Neither of my daughters (14 and 17) were successful in the NM draw this year. My 17 YO was pretty bummed as this is her last year as a youth hunter. Fortunately, today they opened the youth encouragement hunts, with youths who were unsuccessful in the draw getting the first shot. I was able to nab both of them Cow Elk Tags in unit 15 just after Thanksgiving. They have both hunted cows in this area before and they're both 2 for 2. My oldest daughter is ecstatic that she gets to hunt 1 more time as a youth. I'm absolutely thrilled to get to take them hunting again! I'll be chasing a Bull Elk in the same area a month earlier so I hope it's an active year!

Anyway, just wanted to share my excitement about another hunt with the kiddos!

Good for them! Know it’ll be a blast to take em hunting in that unit. Best of luck.

They're awesome kids and we always have a ton of fun. My folks still go with us each time so it's great family time. We chose not to do this hunt in 2020 to spend Thanksgiving with family.

2018:




2019 (oldest daughter was sick, but still pulled it off)

Good sock daddy !!!



Know you'll all have a "blast" !

That will be a fun adventure no doubt. Unit 15 is a fun unit and it looks like you know your way around it. Congrats.

good for y'all

Thanks, gents. Got a lot of work to do before the hunt since I sold my Super Duty and bought an F-150. Need to sell the 5th wheel that's too big for the new truck and (try) to find a decent smaller tongue pull. If need be we'll use the tent, but we've been down there during that time frame when it's been nasty, wet, windy, and cold.

Should be a fun and rewarding time with the daughters. Congrats on getting the permits.

Congrats SP for you and the girls hunt. It will cost some cash but you will be enriched. Good luck to the gals. Mb

That is so cool. My daughter will be 2 in September and we have another due in October. I can’t wait to take them hunting and fishing. Hope you guys have a great time and good luck!

Beautiful family! Cherish every minute together.

Nice score Sock !

I’m stoked as well for you and your girls.

They’ll fill the freezer, while you concentrate on chasing tall bones.

🦫👍🏼

That's the master plan, Brother Beav! Funny, I don't get nearly as excited about my own hunts as I do theirs. On their last hunt in this area, we hunted for 5 days solid and finally closed the deal in the last ~hour of the last day. No whining was heard, just focus on getting it done. Good girls, I tell ya!

I am very happy for you and the girls SP. I hope you'll keep us posted here. What general area of NM do you hunt?

Thanks, Paul. This will be GMU 15 in west-central NM near the AZ line.

On the opposite side...the 15 yo son of a friend of mine wants a bull in the worst way. He's passed up a couple chances to get a cow tag, holding out for a bull tag. There's still one zone in western ID with quite a few bull tags available but they'll have to drive over 250 miles to hunt. I don't know if they'll go for it or not.

This one will be a tad more than that each way. Never thought twice about it as we have fun on the drive, too. I'll be in the same unit a month earlier chasing a bull, and my Mom (at 69 years old) will hunt the week after the girls. Someday I'll just buy a little property in the area.

Good Stuff!
Good Luck, and Enjoy!
Keep us posted!

That's interesting. In looking for a place for summer/fall retirement cabin, I have looked at that area. It's easy to find very good land prices on land that adjoins the Gila. Are you an NM resident? If so, how hard is it to get elk tags?

Yes. We have to put in for the draw, no point system. Very few available for outright purchase. Land owner tags are available if you own enough, but I'm not sure about the details on that.

Congrats Sock and Co. on getting some tags. Nothing beats hunting with your kids and family. Wishing you the best of luck. It sounds like things are lining up nicely with your bull tag as some pre-scouting for your daughters. Take lots of pics, enjoy the moment because kids grow up way to fast.

Thanks, Lonny!

Appreciate all of the well-wishes, gents. The girls are excited and I'll be sure to update post-hunt.

Nice. I hope all tags get filled!

Good luck to your girls!

The encouragement hunts is one thing NM does right for sure.

Congrats and good luck.

+1

The late October bull hunt was a bit tough. Bulls were few and really spread out. A couple were solo but most of the small sample we saw were still with the cows. I was the only one successful of our group of 4 hunters, and most of the other hunters we talked to weren't having great success. The silver lining is that cows seemed plentiful so I hope that's a good sign for the girl's late November hunt.

