Just returned from a hunt on the Inn of the Mountain Gods Big Game Hunts on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. What I want to mention is a heads up on how they operate. Like a Time Share. IMO

We signed up for a cull bull hunt. Sent in our money in June and if they draw you then you are in. If not they say they will send the money back.

No where on the website did I see guide fees. Nor did I see required tip. As well as they do most all the hunting from the truck. Some guides may spot and stalk but our guide wanted you to shoot from the truck for a easy pick up. Which to me is not hunting.

Well not to go into the whole story cause there are way to many things to tell. What you want to watch out if you go on one of these hunts are the hidden fees.

We get there and we hear the guide fee is $800 each but when the guide shows up he request $1000 each. 2 people one guide.Plus you buy the gas for the guides truck.

Then when you bring a elk in after 3:30 pm while guys are at the locker there is a storage fee that is ok but there is also a late charge for bringing it in after 3:30 pm of $28. This is crazy.

They have lots of great bulls but you better have the money for them. The minute we got there they were trying to sell us a 5X5 for $6000. We also witnessed a couple of guys that their guide said shoot a bull he thought was a cull that ended up a typical. So Extra Cash for that one. Guys were not happy.

My only reason to make this post is for no one else to get taken on this place. Our hunt started at $2000 ended up around $3900 with tip and hidden charges and extra guide fee amount.

We all got our bulls and some were good bulls for culls but in most cases a Non Typical is not a cull. Has to be a freak in some sense. This hunt is off my list for sure. If you do not pay the hidden charges they hold your game as hostage.

They also make up the rules as they go and change them to help them make more money.

Thanks for the head's up. No bueno outfit!

Sorry to hear, had I known you were going I would have given you a heads up. Lived in Ruidoso most my life, nothing is as it appears on the reservation. Hope you still managed to have a decent time.

Doesn't sound like my kind of operation.

About 15 years ago they advertised 400 dollar cow elk hunts. I was going up there to look at some property anyway and I decided what the heck. Hunt was a slam dunk in and out as fast as you can. Guide said he would gut the cow for me for 250 bucks................ uh no. Very unfriendly folks.

Another group of people that we all owe something to???

Inn of the Mountain Gods has been "Scalping" people for at least 50 years. Ruidoso was a great place 60 years ago but has been going down since then. Yes, my family once owned a cabin there.

Will golf there, maybe gamble some there but now know I'll never hunt there. Thanks for heads up.

Considering the history I would probably say this is the only group of people that we really do owe something to.

X2

good to know I was thinking about going until now.

Thanks a bunch for the information.

For some reason I am not surprised. Snow skiing there is a trip too. Most of the people working on top of the mountain aren't friendly at all. Very unappreciative.

Sorry to hear of the bad experience.....duly noted. Thanks for heads up.

Off Topic from hunting, but a buddy of mine has a beautiful house just outside of the town and we get invited from time to time. Exquisite! Unfortunately, last Spring while visiting we drove over to the casino for dinner and gambling, and on the way back down toward town, we heard a bang and something hit the side of the SUV. My buddy was driving and I thought he had run over something that had kicked up into the wheel well. No big deal. When we got out the next morning, in the light, we realized there was a bullet hole just behind the rear door on passenger side - where I was sitting! Looked like a .22 and didn't penetrate all the way through to cab. Very scary - a bit higher and forward and it would have hit the window, and could have been a very bad situation.

lived in El paso 80-89 they were getting back at the white eyes then, guess they still are.

Three of us went there to hunt elk in 2010 and hunted with the outfit for a week. It was not a very pleasant experience and I wish we would have booked somewhere else. The guides were rude and ours smelled like beer every morning at 0530. Lots of truck hunting and they will get out to call here and there but you have to be persistent on requesting it. The scenery was great and it is hard not to have a good time when you hear bulls calling out near you. We had several come within 20 yards of our position but never a big mature bull. I think they have hunted the land pretty hard. Be prepared to break out the wallet as they will fee the hell out of you. On the bright side, there is a casino to keep you entertained. I did catch a Gary Allen show right when I got back from an evening hunt and was decked out from head to toe in camo haha.

Thanks for the info.

placing this on the "must miss" list

I've heard similar bad stories about the Mescalero Apache reservation hunts. On my last NM elk hunt
in unit 36, there were several hunters who had hunted the reservation and all
had stories to tell. I'm not one to recycle gossip, however, they all said they wouldn't
hunt there again. I harvested a 5X5 bull right along the border of the reservation. I was
told that they strictly enforce their property and don't ever cross their line or you'll
be in jail for awhile. I made sure to GPS my location and stay well within public land on 36.
I was hoping for the bulls to be pushed off the reservation by their hunters and it appeared to
work. There were other hunters along the border hoping for the same.

Huh???

Read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown for a beginning point.

If I bump into anyone that was at wounded knee I will certainly concede they are owed something. But this whole "your great great great great grandfather did my great great great great grandfather wrong and now you owe me" is for the birds.

I whole heartily agree!

No kidding. The current generation has a free ride. I don't owe them anything. Every group has been wronged at some point. For them, it's in the past.

I bet it is about how badly the peaceful innocent Indigenous Nations were treated after they were defeated by the Evil Invading White Colonist. Does that about sum it?

Here is a reality check. The entire political face of the world was formed by war. Every country that exist today was at one point inhabited by another nation, that was defeated and their land was taken away. This is reality. There is nothing unique about what happen here.

Here is another reality. No nation is innocent. The Indigenous Nations that lived on this land before the European settlers arrived, we're waring and killing each other long before they got here. The land they claimed as theirs, they had taken from someone else, who had taken it from someone else and so on and so forth.

Here is another reality that everyone needs to get a grasp on. In war, the side that practices the art of killing the most effectively, is always the side that wins. In every war, the side that kills the most is the winner.

The Indigenous Nations were not innocent in the war to defend their land. They fought and killed tens of thousands of colonists. But the colonist were better at it and killed more of them. That is the way it is in war. Every country that exist in the world today was formed this way.

This idea that because you won the war, you owe the defeated side some kind of compensation to pay them back for the sin of winning the war comes from the teachings of the religion of Progressive Liberalism, and is stupid.

You cannot correct the past. It is what it is. Nothing you to today can compensate for any wrong that was done generations ago. The only person that would suggest this is a person who is racist. If you see all people as humans, regardless of their origins, then all you have left is humans. You don't have all of these subcategories of humans divided in to class, such as, white, black, Hispanic, Indian etc. Only people who do not see all humans as equal would continously try to divide and define humans by color and or origin. Only someone who discriminates and is a racist would strive to treat a certain class of people "Special" because of their origins or history or color.

I choose to treat all people equal, regardless of their origin. So I find the idea that some want to categorize a people based on their origins, and then treat them more special because of it, extremely offensive and racist.

Why don't we just do away with all this subdivision and categorization of humans and treat all humans equal and the same. How about we do away with racist terms like, African American, Native American, Hispanic American, and we just call everone, AMERICANS. What do you say?