Searching for a Gila Monster

[Big Fin]

Well, we are back from New Mexico. My 17 year-old son, Matthew, had one of the youth elk tags for unit 16C. I went down a few days early to scout. It rained every day of scouting, but I did learn the lay of the land, though my eyes did not see any of the bulls I heard bugling.

Upon drawing the tag, Matthew had concluded he would not shoot anything, unless it bettered the elk he shot in MT in 2005. Topping that big bull would be a task. He stated he would rather come home with no elk, or shoot a cow for meat, rather than shoot a young bull.

View attachment 5374

It was his hunt and his tag, so no argument from me.

The other requirement for all of our hunts is to capture it on video. For those of you who have never tried it, it can be very difficult and adds an extra level of challenge that can be frustrating at times. I was in charge of the camera, mics, and the tripod.

View attachment 5375

He flew into ABQ the day before season. I made the four-hour trip to the airport the night earlier so I could pick him up late the following morning. We arrived in camp late that afternoon. We scouted that evening, and watched as the clouds left but were replaced by strong winds.

As was the pattern, nothing was spotted during that evening of scouting. We retired early, knowing we would be up and in the hills well before daylight.

 

[Big Fin]

Day One:

Day One:

For once, a weatherman was correct. The morning dawned with very strong winds. The forecast was for 50 mph, which may have been the case. Down in the canyons the wind was less, but the whistling of the trees made it very hard to hear much of anything.

Nothing spotted in the early morning.

Later in the morning, we walked into a large canyon with a big flat basin in the bottom. Our intent was to check a water tank at the bottom of the canyon and see what sign existed.

Well, as you can see in the attached video clip, the sign was really fresh.





Matthew passed on this guy. He could have shot him many times, but who wants to end a hunt by 10 am the first morning? Me! Not a bad bull, and when I was a teenage, the air would have been thick with lead.

We spent the rest of the day searching for areas out of the wind. No luck. By noon, we were at camp grabbing a snack and taking a nap, hoping the wind would subside.

Later the first afternoon, we walked into another waterhole where I had heard a lot of bugling while scouting. As we walked in, we looked for a good place to set-up out of the wind. While looking for a good location, we spotted this guy leaving the tank. When we first spotted him, he was just leaving the tank. I told Matthew to hold off until I got the camera and tripod ready for a shot.



As you can see, by the time I got set-up, the bull had worked his way a hundred yards up the hill in the timber. This was a very nice bull. Matthew stated he would not have shot him, unless we had world-class footage, as he thought it was smaller than what he was looking for, though still a very nice bull. I estimated this bull to be in the 320” range. Wish I could have gotten the camera set-up before he got into the timber, allowing you to get a better look of him.

This is all we saw that evening. The wind continued to howl and we heard no bugles. We hit the sack before 9 pm, ready for day two.

 

[Big Fin]

Day Two:

Day Two:

In the morning darkness, it sounded as though the bulls were making up for lost time due to yesterday’s strong winds. Listening to many bugles, we chose the one that sounded the meanest and headed up the ridge to try intercept him on the way to his bed. In the thick timber, we could hear him real close. We tried to call him closer to the edge of an opening where we could get some decent footage. He declined our invitation.

We hoofed it up the ridge, hoping to get ahead of them again. They outdistanced us. In the process, we did encounter a 6X1 and a spike that seemed to be following along, hoping for some leftovers. No time to get footage of them in the thick timber.

We decided to let the bull and his cows bed for the day, hoping we could get on them in the afternoon, once they left their beds.

The afternoon was spent napping in the shade.

Early afternoon found us heading back to the ridges, hoping to intercept them as they came down lower to fee and water. We heard only one vocal bull. He was one ridge north of where we expected the elk to come down. We got there as fast as we could and found this guy leading his cows down the hill. I told Matthew the footage would not be real good. Again, he decided something bigger was more to his liking.



After all, this was day two of a five-day hunt.

