AzRaised08

I got drawn for the second year in a row! 27 late rifle bull—couldn’t be more excited based on how last year’s went!!!! Good luck to all who got drawn 😃

That white bull is really cool! Thanks for sharing 😁

Every single bull was impressive. Sounds like a truly unbelievable hunt! Congrats to all 😃

What a fantastic trip! 4/4 in 5 days is some serious good hunting. What a trip for the books. Thanks for sharing and happy hunting!

Fighting the weather was pretty difficult this year, but you stuck it out and got your bull. Congratulations!!

Yeah tons of snow in Unit 27. We still ended up hunting the northern part of the unit, but so many places were inaccessible

Wow that’s what terrible! Really hope it was a Champ permit, though with the vehicle and multiple people firing it’s still upsetting. In 27, I was talking to a guy camped next to us and he said he saw multiple hunters taking 1000 yard shots and firing all over the place. In fact, a group of hunters even ended up shooting the tree they were posted under since the shots were going everywhere. You should only be prepared to shoot the shot you know you can take. Shameful otherwise

Incredible story and even better photos! Congratulations 😃 sounds like a perfect hunt—couldn’t ask for anything more

Sounds like a truly fantastic hunt. I love playing yuker and cribbage, especially out in the woods with the buddies. Thanks for sharing the story, and glad you guys had success despite the terrible opening day weather!

That is a fantastic bull! Congratulations on your first! I shot my first the day after, on 12/1, in Unit 27. Absolutely have Bull elk fever

Those are some awesome bulls! Congrats to all of you on a really great hunt, and thanks for sharing your story!

Well idgaf inspired me to start my own thread for the late bull hunt in unit 27. For this first post, I’ll share some pics and a recap of our scouting trip about 2 weeks ago. We were up in the unit for 4 days checking out a few different spots. This is our first time hunting the unit. Most of the time was pretty quiet but we did manage to bump a group of cows and a few spikes on the evening of day 2. We got lucky on the afternoon of day 3 and saw a group of 3 bulls, but I wasn’t able to grab any photos of that group. All three looked to be shooters but it was hard to tell through the trees before they got over the ridge and out of sight. The very last morning my buddy and I glassed a nice bull about 600 yards away but the wind wasn’t in our favor so we weren’t able to close the distance to get a better look. Hoping we run into a few more elk during the hunt, but we’ll see with all the weather coming in. It’s only my second time elk hunting and the first time I have been drawn, so I can’t wait to see what comes of the hunt! We are on our way up to Alpine now, and I’ll post a few times a day. Thanks for tuning in!

Thank you all for your kind words and following along! It’s still hard to believe it all turned out the way it did. I took measurements on the bull and the unofficial score we calculated was 305 4/8! We did most of the butchering at home today and have some jerky marinating in the fridge. Can’t wait to make it tomorrow! (The picture is from last night before we cut up all the meat.)

That’s an awesome bull! Congrats to your nephew on his hunt!

I used a 30-06 Ruger American with a Leupold VX-1 3-9x50 scope and shot with a Remington 165 grain core lokt PSP

Third Day Update: TAG FILLED. As I finally have a chance to relax and look back on it, wow what a day it’s been! We decided to go back to the spot I posted about yesterday morning. While we had seen some bulls yesterday, we weren’t entirely sure if they’d be there again since we didn’t scout this area before the season started. (It was a whole new spot because we couldn’t get to the spots we had scouted and wanted to hunt due to all the snow.) We looked at a map last night and decided on an area to sit and glass and wait in the morning to see if the elk would come through that same area. We got up early and hiked in about a mile to sit and glass. About an hour after sunrise, we decided to cross the ridge we were sitting on to get a better view of a tree line and valley that we had seen tracks in yesterday. 30 minutes later, as I’m loudly clearing snow off a log to sit on, my buddy spots the first cow. She was coming from a saddle connected to the little valley we were sitting on about 150 yards from us. He tells me to shut up and look and I see her clear as day. A few more cows follow her and I think to myself “where are the bulls?” After what seemed like forever, but was probably about 30 seconds, we spot a bull following the cows. He’s a decent 4 pointer and being the third day I think “game on, I’m gonna tag my first bull!” All of a sudden 5 more bulls come into view from that same saddle but there’s one (potentially major) problem. The lead cow is now at the bottom of this valley we are sitting right on top of about 80 yards in front of us. She can either keep going down or turn directly towards us. There were tracks all on the hillside we were sitting on, so I’m just praying she doesn’t head straight for us. My prayers went answered and she continued leading the group down the valley. I turn my attention back to the bulls, but I’m starting to get so excited that not only will I get a shot at one, I’ll actually get to PICK the one I want to shoot. And they are only 125 yards away! I quickly look at each bull through my scope and pick out the one that looks the biggest. Honestly, I probably should have looked at each one longer but I was worried that I would miss this awesome opportunity because the group was moving steadily through. The big one stopped and I had a clear shot at about 125 yards. I pulled the trigger. He went about 30 yards and dropped on his side. He was down! I couldn’t believe it. Clean, double lung shot. I was shaking so hard and for some reason my left hand was tingling like crazy. We waited about 10 minutes but he was down and gone. I walked up and he was a beautiful 6 pointer. I honestly couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect way to fill my first tag. Thank you all again so much for your tips and words of encouragement! I’m really glad I got to finish this thread with a success story and a great bull. Until next time, John

