adubs
Active Member
- Messages
- 100
We just got back to WI from our 2nd season archery hunt in the northern part of the state and we had a blast! I know NM takes a lot of heat especially from my fellow non residents but there is no doubt about it, they have plenty of animals once you're there! We weren't lucky enough to draw tags this year even using an outfitter so we purchased LO tags that didn't break the bank and headed out. Long story shortened up we chased bugling bulls mornings and evenings and a couple of days they hammered all day. We hunted a unit that had areas of pressure but after some map time we located an area with lots of bulls and not one other hunter. We ended our season with 4 bulls down out of 5 guys and the only guy who didn't actually punch his tag had more opportunities to do so than the rest of us in camp! The largest bull scored 304 and some change and the other 3 were satelite bulls. My soon to be 67 yr old father put his bull down with a 63 yard shot on the last day when a bull walked out in the meadow we were having a snack next to. (god is good!) We got that entire episode on my brothers iphone to add to it. We only saw one bull bigger than the 304 and had him as close as 70 yds but couldn't get it done. We guessed him around that 320-330 range. My brothers, brother in-law, killed the 304 at 17 yds on the first day at 1:30 in the afternoon. They called him in shortly after a rain shower had passed. I killed my sat' bull on the second day while calling with my two brothers to a herd bull and his cows. I just couldn't pass up the chip shot at 20yds ( that arrow went over his back b/c of the steep angle, he came back through at 70 yds and I double lunged him on that shot after using my 60yd setting). After arrowing my bull, I called for my oldest brother the last 5 days and we literally had bulls come running and crashing into our setups. We watched a 270ish 6pt breed a cow a few times less than 60 yds away and had 3 different occasions where at least 5 different bulls we bugling witin 150-200yds of us.
I just want to say thanks to the locals that stopped in to say hi and congrats to us while we were in camp. We never encountered a single problem with anyone during our hunt and will definitely be back in a few years. (will be burning points our 5 pts in Wyoming and 10 pts in CO first). The sad part is we know our 11 pts in Colorado won't get us nearly the hunt we just had in NM and we'll have over a decade of building pts there!!
Sincerely,
5 extremley satisfied WI archery elk hunters!
I just want to say thanks to the locals that stopped in to say hi and congrats to us while we were in camp. We never encountered a single problem with anyone during our hunt and will definitely be back in a few years. (will be burning points our 5 pts in Wyoming and 10 pts in CO first). The sad part is we know our 11 pts in Colorado won't get us nearly the hunt we just had in NM and we'll have over a decade of building pts there!!
Sincerely,
5 extremley satisfied WI archery elk hunters!