Had my Valles Caldera hunt this week!

Drove up there Wednesday for the orientation that evening. The wildlife biologist gave a presentation and talked about the elk population and gave some stats about the population over the years. He also went over the changes this year and the regulations. This year was different in that they didn't split up the preserve into units so everyone could hunt everywhere. They also had some areas closed off to hunting and a lot of people there seemed upset about that. I found it interesting that so many of the people there had hunted there several times. This was the 8th hunt for one of these guys that was up there. Also it sounded like quite a few of the people had houses in towns very close to the preserve. Not sure how random the drawing really is or how I managed to get drawn.

The other big change this year is all of the roads were closed to driving except for the main road going up the middle of the preserve and another main road going across the northern portion. All other roads were supposed to be closed to driving. This didn't stop everyone though and it was frustrating walking far away and then having people blast by in a truck. Some of them were employees or loggers but some were also hunters.

I brought my dad along as my guest and we camped in the SW part of the preserve. We figured most of the others hunters were going to spend most of the time driving up and down the main road so we chose to hunt closer to camp and away from the main road. We did some scouting Thursday but didn't see any elk. Just some tracks and some mule deer.

Friday was the first day of actual hunting and we decided to go up to a meadow that was a good 2-3 mile hike from the gate we parked at. We hiked from first light until 9:15 and didn't see a thing. We stopped to rest and figure out what to do next and all of a sudden there was a crashing sound and a bunch of cow elk started coming down the mountain right next to us. I watched them for a few seconds though my scope and took a shot at the first one that turned sideways. We weren't sure if I hit anything but we walked over to where they were and found a lot of blood. Then a few dozen yards up the mountain we found the cow I had shot. The gun I used was a PSA PA-10 that I put together with the intention of taking hunting. It worked great!

Nice!

Congrats.

Good job. When is the tradional success BBQ?  You know the one where you invite the Hometown Forum over for dinner?

MAHA

Nicely done!!!!!  The cow elk hunts on the Caldera are not easy.  Sounds like you did it the right way.  How was the pack out?

It would have been brutal but a miracle happened. We boned out the meat and my dad headed back to the truck to drop off our packs and come back and he ran into a woman with a university truck and they came back and we loaded up the meat and she drove us to the gate where our truck was. If it hadn't been for her we probably wouldn't have made it back before dark.

Sometimes things just work out right.  Enjoy the elk meat.