Mt Taylor herds were apparently, shot out. The DOW went to primitive weapons only some years ago and cut back total elk tags but it was too late. You can’t take that many herd bulls out of the rut along with post-rut cows and expect the herds to stay stable. Drought and predators factor in but the number of tags should be adjusted accordingly. There are some elk in Marquez WMA.
Unit 53 has well over a hundred Unit Wide Mature Bull tags. There also quite a few post-rut cow hunts in GMU 53 that are unit wide landowners tags but I did not count them. Not even mentioned are the unit wide landowners tags for archery seasons which are either sex.
Look at GMU 53 on a 3D map like Basemap or OnX. It should become blatantly obvious why most of the elk are on Public Lands. That is why those ranches opted for Unit Wide land owners tags in the first place. Unit 9 and 53 are just the tip of the iceberg. There are other units with high numbers of Unit Wide Landowners tags where the herds are declining on public lands. Plummeting success rates are one indicator of herd health.
Most elk are on private in 53 ? You clearly haven’t been in 53 or bothered to look at a map.
Success rates in 53 are low because it’s a butt kicker of a hunt with the altitude and insane amounts of deadfall. Period. Has nothing to do with LO tags or elk heading to private.
The amount of dumb things that you try to pass off as facts is astonishing.
Even funnier is how many LO tags go unused in 53 or for ridiculously cheap because it’s a hard hunt.