Ep. 18: The Phelps Field Report - 9/15/2022
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Welcome to Cutting the Distance Field Reports, breaking news from the Elkwoods, and now your host, Jason Phelps.

Welcome to the first installment of the field reports here on cutting the distance We are in New Mexico with Ryan Callahan and we just finished up seven days first seven days of September elk hunting here and a pretty good New Mexico unit and Just gonna kind of talk about what we've seen out there What was your takeaway from this hunt Cal like what was the kind of the overarching theme? What do we see out there?

Well, my first takeaway is why can you do seven days of hiking 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, 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 gonna start because nobody likes to work too hard when it's hot 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

in 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. I was like, oh yeah, 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, bulls were bugling, elk were easy to find, and close to the road, far away from the road, and it's like, oh, this is going to be going, and then we got into the hunt,

And things just were pretty slow You know day day one we got into a few, you know active little pockets Yeah, I was one of the few days we seen some, you know, rutting action where you know Bull was pushing some cows and kind of right on their tail But well, yeah and specifically a cow right like he had a

It was a really cool five point. I think anybody would love to take. And he had a single cowl.

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

Talk about the two biggest bulls we've seen, you know, on day two or three. I don't remember what day it was. Completely solo, right? Yeah. You know, a bigger six-point and a very, very large five-point. Completely, you know, off in a canyon with no cows in it. I don't think we ever did see a cow on that side. No. It just...

I'm never one to say, you know, it's September, the elk are rutting somewhere, but these two bulls kind of, you know, knew that the party hadn't started yet. They definitely did. And we got within, let's say, 100 and, if we wanted to be accurate in a lazy way, under 150 yards for sure of the six point. And, you know, certainly by body size, he'd be a mature bull in anybody's,

category, huge fronts, you know, lots of mass up front, like just a big bull or on his way to being a really big bull. And he got a bugle in his bed and took off and ran the other direction.

Yeah, and we approached that one just prior to that. Prior to the bugle, we had let some real soft cow calls right above him. The idea going into that is that there's a lone bull. There's not a lot of competition. Maybe we can just coax him up here with some cow calls. And I think maybe 50 yards prior to us turning that corner, we had sent some cow calls down to him that 100% chance he heard those plain as day.

didn't make a peep, didn't move, didn't snap a stick, didn't do anything. We moved 50 yards forward, let out a little bugle, and the next thing we hear is him kind of blowing the place up. And it's just, you can't make heads or tails. 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 a, I know you're here, I'm speaking to you, I'm going to kick your ass bugle. Yeah, real mild whine, real quiet kind of,

you know, localized to that canyon. 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. Yeah. And then we hear it blow up, you know, 125, 150 yards below 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 bulls were at least talking on their own, they immediately clammed up.

when you cut the distance even a little bit. Like even when we need, like, I think we got to be within, you know, 300 yards, but we need to locate again because we're not entirely sure. It was really hard to get any sort of conversation. Yeah. And on the mountain, we talked to a couple other guys that have hunted this area a lot. One of the dynamics that we experienced, and I have to imagine it's not how September is going to 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-rut 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 the they they

You had mentioned it last night, one of our last herds of elk we got to play, six branched bulls together. And then what I would consider medium to smaller five points running herds. Makes it tough, I think, to try to hunt and get them 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 being able to, kind of our...

our go-to game, you know, locate, get in very tight and call. We would do that over and over and just kind of have them shut up or take their cows away or kind of walk away or... 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 antlered bulls laying amongst 40 or 50 cows. It's like a late season herd. None of the big mature guys are there. Or, you know, real big guys are there. Right?

So the cow calls aren't even that interesting because these bulls have been walking around smelling all the cows and they're not ready yet. And they're not willing to break off and look, maybe because of the heat, maybe because of whatever. I have no idea. But it certainly took some of the tricks out of the playbook, I guess. Yeah. One thing we've always relied on here in New Mexico a lot is the water system.

