AZ_XL7

You did everything in you're power after the shot. Great write up.

Lemme start by saying I didn't fill my tag. I was really hopeful going into this hunt. Being it my first archery hunt I knew I had to get my shooting up to par. So began the days and months of shooting. Archery head quarters is close to work so I spent countless nights there shooting and shooting. George and all the guys down there helped my tweek a few things and made some drastic changes to my bow that only made my shooting better. Thursday the 13th was here and I headed up the hill. We set up camp and go looking for bulls. Went to an area we had hunted before, bam 6 different bulls. Ok game on. From day 1 we were into bulls. First stalk, busted by cows. Ok no biggie, next stalk get to 100, busted again. This is getting fun. Opening evening found me stalking a really nice bull, he was at 65 yards and I knew that was pushing my limit so I tried to get to 55. Busted, but he doesn't go far. I get a second chance, he is going to walk infront of me at 50. Just then I hear my friend, dude there is a hunter right there. Cow makes the hunter away they go. Here is where I fully believe you need luck. Fast foward to day 8. I had been busted, beat down, and was getting real mentally tired. I passed on a nice 5x5 on day 2 and was in bulls all day In between. We had been watching a bull since day 3. Knowing this meadow real well we knew it was a matter of time before they hung out that extra 20 minutes. Well Saturday was that day. After making a stalk and getting busted we started to the meadow. We could hear him going nuts. I knew it was him because the day before i got to 100 and got busted. As we get into the edge of the meadow I can tell they are not doing there usual, so here we got. 400, 300, 200, we finally get to 100 and breath. It's me and him, cows are above him we have a great wind. We go to 90, then 80, now I'm starting to get the jitters. 70 here we go, now things get interesting. I keep seeing one cow looking ahead of them. She will eat look back, eat look in our direction etc. I'm going through everything, wind good, back drop good, what's going on. After what seems like forever she relaxes and I'm going to get to 50. I take 4 steps and holy crap, a dang coyote just about runs over my foot. ( ugh who has been there right). So rather then him bolt to the meadow he goes right at the heard. Buddy ranges the bull which is moving. 73, I put my 60 just at the top of his back, lead him realse and he jumps the string. Arrow sails over his back buy 4 inches and away they go. Truth be told, I was mentally done after that. My luck, a dang yote ruins the hole thing. Last morning. Blow a stalk again, get to the meadow. Trail some bulls up the hill. And we keep getting closer and closer. Had a black bear walk by us at 30 yards, we move on. Ok inside a 100. We can hear him bugling and he is fired up. This is where my lesson was learned. My cousin has always told me, never hunt faster then you can see. Well I didn't do that this one time. I picked my spot I needed to get to and we went. We get to the spot I lift my binos and guess what there he is 30'yards away. Crap, he sees me I see him go full draw and the stand of is on. Problem is, when he stands up there is a tree covering his vitals. Yep, there is that luck again. Now we all know what goes through you're head in that little bit of time. I think about pushing one threw his fore head. After a minute in starting to get the shakes. At this point I'm figuring which way he is going to leave. He can't possible go up because there is to much crap that way. To my left his right there is a tree. It's back about 5 yards so I figure he is going to leave straight. Well I can see him getting nervous. He plants his feet, I move my pin over 3 inches to the tree cause of course he is going to leave that way. He leaves, I release, he wheels around the way I didn't figure him going and my arrow goes right by him and center punches that lovely unit 1 pin tree. That's how my hunt ended. I will have that final 2 minutes on my mind until the next tag I draw. Believe me when I say being my first archery hunt I learned so much. I know I will make the same mistakes again. But one thing I won't ever do is hunt faster then I can see. Sorry for the long winded post. Just finally had a chance to sit down and recap. Thanks to all my family and friends for the help. My wife, well they put up with a lot when we find out we draw that tag of a lifetime. She put up with alot of long night at the gym and at the range. Time to focus on the 22 mule deer hunt.

I saw the pictures while sitting in bear wallow last night. Made my mouth drop. My hunting partner works with Ryan. Congrats to everyone involved.

Day 5. Been in bulls since Friday. I have learned a ton, been busted a few times and took my first shot last night at 65 with little light. It's what the hunt is all about.

Good luck to all the early season hunters. Anyone in unit 1 stop and say hello. Red f150 with an eliminator sticker on the back. It's game time!

I'm the process of pre cooking meals. Half ready, half nervous, half everything. Bag half packed, still need to shop a little more tomorrow. 3 hours of work left then time to pack the truck.

+100! Already the Least productive work week I can remember in a long time... It's almost game time. I'm half nervous today. Good luck to everyone hunting the next 2 weeks.

Getting harder and harder to focus at work. Come on Friday!

dang those are some nice bulls. I hope ole unit 1 is holding one like that. I have a 100 grain muzzy with his name on it. Good luck to everyone.

11 days. Can't come soon enough

I'm counting the days. I have a feeling it's going to be an awesome rut season. Good luck to everyone who has tags.

I'm in 1 and didn't see a bull today. Checked all our usual spots. Lots of cows but no bulls.

September 14th cant come soon enough. Unit 1 archery bull tag.

I have the same tag and have hunted this unit a good amount. I will shoot you a pm.

22 mule deer. Now I can get the one that got away durning the archery season.

Off and on. But with September 14 fast approaching I told myself I'm going to shoot everyday from now till then. I have 25 yards at home so I have been shooting in the am before work or after work.

People have no sense.

