this guy has worked hard and paid his dues, not to mention giving to others. I would rather a guy like this shoot such a great bull than some fat city boy guided by a professional shooting it at 300 yards with what ever jumbo-mag he just purchased a bass pro. seems this guy has hunted hard all his life.

Not to take it away from the guy, but if you were rich you too could hunt as much as that guy, including dropping $15k+ to hunt elk on a reservation.

I would not want to leave an elk overnight, very very iffy that the meat would be ok.

My intentions in posting this are certainly not to flame the guy...I say congrats on the kill as it is an impressive animal...and the way the story reads, it sounded like a legit hunt no matter what he might have paid for it.

To me, leaving an animal overnight is the absolute last resort. The way the story reads, they didn't make an effort that evening. Seems they could have at least waited an hour or more and go see what they are dealing with...if they would have done that, as the story reads, they would have likely found the bull without too much trouble.

Maybe, but maybe they would have busted the bull from the bed he ended up dying in and never seen him again. 35 years of bowhunting has taught me the value of not pushing an animal when you are not 100% sure of the hit. I have a pretty hard time second guessing someone who is succesful.

Jeff

I'd have to say congrats on a fine animal. If I had the money to hunt a reservation I'd probably do it too.
I don't know the guy but from the ESPN article he lives just 12 miles from me. Small world huh?

DT

Let me totally agree with Jeff. I've got 100+ bow kills under my belt. And been in on many more. If you got a gut shot(or could because you don't know exactly what you have) then they are one of the easiest ones to find IF you dont' go past your arrow-- or even that far, and IF they aren't busted from the first bed. AND with whitetail I've watched a couple expire -- trust me1 hour is not enough. Nor is 4 hours. Gutshots I wait a minimum of 6 hours and often find they are still alive. If I wait 8 hours they are always dead. At 4 hours they may look sick, but I've watched folks stalk in to 15 yards or so and miss-- and I'm at full draw and never release an arrow!!!

Remember folks-- walk a mile first

Jeff

Okay, let me re-phrase b/c I agree with what yall are saying...I was speaking hypothetically about knowing you put a good shot on an animal. If there is doubt, it is certainly best to be conservative. It just came across to me in the way the article read (and I understand details are left out and it is likely not a perfect description) that they could have at least snuck over to try to find the arrow, etc. Maybe not?

I am definitely a firm believer in not pushing an animal...no matter what it is.

Mercy, ya'll are concerned about the ethics and that is a good thing. I just wish the publicity about the NM bulls would stop! Let them keep going to Arizona, Oregon, etc. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Congratulations to a fellow Texican for a great hunt! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

My grandpa would never bowhunt after 4ish in the afternoon for fear of wounding an animal and losing it to darkness and lost blood trail. We hunted the coast and rain was always likely. He would also never hunt on days where it was raining buckets for fear of a washed out blood trail. I think that says alot about him and his ethics as a bow hunter.

There is NO way the meat is any good....especially in NM during archery season. Night time temps SELDOM dip below 75 and that bull was dead within a few minutes. YOu simply can not leave a big animal ungutted. I am positive he lost the meat, but under the circumstances, he probably made a good call, since his shot was iffy. I don't think he was meat hunting either <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Flinch

10-4 on that Flinchy!!!! 721

Flinch, Where this guy killed this bull, is about 30 miles from our ranches. We have been dipping into the lower 30's for the last couple of weeks, so there was a chance that this meat was salvaged. We had to leave 2 gut shot bulls last week, that clients had shot right at dark. I didnt not want to leave either one of them, but I had given both of them a good 2 hours, and then jumped them both, so I backed off, and waited until the next morning, in fear of not recovering either one of them at all. We found the one bull at 10 am the next morning, he had just died, and was not even stiff. The other bull died, from a liver hit, and had been dead a good 8 hours, and the side that he was laying on, was spoied, but we did manage to salvage a little meat. I think I would have been a little hestitate to take it, but my client wanted to, so I let him. It all depends on how long it takes for the elk to die. If you lose a lung shot elk, or even a liver shot elk, that is going to die within a couple of hours, and then set all night with no blood pumping through his body, then there is a 95% chance that he is going to spoil. On another note, they kill many 400 plus bulls on the Laguna Resevation. It is very costly, but it is a well managed, and is definatly a good and fair chase hunt. They take alot of pride, and hard work to manage their elk population, and in the last 3 years, they have been reaping what they sowed, BIG, BIG bulls.

