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Well guys I just got back from the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico, Unit 16b. I really didnt know what to expect hunting these trophy bulls with a bow, but being my first ever trip there this wont be my last. I didnt come home with a bull, I did come home with an experience of a life time. I did though shoot one, the shot was a little to close to the shoulder, got about 18-20 inches pentration from what I could see of the arrow, however he carried it away. Never recovered the arrow. We tracked him for a mile, then the blood disappeared, kept walking but never found him, these creatures are tough. One of my buddies killed one probably score 275-300 he might slip in the P&Y, he was tracked 1.5 miles.
I saw 4 bulls one about the size of a volvo, man was he huge. I kinda equated this to sooped up turkey hunting. Get a bull to bugle and go after him. Sometimes birddogging for miles just to get close and then he is gone again. There were many sleepless nights listening to bulls bugle around camp, along with the coyotes howling. Had one bull bugle within 40 yards of me gosh what a rush seeing an beast 8 times my size looking for that cow that wasnt there.
We road mules and horses eight miles as the crow flies from the nearest road (dirt) to camp, this took 4 hours and eventually nestling into 8000 ft elevation, we probably put in 75-90 miles the nine days we were there, roughed it a couple nights sleeping on the ground under the stars beside a camp fire a couple miles from our tents. This trip took every single piece of energy from me, by the last two days I was whipped. It was nothing to climb 1000 foot elevations 3-6 times a day, just to go back down and come back up again. If you guys ever get a chance to go do it, I recommed Van Hale of Trophy Outfitters. But you better be ready to work hard and be in shape, which I thought I was in pretty decent shape, but I could have been better. I lost somewhere around 10 lbs on this trip.
I saw 4 bulls one about the size of a volvo, man was he huge. I kinda equated this to sooped up turkey hunting. Get a bull to bugle and go after him. Sometimes birddogging for miles just to get close and then he is gone again. There were many sleepless nights listening to bulls bugle around camp, along with the coyotes howling. Had one bull bugle within 40 yards of me gosh what a rush seeing an beast 8 times my size looking for that cow that wasnt there.
We road mules and horses eight miles as the crow flies from the nearest road (dirt) to camp, this took 4 hours and eventually nestling into 8000 ft elevation, we probably put in 75-90 miles the nine days we were there, roughed it a couple nights sleeping on the ground under the stars beside a camp fire a couple miles from our tents. This trip took every single piece of energy from me, by the last two days I was whipped. It was nothing to climb 1000 foot elevations 3-6 times a day, just to go back down and come back up again. If you guys ever get a chance to go do it, I recommed Van Hale of Trophy Outfitters. But you better be ready to work hard and be in shape, which I thought I was in pretty decent shape, but I could have been better. I lost somewhere around 10 lbs on this trip.
