Late season AZ Bull elk.

We've done well in unit 1 and 27 on the late bull hunts here....go to the nastiest place you can find...sadly..they are not off the roads this time of year here...they know...they've been persecuted for months...good luck dude and post him when you kill him.
 
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We've done well in unit 1 and 27 on the late bull hunts here....go to the nastiest place you can find...sadly..they are not off the roads this time of year here...they know...they've been persecuted for months...good luck dude and post him when you kill him.
Will do! You can roll a marble across unit 5 unfortunately. Roads everywhere, people don't pay attention to closed roads either. I archery hunted it before and my dad had this tag a couple of years back. Had a 360" 7x7 patterned only to have it blown up by a guy parking his UTV 50' from the water hole which was only like 1000 yards from his camp, apparently, that was too far to walk. I'm still bitter lol!

I think our game plan is just like you said, get away from the roads and stay out the whole day to try and maximize our chances. No much glassing in that unit, unfortunately.
 
Yup..stay at it...weather is great right now..should be epic for you guys....hammer um.
 
Yup..stay at it...weather is great right now..should be epic for you guys....hammer um.
Yeah, cant wait! Could you get away from the crowds in 1/27? I cut my teeth doing the cow hunts on the White Mountain Apache res. Some of the most beautiful lands God ever created is over there.
 
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We do get away..never shot one off the road in any of the units (bummer) always a cut and stuff...never been on the res..but agree the whites are where it's at! Elk o plenty .
 
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Day 1:
AM, Went out to the area they were all in last time he had this tag. No dice. Some sign but very limited and zero elk seen. We went to some areas where the elk were all over the place in 2016 when I had an archery tag. No dice there either. Ended up seeing some cows 1000 yards off at a run. PM, Went back to the same spot as the AM and didn’t turn anything back up.

Day 2:
Decided it was time to really put in boot miles. Ended up jumping several groups of cows throughout the day working timber and logging roads. Could have shot a small 5 but the shot wasn’t ideal and he wasn’t that big. Heading back to the truck we jumped a 330” 6 but never had a shot. Exhausted ourselves (at one point we hiked for 3.5 hours without a break) but covered a ton of land and located where they are.

Its tough picking them out with all the leaves fallen and their coat looking the same color. This unit does not really have much of anything for glassing opportunity unfortunately.
 
Day 3:
Went out in the AM located a couple herds of cows but no bulls. Went at a much slower pace trying not to spook em before we could see them. Bumped a bear later in the AM around 11. It ran up the hill and made some weird noises. Took the quads out in the PM covering a lot of new lower area. It held sign but we didn’t see any elk.
 
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Day 4: Went out very similar to day 3. Several herds of cows in the AM but no bull. Came up on a spike kill and a cow kill from earlier in the year.

Day 5: Got a little interesting. Ended up hiking pretty deep (as deep as you can there) only to have another hunter start shooting less than 200 yards from us. Dang it! So we marched on further in and located legs going through the trees. Big herd! Well, we start moving in as there is a smaller bull in there. Sure enough, they all start walking through a 10' long opening. One by one, all 30 of them. The bull was at the back and I kid you not, when it was his turn to cross, he trotted for 10' then stopped giving my dad no shot. Unbelievable, he was the only elk that did that lol. We kept on them but the wind swirled and they spooked. It was 11AM by then so we marched back.

We went out in the PM and decided to try a new area adjacent to private that somewhat looks like private because of higher cattle fences. We decide to do a loop and on the way back I hear the rumble of hooves. We freeze. A herd comes running our way. We don't move until they present a shot and my dad lets one have it on the run. We both know how good spike tastes! Could use some meat after losing a buck in AZ and killing a stick instead of the bull on the other side of it in Idaho. Great memories and a lot of learning hunting late-season elk in hot, dry, crunchy, country that you cant glass. I think I'll wait, build more points and archery hunt it again.
 

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