Ep. 18: The Phelps Field Report - 9/15/2022

we've seen out there. What was your takeaway from this hunt, gl Like, what was the kind of the overarching theme? What do we see out there? Well, my first takeaway is is why can you do seven days of hiking and then and feel pretty darn good really and then wake up in a hotel and kind of feel like crap. That's a weird thing that we should get into at

some point, you know, early season New Mexico, where it's hot. Um, you know, coming from like the Montana, Idaho methodology of try to find where it's cool because that's where the rut action is going to start because nobody likes to work too hard when it's hot. M I always kind of come down here with the idea that it's gonna be tougher than you think it is, and you know, it was tough and the um like the social activity of the elk that we ran into. But it was

easy in the finding of the elk. So my attitude was great the whole time. And I was like, oh, yeah, this, how could it not happen? Yeah, we showed up. We were here two nights ahead. And then the night you showed up, we went scouting. You know, bulls are biggle and they were elk were easy to find, you know, and close to the road, far away from the road, and it's like, oh, this is gonna you know, it's

gonna be going. And then we got into the hunt, um and things just they we're pretty slow, um, you know. They Day one we got into a few you know, active little pockets. Um. You know, that was one of the few days we've seen some you know running action where you know, bull was pushing some cows and and kind of right on their tail. But well yeah, and and specifically a cow right like he had a It was a really cool five point I think anybody would

love to love to take um. And he was. He had a single cow cut off and was working her. And there were several other cows in the group. So that that's really like the only distinct rut activity that I personally saw over the eight days, and we last night, we've seen you know, a large, well five point bull not large, you know, kind of running a spike off of the herd. But like you said, other than that one five running one specific cow, there wasn't you know,

great right activity yet. Um talk about the two biggest bulls we've seen. Um, you know, on day two or three, I don't remember what day, it was completely solo, right, you know, a bigger six point and a very very large five point um completely you know, offen a canyon with no cows in it. I don't think we ever

did see a cow on that side. Um. It just I'm never wanting to say, you know, ex September the Elker udding somewhere, but these two bowls kind of you know, knew that the party hadn't started yet they definitely did. And we got within let's let's say a hundred and if I wanted to be accurate in a lazy way, under a hundred and fifty yards for sure of the um six point and you know, certainly by body size,

he'd be a mature bull. And anybody's category, huge fronts, you know, lots of mass up front, like just a big bowl around his way to being a really big bowl. And he got a bugle in his bed and took off and ran the other direction. Yeah, and we we approached that one um just prior to that, prior to the bugle, we had let some real soft calicolls right above him. You know, the idea going into that is that there's a lone bowl, you know, there's not a lot of competition. Maybe we can just coax him up

here with some cal calls. And I think maybe fift yards prior to us turned in that corner, we had sent some cal calls down to them that chance he heard those playing his day, didn't make a peep, didn't move, didn't snap a stick, didn't do anything. We moved fifty yards forward, let out a little bugle, and the next thing we hears him kind of blowing the place up. And it's just you can't make headser tails that he's just not ready to be involved in the game. Yeah, yeah,

I guess we should be clear. Definitely more of a locator bugle not I know you're here, I'm speaking to you. I'm gonna kick your ass bugle, real real mild wine, you know, real quiet, kind of you know, localized to that can you know, we didn't want to blow him out because we really didn't know if he was even there.

We were, I think that point kind of just assuming he wasn't um and then we hear it blow up, you know, a hundred fifty yards blow us and get to see his tail end as he rolled out of there, and I think, Yeah, the frustrating theme was when we could locate or bowls were at least talking on their own, the they immediately clammed up when you cut the distance even a little bit, like even when we need like I think we gotta be within you know, three hundred yards,

but we need to locate again because we're not entirely sure. It was really hard to get any storty of conversation. Yeah, and on the mountain we talked to a couple other guys that hun in this area. Lot Um. One of the dynamics that we experienced, and I have to imagine it's not how the September is gonna end up, is he was surprised, just as we were surprised the bulls

that were running the herds. This week. It's almost like we're in a pre phase or something because I can't imagine, um, you know, the bulls that are currently running large herds of cows and large groups of cows aren't going to have some bigger bulls move in. Um. It made it difficult. You know. They they you'd mentioned it last night, are one of our last herds of all we got to play you know, six six branch bowls together. Um, you know, and then what I would consider medium two smaller five

points running herds. UM makes it tough, I think to try to hunt and get them, you know, overprotective because a lot of these bulls weren't interested in fighting or losing what they might have for a very short time. So it changed that dynamic of you know being able to you know, our our kind of our our go to game, you know, locate getting very tight and call. We would do that over and over and just kind of have them shut up or take their hours away

or kind of walk away or um. And that's kind of the you're really finding the needle in the haystack, right the bull that wants to play the game even though the game's not happening. Because that situation last night does sum it up perfectly right. There's six branch handlered bulls laying amongst forty or fifty cows. It's like a late season heard. Um. None of the big mature guys

are there, or you know, real big guys are there. Um, so the cow calls aren't even that interesting because these bulls have been walking around smelling all the cows and they're they're not ready yet, and they're they're not willing to break off and look. Maybe because the heat, maybe because of whatever. I have no idea, but it was certainly like took some of the tricks out of the playbook,