But it seemed like we were kind of running in just on the front side of the full moon. A couple nights we were near water and things started to get going, but it almost seemed like the elk here were holding up. They were smart enough, they weren't going to come to water in the daylight. One of our best evenings, I think it was the second or third evening, a lot of action going

going to water, a large group of elk coming from multiple canyons all meeting, so it got pretty active. But even then, I think they were just not going quite enough that they just kind of dealt with each other. They kept their distance and they all ended up getting to water on their own or after dark when we didn't have a play on them.

you know, 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. Um, and it kind of maybe dispersed them or there's water in different, um,

you know tanks man you know 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 than normal just when you get all those elk into one spot or 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 as concentrated herds you know on that water

you know compared to what i'm used to here in new mexico yeah it there was i mean just some absolute amazing elk viewing i mean you 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 yep but you know we had um a midday scenario on a smaller five point when we were getting towards the end

you know, thick brush, a scenario that I really capitalize on when I find it elsewhere and was honestly very excited about that one. So we slipped in really thick brush. We were just going to do some soft cow calls 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.

from a bull that just had to have been within earshot in there. - Yeah, very, very close on that set. I'd have guessed within 100 yards when we set up on that setup and just

you know not to have them just come check out middle of the day you know it was we were in on that same elevation as them um you know it was cool you know well if it's in the shade you could find the hot pocket it was warm outside but in that general zone it was it was fairly cool and you had to not even have that bull respond as we moved in that close and to you know have the cow come in just and not even respond by like checking your wind yeah right who didn't didn't try to like

cut up around us and wind the situation or smell the cow that all of a sudden started talking because none of his other cows were talking. 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 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 bulls, 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 on to what they have. And they're not willing to take any risks right now because the big boys are going to show up.

The seniors, the upper class, the starters are going to come in and take the cows. And these guys are just holding on to the good life for as long as they can. You know, what's interesting, we talk about stuff that we've experienced in the past is

Even when those big bulls, I think they do a lot of night checking, right? They come through at 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 off to the side though, besides those couple times.

I've heard in this area, maybe they come from a different area or they drop down 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 JV class and they just don't play the game like we're used to. We had a couple of scenarios throughout the hunt. We ran the program perfect, right? We get in very tight. Me and you have both seen it multiple times when you get, I call it kind of getting the bull to break. You finally were done playing this back and forth and he comes at you.

And you would think, you know, you're like, oh, this is a done deal. I see him disappear below a dip at, you know, less than 70. Yeah, they get that mass moving in a concentrated way. And it's like, oh, that is a committed animal. Yep. Yeah. And so, you know, you're ready. You put a little bit of tension on the string. You start to pull on your release a little bit. And you're like, should see him any minute. And then it was...

a couple minutes go by like is he taking his time you're listening like he 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 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 um you know we got to work a different bowl

you know you got i went me you know 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 bull that like we were fired up like we were in the match i got within 50 yards of his cows um you know he was within 100 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 didn't know he existed we hammer him with a challenge bugle

I'm from very, very close range. And, you know, if you had asked me, oh, I had them all fired up and ready to go. And then your observation was completely different from what we thought. 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 there, 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 typically, like if you were to like 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. Yeah. And it's like,

that was the perfect scenario. You were within 42 yards of bedded cows. He bedded 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, you're, he's not between you and his cow. It's like, that's, that's like the slam dunk. That's the, you know, and it just, it didn't pan out. Yeah. You may not get a shot scenario, but you're going to get a bull 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 held it for long enough but he 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'd 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 them like

I don't know, I wouldn't have did anything different. I don't know what I could have did, you know, what we should have did different. You know, same for you. We did get some opportunities. You know, you had a bull, same thing, 25 yards, tipping his head, coming through brush like it's a done deal. And then, you know, we get winded. - Moves his rack around. I mean, starts moving down. Yeah.

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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 did get some, but we worked a ton and for how many bulls we were. And we covered a lot of elk too. That's the thing. It's not like one scenario a day, which is still great elk hunting. This is just like spoiled kid stuff down here. We ran into a lot of elk. We were able to run the scenarios a bunch.