This is all we heard and saw that evening. The evening seemed very quite. Not sure why, but didn’t hear much, even while walking out in the dark.

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Getting late, so I will finish with Days 3-5 tomorrow.

 

[IdahoBugler]

Great video and looks like a great hunt. I can't wait for the outcome.

 

[sturge]

Pretty awesome thus far!!!! Will you adopt me?

 

[Moosie]

Nice.... And he's always SMiling in the pictures, jsut like last year. Nice play by play !!!! Whether he gets one or not, Congrats !!

 

[MarvB]

Matthew has got some kind of patience...that bull in the last vid would have been hanging in camp! Great story and vids so far guys!! Thanks.

 

[LSUbengal]

Awsome footage Big Fin........

 

[Big Fin]

Day Three

Day Three:

Again, we drove to the same spot where we had heard all the bugling on day two. The truck thermometer read 21F and the air was cold and crisp.

Instantly, we heard three bulls in the canyon below us. One was very vocal. We set-up and made a few calls. Instantly, I could here him trotting towards us.

Matthew dropped the bipod and readied for a shot. You can see the results in the clip below.



What a great start to the morning. This 5x6 was not quite what Matthew was looking for, even if at 25 yards. The footage would have been great, but we were hearing too much bugling and needed to investigate the other noisemakers.

One was on the same ridge as the bull the previous morning, heading the same direction. We had about a half-mile loop to get ahead of them. We hustled, but were not sure where he went. We had not heard him in over 45 minutes. I made a squeaky bugle, hoping a spike sound would piss him off. It worked.

He had already got ahead of us, but was only about four hundred yards up the ridge. For whatever reason, he continued to bugle, allowing us to get a fix on his location.

We slowly, and I mean slowly, crept up the ridge as he continued to bugle. Within twenty minutes, I could see two of his cows feeding ahead of us. We stopped. As you can see by the footage below, he came walking right toward us.



Before you draw conclusions about the footage, let me explain how I frigged this up for Matthew. He wanted to shoot this bull. This bull was a big 6X6 with an 8”-10” cheater coming his driver’s side, right where the G5 splits from the main beam. Though he was somewhat narrow, he had really long main beams and long G1-G4s.

We had the camera set-up, the footage, though dim in the dark timber, would have been good. And, the elk had no idea we were there.

From where I was, two trees blocked his vitals. Matthew was off to my left a few yards. I assumed the trees blocked his shooting lane. They did not, as he told me afterwards. The bull was 151 yards away. Matthew had a 300 Win. Mag with the bipod giving a rock steady rest.

Since the cows were grazing undisturbed, I was sure he would turn and give a better shot. As he walked to our right, he was coming right into a bigger opening and at the last second, turned and walked straight away from us.

Could Matthew have smoked him from the straight on shot he had? I am sure he could have, and that he would have. Being an obedient young man, he listed to his dumb ass old man. That cost him a great shot at a whopper bull.

After the bull left, we talked about what happened. Matthew told me he was a second away from pulling the trigger, when I told him to hold off. I told him I was worried about the trees, to which he informed me, were not in his way. My bad. Big time bad!

I would have been sooooooooooooooo pissed at my old man if he had screwed me out of a bull like that. Matthew just smiled and commented that the hunt was only half over and given the vocalness of the bulls, we should have no problems.

What a great kid. Glad he didn’t decide to shoot me.

We spent the rest of the day strategizing on how we would catch up to this big guy. We waited below where we last had heard him bugle. By dark, nothing had happened. Even as we walked out in the dark, we heard nothing.

Back to camp. I was borderline suicidal. How the hell could I have messed up that opportunity? All because I was too worried about not having a completely broadside shot.

Sorry Matthew (for the ten thousandth time)! |oo

 

[Big Fin]

Day Four

Day Four:

Given the results of day three, we were right back in the same spot before daylight. We listened, but heard nothing. It was really quiet. Not sure why, but some mornings, they were screaming and at other times they seem to have disappeared.