I guess. So. Yeah. You know, one thing we've always relied on here in New Mexico lot is the water, um, you know, but it seemed like we were kind of running in, you know, just on the front side of the full moon. Um. A couple of nights we were near water, you know, and things started to get going. But it almost seemed like the elk here were holding up. You know, they were smart enough they weren't gonna come

to water in the daylight. Um. You know, one of our best evenings, I think it was the second or third evening. Um. You know, a lot of action, um, going to water, a large group of out coming from multiple canyons all meeting, you know, so it got pretty active. But even then I think they were just not going quiet enough that they just kind of dealt with each other.

They kept their distance, and they all ended up getting the getting the water, um, you know, on their own or after dark when when we didn't have a play on them. You made it difficult in years past here, um, you know, I think New Mexico has had some maybe record rains. I don't know if it's record, but they've got a lot of rain here in the last month, and it kind of maybe dispersed them. Or there's water in different um you know, tanks, man man made tanks

or natural water. We ran into some water last night we didn't really think would be down in that that drainage. UM. So I think it's maybe got these elk a little more dispersed than normal, which could also have played into you know, a little less red action um and normal just when you get all those elk into one spot, where you get that one cow into the one spot with multiple herds, it kind of gets gets things going.

And we didn't we didn't seem to have is concentrated herds you know on that water, um, you know, compared to what I'm used to here in New Mexico. Yeah, there was I mean just some absolute amazing ELK viewing. I mean, you'd get up on a high spot, uh and you're gonna find elk. It's like kind of relaxing in a way that it's like, Okay, the finding is

almost guaranteed. But you know that we had mid day scenario on a SMA all our five point when we were getting towards the end, you know, thick brush, a scenario that that I really capitalize on when I find it elsewhere, and was was honestly very excited about that one. So we slipped in really thick brush. We're just gonna do some soft cow calls, um, knowing that we were going to be close proximity to a herd, and eventually

got a cow to come up. But never heard a single bugle, no brush raking, no nothing um from a bowl that you know just had to have been, had have been to have been within the earshot in there, you know, very very close on that said, you know, I've ought to guess within a hundred yards when you set up on on that setup and just you know, not to have them just come check out the middle of the day. You know it was we were in on that same elevation as them. Uh, you know it

was cool. You know, well, if it's in the shade, you can find the hot fox. It was warm outside but not general zone. It was was really cool. And yeah, to not even have that bull respond as we moved in that close, and to you know, have the colcum and just not even respond by like checking your win, right, who didn't didn't try to like cut up around us and and win the situation or smell of the cow that all of a sudden started talking and because none of his other cows were talking. Um and I do.

It's all based on assumption. And we've both been able to see bulls react to calls and how they react to calls and and a lot of times it is way different than the scenario that you put together in your head. But that being said, I have to come back to you have like this freshman class of Bowls, the JV team, Let's say they're in with the cows right now, they've already gone through their hierarchy and settled

things out. The cows aren't playing the game yet, and they do not want to be challenged right now because they're having the time of their lives. They've been eyeballing

these cows. It's rut season. Their testosterone, their hormones are going, and they're holding onto what they have and they're not willing to take any risks right now because the big boys are gonna show up, the seniors, the upper class, the starters are going to come in and take and take the cows, and and these guys are just holding onto the good life for as long as they can.

