My buddy and I are planning an Elk hunt to New Mexico. This would be a muzzle loader hunt. We are picking our areas and one of the options is unit 10. This would be our third choice but we are trying to decide if unit 10 is even worth it or if we should hold out for a better unit? The guide is telling us the average bull is 265" - 320" He also said it depends on the rut, meaning that we could go in unit 10 and see 40 bugling bulls for the week or have a very hard hunt because the rut is over. So, what we are looking for is as much info as possible.....
What type of terrain?
Average size bull?
How far can you see and/or shoot?
Average weather.

We don't want to get drawn and go beat our heads against the wall for a week and come home empty handed or with a bull we could get on a DIY hunt in Colorado. On the other hand, we have Elk hunted Idaho and we both understand what hunting is and we hunt hard, but we are in uncharted territory trying to sort this out.

Please send me as much real life experience/info as possible so we can get this done.
Thanks!

The terrain runs from piñon juniper to mixed conifer. You will encounter from rolling to steep depending where the elk are.

Your outfitter is probably pretty close on realistic expectations on size. A great bull is killed every couple years in 10.

How far you can see will very greatly.

Weather is usually pretty mild that time of year.

I would ask your outfitter his thoughts on the affect of NM pushing most hunts back almost a week. You probably won’t see a lot of rut activity with the later dates.

Does the outfitter your talking to hunt 10 regularly?

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Thanks for the info. I think the outfitter hunts unit 10 regularly but I will ask again to confirm that. I didn't know they pushed the season back a week. Do you know why they did that?
Thanks again.

My understanding is they moved them back to reduce harvest without reducing tags.

Yesterday, I spoke to the outfitter's guide and he said they moved them up a week to give more of a chance of hitting the rut. He said there used to be almost 3 weeks between archery and muzzle loader and now it is 15 days. 2020 is the first year for this.

He’s confused. The hunts moved back, not up.

Don’t ever remember 3 weeks between archery and ML. Not trying to be negative, but I would ask some more questions.

19 on top, 20 bottom.

They’ve played around with firearms dates for a while. They used to say it was a correction in the calendar but who knows, probably want to reduce harvest. This year it won’t be a bad thing as the first week in Oct is a full moon. I’m just curious why your outfitter isn’t telling you what to apply for or applying for you?

The outfitter did tell us what to apply for and he did apply for us. Our choices ended up as #1 unit 36, #2 unit 17, #3 unit 10. Our main concern or decision was "should we use unit 10 as our 3rd choice or just forget unit 10 and try something else"? We talked to the guide a couple of times and through conversation and reading between the lines, decided to leave unit 10 as our 3rd choice. The guide claims to have lived in and hunted unit 10 most of his life. After talking to him more, we feel confident in his ability, although we have never hunted NM. My buddy and I have only been on a few hunts and have never had a bad guide although we did have a bad hunt. It was a Moose hunt in Alberta that was ruined by unseasonably extreme cold. It was supposed to be a float trip but everything froze up and the Moose seemed to vanish but that's another story. The guide that we talked to seemed to know his stuff or he could BS with the best.....

Thanks for posting this. Either I am misunderstanding him or you are correct and he has it backwards. He claims to have lived in and hunted unit 10. I am a pretty good judge of character and I don't think this guy is spreading BS, but I could be wrong. We ended up using unit 10 as our third choice, so if we get a tag, we'll just have to go with it. I will talk to him more about this though just to see if I am losing my mind.
Again, thanks for posting this. I didn't take you as negative.

I’m not knocking him, I was just curious. I’m sure you’ll have a good hunt if you draw. We are getting some early moisture. Hopefully it’ll continue. I was looking at your choices and I’m not one to tell anyone their business and I’m not sure which 17 hunt but you may rethink your first and second placement, just because of how the draw works. 17 will be harder to draw than 36 so it might pay to switch them. Although I like the 36 dates better. Not saying it couldn’t happen but may up your odds. Unit 10 is one unit ive never hunted, but I’ve killed 350+ bulls in both 17 and 36. I’d be happy with either tag!! Good luck maybe we’ll see you on the mountain!

I applied for a unit to your south this year, Unit 12. New unit for me. We will see.

Good luck.....

Never hunted 12, Greg, so I'll be curious to hear your input should you draw. I focussed on 15 and 16 for Elk again this year but my draw success has been pretty bad the last couple of years.

We will see. My OnX is already lit up with stuff to go look at....

Hey Greg gimme a holler if you draw, 12 is one of my favorites. Guided there for a long time. Drew there personally a couple of years ago and passed on 30 something 5x5 or better bulls. I can show you bulls and not even have to be there! Hahaha