Flatlander

One more piece of advice, when shooting a .300 WM weight can be your friend.

Good for you Stan! So happy this worked out for one of the good guys. Karma at work right here!

You might consider a suppressor instead of a break. I think noise creates more flinch than recoil. Just my .02. In terms of rifle model. I have a BDL and will say that the number of options available is fantastic. As the most mass produced rifle ever it’s easy to find stocks, breaks, mounts, rails, bolts, etc. And every Smith in the world knows how to work on one.

If you are patient you can probably get used Swaro HD’s for that price. Check out Optics 4 Rent at the end of the season.

Best of luck. Last time we did this hunt it was 18 degrees Monday morning. This year is a burner.

I can see the lighter hide and mane on the first picture. I have seen Yellowstone elk with that coloring but I supppse it could be a trait of a a merriam as well.

Here is some general info. It’s worth about what you paid for it. . . Arizona has a nice balance of opportunity and trophy hunts. If you are set on hunting bulls then many of the November rifle tags can be drawn every 3-4 years as a resident and 6-8 years as a NR. In AZ because our winters are so mild those November hunts are pretty challenging, more like post rut October hunts in other states. If you are interested in hunting cows then many of the November hunts can be drawn with regularity, maybe 2-3 years. If good weather is your thing then the October cow hunts are pretty good for that and often there is still a bit of bugling. Those early cow hunts have similar draw rates to the Nov. bull tags. September archery hunts in AZ are amazing, really the gold standard of hunting rutting elk. Those hunts take a while to guarantee a draw but there is a reason people are willing to wait. The draw system is a little different than most other western states. For each hunt 80% of the permits are issued to applicants via a random draw. The other 20% are issued to those applicants for that hunt with the most points. So the good news is that every year you have a chance to draw any hunt you apply for. Here is a good link to how the draw works, it's important to understand this to maximize your opportunities here. https://www.azgfd.com/hunting/draw/process/ In terms of areas most of the elk are distributed through a band of high country that follows the mogollon rim across the center of the state. There are a few different pockets of really well known herds I.e. units 1/3/27 on the east side of the state, unit 23 in the center, and 8/9/10 in the NW. However most of the units have good numbers of elk and AZ trophy quality tends to be a notch above what you see in other states, however if you are coming from NV, UT or NM that may not be as true as other places. Here is a link to the AZGFD website which does a nice job of explaining the units and densities. https://www.azgfd.com/Hunting/Units/ I think you will find AZ to be a very hunter friendly state where you can carve out opportunity to have the experiences you want. As a resident you can wait years and hunt the best elk rut in the highest trophy potential units in the west or you can hunt cows every single year. For deer if you archery hunt you can hunt 9 weeks every year including the rut on an OTC tag while applying for the Strip or Kaibab or you can hunt the deserts with a rifle every October. Bear is OTC, lion is OTC, archery turkey is OTC, spring shotgun turkey can be drawn every 2-3 years. Antelope is a tough draw, you might as well consider it once in a lifetime. AZ's trophy potential is beginning to slide as our pronghorn populations are battered by habitat loss, juniper infringement and predator populations. If you have points I would suggest you use them sooner than later. Buffalo, Rocky Mt and Desert sheep are once in a lifetime. Javelina is a draw but most units can be drawn every year and the archery hunts overlap the archery deer hunt and rut so it makes for some neat mixed bag opportunity and days with lots of stalks.

Cochise 😉

Keep us posted!

Fantastic, congrats!

5 days until my archery elk hunt... but who is counting?

Take care amigo. Looking forward to seeing you back around!

I’ll take it if you can wait until midweek for pickup.

Honestly, you kind of sound like the knucklehead here.

I would probably just avoid sitting water holes that guys can drive their truck to.

Excellent article Tony. I enjoyed it very much. Because I couldn’t resist, I would provide edits for the paragraphs above... Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints (a simple but important distinction to members) Emigration ilo of immigration Thanks for sharing!

A couple different kinds of bulls from tonight.

Aaaaaannnd this is how we get massive points creep.

Called in a cow to 13 yds this AM but Jon couldn’t get a shot and I thought better of nocking an arrow. Still having a spectacular time but frustrated I keep forgetting to get my phone out and video this stuff.

We switched mountain ranges and are doing better the last couple of days. We had bulls screaming below us last night and they were still there when we got back today. We have chase for 1.25 miles but blew it right as we were closing the distance. Then we had a giant tank of a bull walk within 120 yds of us while glassing tonight. Then right at dark two spikes came in to a wallow we were sitting. I called one to 49 yds but he caught Jon drawing and there was no shot. It was a great day chasing elk in a beautiful place.

Rained hard Saturday and that cooled things off for a couple days. Today is supposed to get up to 75 which is really warm for this area.

Looked at tons of country but there are tons of cattle. Only saw one elk. I think we may actually be too high. The country couldn’t be more picture perfect.

Slow day today. Only heard 1 bugle, saw no elk. Headed into new country tomorrow.

Camped in Panguitch Utah. Just 10 more hours of windshield tomorrow.