I wish I had better news to share with everyone. As it turns out this tour in New Mexico was much like my earlier visit. We hunted this week on the same ranch that I had previously archery hunted and we saw very few elk. We weren't without opportunity however, as two out of the three hunters had chances on bulls. I shared camp this week with David Dillon and Brad Yeomans from Gore, Kevin Sloan from Sitka, and Outdoor Writer and hunter Bob Robb.
Just when it seems like I'm about to slow down I find myself sitting in another airport headed on another adventure!
I'm headed back to the Gila area in New Mexico, this time to document a few rifle elk hunts for some friends of mine in the industry. It'll be more of a remote "business trip" of sorts with heads of some of the finest outdoor gear companies in the industry and writers onboard.
This is the same country I'd hunted back in September with a bow! Hopefully the boys will get a chance to catch up with Houdini or another great bull along the way!
I've made the annual pilgrimage to hunt antelope in Eastern Montana since I was a toddler. It's always been a family affair. I've hunted with both of my grandfathers, grandmothers, my parents, and my siblings. Many of my friends have harvested their first Antelope with me on the same piece of ground my family has been hunting for over 30 years. Returning from the 16 day Dall Sheep hunt, I was looking forward to something with a little flatter ground, and some country I knew by heart.
It's 9:15 pm Mountain time. Mark just called to tell me that Nate connected with his ram. They're quartering it and heading back to camp for the night. It's back to Lance's house tomorrow for a warm night's sleep. Great photos and videos to come!!
Mark called me from the satellite phone last night around 10pm to give me an update on their progress. Bad weather kept them out of the mountains for a few additional hours, but by yesterday morning, they were able to get up into the drainage they had planned on hunting. Glassing proved effective and two great rams were spotted. They watched the rams bed down and formalized a plan for the morning hunt. I have yet to hear any news, but it's still early there and I'm hopeful that good news is not far off.
A little after 10:00 PM I heard from Mark via satellite phone. They had just returned to camp. It was a long, but exciting day as they were able to get in close on the ram they had set their sights on stalking. It's more than a great animal and their plan is to continue to pursue it until the right opportunity presents itself.
The rains poured down hard during the night. At one point, Nate woke me up to tell me that we needed to move our gear from against the tent walls to keep from getting everything wet. I was still in a daze thanks to the comfortable night's sleep I was getting while sleeping on "the Badass Bobcats" sleeping pad, that we stole from Willie just in case we needed an extra. Turns out I grabbed the wrong pad from my mountain of sleeping pads in the closet at home...the one I brought had a hole and I failed to realize it until the first night out. Good thing Nate brought extras of everything!