desperatehills
Very Active Member
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- 1,383
I got the chance to go scout unit 34 for my upcoming muzzy elk hunt last weekend. I have spoke with a few MM'ers and as everyone told me there are elk pretty much everywhere. Bulls were talking till about 8 am then it was quiet till about 6 pm. As everyone told me killing a big bull will be a challenge. For the short time I was there I only saw one decent 6 point and a lot of 5 point bulls.
There were a few surprises. Holy smokes I have never seen so many campers. Anywhere near Cloudcroft there were huge camps. It was clear these are not hunting camps, just folks getting out of the heat. There must have been 500 people camped near the water fall. If I saw one motorcycle I saw 2000. Biker groups on every paved road.
Sunday afternoon it started to rain and WOW did it rain. I don't know how much but I bet it rained 2" in a hour. The roads turned into rivers. Luckily the road I was on had enough rock on it I was able to make it out to the pavement.
While searching out a new area I ran into a game warden, officer Smith, super good guy and very helpful. He was out installing road closure signs. He said they have a real issue with people using Onx to identify roads. Just because there is a line on Onx does not mean that road can be driven. He answered all my questions and even got his laptop out and showed me how to identify the ranches that are open for us to hunt through the eplus program. He did not draw me a map of where I could find a big bull but he did say the area I was looking at is where he hunted last year when he had the archery tag.
October 15th can not get here quick enough. I will head out on the 11th. Hopefully I can come back here with pictures and a story to tell.
There were a few surprises. Holy smokes I have never seen so many campers. Anywhere near Cloudcroft there were huge camps. It was clear these are not hunting camps, just folks getting out of the heat. There must have been 500 people camped near the water fall. If I saw one motorcycle I saw 2000. Biker groups on every paved road.
Sunday afternoon it started to rain and WOW did it rain. I don't know how much but I bet it rained 2" in a hour. The roads turned into rivers. Luckily the road I was on had enough rock on it I was able to make it out to the pavement.
While searching out a new area I ran into a game warden, officer Smith, super good guy and very helpful. He was out installing road closure signs. He said they have a real issue with people using Onx to identify roads. Just because there is a line on Onx does not mean that road can be driven. He answered all my questions and even got his laptop out and showed me how to identify the ranches that are open for us to hunt through the eplus program. He did not draw me a map of where I could find a big bull but he did say the area I was looking at is where he hunted last year when he had the archery tag.
October 15th can not get here quick enough. I will head out on the 11th. Hopefully I can come back here with pictures and a story to tell.