You know what's interesting we talked about stuff that we've experienced in the past, is even when those big bulls, you know, I think they do a lot of night checking, right they come through a night, they run ridges, they check these cows. They know it's not worth their time and they'll come back later and check on them. We couldn't even find the bigger bulls like off to the side though. Besides, you know those couple of times so

I've heard in this area. You know, maybe they come from a different area, they dropped down off off the mountains, whatever it may be. But that was one thing that we couldn't even necessarily find bigger bulls. And as you mentioned that that JV class and they just don't play the game like we're used to. We had a couple of scenarios throughout the hunt. Um we ran the program

perfect right. We get in very tight um me and you have both seen it in multiple times when you get I call it kind of getting the bowl to break. You know, he finally we're done playing this back and forth and he comes at you and you would think, you know, you're like, oh, this is this is a done deal. I see him disappear below a dip you know, less than seventy and then they get that mass moving ye in a concentrated way, and it's like, oh, that

is a committed animal. Yep. Yeah. And and so you know, you you're ready, put a little a little bit of tension on the string and you start to pull on your release a little bit and you're like, I should see him any minute. And then it was a couple of minutes go by, like he's taking his time. You're listening, like you should be close enough. Here's you know, cracking a stick, moving grass and in some of these situations, he just you never know what happened. He rolled into

that thing, and he obviously didn't go your direction. He didn't go my direction. He must just peel back to his cows. And it's like that's what we were dealing with, that he was. At one point we had him convinced, and then he goes back. He's like, I don't want to lose my cows that I've already gotten. You know, he peels off. You know, we got to work a

different bowl. You know, you got I went was able to to go up after him, and you were able to watch from across the canyon, and you know, you're you're I felt because I couldn't see the bowl that like we were fired up, like we were in the match. I got within fifty yards of his cows. Um. You know, he was within a hundred yards, like the perfect scenario, as close and as tight as you can get. Never made a peep besides rolling a few rocks down the hill.

You know, but he didn't know we existed, the cows that know he existed. We hammer him with a challenge vehicle, um, from very very close range. And you know, if you had asked me, my oh, I had him ast fired up and ready to go, and then your your observation was completely different from the bull is standing in his bed resting his head on a limb that I can tell he does all the time, Like it's a well worn limb and he's resting his head. They're bugling off

the limb. And then I mean he did rake brush a couple of times. But you could just tell that guy was like I don't really want to do this, but eventually you did get him to come. But you typically, like if you were to write it in a book, the most succinct way to say it would be like, Okay, you're a bull challenging another bull for the cows. Get as close to the cows as possible. The bull is going to come check you out. And it's like that was the perfect scenario. You were within forty two yards

of headed cows to get one of his cows. And that's that's the thing. Like when you run the game that way and you're closer to his cows than maybe even he is, and and you know he's not between you and his cow, it's like that's that's like the slam dun. That's the you know, and it just it didn't pan out. You may not get a shot scenario, but you're gonna get a bowl coming in scenario. And and just like you know, always seems to happen. It was a five o'clock stock. We knew we were playing,

you know, with the wind. Um, we we held it for long enough, but he stalled just long enough. I could finally see him coming down. Um, but he stalled just long enough that you know, and he caught the wind before I felt the wind. But you know, I'm like, why did he turn? He was coming down to me, and you know, ultimately ended up getting winded on that. But it just those scenarios, you know, I get so

frustrated with myself. But it's like, man, you look back on him that I don't know what I wouldn't have did anything different. I don't know what I could have did you know what we should have did different? Um? You know, same same for you. We did get some opportunities. Um, you know you had a bold same thing yards tipping his head coming through brush like it's a done deal. And then you know we went back around, I mean

starts moving down. Yeah. We uh, we had opportunities, But I guess my the overall consensus is for how hard we worked to come up with a few of these opportunities didn't seem to like it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like we we did get some, but we worked a ton and for how many bulls we were and we covered a lot of elk. That's the that's the thing. It's not like one scenario a day, which is still great elk hunting. This is just like spoiled kids stuff down here. We ran into a lot

of elk. We were able to run the snare ereos a bunch and yeah, it's definitely definitely like humble Pie. Yeah, a big, big slice of it. Um it was. Yeah. I've never wanted to say the ruts not going yet, or it's late or the moon's got it. I don't really you know, buy into a lot of that. I mean it does affect it, don't get me wrong, But I just feel like the things just aren't going quite. It isn't in the full rut. Yeah, things you're just

kind of pre rut. We did move camp three times, and you know, maybe the answer is just moving a fourth time. Yeah, So yeah, it is happening somewhere absolutely, Um yeah, it was. It was. It was a tough hunt. I don't know, a big, big humble pie doesn't taste good. Yeah,

m incredibly fun. Would do it again a hundred percent. Um. I just I think if I had some do overs, it would just be even though it sounds extreme right now, because we did cover a lot of ground, and it would be to just hit more pockets and and it's very difficult to do. Uh, kind of growing up like you and I have in very lean times of ELK where it's like if you hear a bugle, that's a amazing win for the day, amazing day. Um, you got to like disregard ELK and keep moving like be like, Okay,

this isn't a great scenario. Uh, these bulls don't want to play, and and kind of being more more ruthless, right,

