elkhunter

This summer the family and I are planning a camping and fishing road trip. We'll spend a few days camping and fishing in the White Mountains and would like to head east to New Mexico. Any recommendation for lakes in NM? We'll target mostly trout but any fish will be fun to catch. Some options I found include Quemado Lake, Snow lake and Gwynn Tank. There seems to be plenty of lakes north of Albuquerque but I'm not sure if that's worth the extra drive. We'll be shore fishing since we are taking our camper and will do boat rentals at lakes that have them.

My wife and I headed out Thursday after work and got camp set up. When we were getting firewood I noticed a rather large camp a mile away. The camp had several tents and I saw a whole bunch of young kids and adults. Never seen a big camp like that during a javelina hunt. Opening morning, I started glassing at first light for bucks, saw some decent young ones. Folks from the large camp were set up at glassing spots all around us. Each truck had 2-3 kids in it, good to see. About 8:45 I finally caught some pig movement and my wife and I packed up and started to move in. We ran into a grandpa, son and grandson doing the same thing. I asked if they were going on a walk or putting on a stalk. They said they were going to make a stalk on the herd. Since they had a first time hunter, a 10 year old, my wife and I told them to go after them, good luck and said we’ll be watching the stalk from the glassing spot. They invited us to go on the stalk but I wanted it to be a moment among the 3 of them. We went back to the glassing spot and while watching them make a stalk, my wife spotted another herd bout 1000 yards away right above the hunters. It was cool seeing the hunters and slightly above their head in the distance was the second herd. After checking out the landscape and figuring out where the second herd was, we made our move. We came up above the herd and they were just bout ready to head down to bed. Our shots were much longer than usual, a whopping 230 yards. My wife shot first and that muzzle break rattled me a bit and her pig went down. I had to take a few shots to get mine down. When I approached my pig, she was still alive. I used my wife’s pistol to finish it off, At 2 yards I shot and the round was a dud, had no powder (no more speed reloading for me). I saw the bullet fly maybe 100 FPS and bounce off the pig. The pig opened its eyes and charged me a little and took off. I caught up to the pig bout 50 yards down and finished her off. It was a great morning, we ran into the grandpa later on and they were unable to harvest a pig. Wife and I camped another night and on Saturday morning, we saw the same groups of people making a few stalks and heard a gunshot when we were packing up camp, hope that kid got his first big game. First time my wife and I doubled up on anything, the packout wasn’t all that great carrying both pigs.

I headed out to camp after work on Friday, Pops hasn’t seen any javelina all morning. We hit up some glassing spots in the evening with no luck, just a bunch of coues bucks. Saturday morning I observed something I never seen before. I saw a cloud of dirt in the air and was wondering what the heck it was. After a minute I saw a herd of pigs working the ridge, it’s so dry they were kicking up dirt when digging for roots. We put in a stalk and pops had a small window to shoot at 45 yards with his contender. He didn’t realize it at the time but there’s a small rise between him and the javelina. He ended up shooting a nice rock at 20 yards, the herd spooked good after that. Saturday afternoon I started hiking some roadless canyons and checked out cuts while pops stayed near the road. He has a hernia right now and his doctor was against him walking long distances. I didn’t see anything at all until after sunset. After sunset I spotted a herd a mile out and watched them til dark, didn’t have time to make a stalk. Sunday morning, pops and I hiked about a mile in, we got on a ridge above where I saw javelina the evening before. About 8:20 I was getting worried that coyotes had spooked the herd because we haven’t seen em yet. I moved to different angles and found them getting up to feed. We made our stalk and one pig had us pinned at 55 yards so I harvested him with the muzzy. The herd was alert and once they settled down, pops put his down at 75 yards with his 223. We were able to get both pigs cleaned up, processed, break down camp and got home just in time to host the Super Bowl party. Here’s the cloud of dirt, the javelina were just on the other side of the ridge.

My son got a little lucky and drew the very last junior tag for his unit. He has a very specific area that he enjoys hunting javelina at so we decided that’s where we’ll camp and hunt this year. Opening day came around with good weather, decent deer rut but not a single javelina to be found. We did our best to cover as much country from high vantage points with no luck. Saturday we decided to hit up some nearby areas and located a broken up herd, likely broke up from the last few days of the archery season. This herd was skittish and didn’t want to stop to feed. We sat back and watched them cruise about 3/4 of a mile and they settled down and started to feed. Pops stayed back to spot while Colby and I began the long stalk. We crested the final hill and was happy to see the herd was still feeding, 80 yards across the cut. We quickly got set up and he made the close shot count.

We were able to get out for 4 days and had some bad luck with stalks. Either the wind shifted or there was no wind at all to conceal noises. On the 4th day we had some luck and pops was able to harvest this sow at 15 yards. 21 consecutive years for this fella with the stick and string.