This is the decent 6 point I shot on the evening of the 3rd day:

Well done,,
Heading to unit 13 first week of Dec. for cows as well.
Keep us posted how the ladies do.
good luck

Awesome Elk SP!

Thanks, brother. Leaving Wednesday morning for the girls' cow hunt. My folks are already down there and report a lot of cows moving around, the weather looks decent, and we're gettin' stuff loaded.

Nice, congrats.

It was a strange year just about everywhere for elk. Places we always find elk were void of any.

Good luck with the girls.

Nicely done on the 6x6, brother Sock !

Now get your girls some cows.

👍🏼

🦫

Awaiting updates.

That’s great I am in 55A and they got a nice 6x5 up behind the house last week.Glad to see the young ladies taking such a interest in hunting elk.

Alright, we rolled back in yesterday afternoon after a long, eventful, and ultimately successful hunt. Unfortunately, my youngest daughter was not able to go this year. I don't think I'd mentioned it before because we weren't sure if he'd be able to go, but I'd also bought a tag for my sister-in-law's nephew. This kid has had a pretty tough go of it for a lot of reasons and I was happy to grab him a tag. He's been elk hunting before but hasn't been successful.

We arrived at camp early Wednesday afternoon. Scouting that evening was great and we saw plenty of cow elk. They were a little stirred up from the bull hunt that just ended, but not too bad. We got into the elk again early Thanksgiving morning, and again that evening so things were looking great for opening day on Friday. You guessed it...not an elk to be seen Friday morning. Kids were a little bummed as they had an ongoing bet about who would get their's first that morning

Friday evening started out the same as that morning with no elk to be found. We kept working an area where we knew they had to be, and my daughter was able to connect with a big cow about 20 minutes before the end of hunting hours. It was a decent shot at about 70 yards and the cow didn't make it far, but she required a finishing shot. This was a first for my daughter as her 2 previous elk and 1 deer all died on the spot. My phone was taking really crummy pics for some reason, but here's one of the better ones with my daughter and my Dad:



Hunting for the next few days was a mixed bag. We were able to reliably find elk, but my sorta-nephew was a little slow on the uptake when we got into them and didn't get a shot. When he was able to shoot, he missed several times. We went back to camp and checked the zero on the rifle he had borrowed and it was close enough, but the scope on it had pretty fine crosshairs and was difficult to see on dark backgrounds...like elk hide in fading light. I had him shoot my MZ which my girl had used on her elk, and he did well and found the scope more to his liking. Back into the field with a couple more missed opportunities, and the kid was being pretty hard on himself. As I mentioned, he's had a rough road which I won't get into, but the fact that he was out there with us and staying after it is pretty damned awesome in its own right.

Lots of effort and time finally payed off in the last 10 minutes of the hunt! Kid made what looked like a great shot on a cow at about 100 yards. The elk all scattered and my daughter thought she had a line on where the hit cow had gone. Everyone involved got busy trying to find a sign she'd been hit, and it was virtually dark by the time the boy spotted the first blood. What followed was an awesome effort by the two yound hunters to find the cow. It took about 1.5 hours of tracking in the dark, finding combinations of blood and tracks which sometimes disappeared. On two occasions my daughter's ears were able to pinpoint where the cow was, and the boy showed a true knack for finding small blood spots. Everyone did their share and the end result was a first elk for the youn man! This late night elk resulted in us staying in camp for an extra day, but absolutely nobody minded one bit. This isn't the best pic but everyone was pretty tired on this last day of the hunt:



Overall it was a great time for all! My daughter got her third elk and my sorta-nephew finally he got his first (with a good little tracking story to go with it)!

Righteous, Sock' !!!

Hope your other daughter is ok, too.

I've seen that many times. If they see you and start to move, most likely they won't quit moving for 5 miles. They won't be back until someone over there spooks them back.

That’s cool, Sock !

Congrats to your daughter, and to you for giving your sorta-nephew a chance, until he got things sorted.

🦫

Doesn’t get better than that. Congrats to all.

Congrats!

Conrats to your daughter and sorta-nephew!

Sounds like there's some serious butchering to do around your house. Good going and congrats to the kids. Envious, as mine has no interest.

Thanks, all! Yep, lots of butchering going on. We knocked out about 1 and a half elk yesterday, will finish off the rest today. Just in time to get back to work tomorrow morning.