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I've seen this mentioned in a few replies to threads on here, but wanted to add my own 2 cents since I'm (a) new to hunting in general (b) have my first big game hunt coming up with my muzzleloader Coues in a few days and (c) couldn't have predicted how amazing it was to spend the morning with Duwane learning where and why to look. I met Mr Adams at 5a in Oracle and we meandered into the Catalinas. I brought my own tripod (too short) and bino's and we pulled up on to a road and started glassing. Duwane is constantly letting me know why this spot is good and, as we timed it for sunrise, we spotted a ton of deer. Does with their fawns and plenty of bucks. It was the first time I'd seen bucks tussling with my own eyes. We scanned and Duwane kept pulling me to his binos to see the detail he was noticing and slowly I started to be able to spot the deer first (not too often), and even saw a pack of coyotes working the hill side between two big deer groups. We went to a couple of other spots so that the I could see first hand what the angle of the dangle was all about and it was impressive. We never glassed the same ridges or sections of mountain, but the formula of when and where the deer move was reinforced every time we stopped. Mr Adams fundamentally changed everything I will do in the future with my binos. Admittedly I don't have the sort of experience most of the forums members do, so I'm still years behind most of y'all with equipment that is right at the beginning of the journey, but I feel a lot more comfortable heading into my first hunt. He's a gracious and generous man, and talking with him put so much of the info from books and podcasts either into context or allowed me to change how closely I adhered to it. Highly recommend it, and can't say enough positive things about my morning with him: It was incredible.

My son, Lance, took a beautiful 6x6 (2nd photo) last Friday (9/27) on a muzzleloader hunt. The year prior he took the other 6x6 on an archery hunt. It is great to see a child succeed on a hunt. Lance turns 14 this October 13th. I am so proud of the fine young man he has turned out to be. Memories neither one of us will forget. Proud Dad, Shane Luke

Hi CWT Community, This is part two of the story of this years elk hunts for my son and me. I wrote it for the purposes of journaling for my family. Rather than retype a shorter version, I am just posting this one. I recognize that it is quite long. I wouldn’t be offended if someone just skipped to the pictures rather than the full play by play. Part one of our story left off with me returning home from my hunt, butchering the bull, resupplying, and heading back up the mountain with my son just a day and half later. As I mentioned, he had a JV football game Thursday night (he is a freshman on the ALA Queen Creek team) and went 6 for 6 on his PATs. After the game, we ran home to load up the coolers while he had a quick shower, and we were on our way. We rolled into camp (actually a small VRBO cabin I rented) and got to sleep about 1:00 AM. We got up at 4:00AM and headed into an area I had looked over with Shane the previous week. There were quite a few bugling bulls in there the week before, including a couple I had passed up. Given the short amount of time my son had to hunt, and it being an archery hunt (crossbow given his broken wrist), he and I agreed that anything 330 class or bigger would get serious consideration. After all, he just turned 15 the week before, it was his first bull hunt, and we wanted to be very realistic in our expectations. I had talked with Shane prior to coming back up and he said he did not have plans to be hunting that area with his archery hunter, and that we were more than welcome to give it a go. Before we jump into the hunt, here are a couple of important details: As I mentioned in “Part 1”, Draysen would be using a crossbow due to a broken wrist and recent surgery to repair his wrist. We were using a Ravin R10 crossbow, and had put in quite a few hours of practice in the months leading up to the hunt with the crossbow to finetune his shooting, arrows, and broadheads. We couldn’t find a broadhead that didn’t tune extremely well out of the crossbow. Ultimately he decided that he wanted to use Iron Will Broadheads (we only had 3 due to cost) and would follow those up with Ramcats if necessary. They were both stacking on top of each other in groups the size of a quarter at 100 yards. Friday - It was a rough opening morning. We had anticipated that the rut would have kicked into full swing by this point, but that was hardly the case. Moreover, the few bugles I had heard the previous week were even fewer and far between. We heard a couple of bugles before sun-up, but once it started to get light, everything was dead quiet. The only excitement that we had that morning was Draysen telling me that he misplaced his cell phone. Fortunately we had a weak cell signal and I was able to use the Life360 app on our phones to pinpoint his phones location, FOUR MILES BEHIND US. We backtracked to the phone, and that was pretty much it for opening morning. The remainder of the day didn’t get much better. The bugling was terrible. We chased a couple of distant