well here it goes it will be a long story with lots of pictures but it is the only way to tell it.
It all started in January when I started doing research on www.gohunt.com on units in AZ that I had somewhat of a chance to draw with one point. I ended up applying for 3 hunts 1 was a muzzle loader and the other two were late season rifle hunts. All these hunts had a 20% or less success rate but I figured the odds were not to terrible and if I was drawn I would be on my first elk hunt. You have to pay to play and sometimes it pays off. My card got hit and I got a tag for a hunt goimg from Nov 10 to Dec 12. The season is long because it is a really hard hunt with a low success rate. But my odds were better than staying at home so I never let that deter me.
Once I knew my unit # the e scouting began. I spent hours on google earth and ONX breaking down my hunt water holes canyons valleys anything and everything I could to give me an upper hand. I reached out to some friends who deer hunted the unit they gave some good info including pictures of bulls from years past. I called and emailed back and forwards with the game manager he was great. I screenshot my ONX maps and emailed the manager and he spent at least an hour on the phone with me breaking down the hunt. When it was all said and done I was determined to hunt the border of a large private Ranch that holds big bulls. I had a back up area but I did not think it would be necessary.
Thursday Day 1
Fast forward to last Thursday the day before my hunt starts. One of my friends Zac wants to learn to hunt and volunteered to come along to help. We left at 4am and we were setting up our base camp by noon. We stayed in my 8 man tent on cots for, we were about an hour into the hills from the highway. Thank goodness for my little buddy heater it was down around 20 at night and that little heater was just enough to take the chill off and allow us some good sleep.
We had the afternoon to scout and quickly learned the terrain was way different than I expected. Glassing would prove to be nearly impossible the Pinion Junipers were so think that you could barely see 30’ let alone glass a mile. While on our day one scout I jumped a stock pond and got my first ring neck. We cooked the duck ona rock by the fire basicy sashimi style. It was the best tasting duck I have ever had. Maybe it was because we put in 6 miles in an afternoon but man that duck tasted great.
Friday Opening morning
We hiked up a large hill that ridge lined a canyon leading to a water tank a mile away. It wasn’t a terrible hike in maybe 2 miles. The game plan was to glass as much as we could and hopefully catch the elk moving up the wash. We found sign while scouting and figured it would work but no elk. In the afternoon we hiked in deep to another valley everyone one of these spots limited us to basically being able to glass maybe 500 yards they were all basically ambush spots since spot and stock really wasn’t an option in this country. Lots of sign but no elk. We did see a few bucks, does and the largest herd of javelina I have ever seen on this day. I didn’t get a picture of either but did snap a picture of a few crossing the road one night. I encountered Javelina 4 different times on this hunt apparently when you don’t have a tag they are everywhere.
Saturday
We drove to the high country I was determined to glass and up there it was a little more spread out but the only animals glassed up were cows and bulls of the beef variety. We put in a ton of miles and put hours behind the glass but were not able to turn anything up. I did find a nice 4x Mikey shed and talked to some locals who showed me pictures of a 5x5 and 6x5 Muley’s taken last season. The deer get big in this unit but I was quickly learning they got big because this unit was so tough to hunt. Oh and I also got my truck good and stuck this day middle of no where thank goodness for some rocks and my tire jack or we would still be there.
Sunday
We still have not seen an elk but now we have kind of cornered where we feel the majority are do to an abundance of sign. We get into our spot super early it’s 20 degrees and a windy. Man I am a wuss when it comes to cold. No elk yet again. This valley was the most open chunk of land 3 miles from a road i could find.
By this time it is noon and we are hiking out to the truck. We run into an old timer who says he has been hunting this area for 40 years he has gotten a lot of cows but he has never shot a bull. He says the only way to hunt is still hunt and bump them out of bed. He says he bumped 7 big bulls last year but couldn’t get a shot. I can see why this guy has not had a ton of success still hunting in thick pinion junipers and expecting to get a shot is like finding a needle ina hay stack.
At this poiby I am starting g to get really frustrated we are seeing tons of sign but have yet to see any elk. We hunted all afternoon and only had a 1 1/2 days left until we had to go home. We have been putting in at least 8 miles a day leaving camp by 4 am and not retiring until after dark. The place is full of road hunters and we are doing everything right I am determined to not quit. For what I lack in skills I make up for in determination.
