October 2011

Dave Kleber of Pennsylvania took this 6 X 6 bull on the fourth evening of his hunt.  We had been into elk every day, but just couldn’t seem to get a chance at a decent bull.  This continued into the fourth afternoon.

We were horseback when we spotted a bull a considerable distance across a major canyon.  We quickly dismounted and began glassing.  The bull moved into a small stand of timber and never reappeared.  We glassed for over an hour and decided he had either holed up in the timber or slipped out without us spotting him.

It was getting late and both Dave and I felt we had given this canyon a good look.  We were about to leave when we spotted another bull 4 or 5 hundred yards further up from where we had spotted the first one.  We were over 1000 yards from him and needed to make a move.  We rode around the head of the canyon and tied up one header short of where we’d last seen this bull.

After a short stalk, we were less than a hundred yards and Dave was finally able to collect himself this nice bull.  Persistence paid off on this hunt.

Congratulations Dave!

New Mexico’s 2011 bear season ended early after only a few short weeks.  New Mexico is currently under a quota system for bear management.  Although we do have season dates, our harvest limits are set by the New Mexico Game Commission for each region of the state.  When a region’s harvest limit is met, that area is closed to bear hunting and hunters must hunt in a different region.

In 2011 the entire state was closed to bear hunting after the first week in September. Most years, the quota will not be met until later in the fall or not at all.

We had a really dry year and the bear were having a hard time finding enough food sources.  Consequently during conditions such as this, bear will kill livestock and cause problems in rural communities by raiding gardens, garbage cans and destroying property trying to find something to eat.  Stock killers and nuisance bears are dispatched by the Game and Fish officials to combat the problems. These bear mortalities do count against the quota.  In many areas, the quota was already half met by the time the sport season opened.  I personally don’t think these bear mortalities should count against the sport quota, but they do.

If you’re thinking about bear hunting in New Mexico, schedule your hunt as early in the season as you possibly can.  I look forward to visiting with you and helping you plan your bear hunt here in New Mexico.

October 2011

Mark Klimek of North Carolina took this dandy bull on the second day of our first Wilderness Rifle elk hunt.

We were riding through a large piney park when we noticed several cow elk bedded to our right. They were close, so I motioned for Mark to get off his horse and I kept on going.  The elk stood up and their attention was on me and the horses slowly going through the Ponderosa Pines.  There was a bull on the far side of the cows and the group started moving away.  After I had ridden a couple hundred yards, I stopped and tied up the horses.

I’d seen Mark following the group of elk so I waited.  Half an hour had passed and Mark hadn’t come back and I’d heard no shots fired.   I got worried that Mark wouldn’t find his way back to where I was, so I started riding in the direciton that he and the elk had gone.  I was following the elk tracks into a small canyon when I heard him shoot on the next ridge.  I caught up with him and as we gutted his bull another bull was bugling his head off not over 200 yeards away!  Mark told me he’d lost which way the elk had gone in the canyon and had started back when he heard a bugle and thought I was calling him to my location.  He said he whistled back and shouted that he was coming.  He hiked up the ridge to the bugling and was surprised to see this beautiful bull and not me.

Good job Mark!!

March 2011

This photo is of a nice tom lion that we treed the last day of New Mexico’s 2010-2011 lion season.

With all my guided lion hunts completed, myself and friend Brandon Jones took some of our hounds for a final hunt on the last day of March.  After about an hour of riding, the hounds started a track.  There was a small patch of dirt where they started and we were able to find a small female track and had the dogs headed in the right direction.  After trailing about a 1/2 mile, I discovered that a tom lion was with the female.  The hounds went out of hearing and had one of the lions treed in the bottom of a big canyon.  Evidently he was a runner and was still panting when we arrived under the tree an 1 1/2 hours later.  We took a few pictures, called the hounds off and left him sitting in the tree.

During the race, one of my knives came off my belt and I ended up going back to look for it 3 days later.  I started my search where we first started the female’s track.  The tom lion we’d let go had come back through that night.  His track was in exactly the same spot as the female’s had been and he was going in the same direction.  We’d obviously not disturbed him to much and he didn’t leave the country as many will do after being treed.  He was definitely intent on finding his girlfriend and was trying to trail her up.  Lions do use scenting to find mates and to trail up prey, but I don’t know to what extent.