bugles in a different area, and just prior to dark turned up a good looking 310-320 class bull about 120 yards in front of us. But he wasn’t what we were looking for that early in the hunt, so headed back for the truck. Saturday – Since the bugling was pretty bad in the places we had checked the previous day, we had decided to check out a different location that he and I had found together a couple of years previously while helping a friend on their bull hunt. When we had found that area a couple of years prior, we found ourselves in a bugling frenzy with more bulls all around us than we could count, so why not check it out? We headed out about 4:00 AM, but never made it to our predetermined spot. After turning off the highway and driving up the dirt road for several hundred yards we pulled the truck over adjacent to a large open meadow that had a 100 yard wide strip of trees between us and the meadow, that would provide us some cover. We hoped out of the truck and I hit the bugle. In the still pitch dark we were hit back with immediate replies by three different bulls out in the meadow. These were the best and closest bugles we had heard yet so we took off after them. I knew that once we hit the meadow (it is a huge meadow, at least 3/4 mile wide by 1 mile long) there would be very little cover for us to get in close. So my goal was to get into position while we still had some cover from the darkness. It was a good plan, but we just didn’t have enough time. We located a big 360 class heard bull while moving into position with A LOT of cows, but it was just too light to get around them and at about 150-200 yards we got busted in the open by a cow and they started moving off. Despite our best efforts for about an hour, we were not getting back ahead of this group. By the time we got back to the truck, everything had been dead quiet again for at least 45 minutes. We decided to make a move about 15 miles into the high country to see if they were bugling any better in the pines. The bugling wasn’t much better higher up. We were doing a little running and gunning in the truck at this point since our prime morning hours were running short. We would drive the road a ways, jump out, hit the bugle, listen, and move on. It was probably the 4th of 5th time into this cycle that we got a response, and a close one. It was a deep raspy response, probably within a few hundred yards. I grabbed my pack, he grabbed the crossbow, and we were off. Once we got moving, we had a few different bulls in close proximity talking back and forth. I would bugle, they would respond, and we would creep closer. It wasn’t long before Draysen whispered to me, “I see a cow!”. About 50 yards ahead of us was a cow through the trees, then a second one, third, and so on. They were moving past us slowly unaware of our presence (we were very aware of and working the wind). Eventually the bull showed himself, a solid 330 class bull that Draysen decided he wanted to shoot. As we came closer, the bull took a hard right rather than following his cows. This worked out perfect for us as he was coming right at us. He slowly worked into about 30 yards, where I had determined to cow call to stop him for the shot. Unfortunately I stopped him one step to soon and he froze up with everything exposed to us, except for his vitals, which were directly behind a tree. There was a stare down for probably a minute before the bull decided he didn’t like what he was seeing (or not seeing). He wheeled around and started to more off. I cow called to him and he stopped and started to come back, but more cautiously. I worked him back into 60 yards into the wide open and called the range out to Draysen. “THWACK” I watched the arrow sail forward, but about a foot underneath the bull. What happened there is still a contentious point between Draysen and I, and probably will be for many years to come. He claims he re-ranged the distance later and it was actually 90 yards, I claim that my yardage was dead-on and he pulled the shot. This debate won’t end anytime soon. The bull spun around at the sound of the crossbow, ran off about 40-50 yards, and stopped. Try as I might, I was not able to call him back in a third time, and he began to slowly work away from us. I told Draysen to keep an eye on him while I backed off about 30 yards and raked a tree to see if I could bring him or one of the other bulls in. I was successful in bringing a small 5x5 to within 10 yards while raking, but are target bull was working away from us. We still had the wind right, so Draysen gave a slow pursuit. Somehow we got separated at this point and I lost sight of Draysen. We still had multiple bulls bugling, but I did not know which one he was working towards. I made the decision that I would be best able to assist him by staying put and working my bugles to keep them talking for him. After about 10-15 minutes I started to get a little worried. I had all of the extra arrows, hadn’t heard from Draysen, had no idea which way he went, and cell service was at one bar at best. Then my phone went to life showing Draysen’s image on the screen. I answered and he reported that he had stalked into an even larger bull (he estimated it at 360 class), had taken a shot, but couldn’t