Congrats on a great buck, glad everything worked out health wise.

Nice, doesn't get any better than that.

My son drew second choice this year, a unit we hunted two years ago. Opening day came and Christian, my pops, Colby and I got to glassing. It was a slower than usual morning, only 5 small bucks. We had an interesting find, saw a pack of 14 maybe 15 dogs cruising the mountains. No collars, all dogs were a different breed of pit, boxer, lab, German Shepard etc and looks like none of them were tracking scent, sure didn’t look like lion dogs. They covered some good country so we decided to hit a different spot for the afternoon. That afternoon we hit up a glassing spot we seen some nice bucks in with some lions in the past. I glassed this buck right at 3:20 getting up from his bed 1030 yards. The boy and I grabbed our gear and spent the next 30 minutes going uphill to get in range. After the shot, it was even more difficult getting to the buck and even worse packing him out. The cat claws were amazingly thick and we enjoyed every moment of it. We know that when we are back in school/work, we would rather be out in the field getting cut up by catclaw.

Just had mine posted in the portal

It was a hot one this year! At one time our trucks recorded 98 degrees on Saturday. We only glassed up 24 bucks this season, way less than our usual 50 bucks. After the first 4 days of struggling and passing up bucks, my wife decided to turn her hunt into a meat hunt. At first light she saw this buck 1300 yards away and we watched him while waiting for the heat to kick in. Once it got warm enough, he bedded and we were off. We snuck in to 309 yards and had to wait a couple of hours for him to stand up. As soon as the buck got up, she was all ready and dropped him. I got a feeling this next Nov hunt is gonna be a real good one with the cooler temperatures and a lot more bucks in the field.

That's awesome.

My son has 4 bps for elk. Last year unit 22 youth cow had a bonus pass of 3 bps and unit 23 had a bonus pass of 4 bps. I put him in for 22 1st choice and 23 second choice (no reason for the second choice as I was sure he would draw 22 in the bonus pass). Draw results were posted and my son drew second choice unit 23 tag #17. I’m in a similar boat, trying to figure out what happened and what to do in the future

We had a tougher than usual day on this hunt. Friday we glassed all day without any breaks, didn't see any pigs early on but found flocks of turkeys, mule deer and coues deer everywhere. About 4:30pm Friday I was able to glass up a herd 3 miles out. I knew there were hunters about 1000 yards from the herd but it didn't look like they have seen em yet. We drove a bit closer and started the mile hike to the herd. We only need to crest one more ridge to see the herd and try to get a shot when we heard 4 gunshots. Guess the hunters did find the pigs or another hunter did. We stood there to check for any pigs running in our direction and no luck. We started the long hike back to the ranger and when we were about 500 yards away we got a strong whiff of the javelina skunk smell. We stopped and I looked around and found a group of 4 trotting up a hill side. It was almost sunset so we started moving quickly to cut them off and we were able to get to 75 yards. I told my wife to shoot the last pig in the group and this guy took the bullet without moving much. Stood for 10 seconds with broken shoulders and lung shot. He was a tank of a javelina, he ate well!

Awesome congrats. That's on my to do list. How accurate is that 50 hawken?

I'm sure no one cares but here's the story 👍. Friday we had no school so my son and I headed out and I'm the last person with a HAM tag. We didn't see any javelina all day and about 80 coues deer and 6 bucks. We covered tons of country and got chased by some angry cows with newborns. We saw a hog nosed skunk in the day time and I'm sure it had rabies the way it was moving around. Sunday I headed out with my sister and pops, same thing as Friday, we didn't see diddly squat in the morning. If we were lucky we would have found 5 herds the way we glassed. About noon we were ready to have lunch and I decided to check out some north facing slopes before eating. I was able to glass up a herd of javelina bedded down. I was able to sneak in above the herd about 80 yards. I wanted to use the pistol but the pigs got up and started moving around and I couldn't find a clear lane to shoot so I used the muzzleloader. I was able to get a 49 yard shot on this nice size male.

Friday my son and I were unable to go out. My dad went out with my mom. After a few hours of not seeing anything, my mom glassed up a herd with her chest binos. She does not hunt she tags along on some hunts and does not glass for anything except for cows and predatory birds. Once the herd was spotted the pigs bedded down and they were able to get in to 120 yards and he took this nice sow. Saturday my son had a flag football game in the snow, he got to play in 2 inches and had a good ole time and his team got beat badly. The weather was not good for us to go out in the sloppy muddy conditions. Sunday Colby and I headed out in the dark and his hunt was similar to his junior hunt. We were glassing far out 1-3 miles and we weren't seeing anything. Right below us at the glassing spot, a herd of javelina popped out feeding at 220 yards. We snuck in to 96 yards and he laid the hammer on this pig. Blew out the right shoulder taking all critical organs out. We were able to cut up the pig and get back home just in time for the super bowl game. I'll be headed out next weekend to try my luck.

