mc68

The bull was hit by the car shown above yesterday morning. Where it was hit, from what I have been told, was not far from Ft. Thomas. There are alfalfa fields along the highway there that several of my friends have seen the small herd of elk that live in the river corridor before. It is kind of interesting though because I had never heard of a bull anywhere close to this size. Only other thing I thought about was I know that fire on the Rez is not too far from there so maybe he came down??? I would have thought they would have tried to salvage what they could off of the bull? I agree though, what a waste.

Gotta get those bulls out of the gene pool...just sayin.

Cool deal and good luck on your hunt, more importantly I hope you enjoy the time spent with your family!

Flatlander, tell me you were joking when you said the only thing that could make you enjoy hunting mule deer was if your family was there. I gotta believe you weren't serious right? In other news, 2 of my kids pulled youth tags in the 28, 29,30A,31&32 hunt. They are excited and it should be a fun hunt.

Cmon people, I know a bunch of you had to of went up North for the long weekend. I need to see pics and stories of all the critters you saw(mainly the bulls). Please help a brother out!!

Ya the Tackle Shop. They don't charge and its great water.

I think they are different bulls too. Just a few little things that don't look the same between the two. No doubt those two have gotta be related! Thanks everyone for some great pictures. Definitely has me excited for September.

Wow!! That picture is going a long ways back for sure there singleshot! Time for me to look in the book of death and pull out a pic of the big 5 you got a couple years later! I thought that bull was the biggest animal that ever walked in Az. Good memories.

OMG!!! Now that's what I'm talking about! Thanks people and please keep em coming. Love the pic of the little girl glassing em up too!!

Guys, 520Hunt posted a thread about what a great weekend he had up North this past weekend while camping with his family. That's it! Why is it that people feel as though they can pass judgement on him for doing so? Looks like maybe he had a fire on some private land, why is that any of our business? Its over and done with, he did not burn down a forest nor did he even come close to doing so. Enjoy his post without looking for something to start an argument over PLEASE??!!! This is happening on this site with more and more frequency. Like the Good Lord said " let him who has no sin cast the first stone"...save all of the negativity for the next anti you come across.

+1 on the gas station. There is plenty of area to pull in with even a very large trailer. The water is tastes great as well.

I really appreciate the feedback guys! I am going to try both the Tlocs and WacEms. I tried out Steel Force and really liked the Phat Heads but they flew several inches off from my field tips. All this work getting ready for Elk season is so exhausting!!

Well I got lucky and pulled an archery bull tag in unit 1 this year and I'm going to change broadheads for the hunt. I have always shot Vortex blades but have had mixed results over the years. I am really leaning towards a fixed blade broadhradbbecause i feel as though you get better penetration with them. One of the heads I am very interested in is the Shuttle Tlocs. In 2011 I was hunting and came across a guy who had just stuck a bull. I offered help and an little while later we tracked up his first bull. He was shooting these heads and he had hit the bull a little forward, hitting him in the front shoulder but he still got a complete pass thru and the wound channel was phenomenal. Talking with him, he said he had no problems at all with arrow flight and that he didnt have to do much adjusting at all between his field tips and the broadheads. In the research i have done it seems as though they are a good solid broadhead.I was wondering if any of you guys have shot these and could you offer any feedback, good or bad. My setup is a Matthews Switchback set at 70 lbs shooting 5575's. Thanks.

Where did you camp? Just curious about where up there is getting rain...I have an archery bull tag and I'm hoping the Monsoon kicks in strong.

I'm curious as to what you meant by the bulls kept you up all night the first night? I had the 27,archery hunt in 2011, it was a tough year but was still a lot of fun. Pulled unit 1 this year. Good luck.

Bob, you are spot on from what I have always heard about drought years and horn growth, expect a 10-20% reduction in horn growth...putting that into perspective means a bull that would have gone 400" MAY lose up to 80" this year! If this holds true that bull would score somewhere between 320 and 360 this year. That is a huge difference to a wet year. Not saying all bulls are going to be droughted out, but I am in no way expecting it to be a strong year for top end bulls. As luck would have it, I too drew an archery tag for unit 1. I seem to have poor luck in drawing tags on good years, my last tag was unit 27 during the year of the Wallow fires. The overwhelming majority of bulls I found that year were extremely lacking in mass and length as well. I did shoot a bull on the twelfth day of the hunt that scored 320. I had the bull aged and they told me he was 10+. I have no doubt that on a good year he would have been much larger. I looked at over 40 bulls and the best one I saw was a 350 type bull. Just hoping I can find one this year that has found someone's garden to have kept him going strong:)

Peckl1 I am curious as to what u found out about the Ranch in 32 you were questioning. I had heard the new owners weren't going to keep it open to hunters...just curious if that was true.

Azsugar, you have nothing to feel guilty about IMO. You are a fellow hunter on a hunting website that is supposed to be about hunters coming together to help each other become better...none of us know everything we need to know and sometimes we can benefit greatly from just a little helping hand. The way you posted your questions was entirely not invasive as to anyones " honey hole". This is what frustrates me about this site, more and more it seems that there are a lot of people out there who are just looking for a chance to do some web bashing. You are not in the wrong at all to ask for more general information as you have done. Tags are so hard to come by that you really want to maximize the experience. Striving to be a better hunter is what we should all do, any and all ways possible...

Ya a lot of times people get weird about sharing information, I guess I was a little that way when I was younger too. I have an archery bull tag for September in unit 1. if u remember, PM me after the rut and I will see if I have some more info to pass along. I have a brother that lives in the unit and we usually have some really good bulls located at that time of year. Enjoy the experience, the tags can be few and far between!!

Expect cold nights, but it won't bother the bulls. The biggest obstacle you will have is all of the other hunters, it can get frustrating. There are elk throughout the unit and unless there is some big snow storms that come in they will be from the highest country down to the lowest. The roads are generally fine so wouldn't worry to much about that. There will definitely be some broken up bulls, but you can also find them in good shape. My son killed a 340 class bull there on opening morning last year and he didn't hardly have a chipped horn. The elk get very skittish and will cover a lot of ground during the hunt due to all of the people out and about, so don't be too surprised if something you had seen scouting is no longer around. Just hunt hard a and chances are you are gonna find a very nice mature bull to wrap your tag around. Good luck and would like to see pics after your hunt.

If you like that area, then heck yeah! Don't let those punks take away anything from you and your family. Go down there and have a great time making memories to last a lifetime with your kids.

I certainly don't mean to take any business away from any of the good outfitters out there, but, if finances are tough I would almost guarantee you that there are several members on this site that would love the opportunity to go along on your hunt to offer their assistance and knowledge. Its a lot more fun to be in the Elk woods than to be at home watching the tube!!

I drew unit 1 archery in September as well( bull). Very excited about having the tag but I would REALLY like to see A bunch of moisture start hitting the ground. At any rate I hope we have a good rut this year and that the bulls will be screaming from day one.

Unit 1 archery!!! Kind of in shock, wasn't expecting it at all.

Thank you flatlander. Don't like arguing with fellow outdoorsman either.