Well back from my second archery public land elk hunt of the year and stoked to fill both tags in 2015. Got to Arizona last Thursday to see that the last storm we had left allot of water everywhere in my area which was strike one. I had a few hunting partners there for a week and with all the cameras out we were not seeing what we wanted to see in bulls or elk which was strike two. I sat over a water tank morning and evening on Fridays opener to no avail and when I got back to camp I got news that what I thought was a small rain storm coming was really a pretty big storm coming which indeed up to be an understatement. This was strike three for me on making the decision this year to punch the first bull I seen being the meat is more important to my family than the rack.
I moved to a new area on Saturday which had a cleaner water source and on Saturday evenings hunt right before dark I had a couple cows and a calf come in heading towards the water. They stopped behind my tree with my wind right at them which had me frozen in time for several minutes but my liquid earth scent masked my scent and they moved towards the water without winding me. As they came back out of the water hole this spike comes down another draw and followed the cows out which when he got to 30yds heading away from me he finally in his last step quartered away and I buried my rage right behind the last rib and he tore off with my blue nocturnal knock lit up. Once I got out of my tree stand I found blood in the first few steps so I just marked it and got out there so not to mess up the area and maybe bump him out of before he expired.
I sat my stand the next morning until 8:30am and then climbed out and started trailing a good blood trail. We stayed on a good blood trail for about 200 yards and as we were going through the tress my hunting partner sees him bedded at 20 yds. with his head up and eyes open. I looked at him with my binoculars several times and we could not decide whether he was still alive or frozen in time dead. I circled behind him and once I could see his body I could see him breathing, I was able to knock an arrow and walk up to him at 5 yards and bury a kill shot in the boiler room. He jumped up and ran 20 yds. crashing into a tree and dying right there quickly, I felt a little bad about him having to lie there all night with my arrow in him which stuck out the opposite shoulder instead of going into the boiler room on the first shot but that’s archery hunting. We were able to gut and drag him a little ways and get the side by side up to him which made a pretty clean exit.
Once we got him back to camp and I was able to break him down and bag everything is when the tide turned. It started raining at 3:00pm and proceeded to pour with violent winds for the next fourteen hours in which it than snowed for another seventeen dropping in the teens which was brutal. Took a few days to get out of there also trying to help my hunting partners which we never seen an animal but all in all a great finish to my out of state hunts this year and looking forward to what crosses my trail next year. Good luck to my hunting brothers who are still there trying to get it done. Peace
I moved to a new area on Saturday which had a cleaner water source and on Saturday evenings hunt right before dark I had a couple cows and a calf come in heading towards the water. They stopped behind my tree with my wind right at them which had me frozen in time for several minutes but my liquid earth scent masked my scent and they moved towards the water without winding me. As they came back out of the water hole this spike comes down another draw and followed the cows out which when he got to 30yds heading away from me he finally in his last step quartered away and I buried my rage right behind the last rib and he tore off with my blue nocturnal knock lit up. Once I got out of my tree stand I found blood in the first few steps so I just marked it and got out there so not to mess up the area and maybe bump him out of before he expired.
I sat my stand the next morning until 8:30am and then climbed out and started trailing a good blood trail. We stayed on a good blood trail for about 200 yards and as we were going through the tress my hunting partner sees him bedded at 20 yds. with his head up and eyes open. I looked at him with my binoculars several times and we could not decide whether he was still alive or frozen in time dead. I circled behind him and once I could see his body I could see him breathing, I was able to knock an arrow and walk up to him at 5 yards and bury a kill shot in the boiler room. He jumped up and ran 20 yds. crashing into a tree and dying right there quickly, I felt a little bad about him having to lie there all night with my arrow in him which stuck out the opposite shoulder instead of going into the boiler room on the first shot but that’s archery hunting. We were able to gut and drag him a little ways and get the side by side up to him which made a pretty clean exit.
Once we got him back to camp and I was able to break him down and bag everything is when the tide turned. It started raining at 3:00pm and proceeded to pour with violent winds for the next fourteen hours in which it than snowed for another seventeen dropping in the teens which was brutal. Took a few days to get out of there also trying to help my hunting partners which we never seen an animal but all in all a great finish to my out of state hunts this year and looking forward to what crosses my trail next year. Good luck to my hunting brothers who are still there trying to get it done. Peace