Maaaaaaaaaan. Come September 14th

We drive threw there around 11 am and 5 pm and there was no fire at the base of the peaks or any where I was able to see. I will be following this one as well, I hunt those hills where the sunflower fire is burning. From what I could see yesterday there was 2 sections of active fire. The heaviest was moving maybe a mile north west of the mt ord turn off moving north east. I hunt those hills too. As a matter of fact, my buddy and I was there Saturday morning to check his trail camera (on the way to Payson to pick up my deer mount). We drove down the Sycamore Road to 201 just as the fire looked like a good size campfire, but dark smoke and high flames. We drove down the blacktop to get a look up Sycamore Canyon and saw a vehicle parked at the scene with 4 or 5 guys out scampering around, then they jumped in the vehicle and tore out of there up the 25 road. We drove up 201 to the junction and waited for them. I stopped them and my buddy got the vehicle description and liscence #. It was 5 young guys in their 20's. They said they camped there last night (Friday). We asked if they put out their fire, and they claimed they did. Then they took off to the highway. We waited for the Forrest Service Ranger to get there and gave them the info. There was also two other witnesses that saw another vehicle with the one we saw. Within 30 minutes of reporting it, there was already a slurry tanker, hellicopter/bucket, and Hot Shot crew on the scene. The fire was already across Sycamore Creek and headed NW up the ridge.....maybe 10 - 15 acres. We went to Payson and back in 2 hours. The wind had shifted to a west wind (blowing east) and looked to be a few hundred acres. It's a real shame! This area wasn't affected much by the last fire (6 years ago?). It had a lot of mature junipers, pinions, and oaks. hopefully they can hold the 201 and keep it from running to the highway. It's a dang shame one careless act is going to cause a lot of damage. You guys did all you can. From a hunter to another from those hills thank you for doing what you guys did. From last glacé of the fire maps it looks to be running west now as well as moving pretty good north. Hopefully they can get some lines at pine mountain. Yup, It's up on top and west of Mormon Grove, in the wilderness area. It burned over the AZ Trail, up to Saddle Mountain and to the south, southwest through Sheep Creek and up onto Black Mesa. If it continues south off of Black Mesa it will get the power lines. I have a trail camera a couple miles into the wilderness area...that I probably won't be able to get to for a very long time. My fear was it would go south up the power lines. Hopefully they can head it off.

We drive threw there around 11 am and 5 pm and there was no fire at the base of the peaks or any where I was able to see. I will be following this one as well, I hunt those hills where the sunflower fire is burning. From what I could see yesterday there was 2 sections of active fire. The heaviest was moving maybe a mile north west of the mt ord turn off moving north east. I hunt those hills too. As a matter of fact, my buddy and I was there Saturday morning to check his trail camera (on the way to Payson to pick up my deer mount). We drove down the Sycamore Road to 201 just as the fire looked like a good size campfire, but dark smoke and high flames. We drove down the blacktop to get a look up Sycamore Canyon and saw a vehicle parked at the scene with 4 or 5 guys out scampering around, then they jumped in the vehicle and tore out of there up the 25 road. We drove up 201 to the junction and waited for them. I stopped them and my buddy got the vehicle description and liscence #. It was 5 young guys in their 20's. They said they camped there last night (Friday). We asked if they put out their fire, and they claimed they did. Then they took off to the highway. We waited for the Forrest Service Ranger to get there and gave them the info. There was also two other witnesses that saw another vehicle with the one we saw. Within 30 minutes of reporting it, there was already a slurry tanker, hellicopter/bucket, and Hot Shot crew on the scene. The fire was already across Sycamore Creek and headed NW up the ridge.....maybe 10 - 15 acres. We went to Payson and back in 2 hours. The wind had shifted to a west wind (blowing east) and looked to be a few hundred acres. It's a real shame! This area wasn't affected much by the last fire (6 years ago?). It had a lot of mature junipers, pinions, and oaks. hopefully they can hold the 201 and keep it from running to the highway. It's a dang shame one careless act is going to cause a lot of damage. You guys did all you can. From a hunter to another from those hills thank you for doing what you guys did. From last glacé of the fire maps it looks to be running west now as well as moving pretty good north. Hopefully they can get some lines at pine mountain.

We drive threw there around 11 am and 5 pm and there was no fire at the base of the peaks or any where I was able to see. I will be following this one as well, I hunt those hills where the sunflower fire is burning. From what I could see yesterday there was 2 sections of active fire. The heaviest was moving maybe a mile north west of the mt ord turn off moving north east.

I was a me to see the sunflower fire first hand today. It's moving pretty good north north east. It's directly west of the mt ord turn off. Hope they get it under control soon.

I had the pleasure of hunting turkeys in south Dakota last week and I can tell you it was like hunting here. Little different lay out from a land stand point, but the tactics and set ups were the same. Birds were very vocal when we were there. Same deal though, once they hit the ground it was tough to get them to leave the hens. Every bird that was killed was solo and late in the afternoon. One bird was killed about 3pm and the rest were around 8 am. We had 5 tags and filled every tag. I was the last one to kill Monday morning on a bird that came to us from easy 3/4 of a mile away. Solo bird again. I would post a picture but don't know how to from my iPhone here.

Early unit 1 bull. I can't wait.

Funny you should say that cause I got the very same thing in the mail yesterday. Actually rather alarming that my info is sent out to them. Anyways, my tag got to the house this am. Wife sent me a picture, now I believe the system. Early unit 1 bull tag. Second tag in 3 years and got in on the luck of the draw with 2 points.