High Country Outfitters, New Mexico

10/18/2023

I had the privilege of taking my family on an antelope hunt a couple of weeks ago. Both boys had an antelope tag in separate GMU’s.
We started the morning trying to get Hunter on one. We had a very skittish herd that ran over the fence, so we went to a different area. Nothing there.
We went across the road to see if we could get Tucker on one. We found a herd with 3 bucks, one of which was a really good one. We made a play on them and got into position. The antelope were working to the south and were right where we could get a shot when someone across the highway started shooting and spooked the herd. We tried to catch up to them, but could never get back into range. We got in the truck to head out for lunch and the buck and doe that we had been chasing appeared right in front of us. We got out and got set up. The buck came out broadside at 120 yards, but unfortunately there was a house immediately behind him, so no shot was available.
We left and went to grab lunch.
After lunch, we decided to go back to Hunter’s unit. We got over there and started looking and Tucker said, Daddy, there is one right there. I looked and sure enough, there was a nice buck, all by himself, bedded in the middle of this pasture. We drove past him and got the truck to where we were hidden from sight. We got out and started making our stalk. We got to 200 yards and a truck came down the county road. They stopped and jumped out, one guy had a rifle. Well, we were directly behind the antelope so I stood up and started waving my arms. The guy saw me and jumped back in his truck. The antelope didn’t like any of this, so he trotted off toward the road. The guy in the truck drove down the road and stopped. The antelope stopped going that direction and started angling back towards us. He then started to run. I used a rabbit in distress call and stopped him. Hunter said he could take the shot. He checked and saw there was nothing behind the antelope. I flipped off the safety and told him to do just like we had practiced. He waited until the buck was completely broadside and squeezed the trigger. The rifle went off and the buck dropped in his tracks. Hunter looked up at me and asked where he went because he couldn’t see him. I was jumping up and down, I said you got him buddy!! Hunters eyes got huge and he started pumping his arms saying, “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”. We walked up to him and he said “Daddy, I just killed an antelope!” It was a perfect shot, 130 yards.
I called Jamie Moehring and she came up with Tucker and Zoe. We did pictures, then I gave them an anatomy lesson as we field dressed him. They thought that was pretty cool. We went and hung him in a cooler to try and go find Tucker an antelope.
We got back to the other side of the ranch and found the same herd from earlier in the morning back in the same pasture. We drove closer to them, had Jamie drop Tucker and I off and we began the stalk as she turned around and drove back 3/4 of a mile and watched. We were set up and for some reason, a handful of cows spooked and started running through the pasture. This spooked the antelope. They took off in a big semicircle behind us. I had Jamie come pick us up. She then drove down the lane. We got out and dropped to our bellies as she drove off back to the road. The antelope watched her go away and we used that distraction to belly crawl. We ended up having to belly crawl about 250 yards. We were set up using the sparse cover the fence line provided. The antelope were between 400 and 500 yards away, but slowly working their way towards us. Tucker wanted to shoot until he realized how far away they were. I told him to be patient. They had no idea we were there and they were walking and feeding towards us. After what seemed like forever, we had a group of 3 bucks and 15 does between 200 and 300 yards. Tucker said he could make the shot on the buck. The biggest buck in the group took that time to start chasing the other bucks in the group. He chased one away from the herd all together, the other to about 180 yards. Tucker kept insisting that he could take the shot. I finally agreed to it and he got ready. I reached over, flipped off the safety and told him to take his time, pick out a spot and to slowly squeeze the trigger. He did and I heard the dreaded click. I had forgotten to load a round in the chamber. I reached over and got it loaded. He got settled back in said he was ready and I flipped off the safety again. After a few seconds, bang went the rifle and I heard a solid whop of the bullet impacting. I was watching and the buck took off running, I injured. I got up on my knees and saw a white belly in the grass. I asked what happened? Tucker looks at me with that infectious smile of his and he said “Daddy, I shot the big one!”. The big one was at 300 yards. We got up and walked down the lane, I called Jamie and she met us at the gate to the pasture. We got pictures and got him field dressed and loaded just as the rain started coming down in sheets. We had a great time and ate antelope tacos the next night. The entire family had a blast. We stopped at the ranchers house and the boys shook hands and thanked him for allowing them to come and hunt on his ranch. We showed him the animals and some pictures. He was elated that they were both able to get their first big game animals.

