I got back from 5 days of bear hunting in the Gila. This was probably the only trip where I didn't see a bear. I did see lots of turkey, elk, mule deer and a nice coues deer buck. Incredibly nice rack on the coues deer.

I did manage to get a cell phone video of this guy. Click on the picture and it should play the video.

[img:left]Videos-5 by -Crawdaddy Mark-[/img]

Somebody said they couldn't identify the animal. It is a spike elk. Probably 1.5 years old.

What unit were you in? I've spent a lot of time in 16C. Love the Gila, need to get back there.

16 b just south of your unit. Pretty close to black canyon.

Looks good and green there. Should be a good year for horns. I've only seen one Bear in all the years I Elk hunted in the Gila. It was a very big, very pretty cinnamon Bear. No tag, had to watch it walk by at 60 yards.

That's how I started hunting bear. I kept getting out there with no bear tag and would see them. So I started purchasing a tag every time I went elk order hunting. Didn't draw either of those from the state so I just went out bear hunting. Thank heavens for the Jicarilla reservation or I wouldn't be hunting elk this year.