New Mexico Elk unit 34
- Thread starter excaliber
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BOHNTR
Long Time Member
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excaliber:
There's good numbers in the unit but most bulls are in the 280-310" range from my experience. There's been a few up to 330" but they are rare. Definately not a trophy bull area, but there's plenty to hunt depending on what you're looking for. Call Mark Mattson at 505-624-6135 and he can give you updated information, as he's the biologist in charge of the unit. If you draw it, PM me and I can tell you of a few areas to check. Hope it helps.
BOHNTR )))------------->
There's good numbers in the unit but most bulls are in the 280-310" range from my experience. There's been a few up to 330" but they are rare. Definately not a trophy bull area, but there's plenty to hunt depending on what you're looking for. Call Mark Mattson at 505-624-6135 and he can give you updated information, as he's the biologist in charge of the unit. If you draw it, PM me and I can tell you of a few areas to check. Hope it helps.
BOHNTR )))------------->
A
ARTJR338
Guest
Excaliber;
I hunted unit 34 about six or seven years ago. My two freinds and I were picked for a muzzleloder hunt in 34. I hunted the southern part of the unit and I wish I could offer you more consice information, but I no longer have my topos from that unit. I will tell you what I remember and my over-all opinion and thoughts of unit 34 based on the two weeks I spent in it. At that time NM was allowing 200 ML bull permits for unit 34.
I will say although we thought at the time we had resurched this unit as well as possible, I now have a much better grasp on what type of questions to ask, and other sources of resurch info.
This was the first elk hunt for all of us, and we undoubtedly made some typical green-horn mistakes.
First off, the habitat in the part of the unit I(we) hunted in was comprised of a combination of quite dense pine forrest intersperced with aspen and lots and lots of oak scrub with few large open parks for glassing. I personally was not expecting this, and was more inclined to expect to be glassing parks for elk. The areas we found by looking at topo maps that looked like open parks good for glassing and locating elk, almost always were over run with oak scrub, making glassing difficult at best. In fact we found the area of the unit were we hunted vary, vary hard to glass at all, and what few open parks we could find EVERYBODY else also knew about.
There were also a few man made water tanks that we found that had alot of sign around them to indicate a good level of elk use, but again so did everybody else. The part of the unit where we hunted was heavly roaded, and we did run into two incidents where somone had locked forrest sevice gates that we knew (and lator confermed) should have been open, cutting off the only access we knew of to areas we wanted to hunt. We had checked weeks in advance to determine which roads would be open or closed, and were worned this might indeed happen. Looking back on it now I wish I had brought along my 36" bolt cutters, especially since we were worned.
We did utilize on two seperate occasions, actual fire watch towers as a means to climb up in to hear bull elk bugle, and we did at both towers, but unfortunately the parks made visable to us by the towers were much to far away to be possible to hunt.
We did see and hear a fair number of bull elk in the six days we spent pre-scouting the unit, but only two that we felt confident would have gone 300". As a matter of fact my friend hunted a bull he had previously located on opening morning, but unfortunately someone beat him to the bull. My freind felt that bull was approaching but not over a 300" 6x6.
The best bull I saw was a 6x6 that easly would have gone 300", but it saw me as I saw him and his cows and made it into the tree before I could shoot. I did see elk every day I hunted, as did both my freinds. On the second to the last day of the five day hunt, we went back to the area I had killed a small 4x4 in, as I had heard other bulls bugling as I packed my bull out.
As the sun started to rise my freinds were chewing me out for not paying closer attention as to were I had heard the elk bugling, when we noticed some elk in a field on private property. Opon immediate inspection with owr binos we spoted an absolutely huge 5x5 that would easly surpass 300". Long story short,after a two hour chase, got within (confermed with laser RF) 200 yards, but my friend was breathing so heavy, he could not make the shot.
In the end I was the only one who took home a bull, and that was more from luck than anything else, as I was sitting on a old jeep trail resting away the afternoon, and at around 3:30 PM let loose a bugle and low and behold a bull bedded about 200 yards farhter up the hill away from me answered, got up and charged down hill, jumped into the jeep trail I was sitting on walked to within 70 or so yards and I shot him. He went about 60 yrds before he piled up.
I must also tell you that I had my first experience with USO outfitters while I was in unit 34. What I am about to say is the absolute truth with no embellishment on my part what so ever.
