NM success

[bloominonion]

First year out with a muzzleloader (used T&C Triumph). Missed a shot on a spike and a nice six by due to sighting in poorly. I did some checking and practice shots in the forest and I was hitting about 6-8" high. I managed to correct my holdover and got a small spike closing day 2 hours before last light and straining my Achilles tendons from hiking so much . The pack out had a lot of hobbling haha.
Shot was 110yds, quartering away in the belly area, and recovered the bullet from the front left shoulder. Went all of 35 yards and dropped (second pic).


Recovered Hornady SST 300gn saboted (~263gn recovered)
It was interesting, the lead and copper were hydraulically separated, and there was a layer of blood in the bottom of the copper jacket holding the two pieces apart. The side shot is after I washed that out, so it's a bit more separated than it was recovered. I actually found all parts. The sabot was on the ground, and the ballistic tip was in the stomach cavity, but I lost those in the packing out process.

 

[Brewcrew]

First year out with a muzzleloader (used T&C Triumph). Missed a shot on a spike and a nice six by due to sighting in poorly. I did some checking and practice shots in the forest and I was hitting about 6-8" high. I managed to correct my holdover and got a small spike closing day 2 hours before last light and straining my Achilles tendons from hiking so much . The pack out had a lot of hobbling haha.
Shot was 110yds, quartering away in the belly area, and recovered the bullet from the front left shoulder. Went all of 35 yards and dropped (second pic).
View attachment 38832View attachment 38833View attachment 38834

Recovered Hornady SST 300gn saboted (~263gn recovered)
It was interesting, the lead and copper were hydraulically separated, and there was a layer of blood in the bottom of the copper jacket holding the two pieces apart. The side shot is after I washed that out, so it's a bit more separated than it was recovered. I actually found all parts. The sabot was on the ground, and the ballistic tip was in the stomach cavity, but I lost those in the packing out process.
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Congrats on the nice spike! Appreciate your honesty too! The SST performed perfectly. Great pics!

 

[bloominonion]

Congrats on the nice spike! Appreciate your honesty too! The SST performed perfectly. Great pics!

Thanks!
Gotta sell it like it is. Hunting for large game can't be sold as 'easy', and honestly I am amazed at the learning curve for a muzzleloader. I have pics of a bruised shoulder and cheek to prove it from sighting it in haha . Even with that I'll be putting in for MZ tags as one of my options moving forward.

 

[MrTom]

There's some prime eating. Nice job done.

I've had XTPs separate like that, so it goes to show that even good bullets can do weird things. Nice recovery on the bullet. I always enjoy finding the killing bullet as a momento to go with the story.

 

[Whokalouie]

Cheers to ya, the best bull elk meat is from a spike. Just like leg of lamb compared to mutton.

 

[snapbang]

nice

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Congrats!

 

[Hatchet Jack]

Good job! I have always had a fondness for the 300 gr SST. It has had good accuracy and great performance out of just about every muzzleloader I have shot it out of.
Out of curiosity... did NM start their ''No Scopes'' on muzzleloaders rule yet?

 

[bloominonion]

Good job! I have always had a fondness for the 300 gr SST. It has had good accuracy and great performance out of just about every muzzleloader I have shot it out of.
Out of curiosity... did NM start their ''No Scopes'' on muzzleloaders rule yet?

Yep, hence my bad sight-in. I unintentionally sighted target on top of the posts, not covered by the posts.
Ironically I need to pick new bullets since CO doesn't allow the sabots.

 

[smokepolehall]

Congrats on the elk n some great eats.

 

[WP79Vet]

Congratulations on your NM elk, and on taking your first game with a ML! That spike will give you some great eating.

I was stationed at White Sands, NM from 89 - 91, and I lived and worked in Los Alamos NM 92 - 98. During that time I hunted exclusively with a bow, and killed 1 Pope and Young black bear in the Sacramento Mtns near Cloudcroft, 1 elk in Colorado's Chama basin (which is just across the state line from NM), and 3 elk in wilderness areas of the Sangre de Christo Mtns north of Taos. Did lots of late season archery deer hunting in the San Mateos, the Sacramentos, around Sierra Blanca, and in the Sandias, but never connected.

NM has some really good elk hunting, and the layout of the terrain is generally pretty friendly to packing elk meat... meaning that you generally hunt uphill from the road or the trailhead, and pack meat downhill, and in most places the brush and blowdowns aren't too thick.

What general area of NM were you hunting?

I've done lots of elk hunting in several areas of NE Oregon that have more elk (and bears).... but in many of those places the nearest road or trailhead is at the TOP of the deep, steep canyons where the elk hang out, so you hunt downhill and pack uphill. That's a fool's game if "uphill" and "downhill" involve more than 800 vertical feet or so.... unless you've got horses, or maybe a whole crew of guys with strong backs and weak minds.... Biggest elk herd I've ever seen was well over 300 animals - in the Hell's Canyon Wilderness, about 4,000 vertical feet below the trailhead. My partner and I had a great time watching them, though.

