AzRaised08

The wife and I moved to Colorado a couple of years ago now, but we are back in Arizona—and for a pretty special reason. My buddy drew his first elk tag! It’s something we’ve both been looking forward to for a long time. We packed up the little ones and made the trip south over the past few days to help him out. We spent last night talking strategy and catching up with his family. As we celebrate Thanksgiving, its times like these that I am very thankful for. It’s nice to be “home”. This morning we were out early to finalize some scouting before the holiday cooking began. We checked out a few new spots, glassed some ridges, and got a feel for how the elk are moving. It was nice being back in a familiar unit, getting boots on the ground before opening day tomorrow. For those who have seen me post over the years, it’s been somewhat of a tradition for me to do a semi-live hunting thread whenever we’ve gotten drawn. I’m excited to do another and share our experiences as we get started on this year’s late hunt! Happy Thanksgiving to all, and I’ll be updating this thread daily. Thanks for following along!

Yeah he did end up hitting him twice. He hit right above the shoulder blade on his first shot and then double lunged on the second. It was just weird because every time I’ve seen an animal get hit I at least see a flinch or ripple through the body

Day 2 Hunt Update Another before-5 a.m. wake-up call had us dragging a bit, but we pushed back into the same canyon we hunted opening morning. This time, no other hunters were in there—just us, yes! As the first light started creeping in, my buddy with the tag whispered that he had an elk spotted. Hard to tell in the grey light if it was a bull, but based on the size and the fact we haven’t seen many cows in there, I was pretty sure it was. A few seconds later, I spotted another elk the same time my brother whispered he had eyes on a second one. Things were getting good fast. About five minutes later the light got just good enough, and we could clearly tell they were both bulls and one of was definitely a shooter. They were feeding their way across the ridge to the south of us and heading up into a draw. We were really hoping they'd pop back out along the ridge directly in front of us instead of disappearing up the draw. Another few minutes passed and then a third elk stepped out on the far side of the draw. Bingo. Three bulls, all headed in a direction that would put them about 300 yards in front of us. The three of us quietly glassed them and then all agreed on which bull was the biggest. My buddy loaded his rifle. I gave him the yardage—255 yards. Perfect. The bull stepped out from behind a bush, standing perfectly broadside, and my buddy sent it. Looked like a hit, but the bull barely reacted. The bull walked maybe 20 yards and stopped broadside again. I told him to reload and hit him one more time to be sure. And then the worst happened. His gun jammed. Probably ran his bolt too softly in the excitement. As he tried to clear it, I scrambled to sort out his mag. Five seconds… ten seconds… felt like ten minutes. The bull was still somehow just standing there. Finally got the jam cleared, took aim, and sent another round. Again, not even a flinch. We were all thinking, what is going on? Then the bull suddenly tipped forward and started going down. Yes! He went down for good and we were all super excited! As we were high fiving and giving congratulations, five more bulls came out from nowhere. It’s always crazy how many elk can be right in front of you without ever being seen. My buddy asked if we should’ve waited and I told him absolutely not—250 yards, broadside, on a great bull? I would take that any day of the week, at least that’s my opinion. Then came the part every hunter loves: the pack out. Took two full trips to get him off the mountain. Long day, heavy loads, sore legs, but totally worth it. Could not be happier for my buddy—his first big-game animal with a darn nice bull. Thanks to everyone following along with this thread, and good luck to everyone still out hunting. After roughly 20 miles in the last three days, I’m honestly looking forward to “sleeping in” until the babies wake me up probably around 6:15 tomorrow haha.

Evening hunt update: We put some miles on the boots tonight—ended up doing about a 5-mile loop through a mix of thick pines and open pockets. Afternoon action started pretty early when we glassed a group of cows with a spike and a little raghorn hanging back. It was nice to get eyes on some elk, even if it wasn’t quite what we were looks for. We pushed deeper in and ended up bumping another group of cows. They caught our wind right as we crested a bench and slipped out before we could get a solid look at what was with them. The wind was terrible tonight, it was constantly swirling so we really couldn’t even work with it to get into any one specific area. Near the end of the loop we saw our last group of the night. Two cows traveling with roughly six spikes. We’ve got an unspoken opening-day rule: no punching a tag on a spike. So no tag filled yet, but the way the elk were moving tonight was good. And it was nice to lay some eyes on. If we can’t find anything over the next few days I know where we’ll be on our last day out. It’ll be another early morning tomorrow back after it. Elk are around—we’ve just got to get our eyes on the right one. I’ll keep you all updated!

