jmwarren65

After a fiasco with my trail cam taking 600+ pics of the sky, I placed my trail cam at my favorite watering hole that is inundated with fresh elk tracks. A week later, I had another set of pics of the sky. Something move my trail cam and it shows. But what is it? I believe the unknown animals are a rabbit and a javelina. As for the two pics with antlers...are those deer or elk antlers? At first, they look like tree branches until I noticed they had changed location in the pic. The antlers are at the bottom of the 2 pics. I am including the mule deer doe pic for size perspective when looking at the antlers. Thoughts?

Between my dad and I, we've had the 4A late season bull tag 5 times since 1997. Not once has FR300 been closed. I've got the late season 4A bull tag again so I hope this year is not the first year FR300 closes.

Halloween night and one month to go. I have a late season rifle bull tag in 4A. This is my fourth late season bull tag in 4A since 1997 or 1998. This could only happen to me....I set out a trail cam two weeks ago. Checked it last Sunday. I had 798 pictures of tree branches and the sky. And I somehow unknowingly cut the strap in half while trimming back some branches. I repositioned the trail cam and will check it again this Sunday. My dad is loaning me his two trail cams to put up as well. I know the area. I know the trails. I just need to know what is in the area and when it is moving. This is my favorite elk unit in the state.

Time for a little bragging. My son drew an any elk tag in one of the limited opportunity hunts. I knew going into the hunt the odds were against us. Through patience and perseverance, he shot his first bull. We missed the first two days of the hunt so he could participate in his high school marching band events on Friday and Saturday. We arrived in the unit on Sunday afternoon and hunted until dark. On Monday and Tuesday, we got up at 4:15am and went to bed after 9:00pm. We would head back to the cabin for lunch and a mid-day break (I had to work for an hour or two each day). Wednesday started the same, but ended on a high note. We spent the late afternoon glassing open ground from a high point. With about 30 minutes of light left, we decided to head home. As we headed out, I saw a bull moving through the junipers at 40 yards to our left. He spotted us and stopped broadside. I prefer sitting or prone shots so I can have the maximum support possible to reduce the movement of my muzzle. Not Matt. He made an unsupported standing shot just as the bull started to run away. Direct hit! The bull ran about 20 yards and dropped.Even though he was taking his final breaths when we walked up, Matt put one more round into him just to be sure. Need less to say, I had left my digital camera with my mom that afternoon so she could get pics of the elk moving into the meadow outside her cabin in the evening. The picture is from my cell phone and it is grainy. When you look at the picture, you will notice something odd about this 6 point bull...he does have both antlers. One did not develop. Matt was still thrilled. He had hunted hard for 3 and half days. No complaints. I felt he earned this elk. We called grandpa. He came out and brought my other son with him. All 4 of us then worked on the elk before dropping it off at Rusty's in Springerville. My son had a junior elk cow tag 5 years ago. On that hunt, he saw one elk and shot it. Another great shot that dropped it in its tracks. So in two combined elk hunts, he has seen two elk and shot them both. He is already looking forward to getting his next elk tag! And so am I.

I forgot to acknowledge a few key individuals that impacted our hunt. I owe my dad a ton of thanks for doing most of the grunt work before the hunt. Being a summer resident up there, he was able to do some preliminary ground scouting for me. More importantly, he knew a number of individuals familiar with our unit and who provided some great pre-hunt advice. And thanks to Bill Q and his wife Jean for letting us drop by uninvited and then sharing a chunk of their Sunday afternoon to talk elk. Based on our discussion, I narrowed our hunt area down to a very small, local area within the unit and it paid off in the end. Still thrilled thinking back on this hunt.

Congrats! Another nice 4A bull.

Congrats! Patience and hard work do pay off. Nice bull. That is my favorite unit to hunt for elk. I've got my fourth 4A bull tag in 14 years...all late season. Mike

Nice shot! ...and congrats!

Bombed in the spring hunt in 12A. Saw one feather on the ground, maybe two tracks, and only a couple piles of crap. Now I get one more chance in October in 4A/4B.

What a great experience to share with your dad. Congrats!

Thoughts on this buck? All I have are these shots of him looking at me. I had camera problems (user error on my part). Defintely a keeper if I can get my muzzleloader aimed at him. This was an excellent weekend of scouting. I'm ready for the hunt to start today!

I had 8 points this year when I drew a muzzleloader tag. It's my second AZ tag. The first was 30 years ago and that was a fun but short hunt. All 4 of us had our goats down and in camp by 7:30 opening morning. Game and Fish was polite enough to pick us up in the field, haul our goats back to camp, and even took a group picture of all us with our goats...after checking our licenses and tags first.

Sorry....no side views because I didn't work the camera right. I tried to get a video clip of him that didn't turn out. I was not paying attach to the prongs so I can't tell you how long they are. I thought he had good mass from the base to the prongs.

Just fall turkey for me. Unit 4a/4b #328. My wife of one month is already struggling with my hunting plans for this fall. I've got one antelope and two separate elk tags (my son has one) now iget to add turkey to it as well. She better get used to it...... Congrats to all of you with the deer, buffalo, etc tags. G'luck this fall.

Finally...here are the pics I said I would upload. Two are of the porcupine under the truck. In the last one, the porcupine is crossing the highway. It hid behind the railing and watched us before disappearing. I don't know if anyone every returned it to the woods.

Just ordered mine. Hope to have it in time for my speed goat hunt this September.

Any one familiar with units 2A and 2B and the extent of the fire damage? I haven't had the chance to get up there yet or contact the Forest Service. I'm curious if we will be looking over a moonscape or if there are still a lot of green trees standing. My son has an any elk tag for late Sept /early Oct.

I was refering to the Wallow Fire from last year. Did it get into 2A / 2B very far or did it stop before then? trophyhnter: I went and bought several lottery tickets as soon I got the draw results. It has been a long dry spell of 5 years with no elk, antelope, or deer tags. I would have been thrilled with just an elk tag for my son. but to add a bull elk tag for me and then my first antelope tag since 1980...awesome! Not to mention I just got married on Memorial weekend. Its been a good year so far! These hunts will not be easy, but I will enjoy every second in the field!

Nice Jim! Very nice. I have only limited space for any future mounts, so this might work for me.

Any ideas or suggestions for non-traditional antelope mounts? I don't have space for a shoulder mount in my home office so I am interested in learning of other alternatives.

Just got home from a long 4 day weekend of hunting in 12A. Beginning Friday morning through this morning...absolutely no gobbling at all. No responses to any of our calls. We checked every tank or cachement we could find. No tracks at any of them. Only 1 tank had 2 tracks so we sat there and waited. Nothing. Saw lots of does, maybe 50 during the entire weekend. One of them came to within 15 yards of the blind my son and I were sitting in. She couldn't figure us out. She stuck out her nose and tried to catch our scent, but couldn't (thanks scent-a-away). Best part of the trip was to find a live procupine on the top side of my dad's spare tire when we had to fix his flat tire at the Marble Canyon bridge. To everyone who offered afvice and tips, i greatly appreciate it. I believe we were in good turkey area, hunting them this late is next too impossible.

I'm heading north to 12A tonight...finally!!! I've got eyes on the ground now (grandpa got there yesterday) and it's not looking so good. Little to no gobbling. I still plan to try and roost em at night and then get em early the next morning, otherwise, water holes will be our best option. Its too hot and so late in the season, but this is the only weekend my son could go due to school. So we are going and it will still be better than working on Friday and Monday. Good luck to all of you still hunting.

Congrats!

Late start, but I finally get to head north this Thursday afternoon. Thanks for the updates.

Congrats!