Way below, we finally heard a bull bugling and getting closer. I suspected they were coming to water at the tank below our position. We snuck down the ridge and waited above the tank.

It didn’t take very long and I spotted a cow coming right toward us. As you see, she smelled us and darted away. I could make out another cow walking the direction the first cow had run.

The bugling was getting really close. I tried to move to a point where the oak and pines would give me a window through which to video.

Matthew was at the ready. I will let you see from the footage below, what happens.



Matthew was fine with passing this bull. He was a smallish 6x6, and Matthew had him dead to rights at 245 yards, while I tried to get around the tree blocking my video angle. Unfortunately, it was not the big guy we had chased the day before.

We stayed in this area the rest of the morning and heard nothing. I was afraid we had pushed the big bull too hard and he had moved elsewhere.

We went back to camp to grab a snack and a nap. There was an area about ten miles away where, during my scouting, I had heard the best afternoon bugling activity, so we decided that would be a better afternoon option, as our favorite morning spot has been dead in the afternoons.

The road into this new spot is unbelievably rough. Matthew got out to video me climbing the truck over the boulder pile that stood in our way. He pointed down the canyon to our east, indicating he had heard a bugle. It was 3:00 in the afternoon, so I assumed this was another hunter. We decided to stop and listen.

This was not another hunter. We heard three different bulls and they all decided it was time to “strike up the band.” We parked the truck, grabbed the packs and gear, and headed across the canyon to the noise.

In short order, we were halted by the presence of a group of cows. Five cows and not a bull in sight. What the hell? During the rut, cows = bulls nearby, right?

The bulls were on the small ridge above and it sounded like they were sorting out who had first dibs on the girls. These cows grazed in front of us for over half an hour while the bulls screamed a few hundred yards away.

Eventually, we looped around the cows and got downwind of the bulls. It was so thick. We could smell them. We could hear the shouting match and it was only a couple hundred yards away, if that. We tried to get closer. An hour later and we had moved a few hundred yards, as had the bulls, maintaining the same distance from us. We decided to get aggressive and get closer. As we did, three cows bolted from some timber 75 yards to our right.

The cows trotted up the ridge crest, taking one very big bull with them (only caught a glimpse, with no footage, but this guy was another shooter). We followed to the edge of a steep canyon. We listened as they crossed over the next ridge, shouting and singing as they went. No sense in trying to chase moving elk in this terrain, with diminishing shooting light. Better to try again tomorrow.

It was close to dark. We decided to head back to the truck, hoping to encounter a bull in the time left before dark. As you can see by the footage below, we did just that. The bull with this group is hard to see in the fading daylight. He is the one that comes from the right and stands under the big pine. A very nice 6X6.



Matthew wanted to shoot this bull. Not because he was that big, but because tomorrow was the last day. If not for fading light causing the footage be grainy, I would have gave him the go ahead. We set-up as though he was going to shoot, but with him having a slightly obstructed view and the limited light, we passed on this bull.

When we got back to camp that night, we were thoroughly beat. This new area was very steep and thick, and our bodies felt it.

 

[Big Fin]

Last Day

Day Five (Last day):

We did not sleep very well last night. A lightning storm kept us up most of the night. It had cleared by morning, but that didn’t help our sleep situation.

Since it was the last day, I told Matthew that the plan for the day was completely his decision. He liked how vocal the bulls were in the new location we hunted yesterday afternoon, so that was where he wanted to make his last stand.

In spite of the steepness and dark timber causing filming problems, we returned to the same ridge. It was very quiet. A few faint bugles were heard beyond the ridge where we left the bull last night. Having nothing else to chase, we headed that direction.

Upon reaching the ridge crest, we heard many bugles. Unfortunately, we had lost the best hour and a half of the day further down the canyon. We glassed in the direction of the bugles below and spotted a bull leading a herd of cows into the timber from an opening about a mile away.

Two other bulls were bugling in the timber below us and seemed closer. We opted for them.