find any blood or his arrow, so thought he had missed. I worked my way to him and we began to search the area in the direction the bull had run off. About 30 yards from where the bull had stood I came upon this! I called Draysen to me and a mini celebration took place. The blood was thick, heavy, and left a trail ahead of us as far as we could see through the trees. We agreed to give the bull some time and sat down on the blood and waited for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes se started to track, but to our horror, after about 50 yards the blood completely disappeared. Not a drop!!! I was able to follow his hoof prints for an additional 50 or so yards, but then we got into such a mess of different elk tracks that we lost his tracks completely. We spent the next several hours working every possible directions from the last track looking for an sign of him. Draysen was visibly upset. He was very angry with himself at the prospect of wounding an animal that was now suffering. We talked over the shot, took a hard look at the blood, and came to the conclusion that the hard quartering away shot he had taken likely resulted in him only hitting one lung. After looking for several hours we headed back for some lunch and a little break, but that afternoon continued our search. Unfortunately, as the day grew later and we continued to draw blanks, we came to the conclusion that we were not going to find the bull. It was a very frustrating and discouraging day, but a day in which we were both taught a number of valuable lessons. With the poor state of the rut, we decided that we would give it our best all day the next day (Sunday), return home late that evening, and save the absence he was planning on using for school on Monday for the following Friday when the rut would hopefully be better. My friend GR from Taylor and I had been keeping each other updated on what we were seeing throughout the hunt. That evening we were discussing the rough state of the rut, and he said he knew a couple of spots that usually held a few solid bulls that we might consider checking out. We, Draysen and I, were both pretty discouraged over the days events and welcomed his help. We arranged to meet up with him the following morning well before sun-up. Sunday – Our luck did not improve!!! Early that morning, I went to unlock the truck with the keyless remote to load up the packs, but nothing. Best case scenario, the battery was dead. Worst case, who knows. I got ahold of GR who was more than willing to come our way to pick us up. By the time he got to us, and we were at our predetermined hunting area, we were way behind schedule. It had been light for some time. We did hear one bugle, but between the super thick and dense country he was in, and some other hunters making a lot of noise in the area, the morning was a total bust. We headed back to camp to deal with the truck, and were fortunately able to jump start it. The one bright spot to the morning was that the battery was still under full warranty. Despite some terrible customer service at the Show Low Walmart, I was able to get the battery swapped out and around noon, we were back at camp. We didn’t stay long before heading back out to the area where Draysen had shot the bull the previous day. While still early, we were hoping for crows or any sign of the bull. We found no further sign and decided to continue to search for bugles to chase. Sadly that was the worst night of the entire hunt for bugles, we didn’t hear a thing until after dark. We headed back to camp, loaded up the truck and headed for home, discouraged but determined. Thursday - I had work on Thursday, and Draysen had school and a football game on Thursday night. Just like the previous week, we were going to head out immediately after Draysen’s game and get to camp late that night. About 9:00 AM I received the following text from my friend Shane (Shane Koury of Koury Guide Service): Shane - When are you coming up? Me - Tonight after Draysen’s game. Probably get up there between midnight and 1:00 AM. Shane – Good deal. You want to roll with me tomorrow? Me – Seriously? Of course we do! That night Draysen’s team won their game with Draysen going 4 for 4 on PATs and we were on our way. Friday – We met up with Shane and headed into the area Draysen and I had hunted on day 1. After we had gone home, Shane went in there with his archery hunter and had turned up a giant. Unfortunately his hunter was unable to connect on the shot, and we believed him to still be in the area. We got on the big bull and were stalking him from 400-500 yards out. Unfortunately, he worked his way really close to a dirt road. We were probably within 250-300 yards and closing the distance fast when we watched in horror as some other hunters rolled up their diesel truck to within 50 yards of the bull and blasted their hoochie momma out the window of their still running truck. To our dismay, the bull bugled back to them. They made an absurd racket as they parked their truck and gathered their gear. It was at this point that we cruised past them giving the exasperated death stare. You could tell by their reaction that realization had hit them about what they had just done and they jumped back in their truck and