I decided to pull the plug on this area and move Camp about 30 miles away to a spot that looked promising on my ONX. This unit is litterally a checkerboard of private and public most private allows access but some don’t. It took me three hours of back tracking dirt roads to finally make it to this drinker 30 miles away. It was around 10 at night on Sunday in 1 mile square chunk of public land that we checked a drinker that was loaded with sign.
Monday
Since I really had no idea what the topography of the land was we spent the next morning still hunting the area learning it, getting up on hills, checking valleys and canyons trying to find a bull. The sign was thick this little chunk of public held the only water for like 4 square miles. I knew we had found a honey hole now we had to get it done.
Side note I met a hunter in this area who did everything he could to try and persuade me to go to a better area because he knew there were no elk here etc etc etc. I read right through him and later found out he killed a 385 bull last year in there. No one who has completely set up camp in an area but knows so many better spots would not be hunting the better spots. Bottom line good try guy.
Monday night
We had to come home Tuesday morning so Monday would be our last hunt. The original plan was to get high above the water hole and glass all the fingers leading to it. But like stated before the glassing was impossible once we got up high around 2pm we realized it wasn’t going to work. New plan I read the wind and set up a ground blind along the water hole. It hasn’t rained out there in 2 months I hate the idea of just sitting water but at this point I am there to kill a bull I am defeated cursing this stupid elkless unit. So sitting over water it is. And so we sat just like I was bowhunting a ground blind we sat perfectly still checking the wind just waiting.
With about 15 minutes of shooting light left I heard him. A sound of a large animal crashing through the pinions behind me. Next thing I know 100 yards to my left a bull leaps the 4’ fence and his momentum is driving down hill towards the water. I put him in the Tikka T3X 260Rem cross hairs boom thwap the sound of hitting pay dirt, he stumbled into the water and does a 180, I hit him again boom thwap pay dirt, he walks out of the water uneasy I give him one more and down goes Frazier. Hindsight all shots were kill shots but with an elk I am shooting until he is down. 40 miles of hiking, sunrise to sunset hunting, not even seeing a cow, just like that there he was and he was down. I couldn’t even stand I was just laughing I had been telling Zac the whole week that we can’t give up we have to keep going it will pay off and it did. My first bull a busted up 5x5 public land AZ DIY drawn with one point. I am on cloud nine.
The moral of this hunt is never never give up. When everything is stacked against you and you don’t think it will ever work out just get back out there you never know when your luck will change and you will get it done.
It all started in January when I started doing research on www.gohunt.com on units in AZ that I had somewhat of a chance to draw with one point. I ended up applying for 3 hunts 1 was a muzzle loader and the other two were late season rifle hunts. All these hunts had a 20% or less success rate but I figured the odds were not to terrible and if I was drawn I would be on my first elk hunt. You have to pay to play and sometimes it pays off. My card got hit and I got a tag for a hunt goimg from Nov 10 to Dec 12. The season is long because it is a really hard hunt with a low success rate. But my odds were better than staying at home so I never let that deter me.
Once I knew my unit # the e scouting began. I spent hours on google earth and ONX breaking down my hunt water holes canyons valleys anything and everything I could to give me an upper hand. I reached out to some friends who deer hunted the unit they gave some good info including pictures of bulls from years past. I called and emailed back and forwards with the game manager he was great. I screenshot my ONX maps and emailed the manager and he spent at least an hour on the phone with me breaking down the hunt. When it was all said and done I was determined to hunt the border of a large private Ranch that holds big bulls. I had a back up area but I did not think it would be necessary.
Thursday Day 1
Fast forward to last Thursday the day before my hunt starts. One of my friends Zac wants to learn to hunt and volunteered to come along to help. We left at 4am and we were setting up our base camp by noon. We stayed in my 8 man tent on cots for, we were about an hour into the hills from the highway. Thank goodness for my little buddy heater it was down around 20 at night and that little heater was just enough to take the chill off and allow us some good sleep.
We had the afternoon to scout and quickly learned the terrain was way different than I expected. Glassing would prove to be nearly impossible the Pinion Junipers were so think that you could barely see 30’ let alone glass a mile. While on our day one scout I jumped a stock pond and got my first ring neck. We cooked the duck ona rock by the fire basicy sashimi style. It was the best tasting duck I have ever had. Maybe it was because we put in 6 miles in an afternoon but man that duck tasted great.