11/23/2022

Hey all! I have been using this gear exclusively for 7 or 8 years now. They are running a pretty good Black Friday sale and I thought I would drop a link to it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pre-Black Friday sale SAVE 65% on these items All Sales are final on items discounted at 65% off.

07/06/2022

Anyone looking for a New Mexico fully guided bull hunt? Unit wide muzzleloader or rifle. Great friend of mine just picked up the tag. Fully guided. Casey Davis contact him directly for information on the hunt.

06/06/2021

https://gofund.me/e9dd9578 if anyone is in the position to help, weather it be through financial or prayers, it would be very, very appreciated. Thank you all!

Hey All! Thanks for stopping by. My name is Alicia - I'm Chris' yo… Alicia Ellingson needs your support for Support Chris & Family with Medical Expenses

05/29/2021

Hey everyone! I don’t post often, but if you are looking for certain items, I may have them. I have multiple shotpews, handpews, and long range pews. Lots of freedom seeds as well. PM me if you are looking for anything if I don’t have it, I may be able to find it for you.

11/22/2020

So, this was the early grand finale of the 2020 season. On October 14, I was taking care of a downed elk, on my knees, sitting on my heels. After 10 minutes or so, I felt that all too recognizable tingling saying I needed to stand up and let some blood back to my feet. As I stood up from a deep squat, I planted my right foot and turned to the left. As I did, I heard a noise coming from my right knee that sounded like a truck driving over gravel. That is when the blinding, searing pain showed up. My knee was locked at about a 45 degree angle and my kneecap migrated a few inches to the left. I was by myself, 2 miles deep, with nobody knowing exactly where I was. I feel the first fast acting icy chills of panic building in my guts. At this point, I am writhing on the ground in pure agony and terror. I kept repeating to myself, if you panic, you die. I was able to suppress my panic and fear. I spent the next 15 minutes slowly forcing my leg straight. Once I got it straight (not going to lie, the world was pretty fuzzy a few times in the process), I took my hand and slapped my kneecap with my palm and actually knocked it back in place. As I did, whatever had caught inside my knee released. It was still very painful, but I had an elk to take care of. I finished field dressing the elk while laying on my back. Cut off his head, strapped it to my pack, gathered all my gear while still laying in my back. Now, how to get up? I dragged myself to the nearest tree and used it to crawl up to a standing position. Once I was up, I shouldered my pack, made sure my rifle was completely empty and began lurching from tree to tree, using my rifle as a cane when necessary. I made it back the 2 miles to the truck, tossed my pack in the truck, crawled in and headed back to camp. At camp, I told them what happened, we loaded up the horses and headed back out for the recovery. My knee went back out while attempting to finish field processing and loading of the elk. After about 20 minutes, it released again. We got the elk out, and back to camp. I got in to see a specialist 2 days later, I was diagnosed with a bucket handle tear of the meniscus. MRI in 2 weeks to confirm. Fast forward to Sunday, 11/15.
I am changing my daughter’s diaper at 8:39 AM, and my knee goes out. This time was different. After 45 minutes with no sign of relief, I called the on call nurse for the specialist that I had seen. I was told that I needed to go to the ER in Amarillo (3 hours away). We make arrangements for kiddos, and my wife drives me to Amarillo. I get into the ER, they gave me some pain medication. At around 5:30 PM, The doctor comes in and said they had a plan (remember, my knee is locked in at a 45 degree angle still). They gave me an injection of some high powered narcotics and used a local anesthetic in the knee joint. Once it all was in place and I was finally comfortable. The doctor and nurse came in. The doctor pulled on my leg while the nurse pushed down on my knee. My leg went straight. Unfortunately, the pain was much worse. I was placed into a knee immobilizer and had an appointment for the specialist the next day, Monday.
The specialist looked at the MRI, there was nothing indicating anything wrong. The x rays also showed nothing. Looking at my knee, he said there is obviously something very wrong. I was sent home being told that I needed surgery, they would be in touch.
First thing Tuesday morning, I get a call, I was having surgery first thing Thursday morning, but I needed to have my pre op blood work and all that stuff first. That was scheduled the last thing Wednesday.
Thursday morning, I am waiting, they call me back, I have surgery and wake up in recovery. As we all know, you can’t remember anything during that time. I had a lateral meniscus tear that required both sutures and cleanup. They also discovered that I had a fracture of the patella from where my knee was forced straight in the ER, and some bad bruising of the patella as well. I went from thinking I was going to be right as rain in a week to wearing this brace, non weight bearing, once again, placed at a 45 degree angle for the next 4-6 weeks.
I am not complaining in this post. I had a Garmin inReach in the truck. Make sure your people know where you are and in today’s age of technology, please make sure you have a way of communicating an emergency to your loved ones. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

