October 17-21: The Busiest Week in New Mexico Elk Hunting

If there is a single week that defines elk hunting in New Mexico, it is this one. Around 29 elk rifle hunt codes run October 17 through 21, more than any other block in the season. Add the muzzleloader codes running the same dates and it is comfortably the most subscribed stretch of the fall.

A lot of hunters are in the country this week. Here is how to hunt it well anyway.

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Where the Rut Is By Now

Mid October is past the rut. Bugling has largely stopped or dropped to occasional sounds at first and last light. Herd bulls are separating from cows, and mature bulls are moving back toward bachelor patterns and the security cover they will hold through winter.

This changes the hunt fundamentally. In September you find elk by listening. In late October you find them by glassing, by reading sign, and by understanding where animals go when they want to be left alone.

The bulls are still there. They are just quieter, more nocturnal, and far less willing to make a mistake.

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Hunting a Crowded Week

Pressure is the defining variable in this block, and it works in a predictable way. Hunters concentrate near roads, trailheads and the easy country. Elk respond by moving away from those things within the first day or two.

• Go where other people will not. Not necessarily farther, but harder. A steep, ugly, brushy drainage a mile off a road holds animals that a pretty basin three miles in does not.
• Hunt the pressure, not just the elk. If you know where other hunters will be at daylight, you know which direction animals will be pushed. Position yourself to catch that movement rather than create it.
• Get in before light and stay put. The first and last hours account for most opportunity in this season, and hunters wandering at midday are usually moving animals for someone else.
• Glass longer than feels reasonable. A bedded bull in timber is nearly invisible until he shifts. The hunters seeing animals are the ones behind a tripod, not the ones covering miles.
• Use the whole legal window. Shooting light runs to a half hour after sunset, and in a pressured week that final stretch is often the only time mature animals move in the open.

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Weather and What to Wear

Late October mornings commonly run 30 to 50 degrees and can be at or below freezing, warming into the 50s and 70s by afternoon. You need layers you can shed on the climb and put back on when you sit down to glass, and you want to shed them before you sweat rather than after.

Our recommended layering by condition is on the hunting gear page, broken into hot, moderate, rain and cold setups.

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The Advantage of Being Guided in This Week

We are not going to pretend this is a neutral observation, but it is a real one. In a pressured week, local knowledge is worth more than at any other point in the season.

Knowing which drainages hold animals after the first day of pressure, where other outfitters and hunters typically set up, and which benches elk retreat to is the difference between hunting the country and hunting where the elk actually went. That knowledge comes from being in the same units year after year.

It is also a week where a guide keeps you hunting when you would otherwise quit early. Most seasons come down to a handful of minutes, and in this block they usually arrive at the least convenient time.

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If You Drew This Week

Come fit, come with a rifle you have confirmed after travel, and come prepared to hunt all five days at the same intensity. The hunters who punch tags in the October 17 through 21 block are almost never the ones who had a great first morning. They are the ones still glassing hard on day four.

Hunting with us this week? Your guide will have a plan by the time you arrive. Not hunting with us but thinking about next season? These dates go early. Look at our guided elk hunts, contact the team, or call (575) 315-6107.