azelkhunter69

It's hot up there. Over 80 in Williams already this morning. But yeah, you would have thought that someone would have posted a pic by now.

When I didn't get drawn for early archery bull again this year I tried to convince myself the silver lining was that the hunt starts early this year. Next year it starts on the 15th which typically is better. BUT, the moisture this year seems to have made for some big bulls and the weather is looking really good. 2 out of the last 3 archery hunts we had, the weather was terrible....in the 80's. This year, if the forecast holds, it looks like 60's and low 70's. No telling what the rut will be like yet, I guess we will see in a few days. Good luck to all of you lucky guys and gals with tags. I'll be waiting for the pictures to start rolling in. P.S. Not sure who I am trying to kid. There is no silver lining to not drawing. I wish I drew every year.

We have shot a few bulls during that hunt and I can tell you, a lot of where they are depends on the weather. If it is fairly "normal", ie 50's-60's during the day and 30's at night, I have found them right where I would during archery season. If it gets cold and snows, they will bail and go lower. This was the case in 2011. 11 inches of snow the week before the hunt. Hardly saw any tracks the first morning, and the ones we did see were going lower. Went down lower and there were elk all over. My wife shot a 6x5 the 2nd morning in a transition area between pines and junipers.

^^^ Heard this a couple times today.

So much for the forecast holding. 80 degrees in Williams and warmer tomorrow. That and only being Sept. 9th probably explains some of the complaints about not hearing bugles this morning. Should be good about mid week though if the weather man is right. Supposed to be in the 60's.

Just got up to go to work.....the wrong kind of work. So freakin' jealous right now.

Oops, sorry about the extra "i" in the topic title for all of you spelling police out there.

Beautiful buck !!! Heavy, heavy, heavy.

We use 100 gr. of Triple 7 powder pushing either a 250 gr. or 300 gr. Barnes. Combined, we have 4 bulls to show for it. My wife will be trying for her 3rd bull in November.

No new pics in over a month? Always look forward to seeing them.

Doesn't matter....TALL...great looking buck....shoot !!!!! Honestly, I am definitely no expert but... mass avg.+prongs avg.+length exceptional = shooter. Going to guess 85.

Well, looks like we defied the odds and didn't get drawn. Totally bummed. Can't wait to see the report when it comes out. Well, next year I guess. I'm tired of saying that though... I am 0 fer on tags this year. Sitting on a lot of points now. Good luck to those of you that did get drawn.

Seems to be awefully slow going. I would have expected a ot more "hits" by now. I'm still holding out hope. My dad and I had an average of 6pts for 12AW in October. I thought that gave us a really good chance.

My son and I got hit for turkey tags this morning at 7:15. Still waiting to see if my dad and I are going to the Kaibab.

Wow, look at the 3rds on that guy.

Pretty cool. Fun stuff. My wife did pretty much the same thing when she shot her first elk. Hyperventilated, fell to her knees and said "I can't feel my hands." Hahahaha Fun times.

Why buy a pair when you can win a pair....with a little luck of course. https://www.arizonaelksociety.org/shop/product/your-choice-swarovski-raffle-3/

I looked at the bonus point reports on AZGFD.com. I looked at the "Bonus pass by hunt number" report. https://www.azgfd.com/hunting/draw/BonusPointProcess It was hunt #1014 last year. They gave out 450 tags. I see this year it got bumped up to 500.

At top of this page....click "Sign into account" https://www.azgfd.com/Hunting/Draw

Unless I am looking at something wrong, for the 12AW Oct. hunt, 7 pts was guaranteed and 23% of the guys with 6 pts. got drawn in the bonus round. Thanks for the info so far guys. Looks like the popular opinion is 12AW so I think that is what I will go with. We will be able to stay for the whole hunt so time is not a problem. I will keep you updated on how things go with the draw. I am excited to get up there and have a look around.

/\ You are going to be busy. I

Now we get to go through this all over again next year. Just glad that at least my wife got a tag.

Not sure about that but I see most of these guys are with Chase. My wife got hit on a Citi card.

Wife got hit for a bull Muzzy tag with 3 points. Now we just have to wait and see if she got lucky and got a 6A Nov. tag or hit the jackpot and got the Sept. unit 8 tag. She is so lucky, she probably got the early tag. She has had 4 bull tags now and has never had over 3 pts. Either way, I'm going hunting elk this Fall. This Winter sucked with no elk in the freezer.

has to drain... leave it in a cooler with dry ice for 7 days with the drain open so any blood will drain out. hot air rises cold air falls ( you already know /knew that) put the dry ice on top but use something so it is not directly on the meat, ie. a tray or something. also when in your fridge it can pick up foreign odors... if your going to do it in a fridge make room in your beer fridge, but make sure it can drain off the blood. james I bone it out and put it in my "beer fridge" and my dad's "beer fridge". I made a rack to set the meat on so the blood can drain as mentioned. Then I put newspaper in the bottom of the fridge to soak up the blood.