Day 2 Evening Update: Well the tag has yet to be filled. After a tiring and fast paced morning, things slowed down quite a bit this afternoon/evening. We hiked a pretty steep ridge that opened to a canyon where we had seen a bunch of sign before. We ended up getting the chance to glass a ton of country and saw a bunch more sign, but unfortunately the elk were 3 ridges over. It was about 45 minutes before sundown when we finally spotted them but they seemed to be all cows and there was no way we were making it before it got dark. We saw a bunch more sign, which was encouraging but didn’t get the chance to see any bulls this afternoon. It was just about dark, when on our way back to the truck, we almost ran into some elk. It was too dark to tell if there were any bulls in this small group, but I don’t believe there were. Oh one pretty neat thing that happened just before dark was we got a turkey “fly over”. About 12 turkeys ended up jumping off a ledge about 40 yards away from us and flew right over head. Not quite the same as an F-16 flyover but mother nature’s version was just as awesome. We’ll be back at it again early, so maybe tomorrow will be the day—at least that’s what we’re hoping for! Thanks so much for all the tips everyone. Definitely much appreciated for newish elk hunter like myself!! FullSizeRender.mov

That’s awesome, congrats to you and your brother on what I’m sure was a great hunt!

Second morning update: We went the first few hours of the morning without seeing anything, so we decided to try another area since there is fresh snow on the ground and the elk are easy to track. We came across some tracks that looked like it could be a group of three bulls. After following the tracks for about a mile we spotted our first elk of the day: a cow. We watched her for a bit and found 2 more smalls cows. We were pretty disappointed but I was convinced the tracks we were following were not those cows and were larger bulls. My buddy and I decided to bump the cows to see if they’d lead us to the bulls that I was positive we’re there while my wife and father-in-law stayed behind to watch the ridge we were about to climb. We followed the cows up the ridge and ended up getting pretty close to them a few times. Finally I caught a glimpse of a rack. It was a smaller bull but it was half blocked by a cow and I could only glimpse it through some thicker aspen and bushes. We decided to give it some time and finally saw the cows and bull crest the ridge. We radioed back to my wife and father-in-law that we found a bull and they let us know that there were still some elk on the ridge we had just climbed...among them were two bulls. A large 4 point and an even larger 5pt. They ended up walking right over the top above my buddy and I. We ended up busting out but to get over the ridge to see if we could get our eyes on the three bulls. By the time we made it over a few minutes later the elk were nowhere to be found. We were closely checking the wind every 30 seconds or so and it was working in our favor so I’m not really sure what spooked them. Again, we got very close to some elk and each time we would stop and let them slowly climb over the ridge. So sadly we never had a chance at any of the bulls. We met up with my wife and father-in-law back at the car and they told us that from where the were, they would have had a perfect shot at the 5 pointer broadside at 100 yards. Ouch, that stings. Still keeping a positive attitude and I hope this afternoon and evening turn out great! FullSizeRender.mov