Opening morning started off about 4:15. Had to load up on the coffee before heading out into the woods. My one year old son is fighting off a cold and some pretty bad congestion so he was up a few times throughout the night. Between checking on him and thinking about the opening morning sunrise, sleep was a bit hard to come by. We left about 4:45 so we could hike and get into place about well before sunrise. We did the hike with our headlights on dim and got right into the spot we wanted. About 30 minutes before sunrise it was light enough to start glassing the ridges. We still had a rough time seeing well but we ended up seeing headlights making their way through the dark about 1000 yards away. Darn. Public land hunting. We just hoped they would stay a couple ridges over and thankfully it looked like they settled in a good distance from us. I glassed a ridge to the north about 900 yards away and spotted a big tan patch. It was still a little hard to make out but as soon as the patch moved I knew—bull elk. He was walking slowly so I made a note of where he was and figured I would find him once the ridge was a little more lit from sunrise. And usually where there is one there are more, so I started getting excited. I went back and told my buddy and brother I saw one. Unfortunately it wasn’t looking like the bachelor group we’ve often seen in this canyon was around. We glassed three ridges and no sign of elk on any of them. So I started looking for the lone bull on the far side of the canyon. One pass through the binos: nothing. A second pass, nothing. A third, also nothing. Same result for my buddy and brother. I was confused. I knew the bull was walking but I figured he was slowly grazing. My brother went up ahead and came back with some bad news. Another group of hunters was posted up opposite that ridge. They must have come in right at daylight and pushed them out. Double darn. Well with two other groups in there and being two hours after sunrise, we decided to head out and check out a new area just to kill some time before lunch. The newer area seemed nice but we did more driving than hiking since the road was bad getting in there so wasn’t a whole lot of hunting for us at that spot. Overall, a nice first morning and as always just happy to be out in God’s creation. We’ll see what the afternoon/evening hunt turns up!

Heck yeah, congratulations to your son! That’s what it’s all about, and I’m sure you had more than one proud dad moments. Thanks for sharing.

Been on this site for a few years now and I love seeing users post photos of successful hunts, but I equally love seeing photos of wildlife they find along the way or while scouting. I couldn’t find a dedicated forum to sharing wildlife photography on this site, though there was one forum specifically for sharing Coues photos. Is it possible to start a Wildlife Photography forum where people can share amateur/pro photos they take of the wildlife they encounter? Is there even an interest in that sort of thing?

Opening Day Morning Hello everyone! Been a little while since I’ve been active on the forum. While I wasn’t drawn for hunting this year, my brother in law was able to draw a late bull tag for 6A. So we are up here for the hunt! Got in Monday and put in a little bit of scouting. Saw some bulls in a few different areas and then yesterday morning (before stuffing our faces) we were able to turn up a nice bachelor group that got us excited for Opening Day. Wake up was early today, around 3:45, and after a couple beers with dinner last night & getting a year old older, it was a little tough haha. We hiked about 2 miles into where we saw the bachelor group yesterday morning and waited for the sun to come up. It was a little chilly, but we were hoping once the sun started rising we would get a chance to see some bulls on one of the ridges before us. In the lowest light of the dawn we were able to glass the ridges that held the bulls yesterday and nothing. Not getting discouraged we thought maybe they were just lower and would slowly feed up in the hour or so after sunrise. We didn’t have to wait that long. As it got lighter I was able to scan another ridge about 1000 yards away that I was unable to see before in the low light. I instantly spotted an elk. As it got even lighter we found 2 of his buddies and were able to see that all three were decent bulls. No monster, but definitely something to go after. My brother and I stayed put glassing and keeping an eye on em while my brother in law and father in law made a move to get closer. About 20 minutes later they were in a good shooting spot but they couldn’t find them on the ridge. One was broadside for a while but a tree was right in their way and based on their angle they couldn’t find a way to see into the clearing my brother and I were looking at. Two of the three looked to have bedded down while one was still up, so we told my brother in law to cross to another ridge so he’d have a straight shot. Right as we finished that plan, something spooked the elk up the canyon and all three bulls took off. We followed them in our glass but they didn’t slow down and soon they were long gone. Dang it! Well not quite the ending we were hoping for at the end of that sequence but hey, we get to keep hunting a little more. I’ll keep y’all updated as the hunt goes on. Good luck to everyone out there right now!

Bummer you had to deal with that out there. Really crappy when stuff like that happens. But way to block out the noise and congratulations to your daughter on a fantastic hunt! Thanks for sharing the story

