AzRaised08

Stick with it and keep hunting! Good luck out there. Hoping you tag out and keep us updated with how the rest of the hunt went

Way to stick with it and get it done! A real nice buck to cap off your Thanksgiving weekend 😃

Sounds like a lot of fun! Great job on all that hard work and glad it ended in lots of success! Congratulations

Day 4 Update: TAG FILLED! My wife decided she wanted to head back up to the northern part of the unit to hunt today since we just couldn’t seem to make anything happen in the areas we had scouted pre-season. So we made the hour drive north in the dark and parked the truck, hoping that the early morning light might finally get us into some elk. We settled on doing a 4 mile loop out and back to the car since the area wasn’t too steep and it was a nice break away from the canyons we’d been hiking in and out of the last 3 days. About an hour into shooting light, after not having seen anything, a decent mule buck ran across our path about 30 yards in front of us. If only it was a bull instead of a buck haha. At least we had finally seen some signs of life. Another hour went by and we still hadn’t seen anything. We were starting to get a little discouraged that another morning had gone by with minimal activity but tried to stay positive. I found an antelope “shed” which was super cool cause I’ve never seen one and I’m pretty sure they fall apart quickly after falling off. That got us a bit excited for a while. As we approached a tank about 3/4 mile away from the truck, I looked at my map and realized there was a nice little bench just up ahead. From past experiences I’ve seen elk bed on little benches like these even though they’re only 30 feet tall, so I told my wife to keep an eye out. We hadn’t gone more than 15 yards when I spotted four oval looking things. I immediately thought how out of place they looked amongst all the jagged edges that are natural in the forest (branches, logs, etc)so I knelt down. My wife whispers “do you see one”? And I reply “I don’t know I thought I saw something weird but it’s probably nothing”. I pull out my binos and sure enough, there are two pairs of ears and I see two cows bedded in grass that’s almost blocking their entire bodies. I let my wife and father in law know and we slowly start glassing. The next cow I see was 80 yards directly in front of me bedded under a tree with a completely unobstructed view of me. How she didn’t spot us walking surprises me, but I have had that happen several times where I’m close to elk and they don’t know you’re there. I’m just glad I spotted them so quickly or they likely would have seen us walking and spooked. The longer we sit there we start finding more elk, maybe 10 total, but several of them are blocked by trees. I asked my wife if it’d be ok if I backed out slowly to try to glass them from another angle to see if there are any bulls. She agrees, and I move as slowly as I can but one cow spots me and stands up. Luckily the elk slowly start getting up one by one but none spook. I finally get a good look at some elk that were out to our right and there was a bigger spike in that group of elk. Then I look over to the elk that had stood up on the left and there was a spike there too. I try to look at the rest of the group and don’t see any other bulls so I tell my wife, 2 spikes and the one on the right is the bigger one. Thankfully they slowly start feeding down into a more open area off the knoll and I tell my wife to get ready. I lose the bigger spike between the trees but I know he’s coming out and will step out soon. Second later, I see him come out and my wife’s gun goes off! Perfect lung shot at 130 yards, slightly quartered away. I know people have reservations about spikes, but this bull was the best of them all for us. Not only was it my wife’s first elk tag, it was her first big game tag ever! Sure we were slightly disappointed we werent able to turn up/make a play on any larger bulls we had scouted earlier this month, but that’s ok. The look on her face and her excitement after her shot is something I’ll always remember. I wanted this so bad for her since she’s put in so much work practicing shooting, scouting, getting the right gear, and finally being drawn after 7 years. I’m so so proud of her and our family and friends that participated in the hunt couldn’t be more stoked! I’m glad I was able to end this “semi-live” thread with a success story! Thanks again for all the well wishes and following along! Until next hunt, John

