I just got back from my first elk hunt this past week. As with most of my hunting and fishing adventures, I missed the weather and bulls by a week.

I was hunting with Bull Valley Outfitters in unit 45. After a few short hours into the hunt, I quickly found out that elk hunting is no joke. Each day we would ride about 17 miles on mules and sometimes walk another 4 miles or so. The weather was warm and windy the first few days and then it got cold and windy the last two days. Wes tried like heck to get us on them, but I think the conditions were too much to overcome. We did manage to see a couple of nice bulls but they were gone in a flash. I did see a number of nice mule deer and one giant black bear. None the less it was a great experience and I can't wait to go back.

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing.

Sounds like an awesome experience!

Finding elk is hard

Finding shooter bulls is hard

Then being in the right spot with the right wind and being able to get a good shot then execute that shot is even harder!

I'm guessing this isn't your last elk hunt!

Cool! we hunted with Wes in September and had good success in archery season but definitely some luck involved and timing, etc.

Was this late season rifle? Out of IronGate ? How many were in camp with you ?

Got a bull with Wes during muzzleloader season in 2019. He hunts a beautiful area up there. Is Straight still guiding with him?

Yep, which trailhead did you pack in from?

He had a fella named Billy with him this year


OP I'm wondering the details for hunt since were considering putting in for rifle w Wes next year too

Billy was with him this year. He was a great guy to be around. We ended up camping at the stables since Wes said the elk had started to move down from the high elevation camp. A few days we went the Iron Gate direction and then a few days we went straight across from camp back in the direction of Grass Mountain. This was second season of rifle. It was just the two in my party for the camp. There were a few other hunters packed in by the stables but we never saw anyone. I would imagine we were riding past where most people could walk. I couldn't imagine being on foot and trying to pack a bull out on my back where we ending up riding.

Very cool.
Are you putting in again next year ? Was there a reason y'all went for rifle2 over other seasons out of curiosity ?

I will probably put in for muzzleloader next season. Second rifle was my third option and that's what I got. I put in for muzzleloader and first rifle as options 1 and 2. You really just don't know. It could have been better second rifle but it's just a crap shoot on what the conditions will be. Sounds like they got extremely lucky on muzzleloader this year and the bulls literally almost ended up in their camp when they were eating lunch. They grabbed their gear and shot two bulls back to back a few hundred yards from camp.

Wes also hunts a few units closer to Ruidoso that I might try for as well. He said they tend to get some bigger bulls in that area. I would have been happy with anything being my first hunt.

One thing I didn't do a good job of was planning for the grass to be as tall as it was. My bipod didn't extend high enough to get over the grass and you can see the sticks he made me in the photos above. My buddy and I shot in Las Vegas, NM before heading to camp and I was sub 1/2 MOA out to 350, so I felt pretty good about my setup. There were a few spots we setup where I would have needed to be ready to shoot out to about 530 yards. Having shot my rifle enough at distance, I felt pretty good about doing it.

Very cool. Yeah we tagged out 3/3 on archery1, he didn't have hunters for archery 2 and sounds like went 2/2 muzzle loader and 1/1 on rifle 1. Suck y'all didn't get on em but it's a great area and they know what they're doing ! Looks like Wes is fairly popular on this board !

We might put in for archery 2 and rifle1 for next year.

What kind of hunt is it? I couldn't tell from his website if it was wall tent, backpack tent, cabin or motel style

Elk archery1 thru rifle1 is back country horse ride out of tents (like a hybrid wall tent with a floor and a wood burning stove.
It's fairly low key with meals but they do some mountain house meals and cook a few meals like steak/pork chops and potatoes etc.

About a four hour ride from the stables.
Sounds like rifle2 is out of camp at their stables which is like a mile or less from the trailhead.

I believe my understanding is His antelope and muley hunts are out of cabins in other areas of NM further south. And he does bear/lion hunts with dogs and those are day hunts

Great photos. Thanks for posting.

I've not done a guided out west hunt. What, if anything, happens when clients don't get on an animal? Outfitter offer any kind of discount to return in future years? Or this is just part of the deal.

Just part of it

Same for most all types?

Meaning you drop $35K to hunt sheep in NWT and weather craps you out, no shots, no chances, etc. It's just well sorry, thanks for the $35 thousand, wanna book again?

Half the hunters in both elk hunts I have done haven't even seen elk....no talk of refunds or discounts

Never been sheep hunting

He will pack in to the mountain camp if the weather and animals dictate it. As previously mentioned that is about a 4 hour ride past the iron gate. It's a big tent like the one below. I don't think he typically stays at the stables but he thought that offered us the best chance of finding animals. Everywhere we went there were animal signs all over the place. I think they were feeding at night with the moon and temperatures.

He was telling us about the early archery hunt. That sounded like a pretty fortunate hunt to stick 4 bulls. I don't think he was feeding us a line of garbage but he said those early hunts were pretty easy to get on the bulls.

Same last week in Colorado first season rifle.

Full moon and cold temps had the elk moving up and down the mountain at night....we shot our 3 bulls all within 30 minutes of sun down

Beautiful country.

My FIL lives in Ruidoso. I have seen some big bulls, in his yard.

TikkaShooter said:

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Same for most all types?

Meaning you drop $35K to hunt sheep in NWT and weather craps you out, no shots, no chances, etc. It's just well sorry, thanks for the $35 thousand, wanna book again?

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I don't know about 35K hunts,

But I've hunted with guys and struck out before. Not usually any sort of discount offered.

Great outfitters will own it (instead of explaining 100 times why it wasn't their fault), and then do everything they can to make sure you have a great time and get on them next time.

Rarely will a discount be offered, but I've heard of it.

Most outfitters will just chalk it up to being "part of it", which it is. But sometimes they leave you with a deflated feeling, and I don't book again with guys like that.

Yes, we were not offered a discount and I didn't expect one. You are hunting on public land on a later rifle hunt. The guide was very apologetic and said this was one of the worst trips he has experienced outside of blizzard like conditions. You could tell he knows the area very well and just scratching his head over not seeing more animals. On the last evening, I had a cow show up about 45 minutes before dark. He was getting excited because he thought it was getting ready to be on. That was the only elk to come out. He said that was completely uncharacteristic of this time of year. He said you would normally have a number of cows if nothing else.

Not a line of crap on archery1. we saw bulls and two dozen cows the first night of scouting within 1/4 mi of camp. Heard bugles all night for 2 nights straight In camp.
Hunter 1 shot a bull that was Unrecovered night 1 of hunt, I drew on a bull that winded us night 1.
me and the hunter 1 both killed bulls night 2. Then the last guy killed his 2 mornings later. He also passed on a small 5x5 the day before.
3/3 but could've been 4/4.

It was perfectly lined up whether it's with moon phase (new moon on night 2) , cold weather at nights with frost on ground, rutting activity, or just the overall location of bulls in the area.