NM Unit 17 Youth ML

[aziator]

Hi all, been lurking a long time and appreciate all the things I have learned from the forum.  My son drew the NM Youth hunt in unit 17 in Oct and looking for some tips.  I have never been to the area and I am currently overseas in Iraq for work.  It doesn't look like I will have much time between getting home and the hunt to do much scouting so I am trying to maximize my e-scouting and map studies.

My plan is to get over there as much as a week before the hunt starts to check some areas that I will narrow down prior to going over there.  My son will join me the day before the hunt due to school.  This will be our first bull elk hunt and we are pretty excited about it.

Any tips for base camp locations and past successes are appreciated.  Thanks!

 

[SonnyK]

There's elk all over that unit.  Not sure where your coming in from but if it was me, I'd hunt the northern part of the unit between the 52 and 107.  I'd avoid anything east of the 107.  Any forest road on the north end (220, 549, 473, ???)  should get you a decent location for base camp and into the elk.

Best of luck to your son.

[aziator]

9 hours ago, SonnyK said:

There's elk all over that unit.  Not sure where your coming in from but if it was me, I'd hunt the northern part of the unit between the 52 and 107.  I'd avoid anything east of the 107.  Any forest road on the north end (220, 549, 473, ???)  should get you a decent location for base camp and into the elk.

Best of luck to your son.

Thanks Sonny, coming from southern AZ.  Appreciate the info, exactly what I am looking for to get zeroed in on a few areas.

[Shane.A.Luke]

Aziator;  My son had this hunt last year.  DM me and I will give you details on what we saw.

Yes, there are elk all over the unit but activity during that time was concentrated due to drought last year and likely the same this year.  We had a great time with screaming bulls and passing on raghorns.  We only had three days to hunt due to school schedules.  My son took at cow at 10 yards cause she was going to bust the herd on last morning walking right to us. (Youth are Any Sex Tags).  He already had an archery 6x6 and a muzzy 6x6 from AZ so we were looking for the big herd bull.  He was just out of range behind trees that last morning.  My son had not taken a cow elk so knowing we had to leave by noon he took the cow when the bull moved further away in the PJs.  A lot of great memories.

Not everyone had the same experience.  We worked hard to be on the herd and had to change locations when the first area went silent.  2020 was tough rut year.

[aziator]

Thanks Shane, message sent.