And it's it's hard hard to walk away from an ELK. Yeah, you know, we we mentioned it multiple times, and it's tough to leave out to find out you know, one of those scenarios like why would we leave elk that we were on, but some of them weren't in great spots and weren't killable, and at some point you can only invest so much time on certain ones, and so you know that your idea of we just maybe could have just kept walking and find the right party, find

the right pocket, find the right cow um. You know, that's what we were doing. Unfortunately, one of the one things we fought too in this last area, which seemed to have the most amount of elk that we hunted, um was terrain like terrain and vegetation. You know, there was a little bit of a burn that went through there, and so why they were elk on every open knob. It seemed like it made it very very difficult to play the game or even get in a position without

being seen. So we spent more time, you know, looking on X trying to figure out like, yeah, he's probably gonna see us there, and then you'd get there and like, yeah it's probably you know, we we had to do a lot of just like you know, hope, you know, cross through real quiet um, which which adds a level difficulty, right, you know, you're we're playing out in the open. But yeah, I look back, like a takeaway from this hunt, you know,

I don't think we did. You know, one one instance, I maybe called to a bowlt too early, but we ended up you end up getting to play on him shortly thereafter, So it wasn't a complete loss. I don't think we did anything different or I wouldn't do anything different as far as like you said, maybe just try some different areas, try to find some different pockets. Um, yeah, it's it's amazing, like great tag in your pocket, you know, great unit, the elker here, and it is still elk hunting.

You don't know what's going through the animal's mind. You don't know what just happened to them, um prior to you getting there. Um, you're making the best educated guests that you can. And so did I call too early? Well maybe, but also maybe not. You know, it's like there's it's just it's so hard to be definitive in this game because we'll never really know what's going on between those fuzzy years, you know. So yeah, it was great hunt. Um. You know, we didn't blow out a

lot of elk. We didn't get winded, like our wind was good the time. Um, you know, we we moved in, got closer. It was just it was interesting. Um, you know how everything played out. It's it's like like you said, you got a great tag, Um just didn't necessarily you know work out in our favor too many times. So

now it was fun hunting with you. I really appreciate everything on your cow and uh yeah, that's something I was thinking about last night because we've at least run in the same circles for quite a while and it's, um, yeah, I can't can't believe we haven't hunted together prior to this, because this was a lot of fun. It was all of fun and um, you know, I think we were

on the same page the time. So it's fun to helpt with somebody that thinks the way you do or you know, and and a guy that thinks about every move, you know, like some of my buddies, Like we're just running straight you know, straight line, a two beat out, heck with the wind, heck with if they can see. And so it's nice like you know, hunting with a guy that you think nine you know, we're on the same page and most of the time like we're gonna

do this or the winds doing this. We've got to approach this way and so um, not a lot of disagreements and approaches and it makes things efficient, yeah, you know, which is still like another like kind of knife to the gut like we were for two guys that haven't hunted together a lot or ever. Sorry, Um, prior to this, we we hit the ground running. You know, there wasn't any head butting, any strategy differences, both both willing to roll with with the idiosyncrasies and and go and and

so I can't. We just didn't lose a lot of time anywhere we we're going, despite the monsoons at the beginning, and despite the heat for the rest of the week. And ah, shockingly, I mean maybe one or two elk we blew out, which is just bizarre, bizarre, like I mean so um, and we were trying it at I would say we hit low, mid, high, and maybe we

just missed out on extreme high elevations. Yeah that's it. Yeah, Yeah, I think this unit, you know, we'll get better, um with some time, you know, move the more mature bowls in and have some of those more semimature satellite bowls, you know, pester and number pestering each other. I think this unit is gonna get a little bit better. But you know, good hunt um difficulty, you big sized humble pie. But h September's early, you know, we're still really early

in September. September it's only September eighth, ninth day, um, and so I have a feeling by time we report back here in a couple more weeks, um, Except you know, the ruts gonna be rolling on the back side of the full moon. All the good all the little things that have, you know, little contributing factors, we're all going to be in the elk Hunter's favor. So exactly. Yeah, there's uh bowls definitely died this week. We didn't do the killing. Um. There's people having success and lot to

other units and lots of other states and this unit. Um, But it's only gonna get better. There's gonna be as these like harem changes take place and the dynamics, the social dynamics of these bowls running into each other and clashing and the reorganization of the pecking orders come into play, and these cows start coming into astros. You may be the one who just falls right in that big o

rupt party. Should should get good. Well, appreciate having you here, cow. Um. It's been fun, and the next time we'll have to go go find somewhere in the mountains to do it. Yeah, especially uh dinky bowls and units where anything is a great, all right, thanks, thanks and