Hello
Back in 2003, my working partner had a November cow elk permit for Valle Vidal. I also had a cow elk permit too with the same hunt dates, but for unit 52 in Tres Piedras. After are hunts were over, my friend Matthew harvested 1 cow, plus he also had friends who had there own cow permits for Valle Vidal. They camped 9 miles apart from each other. Matthew told me that there was really nothing to brag about considering that Valle Vidal is supposed to be a very special place to hunt for elk, as in you draw a tag once, and once only. Matthew told me he ran into the elk on a mountain about 300 yards away from where he had walked.
His friend, quickly started shooting at the elk because he was excited, instead, he scared off the herd, & nobody was sucessfull in bagging an elk that day. Then the next day, Matt went for a walk again from his campsite & ran into the herd again at about 300 yards away. He was using a 270 Winchester with 165 grain nosler partition bullets. Matt knew he was dialed in at 150 yards, because he was able to shoot & break a bottle at that distance. But he had to take a 300 + yard shot. So he puts the crosshairs on the shoulder of the cow to make sure he hits the animal. Well, after 3 shots from the 270 Winchester with 165 grain nosler partition bullets, the Elk was finally down & dead. When all was over & done with, me & Matt met with each other at work after are hunting dates had expired. I shared my stories & he shared his. My story goes like this: On the last day of are Elk hunt, my brother & I were both using 300 Winchester magnums. My grandpa, now 70+ years old, was driving his truck down forest road #576 between 7 & 8 in the morning. I saw something like a lite colored stump at about 500 yards. I told my grandpa to stop the truck. I pulled out my gun to view what I saw with the naked eye through my scope, what I saw, was a nice big gigantic cow elk. It actually looked like it had a perm. Once I identified that it was indeed a cow elk, my brother got out of the truck to see what I was looking at with his rifle. Once he seen what I seen, he told me it looked like the elk had just had a perm. By the time my brother told me that, the elk knew we were on to them & they took off running. We never got a shot, not to mention that we though we had it in the bag, thinking we were gonna bring the 500 yard shot down to a 100 yard shot. When we got within the 100 yard range from where we saw the elk, there was no longer any elk, they were gone!!! Last time I was in Valley Vidal was about 15 years ago. What I can remember is, that there were many turkeys & deer. I can't remember if there were Elk, although another friend of mine said to me last winter that he could of shot Elk all day, as in, he had to stop his vehicle to let the elk pass. I do believe this occured after the Elk hunts were over in Valle Vidal, while there was still a deer hunt going on. Sergio also told me, that he could of shot a mule deer buck all day too, because it looked at his vehicle like it was a strange curious animal. Too make a long stort short, I recommend taking an atv or more to get to know the area at least up to 5 days before your hunt. If you can't do that, a topo map with a game plan usually helps! Remember, Elk like water, but they also like there privacy too!
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