And yeah, it's definitely like humble pie. Yeah, a big, big slice of it. It was, you know, I've never wanted to say the rut's 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 things just aren't going quite right.

It isn't in the full rut yet. Things are just kind of pre-rut. We did move camp three times and you know, maybe the answer is just move it a fourth time. Yeah. So it is happening somewhere. Absolutely. Yeah. It was, it was, it was a tough hunt. I don't know. Big, big humble pie doesn't taste good. Yeah. Incredibly fun. Would do it again. A hundred percent. Yeah.

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, it would be to just hit more pockets and

It's very difficult to do, 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 an amazing... Yeah, a win for the day. Amazing day. You got to disregard elk and keep moving. Be like, okay, this isn't a great scenario. These bulls don't want to play, and kind of...

being more ruthless, right? Yep. And it's hard to walk away from an elk. Yeah, we mentioned it multiple times, you know, 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 they 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 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

was terrain, like terrain and vegetation. You know, there was a little bit of a burn that went through there. And so while there were elk on every open knob, it seemed like it made it very, very difficult to play the game or even get in the position without being seen. So we spent more time, you know, looking at Onyx, trying to figure out like, yeah, he's probably going to see us there. And then you get there and like, yeah, he's probably going to, you know, we had to do a lot of just like, you know, hope, you know, cross through real quiet,

Which adds a level of difficulty, right? We're playing out in the open. But yeah, I look back like a takeaway from this hunt. I don't think we did... One instance I maybe called to a bull too early, but you ended up getting a 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.

Yeah, it's amazing. Great tag in your pocket. Great unit. The elk are 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 prior to you getting there. You're making the best educated guess that you can. 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. Yeah. Between those fuzzy years, you know, so. Yeah, it was great. You know, we didn't blow out a lot of elk. We didn't get winded like our wind was good. Ninety five percent of the time, you know, we we moved in, got close. It was just it was interesting how everything played out. It's like like you said, you had a great tag game.

just didn't necessarily you know work out in our favor too many times so no it was fun hunting with you i really appreciate you down here cal and uh yeah that's something i was thinking about last night because we've uh at least run in the same circles for quite a while and and it's um

Yeah. Can't believe we haven't hunted together prior to this because this was a lot of fun. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And I think we were on the same page 99% of the time. So it's fun to hunt with somebody that thinks the way you do. And a guy that thinks about every move. Some of my buddies, we're just running straight line A to B to elk.

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 night you know we're on the same page as most of the time like we're gonna do this or the wind's doing this we got to approach this way and so 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 you're like we were for two guys that haven't hunted together a lot or ever sorry prior to this

we hit the ground running. You know, there wasn't any head-butting, any strategy differences, both willing to roll with the idiosyncrasies and go. And so I can't, we just didn't lose a lot of time anywhere. We were going despite the monsoons at the beginning and despite the heat for the rest of the week. And shockingly,

I mean, maybe one or two elk we blew out, which is just bizarre. Yeah. Bizarre. Like, I mean, so, 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.

I think this unit will get better with some time. Move the more mature bulls in and have some of those more semi-mature satellite bulls pestering them or pestering each other. I think this unit's going to get a little bit better. Good hunt. Difficulty. Big slice of humble pie, but September's early. We're still really early in September. It's only September 1st.

eighth ninth today um and so i have a feeling by the time we report back here in a couple more weeks um september you know the rut's going to be rolling on the back side of the full moon all the good all the little things that have you know little contributing factors are all going to be in the elk hunters favor so uh exactly yeah there's uh bulls definitely died this week we didn't do the killing um

There's people having success in lots of other units and lots of other states and this unit. But it's only going to get better. There's going to be, as these harem changes take place and the dynamics, the social dynamics of these bulls running into each other and clashing and the reorganization of the pecking orders come into play and these cows start coming into estrus.

You may be the one who just falls right in that big old rut party. Should get good. Well, appreciate having you here, Cal. It's been fun. And next time we'll have to go find somewhere in the mountains to do it. Yeah, let's go chase dinky bulls in units where anything is a great bull. All right. Thanks, Cal. Thanks.

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