We had a great season this year and ended 2011 on a terrific note!!

February 2011

Marty Swyden of Oklahoma took this old tom lion on the fourth day of his hunt.  Marty was accompanied by his friend Gary Vancuren.

About mid-day, and after 8 miles in the saddle, the dogs cut his track and began trailing.  I was able to find the track and knew we were trailing a large tom and going in the right direction. Friend and fellow lion hunter, Brandon Jones was a few miles away with another pack of hounds trying to help locate sign.  I called him on the radio and he was on his way to put more dogs on the track.  He caught up within a couple of hours and we now had 18 hounds trailing.  By the time it was all said and done, we figured the hounds had trailed this lion a little over ten miles before they finally had him treed.

When we looked this tom over, we could see he was past his prime.  His teeth were really worn down, he had scars all over his hindquarters and the last few inches of his tail was hairless and wasn’t really hooked to rest of the bones in the tail.

It was definitely a long ways back to the truck and trailer from where we finally treed this lion and we ended up riding about 3 hours in the dark before getting back to our ride out of there.  The mules, hounds and hunters were all whipped, but Marty had  collected a trophy tom lion and memories that will last a lifetime!  Marty certainly earned this one!!

February 2011

Johnny Hull of North Carolina took this nice tom lion on the first day of his hunt.

The morning began with my mule slipping on an icy patch and falling down.  When he fell he landed on my leg and foot and broke a bone in the top of my foot.  I couldn’t walk, but was able to ride, so we continued up the canyon hoping the dogs would cut a lion track.  After a short while, they started trailing and it was now our job to determine the direction of the track.

Luckily, lion hunting friend Avery Hurt was along on the hunt and he was able to walk with the hounds looking for the track.  We never could really determine the direction the lion was traveling, so we just let the dogs do their job.  They trailed off into a huge canyon and finally jumped the lion and he treed in a small juniper tree.

During the ordeal the lion got a hold of two dogs.  Keebler, our Jagd Terrier was bitten in the head and side.  Both of his eyes were swollen shut for several days.  But with rest and treatment he made a full recovery.  The other dog was “Hobo”, one of my hounds.  He had a gash on his side and one of the lion’s claws was broken off and stuck in the skin above his eye.  He also made a full recovery.

It was a very eventful hunt and we congratulate Johnny on his trophy!!

February 2011

While I was out exercising my hounds and scouting for lion sign for an upcoming hunt, my hounds treed this adult female lion. After taking a few photos, I called the hounds off and left her sitting in the tree.

I was back in the same area about a week later, with a client, looking for a tom lion that was using the same country.  We ended up catching him and in the process found where the female lion had abandoned a mule deer buck she’d killed.  She’d quit her meal ticket and completely left the area.

It’s been my experience, that after being caught and released, most lions will leave the area. Eventually, they’ll come back, but it takes a while.

This is a photo of the mule deer buck the female lion had killed and then abandoned after being disturbed by my hounds treeing her.

"GARY"

I worked with this hound for a New Mexico rancher who didn’t have the time to hunt his dogs.  He was hoping to get this dog started in dry-ground lion hunting to help train his other young hounds.

This particular hound had plenty of hunt in him and would run everything.  I hunted him with my trained, broke lion hounds and soon had him trailing lions and not running trash.

He’s pictured here barking treed on his first mountain lion.

JANUARY 2011

EMMA AND GREG

Greg Bergquist, of Wyoming, limited out early in the day on his New Mexico quail hunt.  Birds were numerous this year in southwestern New Mexico with three species available:  Gambels, Scaled and Mearns.

Numerous coveys enabled Greg to work with his Britney Spaniel “Emma” and refine her skills.  Greg didn’t need any practice on his shooting and was able to focus his attention on Emma’s training.

Congratulations Greg!

JANUARY 2011

This beautiful bobcat was treed while I was mountain lion hunting.

The serious lion lion hunter tries to discourage the hounds from running bobcats.  These beautiful cats are numerous and you don’t want to spend your time trailing them when you’re lion hunting.  Hounds do know the difference in the smell between the two cats.

This particular day I had some young hounds and thought they were trailing a female mountain lion.  Although it’s good practice for starting young dogs, they should eventually be completely broke off bobcats.  I left this cat sitting in the tree.