Opening Day Afternoon After the morning hunt we headed back in to grab a quick bite. After lunch, we went back out around 1 to do some spot and stalk hunting in the pines in an area that we have seen elk before. The afternoon was slow, as expected, for it being a warmer day. The wind was in our favor so I felt confident that we wouldn’t blow anything out before we saw something but for about 3 hours we didn’t see or hear a thing. About 2 1/2 miles in right when we were thinking of starting our loop back to the truck, I thought I heard a cow call. I told everyone to stop so we could stand there and listen. Then I heard the sound again. Bird. Darn it, I could have sworn it was a cow call. A couple minutes went by and heard the sound again. And again. Bingo, cow calls. Now that I was sure there were elk around I was starting to get excited. Sure, just some cows but with some cow groups come the bulls. And then I got even more excited. A bull ripped a bugle a couple hundred yards to the NE of us. I sent my brother in law and father in law ahead so they could be a bit more quiet just the two of them. Then we heard even more cow calls and a different bugle. Definitely unusual to be hearing that this time of year, but I’m just thinking some cows didn’t get bred and were coming back into season. Whatever the case, it was cool to be hearing all these elk in the woods. One bugle sounded so pure I would have thought it was some hunter had it not been for all the other noise we were hearing. Over the course of the next hour, we were playing cat and mouse through the trees. There were two good bulls moving between the lines but the they had several cows with them. The elk would be visible but the bulls would either be obscured by the trees or covered by a cow, so there was never a clear opportunity for my brother in law to take a shot. We kept pushing further and further in with the elk taking us further in by almost a mile. While my father and brother in law trecked ahead of us, my nephew, brother and I heard another group of elk making noise in the meadow off in the distance. And there was another elk bugling over there. Not knowing if my brother in law could hear this other group, I let them know we could hear more elk to the south of us. And since it was starting to get close to sunset and the initial group was driving us further in, I was wanting my brother in law to turn back to where we were so we could pursue this other group that were on our loop back to the car. After a few minutes went by and they seemed to have lost track of the elk, my brother in law and father in law turned back to meet up with us to find the new group. As if on cue, right after they picked up everything and started walking back to us the larger bull ripped a bugle from the meadow over. I saw them double back and they signaled they would make one last play on the group we’d been following for an hour. I figured while they did that, my nephew, brother, and I could try and locate this other bull bugling to the South. If he couldn’t get a shot off, at least we could check out this other bull and see how big he was and if there would be an opportunity on him before sunset. As we cut through the trees preparing to head to the new group, we heard the shot go off. BOOM! After a minute and no follow up shot, we hoofed it over to them to check out what happened. My brother in law had caught up to the small herd and the elk were out in another meadow. The 5x5 ripped our another bugle and walked out of the trees to feed across the meadow with some cows and smaller bulls. My brother in law was still hidden in the trees and made a 300 yard shot across the meadow once the bull was out in the open. Tag punched! Definitely excited for him to seal the deal after pursuing this group for so long. We hiked over the bull and he was a really nice one. For my brother in law’s first bull, he was very happy! We were all happy! Now the real work was beginning. He took the shot 4 minutes before the end of legal shooting light so we had to break out the flashlights and get to work. Luckily, we found another road about 1 1/4 miles from this meadow, so that would be a much nicer pack out than the 3 miles we went in. My brother in laws friends were able to bring a truck to that spot and help with the pack out. We got out of there around 9:15 in 26 degree weather but we were glad to have a heavy pack with celebratory drinks waiting for us after all was said and done. We spent the day today deboning and processing while reliving a great day of hunting. Good luck to all of you still out there. Already looking forward to next time!

I’ll post the rundown tomorrow morning. A bit too tired for that right now. But in the meantime….

Hello all! I made my profile a few years back when I was brand new to hunting but after a few years putting tons of miles on my boots, I’d like to think I’m not quite a “first timer” anymore. Any way I can change my username? Thanks for the help!

Congrats on a successful hunt! Still waiting to go on my first antelope hunt but I can’t wait til I get the chance

That sounds like a fantastic trip with memories that will last a lifetime! And that is a great buck! Congratulations on tagging out! Seems like you had a wonderful time

Sorry to hear about the stroke but what a way to cap off the following week! Happy birthday and congratulations on a very nice elk

That is awesome! Congrats on the double—those are great looking bucks

Way to stick with it and close the deal! Congratulations to your grandson—that is one happy kid!

Crazy how that first shot worked out with those turkey so curious around the truck. And congrats to your son on a nice Tom! Super cool getting the father/son double!

That is a great story and a nice elk. Congratulations to your son on perfect shooting and sealing the deal! Looks like beautiful country, and I’m glad you were able to create some awesome memories

Great story haha. Love that your son immediately replied “nope”! But hats off to you for all your work and patience in making sure he had a great experience. And congratulations to your son on great shooting and tagging his first ever animal!

Heck yeah Kev!! Congratulations to your son on a stellar buck!! That’s is super exciting and I’m sure it was awesome for him to tag out on such a nice deer. Happy for you all and I’m glad mom got to be there for it

Finally had a chance to watch this video and wow what a great hunt! You deserve that buck after re-creating 30 yards of road haha. What a stud, congratulations!

Processing with family/friends is truly the cherry on top to end the hunt! Very cool all 3 generations participated. Congratulations on your success

I don’t know but for me “success” means different things for each hunt. When you tag out on an animal you’re happy with, of course that’s success. But I’ve also gone on “unsuccessful” hunts where no freezer was filled that I would consider a success due to the memories made with family, learning new areas in a unit, and getting to learn more about how the animals behave at different times of the day or different times of year

Wow way to stick with it through 12 grueling days! Congratulations on a great bull, excited to see how it turns out from the taxidermist!