08/17/2020

Saturday, at around noon, I picked up my youth antelope hunter, Brody, and his dad from where they were staying in Raton. Brody has drawn one of the youth antelope tags for unit 56 in Northeastern New Mexico. We headed out in search of the perfect antelope. We put 333 miles on the truck Saturday glassing, moving, glassing, moving. We saw hundreds of antelope and tried to make a play on one real bruiser. We had a storm move an and at 500 yards from the buck and a mile from the truck, the good Lord decided it was time to bring forth some life sustaining and badly needed moisture in the form of peanut M&M sized really hard hail. Then came the rain. We were literally running as fast as we could to get back to the dry safety of the truck. We decided to head in, grab a bite to eat and let the line of storms get ahead of us. We got back out and where there had been no antelope earlier, now there were herds everywhere! We found a great buck, made a stalk on him, but he moved over the hill. We went back to the truck, and were stopped by a game warden. After everything checked out, we headed around and cut the buck off again, just could not quite make the shot. The buck crossed over into some private, so we went back to locate the big one from earlier. Unfortunately for us, we pushed him right to another hunter. With that, the day had wound down and it was time to call it a night. Early Sunday morning, I picked them back up and off we went again. We stalked buck after buck and saw hundreds of animals. We just could not put it all together and make it happen. We got out and ate a late lunch and checked out some new country, passed in a bunch more little ones and found ourselves back in the area where we were checked by the warden. Sure enough, the buck was back. We made a plan, and executed it. We got to 400 yards, I got Brody set up on the sticks and ready to shoot when the rest of the herd walked into the picture. Now we had 3 shooters and about 100 others milling around. Waiting for a clear shot, Brody had the chance to settle down. He shot high and left, with a clean miss. We walked back to the truck, offering words of encouragement. We drove around the parcel, relocated part of the herd. I thought that the bucks we were looking for may have circled back as that is the way they were wanting to go in the first place. Well, I found part of them, but they had gone into private. We drove back and I was going to try another spot 5 miles away when Tony, Brody’s dad said antelope on the right. I looked and there was a small buck and a much larger one. Brody and his dad got out and got under the fence. The antelope had moved from 163 to 250 yards and stopped in a slight depression offering no shot. They angled out to 309 and moved out of the depression. Brody made a perfect 300 yard shot. The antelope tan about 150 yards, reared up on his hind legs and flipped over. We got some pictures with an amazing sunset as a backdrop, took care of the animal and headed back in. Congratulations, Brody, on your first ever big game animal. I will be forever grateful that I was able to help you with this. , ,

08/17/2020

I had the privilege to take a couple of youth antelope hunters out this past weekend. I met Cody and his dad the evening before the hunt began. Due to a lot of construction and a late start, they didn’t get to my area until 9pm. I took them out to the area they were going to be camping and they got set up. I was back first thing in the morning to load them up and show them the property boundaries (this was a DIY on a private, family owned ranch, I was just showing them the ranch boundaries). As we were going around the ranch, I was showing them different ways to approach areas using the terrain and I spotted a buck. After a quick glance through my binoculars, I said he was a pretty good one. They said they wanted to take him. I showed them a route to close distance, but could only get to 550 yards, had them back out, took them on a big loop around to get into a draw to use as cover. I told them if the antelope stayed put, they would have a 250 yard shot once they got to a particular safe bush. The antelope moved a little bit in the time it took for them to ease down the 3/4 of a mile. Cody got set up on the sticks and made a solid shot at 325 yards. Double lung and heart. The buck ran about 60 yards and toppled over. Great shot and great job!

08/02/2020

Has anyone been to a sporting goods store lately? Tried to find a firearm? They are quite difficult to locate. I happen to have a few in stock and I was thinking about running some sort of raffle to offer people out there an opportunity at something new for something with really good odds. Thoughts?

06/14/2020

Well, I guess that answers that one...

02/23/2019

Mike posted up his video from the coyote Hunt a few weeks ago. Windy, windy day with tough conditions. We walked a lot and had fun. Frustrating day to say the least, but it was a fun time and I would do it again, thanks Mike!

With the wind blowing 25-30 with gust's up to 40mph we knew we were in for a tough hunt. We managed to call in a few coyotes early on in the day but they gav...