took off. Sadly, the next time we hear the giant bull bugle must have been from at least a half a mile away. He had been blown far from the area. Fortunately for us, bugling was substantially better than when we had headed home earlier in the week, and we had the legendary Shane Koury helping us, so we were feeling pretty good. That afternoon we decided to check out an area closer to where we were staying for this part of our trip. As we had loaded up the truck that morning, prior to meeting up with Shane, we had heard several bugles in the distance. We told Shane and he mentioned a couple of spots back in that direction where they had killed some giants in past years. So the plan for that evening was to check out those bulls. It wasn’t long before we had a bugle down in an adjacent canyon. The bugle sounded weak, but we decided we needed to give it a look over anyway. When we finally got a glimpse of him about 150 yards in front of us, we realized that his antlers were as big as his bugle was small. He was a 380+ class giant and appeared to be working his way into a great position for us to put a stalk on him. We worked our way down the canyon to get the wind right and slowly started working our way back to him. It wasn’t long before we spotted him destroying a tree about 60 yards ahead of us. We continued to work closer until Draysen was straight in front of the bush/tree the bull was working at a distance of 32 yards. Everything was PERFECT, we had the wind right, the crossbow was ready and on the sticks, and as soon as this giant took two steps either right or left to clear the tree, he was dead. I filmed this through my phone, so I know that this tree vandal ripped this tree apart for just over 5 minutes while we waited. Then, he took one step to the right. His head and neck were exposed, only one more step and it would be time to celebrate! Right then the wind swirled and that was it. The bull whipped around and took off up the mountain leaving us in a state of disbelief. Fortunately we could tell that he had been working the trees in that area for some time. We felt that we were likely in his bedding area, and that we would be right in the area the following day. So we carefully hiked out of the area an went in search of other bugles, but didn’t turn up anything that could get Draysen’s mind off of the big bull we had just watched. In the fading light I did locate a BIG 190 inch class mule deer buck. Did I mention I have a 3A3C deer tag in a few weeks… Saturday – The weather reports were predicting extremely high winds as we got further into the weekend. They weren’t wrong. By early Saturday morning we were in 20+ MPH winds with gusts closer to 30. We were high up in the pines that morning and in some thick fog. It made for a picturesque morning to bring in a bull through the fog, and we did just that. It was a pretty great morning. We were able to find several deep pockets out of the wind and put Draysen within his range of multiple bugling bulls. Unfortunately, he had a giant on his mind from the evening before and most everything we turned up Saturday morning was in the 320 class range. So one by one, he passed on several shot opportunities. In the back of my mind was the looming concerns that all we had left was today and tomorrow, and the wind was only supposed to continue to increase. I was eager for him to not push it until the end. Afterall, he is barely 15 years old and on his first bull hunt. He didn’t need to kill a giant, but with that 380 on his mind, he wasn’t willing to settle. The three of us had a great morning, the bugling was finally getting good, we looked at a lot of elk, and put A LOT of miles on the boots before we called it a morning and made plans to look back in on the giant. Draysen and Shane have a good time trash talking to each other, both seem to have a lot of alpha male in them and spent a fair amount of the weekend going after each other. It made for a lot comical and entertaining banter. I did my best to keep my head down and stay out of the crossfire. In the afternoon we headed back into the bedroom of our giant. As we snuck into the canyon Shane let out bugle. To our delight we were treated to a reply bugle, exactly where we had stalked the giant the previous day. We continued our bugling dialogue only as much as needed to sneak within range. As we got close we realized (via OnX) that the bull was bugling from his bed within 30 yards of where he had watched him tear up the tree the day before. The wind was terrible, but in the canyon, we were in a good spot. We crept to within 40 yards and saw bedded antlers through the brush. Draysen got set up on the sticks and we waiting. Before long our bull stood up an walked towards us and out of the brush. NOT OUR GIANT!!! This was a good looking up an coming 320-330 class bull, but not the one we were looking for. We let him walk and continued to work the canyon looking for our bull. Unfortunately there was not another bugle to be heard in the area. We had a quick conversation and determined that given the limited time Draysen had remaining, we need to move on, get out of there, back to the truck, and find some other elk. Shane chose this opportunity to literally run up the mountain to show