Day 3 Update: Still no bull down. But we are trying!! The morning was a little bit more active than yesterday. About an hour after sunup, my buddy spotted two bulls at the very top of a ridge. In hindsight we should have watched them a while longer since he was the only one who saw them but I knew we would only have a limited window to get a shot off if they ended up feeding down. So we hoofed it about 3/4 of a mile to the one spot that had a decent view of the ridge but we couldn’t turn up the pair. It’s possible they never came down off the ridge, but we’ll never know. About 15 minutes after getting over to that ridge, my father in law who was set up on another ridge said a bull was feeding down into the canyon and we should have a view of him from our original spot once he came off the ridge. So we hurry back to that spot and wait. And wait some more. In 2 hours he never showed up. He probably ended up bedding in this really thick patch in a cut just off the ridge, but there was no way for us to really get a view into there so we decided to call it. After having a difficult go in this part of the unit, we decided to really switch things up for the afternoon/evening. We drove an hour north to the pines and found a good area to hike in to. We found 3 piles of bull sign from today but didn’t bump anything during our hike through the woods. As we were about 1/4 mile from the truck, in the last 15 minutes of light, my buddy spotted a group of elk about 100 yards from us running through the trees. My wife hurried up but they were moving so fast she barely even got a chance to see them. Her and my buddy went up ahead of us trying to see if they slowed down or stopped and unfortunately they didn’t spot them again. My buddy said there was at least a raghorn but again, no good opportunity to make anything happen. Been hard hunting the last 3 days, but we got 2 left to go and we’ll do what we can to get it done! Thanks again for the support and following!

Congratulations on the bulls! Sounds like they were hard earn and I’m glad you were able to get two on the ground in tough hunting conditions

Day 2 Update: The morning was slow, probably one of the slowest mornings of hunting I’ve had in a while. Not only did we not see any elk, we didn’t hear any shots (we heard about 6 different groups of shots yesterday morning). My wife spotted a deer for a brief moment on the opposite ridge,, my father in law bumped a couple mulies while hiking through an area further into the canyon, and my buddy spotted a deer for a quick second right as we were about to pack up from our morning spot. Definitely a slow morning. I wish I could report the afternoon was different, but it was more of the same. We spent a few hours glassing a big ridge line but we weren’t able to turn any up. We also didn’t hear any shots either. We decided to move to an area about 5 miles to the north where it’s a bit higher in elevation just to see if we could get anything going for the evening. We did about a 1.5mile loop and don’t see anything but as we are about 20 feet from the truck, I see my wife crouching down and my brother and friend are waving at me to get up there. I couldn’t see them but there was a small herd of elk right on the other side of the forest road. Unfortunately, we kind of spooked them because we didn’t know there would be any right next to our truck. Lesson learned. I get up to my wife and she told me that she’s pretty sure there were some bulls in the group. So we slowly make our way back into the area we last saw them go. After following their tracks about a quarter of a mile, smelling them, and just looking ahead we finally decide maybe it just wasn’t worth blundering through the woods. We decided to loop back to the truck thinking with any luck maybe the group will double back and we’d get a chance to see them again. Right as we’re about to get back to the road, I spot them about 100 yards ahead walking quickly. This time I’m getting a real good look at them through the pines and tell my wife to get set up! I got the video camera zoomed in and I see cow, cow, cow, cow, cow. I’m thinking “where are the bulls??”. Finally, I see the first spike followed by several more cows. I start hoping that maybe there are some bigger bulls bringing up the rear. I check on my wife and she wasn’t able to find a good rest to get set up for a shot. I tell her not to worry cause all I’m seeing are cows and small spikes. Unfortunately, the rest of the group was more of the same—3 spikes and maybe 20 cows. No tag filled. We still have 4 days of hunting left so we are hoping tomorrow we get into more elk like we did this evening. Almost 20 miles hiked so far and we are starting to feel it but the thought of a filled tag keeps us going! Thanks for all the well wishes and following along!

