huntjunkie

Sitting here in unit 10 waiting for the elk to get up and start moving. While I'm waiting I thought would give an update. Things are drying out, thank goodness! The elk are not coming to water right now checked a dozen tanks and very little if any sign. But last night we glasses up 8 bulls together, 7 smaller 6x and one bull that seemed to be at or over 340-350. Being a little conservative since they were over a mile and a half away. But he's worth investigating further. He had 1 cow. That's where at now. They were very vocal last night! Bulls everywhere! This morning vocal till 8:30. Good luck everyone!

Good luck! It was a frustrating year for us during the archery hunt.

Not sure about 2 different bears?? Could be. Nice looking bear. I wouldn't pass. Good luck!

That was AWESOME!!! Cool video! I like watching the stalk and what a shot!

Right on! Good job! Thanks for helping the deer population. Good times!

Awesome!! I love stories like this. Nice bull!

It felt like a nov hunt minus the cool temps!

Wow!! Can I hunt with you next year? Unbelievable!

Sweeeet!!!

Yea we did, finally. Heber1, cool video! For those holding rifle tags good luck!! Can't wait to see a few toads!

Unbelievable!! Your my new hero! Buy me a lotto ticket to!

WOW! That is awesome! I love Ibex. Cant wait till I can take my girl ibex hunting. Congrats!!

not a member of this website and asked not to show his face. He in the witness protection program. LOL

I must say that this hunt was the total opposite of what I expected! Everything I've heard about Unit 10 is how great it is how theres's bulls behind every tree. My buddy Jeff drew the tag with 12 points. We were so excited to finally have a crack at some giant bulls. As you can see from my posts it was a little rough.(that's an understatement) Everyone we talked to had the same problem. We hunted hard everyday trying to find the elk. We hunted nearly everywere in the Pica Camp area. We had many close calls. On the 17th we saw a bull that was a toad! 200 yrds away walking in our direction. It was in late afternoon, in the open, no cows, all by himself?? Needless to say we blew it! Came back the next moring to try and patten him. We found out that he was a" satellite" to a 7x7, another big bull. But "growler" was MUCH big than the 7x7!! Huh.... The top 2 pics are the 7x7 through my 15's, not a great picture but I think you'll get the idea. Notice the 6th on the right main beam.Unfortunately they only bugled 15 minutes after sunrise and after 8:30 at night. Another Coues member that helped us now knows the location of these bulls and he has a unit 10 rifle tag. I hope he gets one of them! I'll keep him name less for now. Time was running out so we lowered our standard and moved to a location were we had been getting close to bulls every time. Yesterday morning(25th) we got in the area early and set up in front of the bulls. They went by us and we found ourselves chasing them AGAIN. As they topped the ridge heading for their bedding area they continued to bugle. Usually they would shut up. So we continued the chase. Called another bull in for a close encounter but... another tree in the way. After he left we sat down, had a snack and made a plan. I told Jeff that our last opiton is to stalk them. We had a 10-15 mph wind that would provide sound cover for a stalk. We left our packs and headed toward the bulls. About an hour into the stalk a 350 class bull stood broadside but a branch blocked Jeffs view. As the bull circled to wind us I motioned for Jeff to kneel. As he did, the bull saw him and walked away and started bugling. We started another stake on a bull that was going crazy! Jeff snuck in to about a 100 yards and i stayed back about 100 yards from Jeff. I gave one soft mew and i had a bull breathing down my back behind me. Not wanting him to see me and him possibly barking. I ran over to Jeff. The bull hung up were i had been sitting. The bull we had originally targeted went ballistic! and started racking a tree. I looked at Jeff and said, this is our chance make a quick stalk dont worry about sound while hes raking! I laid down one the ground and tried to follow the action through my binos looking under the trees. The anticipation was killing me!! It seemed like an hour! Finally i see him walking back. I look at his quiver and all the arrows are there, CRAP! He tells me how when he drew on the bulls raking the tree he turns and walks away! Then he went after another bull raking a tree 60ish yards away. He had an opening in the trees and when he shot.....not even finishing that sentence. I literally wanted to cry!! They were both 360 class bulls. We've been 4 hrs without water so we head back to our packs to hydrate. As we walk about halfway to our packs another group of bugling bull are heading for us. I tell Jeff you stalk them I'll go get the packs and I'll meet you back here. Bulls are literally coming in from every direction!! We were surrounded. There were around 20 bulls going crazy! Never seen this before. Only one cow that we saw, no mews. Poor cow! I retrieve the packs and head back to Jeff. When I see him, he's playing his bow like a guitar combined with some fist pumping and mouthing words i cant say!!!! I look at his quiver and an arrow is missing. I knew what happened. I walked over and said,DUDE WHAT HAPPENED! He told me that after I left he just picked a place to stand with a good shooting lane and this bull walks right into it and stops 16 yards. "Here let me show you". He shows me the blood trail that is really good and up a head i see the bull laying down. I think he's dead so we head that way. He jumps up and then falls down, gets back up and staggers away. After a short track job(60 yards) we find him. Not the monster we we're after but a great trophy. Trophy's aren't always measure by the inches of bone. He's an old bull. Big roman nose. His teeth were nearly worn away. I love the fact that he's old and has a lot of character! Every point was busted. The old man was rough and tough! We both were very excited! Especially with the way the hunt has been. This is his first bull and first archery elk hunt. The entire time we were quatering him the other bulls never moved. We had a 2 mile hike to the truck which we made 3 times. Bulls bugling the entire time. The last round trip i was falling asleep while packing a hind quarter out(sleep packing). I was completely exhausted!! We finished at 2:30am that's a 23 hour day.