Colby had 3 bps going into this draw and drew tag #1 for his multi unit hunt. This week we double checked the rifle and shooting strategies and started putting gear together. I let him choose where he wanted to start opening day, he picked the farthest unit and the farthest part away from home. This morning we left the house, made a lucky superstitious stop at a gas station for his doughnuts and hit the road. When we got to the first glassing spot, we couldn’t see crap. The fog was pretty good this morning. We spent 45 minutes watching funny videos and listening to music while the sun killed the fog. We glassed for an hour, didn’t see any pigs moving but coues were in full rut. We moved to our second glassing spot. After a while we got lucky and spotted pigs below us 300 yards away feeding in the oaks. We grabbed our gear and when we got to 220 yards, Colby said he can make the shot. I’d like him to get 150 or so but he was confident. We got the rifle set up and he got on the larger boar right away. After a few practice squeezes he felt ready and let the rifle bark. The pig hit the ground hard on the quartering to shot (messy gutting job). This boar had some age and stink to him. We took our time, cleaned the pig and took pictures. We picked up some roadside burritos and hit the road on the way home.

My wife and I got tags together this year for the same hunt for the first time. We were real excited for this hunt, more than usual. Opening day I spotted her buck 2100 yards out and figured he was a mid 80’s buck. We kept an eye on him every 5 minutes to see where he beds down. While keeping tabs on him we saw 10 other bucks but nothing worth chasing after. Once her buck bedded down under a tree, we marked the spot and started the stalk. We snuck into 330 yards and the rest is history. The buck had a bigger body than we thought and scored right at 90. We had a long pack-out back to the ranger and feeling the aches and soreness today. Over the next few days we looked over 30 bucks or so. I was looking for a 4+ year old buck (secretly trying to beat my wifes buck!) I didn’t have any luck. Monday morning came and I spotted a big 2x2 buck that we have seen maybe 8 times and never gave chase to him. He bedded down during grey light and the wife and I took off. We snuck into 380 yards and waited about an hour for him to stand up and the hunt was done. My buddy Christian showed up to help out with the morning Monday hunt, he carried out some weight which was nice! Thanks amigo! Overall deer movement was phenomenal even with the full moon. The freezer is full with our bucks and my sons junior buck. We’ll definitely put in together again next year.

Opening day took us a while to find some pigs. We spent most of the morning looking over deer, the muleys were rutting while the coues were not. The first two herds we spotted were no where to be found when we got to where we last saw them. We regrouped after the two failed stalks and hit the spotter for long range glassing. It didn't take long til we spotted a third herd. The third herd stayed around long enough for my 72 year old pops to get within range. His shot was 27 yards and the sow didn't go too far.

*** Binoculars purchased for my son. Thanks to those of you guys that sent me a message!

We were excited to see that my son drew a junior deer hunt again but this time in an area we never been in. We put in some crazy hours scouting google maps and onX maps just to find an area that looks interesting. I hit up some friends that hunted the area before and they gave great advice. We did scout trips and seen 10+ bucks a day and was feeling great before the hunt. Thursday I parked right outside Colby’s school and when his bell rang, he came running out, jumped in the truck and I think I peeled out a little bit. We got to camp, my pops had things already set up and we ate dinner and were ready to roll in the morning. My son decided to go to bed at 7:30 pm which was a new thing. Opening morning was the exact opposite of scouting, basically saw a coati, 4 mule deer does, 2 small coues bucks and 5 coues does. At 10am we decided to move to glass bedding areas. Glassed for a bit and my pops and I told Colby that we have to glass at 11am, we cannot go back to camp for lunch. We told him that’s when bucks change their beds. Sure enough at 11:12 I saw a buck moving from one bed to another. Colby asked if it was bigger than his buck from last year (that’s his only goal, to get something bigger than his last buck)I said yes and he said game on. We waited til the buck bedded down again and made our move. Colby is real confident under 300 yards so we snuck in to 267 yards and the only place we could find a lane to shoot in was out in the open field. No shade, just dirt and sun and no wind. We waited 3 hours and 12 minutes and when the buck was ready he stood up, the buck was quartering towards us and Colby put a bullet behind his shoulder and the bullet went all the way to his opposite side rump. The buck hunched up, went a few steps and rolled down the mountain. Turns out that this buck is real old, can’t imagine how many lions, bears and hunters he evaded the last 9-10 years. Had some giant hooves and teeth were won down pretty good. We hung around the area for a few more days glassing, saw plenty of bucks but nothing in this caliber and headed back home today.

Awesome congrats, especially with a limited time too. I have a couple students prepping for state this Saturday and they are running pretty much whenever they can.

Awesome, congrats!

Good work Grandpa! Congrats the kiddo!

Congrats to both of you guys, stud buck.