Last Light of the Last Night in the Land of Enchantment By Michael Deming
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uccessful; definitely not a word I’m used to seeing when applying for the New Mexico big game application process. When I heard that these results had been posted, I made beeline to my computer to check the status of my long-awaited draw. For those of you not familiar with the lottery process they call the big game applications, I’ll provide you some insight. Each western state has an application process to get the majority of their big game tags. Residents are awarded the greater number of these tags, but a percentage of these tags are set aside for nonresidents. New Mexico is no different in that standpoint. However, they separate their tags
Ely Vujko with the monster private land ranch bull. These tags are available on a very limited basis.
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September 2019 | SPORTSMAN’S NEWS
even beyond this. If you are a nonresident and you apply with an outfitter, there is a portion of those nonresident tags for just this process. If you don’t apply with an outfitter, there is another portion of these nonresident tags that go into this pool. I usually apply on my own, but this wasn’t going to be the case this year. Compass West Outfitters owned by Chris and Karin Guikema have been on my radar for many years and I had been talking with Chris about doing an evaluation trip to see if his operation was as good as I had heard. However, when you are sold out nearly a year in advance for everything, you don’t much need the help of someone like us nor do you need to be evaluated. Knowing that we wanted to have the best outfitters in the business for our Pro Membership Sweepstakes and that intended on buying at least a hunt or two a year might have helped with Chris planning a hunt with me and my team. Unfortunately, my mad dash to the computer wasn’t rewarded with that “Successful” green banner I was hoping to get. A big fat red “Unsuccessful” is what flashed on my screen. I called Chris and let him know that my luck had continued as usual and we would have to put this off for another year. He informed me that this wasn’t going to be the case. He had set aside a landowner voucher for me to get this hunt done for 2018. Those of you not familiar with this “Landowner Voucher” term; It’s an authorization to purchase a tag which is issued to landowners from the state. This voucher is used by outfitters and hunters who don’t get fortunate enough to draw a tag in the lottery process. Once they have one in hand, it is just like you drew the tag and now you can get a license. So, I went from happy, to unhappy, to happy once again and the October elk hunt was on. October finally rolled around and as luck would have it, we had endured one of the driest seasons on record. This meant that the big mature bulls that we would be targeting could likely be 30-50 inches short of their expected growth potential on a regular moisture year. I had been talking to Chris on a regular basis throughout the archery season and he was consistently confirming our fears about the drought. I kept telling myself that we will make the most of it and find the biggest bull we can.
Pat Guarnaccio with another great ranch bull. Huge fronts and long beams are the norm in a good moisture year.