 

[johnedd2]

First year out with a muzzleloader (used T&C Triumph). Missed a shot on a spike and a nice six by due to sighting in poorly. I did some checking and practice shots in the forest and I was hitting about 6-8" high. I managed to correct my holdover and got a small spike closing day 2 hours before last light and straining my Achilles tendons from hiking so much . The pack out had a lot of hobbling haha.
Shot was 110yds, quartering away in the belly area, and recovered the bullet from the front left shoulder. Went all of 35 yards and dropped (second pic).
View attachment 38832View attachment 38833View attachment 38834

Recovered Hornady SST 300gn saboted (~263gn recovered)
It was interesting, the lead and copper were hydraulically separated, and there was a layer of blood in the bottom of the copper jacket holding the two pieces apart. The side shot is after I washed that out, so it's a bit more separated than it was recovered. I actually found all parts. The sabot was on the ground, and the ballistic tip was in the stomach cavity, but I lost those in the packing out process.
View attachment 38835View attachment 38836

First year out with a muzzleloader (used T&C Triumph). Missed a shot on a spike and a nice six by due to sighting in poorly. I did some checking and practice shots in the forest and I was hitting about 6-8" high. I managed to correct my holdover and got a small spike closing day 2 hours before last light and straining my Achilles tendons from hiking so much . The pack out had a lot of hobbling haha.
Shot was 110yds, quartering away in the belly area, and recovered the bullet from the front left shoulder. Went all of 35 yards and dropped (second pic).
View attachment 38832View attachment 38833View attachment 38834

Recovered Hornady SST 300gn saboted (~263gn recovered)
It was interesting, the lead and copper were hydraulically separated, and there was a layer of blood in the bottom of the copper jacket holding the two pieces apart. The side shot is after I washed that out, so it's a bit more separated than it was recovered. I actually found all parts. The sabot was on the ground, and the ballistic tip was in the stomach cavity, but I lost those in the packing out process.
View attachment 38835View attachment 38836

Congratulations, I've been on 3 muzzleloader hunts for elk and have yet to fill a tag. My last hunt was a muzzleloader bull elk hunt and we got rained out (flooded is more like like it) I live in SW New Mexico

 

[bloominonion]

NM has some really good elk hunting, and the layout of the terrain is generally pretty friendly to packing elk meat... meaning that you generally hunt uphill from the road or the trailhead, and pack meat downhill, and in most places the brush and blowdowns aren't too thick.

What general area of NM were you hunting?

Unit 34, about 40 min from Cloudcroft. The hills are definitely not like what I deal with in CO. I did hike about 10 miles a day with 2400 ft (up and down) of vertical, but that's because you're not scared to go up and over a ridge haha. I guess that's what happens when you just follow the noises of the elk haha. (This was last month, and they were bulging like crazy).

 

[bloominonion]

Congratulations, I've been on 3 muzzleloader hunts for elk and have yet to fill a tag. My last hunt was a muzzleloader bull elk hunt and we got rained out (flooded is more like like it) I live in SW New Mexico

Thanks, I hunted my butt off, and barely got one. If I hadn't lucked upon this one I would have been eating tag soup. I'm out of state, but my parents own a cabin there, so I really wanted to maximize my chances with how much those tags cost and how hard they are to get. We've been applying for 5 years to get this tag.
Hopefully you can fill your tag soon. NM has some good hunting, but it can be few and far between. One canyon was empty and the other had multiple herds.

 

[WP79Vet]

Unit 34, about 40 min from Cloudcroft. The hills are definitely not like what I deal with in CO. I did hike about 10 miles a day with 2400 ft (up and down) of vertical, but that's because you're not scared to go up and over a ridge haha. I guess that's what happens when you just follow the noises of the elk haha. (This was last month, and they were bulging like crazy).

The Sacramento Mountains of Unit 34 were my hunting ground when I was stationed at White Sands Missile Range after a very difficult two-year tour with an artillery battalion in Korea, and they were a welcome place of rest and healing for me. Your story and photo bring back lots of great memories! The area around Cloudcroft is where I did my first bowhunting, my first elk hunting, and killed my P&Y black bear. Lots of elk and turkeys, and some really huge black bears, muleys, and whitetails used to live in the heavily timbered high country there - and probably still do. The open grassy meadows that run along most of high country draws - like the one in your photo - are beautiful, and are great elk habitat. Because the ridges and draws of the high country are fairly gentle, you can follow the elk and put in lots of miles and accumulate a lot of vertical in a day! I had lots of close encounters with elk during the bow seasons there, but never quite connected. Used to be lots of hunters in the high country around Cloudcroft because it's very accessible, but it was still a fun place to hunt. Congrats again on drawing and filling your elk tag there!

Unit 34 also has some very wild, steep, dry country along the 4,000 + vertical foot escarpment that forms the west side of the Sacramentos (where they rise up out of the Tularosa valley just east of Alamogordo). I suspect that some elk use the escarpment as a refuge from hunting pressure in the more easily accessible high country, but I never hunted elk along the escarpment. Might be a place to find a real trophy. There used to be some great opportunities for spotting and stalking big muley bucks there, and in similar terrain farther north along the west side of Sierra Blanca. I did do some muley hunting in the wild escarpment country while I was stationed at White Sands. The escarpment is a very tough country to hunt - but with big potential rewards, and at least when I was there, very few other hunters.

 

[mm106807]

Congratulations! Beautiful country.