Draysen who was the big dog really was. Draysen kept right on his heels leaving me, the innocent bystander in their crossfire to give pursuit. By the time we got to the top of the mountain my lungs were on fire. I shared my opinion of their **** measuring contest, we had a laugh, and were on our way. We were rolling through a rough back road listening for bugles in the slowly fading light. With about 20 minutes of light left we hopped out of the truck and hit the bugle. We had an immediate and loud response from a bull right on top of us and he was headed our way and fast! We grabbed the crossbow and headed to get into position away from the truck. Unfortunately, the bull was a little to quick. We were maybe 10-20 yards from the big white truck, with it directly behind, us when the bull walked into the opening. He saw the truck, stopped dead in his tracks, and stared at us. He was well within shooting distance, and Draysen made it clear that given our limited time, this 330-340 class bull was an shooter. Unfortunately, we were in yet another situation where there was one tree between us and the bull. That one tree was blocking his vitals. It wasn’t more than 10-15 seconds before the bull realized that the big white truck wasn’t a good thing for him, and he bolted leaving us without a shot. We gave pursuit, but by the time we had him back in sight, we has back with his cows (a lot of cows) and we were just about out of light. He had come in angry to our bugle before, so we decided to give it one more go. I backed off and began raking a tree while Shane and Draysen kept an eye on the bull about 150 yards in front of us. As he began raking a tree of his own, Draysen and Shane worked into about 50 yards, but with the tree he was raking between them, they had no shot, and our light was gone. We were down to our final day and the forecast was for 30 mph winds with gusts up to 40. It wasn’t looking good. Draysen was clearly getting worried and second guessing the bulls we had passed on throughout the day in hopes of getting a shot at the big 380 bull. As we headed for bed, he told me that any 6x6 would be getting his arrow tomorrow. Sunday - We met up with Shane about 4:30 AM and headed into an area nearby to check for bugles. We had decided that this would give us plenty of time to shoot up high and get into the canyons out of the nasty winds if the bugling was bad down low. However, the bugling was fantastic! In the darkness, we had bulls bugling from every direction. Shane’s younger son Skyler (an excellent hunter as well) came out that morning to spot for us from up high. Shortly after it began to get light, we got a call from Skyler telling us that one of the bulls in the meadow we were sitting on was big. Shane asked how big, he responded, “just shoot!”. The bull was working south into the trees with his cows several hundred yards from us on the far edge of the big meadow. We moved fast to cut them off and were closing in. We spotted cows in front of us about 50 yards ahead walking through a perfect shooting lane in the trees. Assuming the bull was bringing up the rear, Draysen got all set up for the shot. About that time a calf became interested in something in our direction and turned right at us. He/she walked to within about 10 yards of me, figured out we were something he/she didn’t like and bolted taking all of herd with her. We pursued, having never seen the bull, for several miles before we accepted the fact that we were only losing ground and decided to check in on some of the many other bugles in the area. Within minutes we had a close bull responding to us. It was clear he was coming in so we once again got Draysen all set up. Within seconds a solid 5x5 bull broke through the trees with a single cow. At 23 yards he stopped hard, giving Draysen a perfect shot. My insides were screaming for Draysen to shoot, but for whatever reason he wasn’t feeling the same urgency, and his finger never touched the trigger. Once the bull cleared out, I had to fight myself from losing my mind! What was he thinking? This gift was a beautiful last day bull, especially given the rough conditions? I was a little put off with Draysen and venting my frustration via text to my wife so as not to explode on him. I kept most of my words in check, but did make the comment, “I don’t think you realize the decision you just made.” Before long, I regained my composure and told him I was sorry for letting my frustration show and that I loved him. I was feeling pretty bad. I could see that he was second guessing himself hard and that my frustration wasn’t helping. As many of you know, hunting is TOUGH on a dad. Once again, lessons were learned, especially by me. For the balance of the morning we got on and chased several other bugles, including another giant that gave us a half second glimpse of him. But he was just too quick through the canyon and we were never presented with shot opportunities. Now, we were down to our final afternoon/evening. Shane suggested we go to the far opposite end of the unit to check out a wallow he had a camera on, but had not checked in a while. We headed out earlier than usual to give us plenty of time to check the camera and hopefully get back to other areas if we turned up