Finally I've got some time to post my story (and figure out how to post pics, I hope). Between work and trying to find a buck here in WA, I haven't had any computer time. Thanks to Stam for offering to help me with the pics. I think I figured it out - hopefully this works! If you haven't seen the first part of my report, it's in the "start of salty's archery career" thread.

Tuesday, September 19. I should give a bit of background on our scouting. We pulled this tag without knowing anything about the unit, other than the success statistics and draw odds. This is a DIY hunt for three guys who had never archery elk hunted. And none of us live in New Mexico. So our total scouting consisted of talking with one guy who had been there before, and essentially three weekend trips from the Arizona guys. Heck, I'd never even been to New Mexico before this trip.

We heard a few bugles Monday night, but certainly not as many as we thought we would. Mark and I got up and drove to our morning glassing spot about 8 miles from camp.

Here's the sunrise from our glassing spot.



Our glassing spot was in the middle of a large open prairie, about a half mile from the junipers and about a mile from the pines and firs that lined the mountains.

Both Mark and Bob had seen large herds in the prarie/junipers from this glassing spot during their scouting trips. Not only had they seen elk here previously, but we used this spot because that's as close as we could get to the mountains with the truck, and because we could see into a good chunk of the junipers and several surrounding mountainsides. Also, my cousin just bought a pair of 15x Swarovski's with a Bogen tripod (those things are incredible), which really helped glassing from that distance.



Our initial thinking was that the elk would be down near this prairie overnight, then would migrate through the junipers into the trees once the sun came up, then would reverse and come back down in the evening. That's how it works on the videos, right? Well, as we found out that morning, some of the elk do come down into the junipers/prairie, but they've got a good headstart back up the mountain before shooting light. We saw a decent bull first thing that morning starting his way back up the hillside, but with the wind shifting uphill as the sun heats the plains, we figured there wasn't much of a chance for us to catch him that day. The bulls bugled fairly well that morning, which really got our blood pumping. But they shut up as it got warmer, and we didn't hear much in the way of bugling from about 9am to 5pm that day. By noon, 6 hours after we got out of the truck that morning in 26 degree weather, it was in the mid-70's.

Bob and I headed back out to where we heard a good number of bugles that evening, thinking the bulls would be coming down the mountain to the prairie/junipers as the sun set. Those bulls were going nuts that night about a half mile straight up the hill, but they never came down. We called and called at the base of the hill. While calling, I heard some footsteps to my right, and looked over to what looked like the biggest coyote I had ever seen. As the critter walked about 50 yards in front of us, I realized that was no coyote - it was one of the Mexican grey wolves they had introduced to the area. We talked to one of the ranchers about it afterward (he's no friend of the wolves, by the way), who informed us that those are million dollar wolves - apparently they've spent the equivalent of $1m per wolf on the reintroduction program. Good thing about the wolf is that he apparently never knew we were there - I figured if he couldn't wind us from 50 yards, we'd be in good shape with the elk.

Since those elk hadn't budged from the hill, I decided to slow hunt my way back to the truck about 45 minutes before it would be pitch black. Bob wanted to stick it out a bit longer and see if those bulls came down the hill, so he got started about 15 minutes after me. Right after he got started towards the truck, he came across what he initially thought was a black beef cow walking its way through the forest about 20 yards away. On second look he realized this was no cow but was a huge black bear walking toward him. Armed with nothing but a bow (and no bear tag), Bob started jumping up and down trying to scare the bear away. But the bear just kept slowly coming towards him, so Bob just slowly backed away until he could get some room, then started hauling ass through the forest. Mind you, this is a pretty thick forest, it's getting dark, and you just ran across a 400 lb. black bear at 20 yards with nothing but a bow in your hand. Glad that wasn't me! In two days hunting, Bob had seen a wolf at 50 yards, a big bear at 20 yards, and two other bears at 100-150 yards. I think he was a little nervous going back in the woods on day three!

We all compared notes that night and weren't sure what to do. We heard several bulls at the top of the mountain, but they weren't coming down to the open areas like we thought they would, and we never got within a half mile. The conclusion was that if the elk wouldn't come down the hill to us, we'd just need to get started up that mountain before first light and see if we couldn't get up to the bulls before they quit bugling.

Wednesday, September 20. Mark and I went back to our glassing spot the next morning, but instead of waiting for first light there, we walked across the prairie and through the junipers to the base of the mountain before it got light. Then, as soon as we could see/hear which hillside the bulls were on, we went straight after them. By 8:00, I was within 50-100 yards of a big boy screaming his head off. Before NM, I had only heard a handful of bugles in my life, and certainly none were ever within 100 yards! This is what I came for!!! We heard/saw at least 10 bulls in this bowl we were in, all within about 1000 yards of us. It was awesome! I tried a few cow calls on that first one, but never got him to come, then he must have caught my wind as I heard him bust through the trees. I caught glimpses of several of the other bulls in the bowl, including one that had to be 350" plus. Now I just needed to figure out how to get closer to these buggers.

