Sometimes there are big bull elk bugling all around you and there's not a darn thing that you can do to go get one of them.

Folks, this is audio journal entry number one.

2025, New Mexico.

I'm recording from a little house.

You could call it a cabin, but it's nicer than that.

It's really nice.

In the high country, in New Mexico, and doing an Elkhunt with an outfitter down here testing some new ammunition.

And I can't tell you anything about it, except that the ammo is 7mm backcountry, and it's from a new

manufacturer. This is not a federal load. So yeah, you can take that for what it's worth, a little teaser

and a good sign that the 7mm backcountry has a good toehold and is expanding its horizons.

Now, got in last night and visited with folks, met the guides and so forth.

Up and Adam up 5 a.m. today, we're hunting a big chunk of private ground.

And these tags are basically landowner voucher type tags that can be transferred and sold right so it's a

guided hunt about 18,000 acres with private land across below it and a no hunting we'll call the

wilderness type zone behind it first thing as soon as we got there this morning, about a half hour before daylight, there's

elk bugling, both sides of us, above us.

We got out of the truck, started hiking.

We played cat and mouse with them until about, 9 o'clock, the first couple hours

of daylight.

And they were acting more call shy than they should be for a low-pressure private land hunt.

Come to find out, three different bulls have been killed on that same ridge the previous month,

basically the previous couple weeks, with archery equipment.

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