Toby Joe

My rifle builder has told me about this guy. He says he is very down to earth, and a real genuine fellow. He says if you were around him, you would have no idea he is so wealthy. When he first met him, he just thought he was some old redneck rancher. Come to think of it, I guess that isn't so bad!

Steve

I hear you Toby. I know last year on your ranch it didn't dip below 65 all week. I hunted near where they killed the big bull a couple of years ago. It never got below 75 the week I was there during archery season. It was bloody hot and a tough hunt for my buddy who had an elk tag. I was bear hunting and killed my bear on a water hole right at O dark 30. Nothing moved until dark, due to the heat.

The shear size of that bull, coupled with the fact that he did take a lung and the liver, suggests to me that he died within an hour. 12 hours laying dead definitely spoiled the meat, even if it was 30 degrees. The elk we lost two weeks ago was a WHOLE lot smaller, the temps were 50's and he was sour as they come after being dead for 8 hours. It is all a judgment call for sure. I am glad you recovered those bulls. It sure is a good feeling to find them dead after a LONG sleepless night of agonizing over a poor hit. Flinch

I just moved to Eudora, Ks., from Grants, N.M., after retiring from the journalism business following 31 years of writing. The Acoma Pueblo was right next door to me. My absolute favorite area was Unit 13, which is adjacent to the pueblo. Down on State Highway 117 near Grants, is a huge valley and just south of it along the Pietown Road is the same Unit 13. A monster bull we called Rudy lives there. He (is) was an absolute monster, but should be starting to be in his declining years now. He resides in an area where there is foot traffic only and the old boy has obviously left plenty of offspring in the area. There are not many elk in the Unit, but the ones there are huge. By the way, the Acoma's are very proud of their hunts. I believe they charge something in the vacinity of $15,000 for a hunt. The Laguna Pueblo, just to the east of the Acoma Pueblo, bought a former fenced game ranch just in the shadows of the sacred Mount Taylor and planned to turn it into a Class A elk hunting operation. The place was the former Mount Taylor Game Ranch and is absolutely beautiful. I really do miss that area, but some bad lungs forced me to a lower elevation. Kansas is a pretty state, but not much for public shooting ranges. Oh well, that's life. Have a good day folks. Tom Purdom

7X57, Our place is just north of Prewitt. If fact Plains Electric Power plant sets on our land, or what used to be our land. Nice to here from someone from my neck of the woods.

Toby Joe

Toby Joe: small world isn't it. I hunted p-dogs near there at the Top of the World on land owned by Mr. Lathram (not sure on the spelling, but he and his wife used to own the western wear store in Grants). I tried to get a cow tag for that area because of all the cows you see milling around near the Plains Electric Plan area, but it was like pulling teeth. In fact, getting a tag through the draw was damn near impossible. I was a reporter for the Gallup Independent Cibola County Bureau from 1998 until June 2005 and only drew out one time, in Unit 16 C, for the second bull hunt. By that time the elk were all in the Wilderness area in the Gila Mountains to the south of my unit and we failed to see one elk. Up closer to where I lived, I used to drive down State Highway 117 at night about 9 p.m. in August with the windows on my little Chev. S-10 rolled down and would catch the elk on the side of the highway munching on the tender grass which grew there. The country was beautiful, but the altitude was simply just too much for my lungs to take. I used a CZ 550 American in 7x57mm with handloads of 162 grain Hornady SSTs or 160 grain Nosler Partitions at 2,815 fps. I own a CZ 527 in .223 Remington that makes p-dogs tremble in fear. I also used to shoot them in Bonita Canyon off of State Highway 53 in the Zuni Mountains and in the Cebola Wilderness Area off of New Mexico 117. Jeeze, I got a little windy there. Sorry. Have a good day ... Tom Purdom <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The name is Lathem. They also have a small ranch that borders ours on the east side. I grew up with there son Brad.
I have bought alot of clothes and boots in that western wear store.

Toby Joe

Man you guys are making me home sick, I grew up in Grants grad high school there. My mom still lives there. I need to kill an elk in NM. Who wants to go!!!