Bull elk killed in Gila Forest

Red Sparky

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Sep 19, 2011
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Los Lunas, NM
This makes me mad as HE##!!!! I hope they catch the bastard.

From the Albuquerque Journal 9/21/13:

Magnificent bull elk killed in Gila Forest, left to rot......The bull was found dead Sept. 4 by a Reserve-based outfitter. New Mexico Game and Fish conservation officer KC Gehrt feels certain the elk was killed by a poacher who shot it illegally with a small-caliber weapon, and then left the carcass to rot.

The bull was last seen alive three days earlier, Gerht said, on opening day of the bow season. Rifle hunting in the area doesn't start until Oct. 5. After examining the elk earlier this month, Gehrt said damage to the organs, especially the lungs, is consistent with injuries caused by a small-caliber bullet, though he was unable to find a bullet. In poaching cases, the carcass becomes the property of Game and Fish.

"In the past, poachers have waited to return to an animal because they couldn't find it or they wee waiting to claim the animal when they had a hunting license." Gehrt said. "That is what I suspect happened here. The wanton waste in this situation is sickening. It's one of the reasons that trophy poaching should be treated as a felony."

Gehrt measured the elk's antlers using the Safari Club International's guidelines. It scored 422.375 inches, which would have tied the record for the third largest elk ever taken in New Mexico.

This is the gist of the article. As I said it makes me mad as .......
 
It probably would have been one of the 16 units, probably 16A or unit 22. Possibly unit 23 but the big bulls are usually found in unit 16 in the wilderness. The nice thing tonight was we saw a legally tagged bull here in Los Lunas that was around 350 and when I pulled up to the truck and said that looked like a Gila bull all I got was big smiles and the response of "Where in the Gila?". Yeah try pinning down location from a successful hunter. :D Getting the fever to go now that I saw that one.
 
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