January 03, 2021 by Andy Salgado
Well what can we say about 2020 other than most definitely a year to remember and hopefully learn from it. The one thing we all still have for now anyway, is the ability to escape the craziness of the world and go to the great outdoors and forget about all the negative shit going on in the country.
The 2020 hunting season left as fast as it arrived. Once again H&A Outfitters, Inc. and our guests achieved a great outdoor hunting experience with much success. As always, August brings us to the Shugart Ranch hunting pronghorn antelope. And like always, it was 100% harvest on seven mature pronghorn bucks. Shortly after pronghorn season was over, we had the privilege to guide a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep hunter in the Pecos Wilderness on the second Ram hunt. Dr. Gary Ross was our guest and he experienced a true wilderness hunt of a lifetime and took a very respectable trophy on his hunt. Congrats to him!
The month of September is the most beautiful time of the year to be in the great outdoors especially for the archery elk hunters. Me and my family/friends/guides are just as excited or more as our guests to be hunting bull elk this time of year. The skills we have learned from our countless hours and days pursuing rutting bulls will now come to a test once again. We can only pray that our arrows fly straight and hit their marks for a quick recovery. But unfortunately that is not always the case and our guests don’t hit their mark at close range. This is the reason I’ve highly discouraged the use of expandables and I will not allow them at our camp ever again. I don’t care if it costs me a booking. I had one hunter wound two big bulls at under 20 yards with Rage expandables. Can’t make excuses for his shooting ability, but the broadhead should have done its job and it didn’t at that range. Should have passed through the guts but it didn’t. The other shot should have penetrated through the back end of the shoulder but it didn’t. Bottom line is I don’t care if your expandables shoot like field points at targets and all that crap I hear about expandables. We’re not shooting targets, we’re shooting big bull elk with a 12 inch radius kill zone.
September 1st thru the 14th. First archery hunt 13 guests. Five kills, three wounds from two guests. Three guests turned down mature 6 x 6 bulls at 40 yards and under. Two guests missed under 40 yards. Only one guest did not have shot opportunity within range.
September 15th thru the 24th: Second archery hunt. Six guests, no kills. Three guests missed 6 x 6 bulls, all under 40 yards. One of them missed twice, one shot at 18 yards and one shot at 25 yards. WTF! One guest wounded two bulls. Both shots under 20 yards. WTF! One guest didn’t shoot a big 6 x 6. Told his guide it wasn’t what he was looking for. The bull probably went over 330”. This guest never killed a bull before?
The sixth guest never had opportunity. Had a non-hunter/wife with him throughout his hunt. I believe perfume might have been a factor or maybe the elk gods didn’t like his character?
22 guests. 99% shot opportunity in range. There were 13 kills and 5 wounded unfortunately and several misses and plenty of mishaps throughout the rifle/muzzleloader hunting season.
16 guests: Seven kills, two wounds and a few misses throughout the season.
The 2020 hunting season was different in quite a few aspects from past years. I’ve come to learn that every year will always be different and all we can do is adapt, hunt harder and smarter, keep the faith and always hunt proven ground with our paid guests.
The 2021 application process will be starting on January 15th. We are now accepting new applicants. If you are interested in joining our application service and possibly hunting with us, give us a call at 505-474-6959 or send us an email at andy@nmbiggamehunting.com to get the ball rolling on one of the best hunts you will probably ever go on!
I’d like to thank all of our guests for hunting with us this year, except for one! Also want to thank all of our friends/staff for busting their butts once again! Looking forward to 2021!
Adios!
Andy
Posted in: Elk Hunting, Mule Deer Hunting, Antelope Hunting