Around 9:00, several of the bulls stopped bugling, but there were still four going crazy toward the top of the mountain. I was concerned they were going to shut up at any time like they did the day before, but figured I had nothing better to do so I started the 1000 foot climb up the steep ridge to their right, figuring I might be able to get around and above them along the ridgeline and sneak back down the hillside to the elk with the wind in my face. Mark gave me a call shortly thereafter on the radio, then soon joined me in the climb. We're both in pretty good shape (I run 10-15 miles/week), but it still took us close to two hours to get to the top. But the four bulls were still screaming, and we could see them moving through the timber about 400 yards away. At least one of them was a real bruiser (we were guessing 350 class or so), and there were at least three other legal bulls that we could see. We stopped at the top of the mountain to eat a bite around noon.

Here's a pic of our lunch spot - some pretty awesome terrain.



After fueling, we then dropped off the backside of the hill to close the 400 yards to the elk. At about 12:30, we were right on top of them, and they were still screaming, less than 100 yards below the ridgeline we were on. Here we go!!!

Here's a pic from the top of the ridge - the hillside in front is the other side of the "bowl" we were hunting. Imagine 10 bulls bugling between here and there!



Mark and I spread out a bit on the ridgeline, and slowly started creaping down the hill. I moved slightly to my left toward the last place I heard a bugle, and just then I heard a huge roar at about 40 yards! I saw one cow move across the hill on a trail right below me, then another, then all I saw was big royal horns moving down that trail. It was pretty thick in there, so I didn't have a lane. The elk were walking fairly fast, so I moved quickly down a parallel trail, just figuring I'd try to stick with them until a lane presented itself. After about 100 yards down the trail, I spotted a lane and drew, letting my arrow fly as the big bull moved into the space. A bad shot - in all the hoopla of suddenly being in range of a huge bull, I never thought to stop him on the trail. Luckily, I also didn't take the downhill angle into account, and sailed the arrow over his back. Lesson learned. Luckily they didn't seem spooked by my errant shot.

I stopped for a minute to get my heartbeat back under 200 bpm, then moved back to the ridgeline to follow the direction the elk went. After a couple hundred hards, I heard another big roar close by from the big bull I had just shot at. I started moving back down the hill toward the bull when I noticed Mark to my right. Just then I looked down at my feet and saw a large pool of blood...did I actually connect with the big boy? I sure hoped not, since I knew it was a bad shot. Right then, Mark gave me this puzzled look then pointed to his right on the trail we were on. About 50 yards to his right, 75 yards from me, was a nice bull lying in our trail with his tail towards us and head pointed the opposite direction. The bull's chest was heaving - he was obviously not doing well. I put two and two together and realized Mark had just arrowed this bull and was just sitting there waiting for him to expire. Mark gave me a quick 5x5 signal. I gave him a return thumbs up, then motioned to the big bull that was now screaming within about 75 yards of us straight downhill. I was concerned about moving around Mark's dying elk so as not to push him. But Mark gave me a signal to get after the big guy, so I slowly and quietly worked my way downhill.

The big guy still had his two cows with him, and they were moving broadside in front of me at about 30 yards. Again, I didn't have a clear lane, so I moved a few feet to get into the best lane I could. Just then, the wind hit my back...I thought I was done. The bull stopped in his tracks behind a shrub and looked my way...all I could see was his huge royal rack. Probably the last thing I needed to be focused on! But he didn't spook, and after about a minute looking right at me, he slowly moved forward into my lane and stopped. I drew and let it fly...straight into a single small branch about 10 yards in front of him. The arrow riccocheted harmlessly into the woods, but this time the big guy spooked and bolted downhill. Two shots at the same huge bull in less than 20 minutes, and I'm 0 for 2. I sat down in my spot to catch my breath and absorb what just happened. My years of rifle hunting experience could find me the bulls and get me close. But my lack of archery experience was starting to show.

After taking a couple minutes to regroup, I realized that getting a second bull down on that mountain was not the best idea. So I pulled back and figured I better call it a day and go help Mark with his bull. We had a lot of work ahead of us. I headed back up the hill and found Mark. His bull had moved on down the trail a bit, but we picked up the blood trail and shortly thereafter found his dead bull at the top of the ridge. As the first big game archery kill for either of us, we were both absolutely stoked.

As we found him.



The traditional grip n grin.



After a brief celebration, it donned on us...holy christ, we've got a lot of work to do! We found Mark's bull at 3:00. Neither of us had ever had to quarter an animal in the woods and leave it overnight. By the time we got him gutted, skinned, quartered and hanging in a tree, it was 6:30. We loaded up the cape on his pack, I took all the loose meat I could, and we started down the mountain. At 8:30, an hour after dark, in the driving rain, we finally made it back to the truck and headed for camp.

To be continued...

Nice bull