My freinds and I thought it vary strange that we kept seeing USOs small plains flying all over the unit every single day we were in it, both while scouting and hunting.Thay were flyimg so low and slow infact, we could easly make out the pilots faces. You can draw you own conclusions, but as far as I am concerned unless thay were involved in a surch and rescue operation (thay werenot I lator checked)ther can be only one possible reasion for flying that low and slow before and durring the open season. We lator found out much to our utter dismay that USO had rented a large home not far from where we were hunting as thier base of opperations. We ran into and spoke to several residents that told us that the so called "word" was out thet George Tullman and USO was in this part of the unit, so there "must" be some BIIIIG bulls here. I swear at least half of the permit holders for unit 34 were in the part of the unit I hunted in. We were able to recignize USOs planes from the pictures of same from the USO broshure we all received. As it turns out N.M./G&F sells the address of all who are successfull in their elk/big game draws to various outfitters like USO.
Both my friend and I ran into a USO guide as well as his hunter he was guiding. I will say the giudes were polite and seemed like good people, I will add though after my friend and I talked to the guides we were amaized to learn that neither one had spent any time scouting the unit prior to opening day, and as a matter of fact we had spent more time in the unit than thay had prior to opening day. We learned this by asking where the guides were from and how long thay had lived or guided in the area. Thay were nice enough to tell us about good areas we already knew of up north by the indian reservation.
When we put in for and drew unit 34 it had draw odds of 1 in 3. I may be wrong but I now think its draw odds are like 1 in 30.
My opinion of unit 34 is as fallows.
It has the potential to be a good unit, but I strongly feel that unless you are a local who can spend alot of time pre-seasion scouting, or know of a area in unit 34 that has good bulls, but in not well known, it would be quite hard to take a bull in or above the 300" class. The area north of where we hunted bordering on the inian reservation was suposed to be quite good according to a wildlife biologist by the name of Caldwalter(sp?)but we failed to spend any time up there. The area where we hunted is as I said heavly roaded with both roads passable by 4x4 truck and lots of secondary jeep trails passable with a quad. Speeking of quads, If I remember correctly, all of these secondary jeep trails were suposed to be closed to quad use, but unfortunately few if any of the people we saw who owned quads were repecting this law and were riding their quads all over the closed trails. As a matter of fact the vary first bull elk I ever hunted in my life I located by calling and he was actually comming to my call and I could see the bull through the pines off in the distence as I was trying to close to within ML range, was spooked off by some f**#@@g idiot who thought he could just some how come roaring up on his quad and magically not scare off the bull. I dont know what the law for unit 34 is concerning quads or ATVs, but thay were most definately a problem while I was there. I am probably exzagerating a little here, but quads just seemed to be all over the place.
I would not put in for this again unit as a non-resident or would not recammend it to anyone who is not INTIMATELY familure with this unit because:
<>IMHO, unit does not have a good enough (at least when I hunted it) trophy potential, in that I meen I dont realisticlly have at least a 50% chance of taking a 300" or better bull durring its vary short five day seasion. Now as I said previously, if a person has some great totaly reliable inside info about this unit, than by all means put in for it. And seeing as N.M/G&F has not reduced the NO# of bull tags since i hunted it, I dont see how the trophy potential could have dramaticlly improved.
<>To heavly roaded, to much vehical acess, but quads pose far more of a problem than do trucks, if situation is the same as when I hunted there.
<>
<>There are other units that have simmilar odds that have better trophy potential.
<>The area of the unit where I hunted does not lend itself well to spot and stalk, which is probubly the best way to hunt elk, at least for a non-res. As I said, this may not be true of other areas, but all our resurched pointed to this area.
<>To much hunting pressure for a so called limited entry bull elk hunt, but that may also mean other areas are better as I hunted a rather small part of the unit.
Bottom line:
I would not hunt this unit again knowing now what I know about both elk hunting and unit 34, nore wouldrecammend this unit to anyone, especially a non-res like me. If you truely have your heart set on putting in for this unit email me at artjr338@wmconnect I will talk to my friend who also resurched this unit to see if he remembers more about it than I do. Im not promising he will, but he might. Lastly, if you do put in I strongly recammend you #1 stay away from the part of the unit that has the most access, and #2 get in the unit so you have at least seven full days in which to scout.
I would also call NM and ask who the game bios are, thay were as friendly and helpfull to us as we had a rite to expect. Thay will also be able to tell you all you want to know about elk no#s and trophy potential.
Hope this was helpfull.
Best of luck,Art.
