reddogwi

I am interested in hunting unit 15 in NM. I will be in the draw again this year and would like to get up to speed on the area if lucky enough to draw. I had contact with an electrician in Arizona that guides there, but lost the contact info. He lives just across the border from unit 15. Does anyone know him? Anyone have suggestions for hunting the area?

HatchieLuvr

I hunted there in 1998. (Was a primitive weapons only unit & had been for years previous, still that way?) I hunted with Mick Chapel in Quemado. http://www.nmtrophyhunts.com/ If I recall correctly (which is seldom with my terminal CRS) the dates were Oct 16-20 & for the "Gila monsters" the rut was already over & they had gone back up top & left the lowlands to the cows & rag horns.

The night before the first hunt my guide (a young Indian from Reserve who I believe now operates his own service with his brothers) asked me if I was simply after a rag horn or did I come for a BRUTE? I told him I wanted a Gila monster! His reply was, "We'll then we'll hunt high, cover ALOT of ground & we won't see many elk because the giants have come & gone." As he's saying this we can hear raghorns screaming around the ranch in Micks wheatfields! He WAS RIGHT tho, everyone else hunted low, would see 30-40 elk per morn, more in the afternoon & everyone killed sub-300" bulls except one guy who killed a weird non-typical that grossed in the 340s & held the top spot for the "bull pot" that everyone chipped into, at the end of the 5 days the biggest bull took the pot.

By the end of day 3 I was discouraged, my stepbrother had killed a 280" 6x6 & most other guys in camp had killed but I had hardly seen anything after the first day! My guide PROMISED me that if we kept at it we WOULD see a giant. I'm glad I listened, on the last morning I took a 6x6 Gila Monster from near the "Spur Lake" region. (Nearly perfect! 368.xx" gross, 364.xx" net. His 4ths & 5ths are in the 20somethings) Needless to say we won the $800 Bull pot, I gave it to the guide. I let my stepbrothers guide take it home to Pine, AZ with him to mount as he also did taxidermy & I can't say enough about how much I STILL enjoy this trophy as it now hangs over the mantle in my lodge at my farm.

We only encountered 2 other hunters out there during that week as well. I have NO idea what the tag numbers then vs now are tho. It truly is PRIME big bull territory & is as close to AZ hunting as you will find without crossing the AZ state line! The guide & Mick both REALLY encouraged us to come back during bow season to experience the RUSH of having screaming Gila monsters in your face and several of them since they come down to rut in Sept. (I killed my bull at 25yds with a Knight 50cal after a lucky stalk only made possible by rain!) My 3kids are now teens & the oldest is 18 so college is coming. After a couple few more years I hope to return to area 15 with stick & string in hand!

HatchieLuvr

I let an elk guide & taxidermist in AZ mount my bull because I knew he had MUCH more experience with "his native animals " than any of the taxidermists here in TN. (Tho I know Johhny Hattaway in Mphs would've been GREAT! He mounts animals from all over the world & is 2nd generation. He did the 14pt on the left) my bulls mount is near 15yrs near old & it still looks great even after years of fluorescent lights while hanging in local outdoor stores until I built this house on my farm in 2011.