Day 1 Update: Morning started at 4am to drive and hike back into our spot by 5:45 or so. As we were hiking in with our flashlights, a group of hunters comes in out of now where and passed us on the trail. Kinda a rough way to start before the sun was even up. We get into our spot with plenty of time left before sun comes up. As we wait for the hillside to lighten up, we’re just hoping that as the sun breaks we will see some bulls on the other side of the canyon. Unfortunately, all we see is another group of hunters 100 yards to our left glassing the same two ridges we are. After kind of just looking at each other back and forth I tell my wife as much as it stinks, we should pack up and move further in. We didn’t see any bulls that first little bit of light anyways. As we start packing up, I notice that the other group realizes we are packing up so they grab all their gear and hike further in. Rough haha. So we ended up staying put at that spot for the rest of the morning. We were rewarded 10 minutes later when my buddy spots a bull working his way across the top of the ridge in front of us. I range it at 440 yards, just out of my wife’s range (400 yds) but we get her set up in case he starts feeding down. Well he went into a little draw between ridges and never saw him come out. We didn’t think he bedded down so he must have worked his way up and over. A couple more hours pass and the only thing we spot are two more groups of hunters. Didn’t realize there would be so many about 2 miles in but oh well. As the morning turned to afternoon, my wife wanted to hike out and scout a canyon about 3 miles south. We ended up finding a great glassing spot and spend a couple hours there. My father in law spotted a bull at 670 yards but he was walking quick and went up and over a ridge before anyone else from our group was able to find him. We decided to go back to our morning spot for the evening hunt and it seemed like we had the place to ourselves since we didn’t see or hear any other groups. Unfortunately no bulls spotted during the evening hunt but we heard a pair of gunshots a ridge or two over so hopefully someone else was able to tag out. Our consolation prize for our hard day of hiking, glassing, and hunting was spotting a nice sized black bear right as the sun was going down. Amazingly, it was my first time coming across one of those in all my scouting/hunting trips! It was a long day but great being out in the woods enjoying time with my wife and the rest of our party. Fingers crossed tomorrow brings a tad more luck!

Whatever happens with the US, it’s fun watching the best in the world get after it. Definitely looking forward to watching. I’ll have to try and catch some of the games while glassing during the hunt later this week haha

That’s super cool! What a great buck and that’s wonderful you got to experience it as a family

That is a great ram! Good luck out there and keep us posted on the hunt

Holy smokes that’s a stud buck! Congratulations to your son!

That’s a very solid bull, congratulations on getting it done—especially with such a long shot!!

That is a nice buck! Congrats on punching the tag. Bummer about the bear getting into everything but definitely makes for good story

Was out scouting this morning for the late rifle hunt and came across a lone bull. But we heard about 10 different shots in the canyons around us. People must be having some success!

Out in 6A. It’s possible it was some joy shooting but the shots seemed fairly isolated. Usually just one at a time

I was thinking the same thing. Not that 300 is super far, but definitely not a chip shot haha

Jeez can’t imagine that happening with a suppressor. Scary times for sure. But you did a great job re-zeroing and getting everything good to go with the gun. 3 for 3 makes a great hunt! Congrats to everyone on filling their tags

Wow that is a fantastic buck! Congratulations to your daughter. And those shot groups are awesome

Thanks for sharing the story, definitely takes us along for the ride! I’m glad your patience for not shooting that spike went rewarded. That is a fantastic buck, congratulations!

That is super cool! This is pretty much my wife’s dream right here haha…elk hunting in Colorado with llamas to pack it all in and out congrats to your buddy on his first elk!

Wow congrats on getting it done at that distance! Especially when the target is a Coues. I’m sure you’ll look back on that one and be happy with the hunt

Wow that is an impressive buck!! Sounds like a great hunt, and congratulations to your wife on filling the tag!

That is a fantastic buck! How far out were you when she took the shot? Hope you’re able to find a cape. And congratulations to your daughter!

That’s great it worked out for you guys! That’s a real nice buck 😃 definitely a unique feeling known only to hunters when you’re shaking like that after a shot haha. Congratulations to you guys!