I hunted unit 34 about six or seven years ago. My two freinds and I were picked for a muzzleloder hunt in 34. I hunted the southern part of the unit and I wish I could offer you more consice information, but I no longer have my topos from that unit. I will tell you what I remember and my over-all opinion and thoughts of unit 34 based on the two weeks I spent in it. At that time NM was allowing 200 ML bull permits for unit 34.
I will say although we thought at the time we had resurched this unit as well as possible, I now have a much better grasp on what type of questions to ask, and other sources of resurch info.
This was the first elk hunt for all of us, and we undoubtedly made some typical green-horn mistakes.
First off, the habitat in the part of the unit I(we) hunted in was comprised of a combination of quite dense pine forrest intersperced with aspen and lots and lots of oak scrub with few large open parks for glassing. I personally was not expecting this, and was more inclined to expect to be glassing parks for elk. The areas we found by looking at topo maps that looked like open parks good for glassing and locating elk, almost always were over run with oak scrub, making glassing difficult at best. In fact we found the area of the unit were we hunted vary, vary hard to glass at all, and what few open parks we could find EVERYBODY else also knew about.
There were also a few man made water tanks that we found that had alot of sign around them to indicate a good level of elk use, but again so did everybody else. The part of the unit where we hunted was heavly roaded, and we did run into two incidents where somone had locked forrest sevice gates that we knew (and lator confermed) should have been open, cutting off the only access we knew of to areas we wanted to hunt. We had checked weeks in advance to determine which roads would be open or closed, and were worned this might indeed happen. Looking back on it now I wish I had brought along my 36" bolt cutters, especially since we were worned.
We did utilize on two seperate occasions, actual fire watch towers as a means to climb up in to hear bull elk bugle, and we did at both towers, but unfortunately the parks made visable to us by the towers were much to far away to be possible to hunt.
We did see and hear a fair number of bull elk in the six days we spent pre-scouting the unit, but only two that we felt confident would have gone 300". As a matter of fact my friend hunted a bull he had previously located on opening morning, but unfortunately someone beat him to the bull. My freind felt that bull was approaching but not over a 300" 6x6.
The best bull I saw was a 6x6 that easly would have gone 300", but it saw me as I saw him and his cows and made it into the tree before I could shoot. I did see elk every day I hunted, as did both my freinds. On the second to the last day of the five day hunt, we went back to the area I had killed a small 4x4 in, as I had heard other bulls bugling as I packed my bull out.
As the sun started to rise my freinds were chewing me out for not paying closer attention as to were I had heard the elk bugling, when we noticed some elk in a field on private property. Opon immediate inspection with owr binos we spoted an absolutely huge 5x5 that would easly surpass 300". Long story short,after a two hour chase, got within (confermed with laser RF) 200 yards, but my friend was breathing so heavy, he could not make the shot.
In the end I was the only one who took home a bull, and that was more from luck than anything else, as I was sitting on a old jeep trail resting away the afternoon, and at around 3:30 PM let loose a bugle and low and behold a bull bedded about 200 yards farhter up the hill away from me answered, got up and charged down hill, jumped into the jeep trail I was sitting on walked to within 70 or so yards and I shot him. He went about 60 yrds before he piled up.
I must also tell you that I had my first experience with USO outfitters while I was in unit 34. What I am about to say is the absolute truth with no embellishment on my part what so ever.
My freinds and I thought it vary strange that we kept seeing USOs small plains flying all over the unit every single day we were in it, both while scouting and hunting.Thay were flyimg so low and slow infact, we could easly make out the pilots faces. You can draw you own conclusions, but as far as I am concerned unless thay were involved in a surch and rescue operation (thay werenot I lator checked)ther can be only one possible reasion for flying that low and slow before and durring the open season. We lator found out much to our utter dismay that USO had rented a large home not far from where we were hunting as thier base of opperations. We ran into and spoke to several residents that told us that the so called "word" was out thet George Tullman and USO was in this part of the unit, so there "must" be some BIIIIG bulls here. I swear at least half of the permit holders for unit 34 were in the part of the unit I hunted in. We were able to recignize USOs planes from the pictures of same from the USO broshure we all received. As it turns out N.M./G&F sells the address of all who are successfull in their elk/big game draws to various outfitters like USO.
Both my friend and I ran into a USO guide as well as his hunter he was guiding. I will say the giudes were polite and seemed like good people, I will add though after my friend and I talked to the guides we were amaized to learn that neither one had spent any time scouting the unit prior to opening day, and as a matter of fact we had spent more time in the unit than thay had prior to opening day. We learned this by asking where the guides were from and how long thay had lived or guided in the area. Thay were nice enough to tell us about good areas we already knew of up north by the indian reservation.