We dropped off the ridge, trying to pick the more open approach that would provide a chance for shooting – both rifle and video. The closer we got, the less bugling we heard.

We stopped and listened. Absolutely silent now. We turned the direction from which we had last heard the closest bull, giving us a crosswind, unless he had circled above us, in which case it was a terrible wind.

Well, we never did catch up with those bulls.

We walked for an hour back to the truck, knowing one afternoon was left.

We certainly had our share of chances. Chances that would have been capitalized upon, if not for the additional challenge of getting the shot on video, and Matthew's personal goal of getting a bull that exceeded the one Matthew currently has on the wall.

That last afternoon, a huge thunderstorm rolled in, just after we had broken down our camp. Our original intent was to hunt that afternoon, though we had to get Matthew to the airport early the next morning.

It was around 3:00 pm, with clouds building and thunder in the distance. As we thought about the four hour drive to ABQ, how long it would take us to pack out a bull in any of the areas we been hunting, and the problems rain creates for video cameras and our own personal comfort (yup, we were being lazy by this point), we decided to head to town before the storm hit and get a shower and good night of sleep.

As we talked about Matthew’s hunt, we agreed it was one of the best times we had ever spent together. He had missed a week of school, but in doing so, had experienced more than a year of school could have provided.

We both swallowed hard and paused for a long time when I pointed out to Matthew that this was the last out of state hunt we would take together for a long time. He is a high school senior and will head off to college next year.

Though we will hunt together again, and hopefully have more of these great experiences, it will be different - probably much different. He will have the headache of a real job, responsibilities of a family, and I will be too frickin’ old to grunt those hills with the video equipment.

We have hunted every chance we have had. We always take one weeklong hunting trip and weeklong fishing trip every year. Our weekends and days off are spent doing the same.

Watching the last grains of sand pour from our hunting hourglass, I can only wish more of these special hunts laid ahead of us, yet take great happiness in the fact that we spent every possible minute doing these things together, knowing full well this day was coming.

Thanks to New Mexico for this great tag and the opportunity it presented. Thanks to those who helped.

And mostly, thanks to Matthew for not shooting a bull the first few days, as it would have shortened the hunt and cost us some very cherished days together.

No bull, but grand trophies in the memory bank!

View attachment 5393

 

[schmalts]

great job guys. You guys have great memories in the field.

 

[Spitz]

Sounds like a great outing. Some great goal setting and self control exhibited by your son, you should be proud.

 

[IdahoBugler]

I'm very impressed with you guys. You set a goal and stuck to your guns on trying to achieve them. Congrats to both of you and great video. Thanks for posting.

 

[T Bone]

Excellent hunt and reporting!

 

[MarvB]

Way to raise a fine young man Big Fin...congrats to you both and in staying with the plan you had decided on. That one bull was a pig alright!
Good luck in your future endeavors Matthew!

 

[Moosie]

A Mini IdahoBugler. Congrats !!!! that seems like one Heck of an trip. I know on most of the trips I go on it's the RIDE that I remember, not the end. SOunds like you guys had a great ride !!! thanx for the video clips, the great story and the time spent sharing it with us. Looking foward to your next trip as much as you guys are !!

 

[Buschy]

Big Fin,

Reading your posts over the last few years, it quickly becomes obvious that you and your son share a special bond. You are very fortunate. I am certain you will both find time to enjoy more hunts together during his time at college.

My son will turn eight this November and enjoys spending time with me in the outdoors as well. I look forward to experiencing similar hunting trips with him as he grows up.

Well done and thank you for including us on your hunts!!

Greg

 

[MNHunter]

Its not about the kill, it's the experience. Kudos to your boy. Don't worry, it is even easier to get away from school to hunt while in college. It's the chicks that will keep him out of the field!

 

[Hntnhrd]

About that big bull OUCCHHHH!! Your son is going to need councilling after that!!!
Just kidding sounds like you had more fun than anyone should have with an elk tag. Congrats. The meories and vidoe clips are worth more than a pile of bones.