BULL DOWN!! Finally I'll post pics later. Can't do it on my phone.

Thanks! Been chasing them all morning! Always 50 yrds on the other side of a tree. Making a stalk right now. Still haven't seen or heard cows with these bulls. ????

Heading back to unit 10 for the last 4 days of the hunt. Hopefully the bulls will be more vocal! They shut down early and start again 30 min before dark. Had some close encounters last week but there is that one tree in the way. Sat water 4 days in a row. Bulls are watering at night. Time to get serious! Lol!! Been running on 5 hrs of sleep a night since the 14th.

I've seen some good bucks durning the elk hunt in yrs past. Drew that tag the last 2 years didn't see squat!!! palivs2hnt loves that hunt!!

Sorry man that SUCKS! Hope you can get back into them!

First of all thank you Verizon wireless! I am able to read this entertaining post in the middle of unit 10 while sitting a tank! Lol! Frankly I hate sitting tanks! It sucks. Had an encounter 2 days ago. We were set up on a tank a guy from Tucson comes over says it's his, we left and found the honey hole were sitting now. First come first serve, period. Don't care if you been sitting there a month. I beat you there you should have woke up earlier or cut your lunch break short. We don't need more regs. Can't legislate good behavior. Oh, +1 on driving by a tank. Stop driving back and forth like your crusin main street looking for chicks! Gosh.....

Congrats!! Good to see someone filling their tag! Elk are bugling a little more. Some areas more than others. Still not great. This is unit 10 right..... Everybody we talk to is still having a hard time. We got into elk monday night Tuesday morning. Had a few good callins. Tues and Wednesday found a couple bulls worthy of putting a tag on. We're focusing on them. Unfortunately they are not bugling much. They go silent after 6:30 am bugle a couple times in the day and nothing at night. Trying to be patient and not push them. Had a good set up this morning. Got up really early got into position. Bulls were headed right for us. We thought the stars were aligned. When a truck drove by, twice. Bulls stopped calling and hear we are. Good news though, saw 2 big bulls leave in the back of a couple truck on Monday when I was coming back in. Congrats to those guys! Got me excited again!

That's where we are camped and theres probably 10 camps within a mile and a half. But that's not the reason the elk are hard to find. We don't see anybody out in the "field". Struggling is an understatement. Talked with another hunter who had hunted this area before. He could believe how bad it is in that area. I hope it turns around for everyone's sake! Probably the most frustrating hunt I've ever been on! It will change soon. My buddy with the tag is really wondering if he made the right decision to pass on that 340 bull Friday night. Lol!!

Last 2 days have been tough. Moving to a different part of the unit were the bulls are vocal. Starting to see a few bulls in the outfitter camps. Bulls look to be in the low 300's, but I didn't ask.

Last night we got on the bulls we glassed up Thursday night. Bulls were up about 5:00pm we followed them till just before dark then started calling. Couldn't call them in but they were vocal. Had to get agressive with them. Had one bull screaming at us just on the other side of a couple juniper trees. Sweet talked him through the trees and stood broadside for Geoff, who was at full draw. 30 yrds. I was behind the decoy calling. He stood there for about 2 min staring at me. Geoff let down after hold for a min. He was a nice bull but not a shooter opening day unit 10. He had great tops! Bottoms were weak. 340ish bull. Cool call in though! Got us PUMPED! Then this morning NOTHING, no bugles, no sign, no elk. Talked to another hunter and he hadn't heard or seen anything yet.

I think your right. I just have to keep my buddy from getting and itchy trigger finger!