Jump to content
bhuntin

2020 Archery Bull Elk Down

Recommended Posts

My Archery bull .Unit 18A,public land. So I hired James Fleming to do this hunt with. I have been talking to him since before the draw.A few thought I was crazy burning 9pts on a marginal limited opportunity area. I went with a gut feeling and it paid off.James knows the area like no one else.Day 1 was slow with only a few elk spotted and no shooters. sat water for 8 hours in middle of day till evening with only javelinas coming in. Day 2 up at 4 and into another blind for barely an hour when I received text bull spotted. James picked him up at 4 miles away and it appeared he wasn't moving to another zip code.  He then disappeared into a sea of junies . we estimated where he might be and made the trek. About noon  we lucked out and he bugled. We had to assume it was him as they weren't active calling at all. we estimated him to be around 500 yards away so we moved in a couple of hundred yards where we would remain on the ground for 4  plus hours. Around 5 he bugled once and on went the sneekee feet and we closed to about a hundred yards. we hung the cow decoy in a cliff rose, I set up and James got behind me about 20 yards. 2 cow calls set him off tearing up a tree(sounded like a train breaking limbs).he did this for 15 minutes without bugling and stopped. I was shaking like a leaf. More mews and I could hear him coming in on a rope. Still having not seen him his swords appeared( knew it was him at that second )above a juniper in front of me. he turned to get around the juniper and downwind and as he was walking in to a 3 foot shooting lane I was drawn and calm. I was preparing to shoot him walking but he froze with vitals exposed to look at the decoy . I released arrow and center punched him at 30 yards. At this point I practically collapsed.It was very warm and I guess years of frustration and missed opportunity were coming into into my thoughts.The arrow was complete pass through 4 blade wacem.  we waited  about 20 minutes to start the recovery. quite a bit of blood at first...but it tapered off.Fortunately his tracks were easy to follow in the dirt. This beast made it  500 yards and expired. James was as excited as I was. after lots of hugs and high fives we set about the work. we carried what we could.hung the rest and got back to camp at 430 Am.  we slept for a couple of hours then made the 3 mile trek to pack out the rest. 

elk az.jpg

ekk 2.jpg

elk 3.jpg

elk 1.jpg

elk 2.jpg

elk 4.jpg

elk 5.jpg

  • Like 38
  • Love 1
  • Great Buck! 1
  • Wow! 6

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×