When we put in for and drew unit 34 it had draw odds of 1 in 3. I may be wrong but I now think its draw odds are like 1 in 30.
My opinion of unit 34 is as fallows.
It has the potential to be a good unit, but I strongly feel that unless you are a local who can spend alot of time pre-seasion scouting, or know of a area in unit 34 that has good bulls, but in not well known, it would be quite hard to take a bull in or above the 300" class. The area north of where we hunted bordering on the inian reservation was suposed to be quite good according to a wildlife biologist by the name of Caldwalter(sp?)but we failed to spend any time up there. The area where we hunted is as I said heavly roaded with both roads passable by 4x4 truck and lots of secondary jeep trails passable with a quad. Speeking of quads, If I remember correctly, all of these secondary jeep trails were suposed to be closed to quad use, but unfortunately few if any of the people we saw who owned quads were repecting this law and were riding their quads all over the closed trails. As a matter of fact the vary first bull elk I ever hunted in my life I located by calling and he was actually comming to my call and I could see the bull through the pines off in the distence as I was trying to close to within ML range, was spooked off by some f**#@@g idiot who thought he could just some how come roaring up on his quad and magically not scare off the bull. I dont know what the law for unit 34 is concerning quads or ATVs, but thay were most definately a problem while I was there. I am probably exzagerating a little here, but quads just seemed to be all over the place.
I would not put in for this again unit as a non-resident or would not recammend it to anyone who is not INTIMATELY familure with this unit because:
<>IMHO, unit does not have a good enough (at least when I hunted it) trophy potential, in that I meen I dont realisticlly have at least a 50% chance of taking a 300" or better bull durring its vary short five day seasion. Now as I said previously, if a person has some great totaly reliable inside info about this unit, than by all means put in for it. And seeing as N.M/G&F has not reduced the NO# of bull tags since i hunted it, I dont see how the trophy potential could have dramaticlly improved.
<>To heavly roaded, to much vehical acess, but quads pose far more of a problem than do trucks, if situation is the same as when I hunted there.
<>
<>There are other units that have simmilar odds that have better trophy potential.
<>The area of the unit where I hunted does not lend itself well to spot and stalk, which is probubly the best way to hunt elk, at least for a non-res. As I said, this may not be true of other areas, but all our resurched pointed to this area.
<>To much hunting pressure for a so called limited entry bull elk hunt, but that may also mean other areas are better as I hunted a rather small part of the unit.
Bottom line:
I would not hunt this unit again knowing now what I know about both elk hunting and unit 34, nore wouldrecammend this unit to anyone, especially a non-res like me. If you truely have your heart set on putting in for this unit email me at artjr338@wmconnect I will talk to my friend who also resurched this unit to see if he remembers more about it than I do. Im not promising he will, but he might. Lastly, if you do put in I strongly recammend you #1 stay away from the part of the unit that has the most access, and #2 get in the unit so you have at least seven full days in which to scout.
I would also call NM and ask who the game bios are, thay were as friendly and helpfull to us as we had a rite to expect. Thay will also be able to tell you all you want to know about elk no#s and trophy potential.
Hope this was helpfull.
Best of luck,Art.
BOHNTR, ART,
Thanks for all the info. I'm very impressed with all your info.
Art , thanks for taking the time to write such an informative post.
You guys seem to have hit the nail on the head. I've talked to a couple others and they say the same things about the unit.
I've been told that there are better units to try to draw. I was seeing lot's of stuff on the unit and was wondering why it was HD as fas as Elk hunting goes. I guess there are lots of Bulls.
I'm a non res. and I think I'll try to stay in the 15,16 17 areas. I think I'd rather have a chance at a really nice bull if I were lucky enough to draw.
Thanks
Thanks for all the info. I'm very impressed with all your info.
Art , thanks for taking the time to write such an informative post.
You guys seem to have hit the nail on the head. I've talked to a couple others and they say the same things about the unit.
I've been told that there are better units to try to draw. I was seeing lot's of stuff on the unit and was wondering why it was HD as fas as Elk hunting goes. I guess there are lots of Bulls.
I'm a non res. and I think I'll try to stay in the 15,16 17 areas. I think I'd rather have a chance at a really nice bull if I were lucky enough to draw.
Thanks
