Units 13, 15 and 17: Why the Best Bull Country Is Primitive Weapon Only

There is a pattern in New Mexico that new hunters notice immediately and then misread. Some of the best bull elk country in the state has no rifle season at all.

Units 13, 15 and 17 run archery and muzzleloader and nothing else. If you want to hunt them with a gun, it is a muzzleloader or it is nothing. Unit 17 is muzzleloader-only for its October and November gun seasons.

Hunters sometimes read that as a restriction being imposed on them. We read it as the reason those units still produce the bulls they do.

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What Primitive Weapon Management Actually Does

Limiting a unit to archery and muzzleloader does two things at once.

It shortens effective range dramatically, which means far fewer animals are killed at distances where they never knew a hunter was there. And it reduces the number of hunters willing to apply, because plenty of people will not take a hunt they cannot carry a scoped rifle into.

Fewer hunters, closer shots, lower harvest. Bulls live longer. Bulls that live longer get bigger. That is the whole mechanism, and it is not complicated.

The result in Unit 17 is a unit that produces bulls at or above the 400 inch mark most years. A reasonable expectation in a good moisture year is a 330 to 350 inch bull. We have taken bulls there ranging from 280 to 390 inches.

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What the Country Asks of You

These are not easy units, and the terrain does as much of the filtering as the weapon rule.

Unit 17 is very rugged and physically demanding in the higher country, running from roughly 7,000 to 9,500 feet. Unit 13 is primitive-weapon country with three muzzleloader seasons through October. Unit 15 runs muzzleloader seasons into November.

You are hunting steep ground, at elevation, with a weapon that requires you to get close. Hunters who arrive without having done the physical preparation find that out on the first morning. We have written about getting ready for that in Building Mountain Legs.

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The Rule Change That Matters This Year

For 2026-2027, scopes, red dots and all other optical sights are prohibited on muzzle-loading rifles during muzzleloader hunts. Open sights only.

In units like these, where the muzzleloader season is the gun season, that is not a minor adjustment. It shortens your honest range again, makes low light harder to shoot in, and puts more weight on the first shot. If you are holding a tag for one of these units, read our breakdown in Open Sights Only and get to the range.

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How to Hunt Them Well

• Accept that you have to get close. Everything about the approach, the wind and the pace has to serve that. This is thermals country, and a blown approach is the most common way a hunt ends badly.
• Glass more than you walk. In steep, broken country, covering ground is how you push animals out. Finding them from a distance and then making one good move is how you kill them.
• Hunt water and burns early. Google Earth and mapping apps are useful for locating water sources and recent burn areas before you ever set foot in the unit.
• Expect to be tired and hunt anyway. The last hour of legal light, which runs to a half hour past sunset, is often when it happens.

We guide all three of these units, and the terrain is a large part of why we like them. See our guided elk hunts, or look at our unit breakdowns for the seasons and maps that go with each.

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Are They Worth Applying For

If you want the best shot at a genuinely big New Mexico bull and you are willing to hunt hard with a primitive weapon, yes. These are the units we point serious bull hunters toward.

If you want a comfortable hunt with a scoped rifle and moderate terrain, there are units that suit you far better, and we would rather steer you to one of those than watch you struggle through a hunt that was never going to fit.

That conversation is worth having before an application goes in. Contact the team or call (575) 315-6107, and we will help you pick honestly.