PM sent

Opening night update: Still no bull. This afternoon we tried to go down towards the Hannagan Meadow area but on our way down there a truck flagged us down and told us that an 18 wheeler jackknifed on the highway and was essentially blocking the 191. Snow was getting pretty deep in the Alpine area so we tried a spot a little further south to see if we could find some opening day worthy bulls. We searched for a few hours and ended up coming across another herd that only had a few spikes. I’m hoping that we’ll be seeing more than spikes this trip! Quick question for all you elk hunters. If we are finding herds of cows and spikes are the bachelor groups close by? I know the cows and bulls tend to split up after the rut, so I’m thinking we’re not really in the right spots if all we are coming across are cows and a few spikes. We also saw a javelina with her two little ones running through the snow, which was kind of odd but cool to see! All in all it was a fun day given how bad the weather was. Any time seeing elk in the woods is a good thing. And we’ll be up again early hoping to find some bigger guys! I’ll post another update soon and hopefully we’ll get a chance to punch the tag.

Wow your nephew has found some really nice bulls! Those are bigger than any we’ve seen this trip. I hope he get to tag the big one!!

Opening morning update: We woke up at 3:30am in the hopes the weather would be in our favor. Not quite. It was raining quite a bit in Alpine but we decided to head out anyway and hope for a good opening morning. We got to the spot we decided on last night but there’s a river we have to cross in order to get there, and it was running way too much from snow melt and rain. We decided not to risk a crossing because we still would have been battling quite a bit of wind and rain. Driving out of that spot, we came across a small group of cows and took it as a sign of good things to come. We drove further in fo find some new (and accessible) areas and ended up finding quite a big herd. There was a spike bull and a decent sized 4x5, but those were the only two bulls in the herd. I had a chance to take a shot, but decided not to fill the tag opening morning on a small bull. (I pray that won’t be a mistake in a few days time since it would be my first bull and I would love to leave here with one.) A little later in the morning we came across another smaller herd with two spike bulls. The wind and rain were coming down hard so we didn’t spend too much time watching them. We ended up coming back into Alpine to buy a Christmas tree permit at the FS office and on our way in we encountered pretty heavy snowfall. Looks like it’s been snowing a good bit here with no signs of slowing down. We’ll be braving the snow and winds to check out another area this evening, so we’ll see what comes from that! Hoping for some better weather and coming across a good bull. Hope everyone’s enjoying their Friday!

Thanksgiving night update: We scouted a couple more spots this afternoon, but we could hardly get into the Hannagan Meadow area. Snow was about 8 inches deep and was coming down steady when we tried to make our way in. With another 16+ inches projected to land over the next 24 hours I’m not sure we’ll be able to get back in there on the south side. We drove a couple of roads as the snow really started coming down a little later in the day. We checked out a couple of smaller canyons and ran into a cow and her baby. Not sure where all the bulls went. But it was encouraging to see quite a bit of sign and the elk (even though they’re not what we’re after). We’ll be up well before light tomorrow and hope there’s not a foot of snow on the ground. Weather reports seem to change every hour but some of the worst I’ve read project 1+ feet above 7,000 feet with 2-3 feet projected higher up and 50mph wind gusts. Not sure that’s the best elk hunting weather, but we’ll be out there making the best of an iffy weather situation. Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful thanksgiving meal, and I’ll update tomorrow!

Hey everyone, Here’s the Thanksgiving midmorning update. A couple inches of snow fell over night but it seems like the weather is only supposed to get worse this evening and tomorrow. It is currently snowing in Alpine and from what I’ve been told, it’s been like that one and off throughout the morning. Unfortunately didn’t come across any bulls this morning, but we did come across tons of sign. Might have just missed them and I don’t think the wind was a factor. I will say all the snow makes this place look awesome, so hopefully the weather isn’t too crazy tomorrow. I’ve never had this happen to me before but my buddy and I were walking under a tree and this super fat squirrel dive bombed my buddy. It missed landing on him by a foot or so and then took off chirping. Anyone know why it did that? Protecting its nuts? Also the tree we placed a trail cam on while scouting ended falling down. Maybe we got that on video? Anyways, hoping to spot a few bulls this afternoon and evening. Not sure how much the weather will affect their behavior tomorrow if the snow is coming in hard. Still a bit to new to understand all the nuances of elk’s daily habits. Here are some photos from this morning. Hope you’re all having a wonderful thanksgiving! Stay warm and safe.