Friday Opening morning
We hiked up a large hill that ridge lined a canyon leading to a water tank a mile away. It wasn’t a terrible hike in maybe 2 miles. The game plan was to glass as much as we could and hopefully catch the elk moving up the wash. We found sign while scouting and figured it would work but no elk. In the afternoon we hiked in deep to another valley everyone one of these spots limited us to basically being able to glass maybe 500 yards they were all basically ambush spots since spot and stock really wasn’t an option in this country. Lots of sign but no elk. We did see a few bucks, does and the largest herd of javelina I have ever seen on this day. I didn’t get a picture of either but did snap a picture of a few crossing the road one night. I encountered Javelina 4 different times on this hunt apparently when you don’t have a tag they are everywhere.
Saturday
We drove to the high country I was determined to glass and up there it was a little more spread out but the only animals glassed up were cows and bulls of the beef variety. We put in a ton of miles and put hours behind the glass but were not able to turn anything up. I did find a nice 4x Mikey shed and talked to some locals who showed me pictures of a 5x5 and 6x5 Muley’s taken last season. The deer get big in this unit but I was quickly learning they got big because this unit was so tough to hunt. Oh and I also got my truck good and stuck this day middle of no where thank goodness for some rocks and my tire jack or we would still be there.
Sunday
We still have not seen an elk but now we have kind of cornered where we feel the majority are do to an abundance of sign. We get into our spot super early it’s 20 degrees and a windy. Man I am a wuss when it comes to cold. No elk yet again. This valley was the most open chunk of land 3 miles from a road i could find.
By this time it is noon and we are hiking out to the truck. We run into an old timer who says he has been hunting this area for 40 years he has gotten a lot of cows but he has never shot a bull. He says the only way to hunt is still hunt and bump them out of bed. He says he bumped 7 big bulls last year but couldn’t get a shot. I can see why this guy has not had a ton of success still hunting in thick pinion junipers and expecting to get a shot is like finding a needle ina hay stack.
At this poiby I am starting g to get really frustrated we are seeing tons of sign but have yet to see any elk. We hunted all afternoon and only had a 1 1/2 days left until we had to go home. We have been putting in at least 8 miles a day leaving camp by 4 am and not retiring until after dark. The place is full of road hunters and we are doing everything right I am determined to not quit. For what I lack in skills I make up for in determination.
I decided to pull the plug on this area and move Camp about 30 miles away to a spot that looked promising on my ONX. This unit is litterally a checkerboard of private and public most private allows access but some don’t. It took me three hours of back tracking dirt roads to finally make it to this drinker 30 miles away. It was around 10 at night on Sunday in 1 mile square chunk of public land that we checked a drinker that was loaded with sign.
Monday
Since I really had no idea what the topography of the land was we spent the next morning still hunting the area learning it, getting up on hills, checking valleys and canyons trying to find a bull. The sign was thick this little chunk of public held the only water for like 4 square miles. I knew we had found a honey hole now we had to get it done.
Side note I met a hunter in this area who did everything he could to try and persuade me to go to a better area because he knew there were no elk here etc etc etc. I read right through him and later found out he killed a 385 bull last year in there. No one who has completely set up camp in an area but knows so many better spots would not be hunting the better spots. Bottom line good try guy.
Monday night
We had to come home Tuesday morning so Monday would be our last hunt. The original plan was to get high above the water hole and glass all the fingers leading to it. But like stated before the glassing was impossible once we got up high around 2pm we realized it wasn’t going to work. New plan I read the wind and set up a ground blind along the water hole. It hasn’t rained out there in 2 months I hate the idea of just sitting water but at this point I am there to kill a bull I am defeated cursing this stupid elkless unit. So sitting over water it is. And so we sat just like I was bowhunting a ground blind we sat perfectly still checking the wind just waiting.
With about 15 minutes of shooting light left I heard him. A sound of a large animal crashing through the pinions behind me. Next thing I know 100 yards to my left a bull leaps the 4’ fence and his momentum is driving down hill towards the water. I put him in the Tikka T3X 260Rem cross hairs boom thwap the sound of hitting pay dirt, he stumbled into the water and does a 180, I hit him again boom thwap pay dirt, he walks out of the water uneasy I give him one more and down goes Frazier. Hindsight all shots were kill shots but with an elk I am shooting until he is down. 40 miles of hiking, sunrise to sunset hunting, not even seeing a cow, just like that there he was and he was down. I couldn’t even stand I was just laughing I had been telling Zac the whole week that we can’t give up we have to keep going it will pay off and it did. My first bull a busted up 5x5 public land AZ DIY drawn with one point. I am on cloud nine.
The moral of this hunt is never never give up. When everything is stacked against you and you don’t think it will ever work out just get back out there you never know when your luck will change and you will get it done.
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