empty. Despite terrible winds and very little time left, we were still having a good time and laughing as we drove. Eventually we rolled into the area, grabbed the crossbow (just in case) and made the hike into the camera. The camera was only about 400-500 yards from the two track road, so we left our calls and most of our gear at the truck, assuming that if the camera showed anything, we would come back to get the rest of the gear. We were trying to more fast and light. As we checked the camera, we noted several solid bulls hitting the area. We also heard a faint bugle that we decided we should check out before leaving. We were getting ready to leave when I spotted something butterscotch in color a couple hundred yards behind us. I grabbed my binos from my chest, looked, and whispered “ELK”. One cow at first, but behind them, antlers in the trees at about 200 yards! Shane asked if he was a shooter. I didn’t have a clean look, but at that point, anything over a spike was a shooter as far as I was concerned, so I replied “Good enough”! They appeared to be slowly headed into the water we were standing at. We located what would serve as a natural blind on the far side of the tank and snuck into it. After several minutes, it became clear that the herd was coming in extremely slow as they grazed up the hill. So Shane decided he would sneak out (we had good cover) and run to the truck for our calls and other gear. If the elk came in while he was gone, Draysen and I would let him know to stay back (we had cell service) and take the shot. Instead of coming in directly to the water, the head cow broke off to our right and started angling up the hill. Shane had returned after a few minutes. From our position, the herd was about 150 yards out. The bull was still to low on the hill for us to see him, but the number of cows coming into view was growing. We whispered to each other and agreed that it we were probably going to have to make a move to close the distance. Shane went first and crawled to where we had originally been standing on the other side of the tank. Once he felt it was clear, he motioned for Draysen and I to also sneak over. At this point the bull was now coming into view, an absolute beautiful 100% shooter for Draysen on any day of his hunt! We were at about 100 yards but felt we needed to get closer to get a better angle. There wasn’t a lot to hide behind between us and the bull now. So as to minimize our movement, I decided to stay put and watch while Shane and Draysen edged forward. At about 90 yards I watched Draysen drop the crossbow on the sticks and look through the scope. It turned out the angle wasn’t quite what they wanted, so they inched forward another 20 yards and once again go set up. I had a perfect view of both them and the bull. The bull was slowly working up the hill as Shane let out a soft cow call. The bull stopped and looked their direct. “THWACK” went the crossbow, followed by a quiet thump! I didn’t see the arrow (the crossbow shoots at 400FPS) but thought I heard the unmistakable sound of impact. But the bull didn’t even so much as flinch! He continued to look down in the direction of the noise for a few seconds, decided he didn’t like something down there, turned and very slowly started walking back down the hill, taking his cows with him. Once he was out of sight I rushed up to Draysen and Shane. We were all a bit confused. Draysen felt solid about the shot, none of us saw the arrow hit, but I had heard the sound of impact. However, the bull had not reacted. Worse, there was not red spot forming on the bull as he walked away. We were at a loss. Since the bull had not run we decided to try to work our way back to him for another shot. As we started walking we heard him bugle not far ahead of us through the trees. Shot bulls don’t bugle. So what happened? What did I hear impact? How could Draysen have missed that shot? It was 70 yards, but with our crossbow, a 70 yard shot would be like a 15 yard shot with a compound. After slowly creeping forward for about 100 yards in bewildered confusion Shane turned to Draysen and said, “I need you to do something for me. I need you to stay calm and not freak out!” Confused we looked at Shane as he pointed and said “Your bull is laying down right there!” 50-60 yards ahead of us, Draysen’s bull was laying down between some trees! The shot had been good! We crept to 40 yards from the bull where we would have a perfect angle should another shot be necessary. His head was still up, but he wasn’t going anywhere. Over the next 5-10 minutes we sat and watched while he tried to stand a couple of times, each time immediately crashing back to the ground. It was agreed that we should he stand again, Draysen would but another arrow in him to speed his passing. A few moments later he attempted to stand again and Draysen made a perfect center punch shot through his vital. The Ramcat broadhead clearly hit him hard (the initial shot was our last Iron Will broadhead) giving him a surge of adrenaline, and he bolted through the trees. He probably made it 60-80 yards before crashing back to the ground where he took his final breaths. Celebrations were had, pictures were taken, and the process of breaking him down and getting him off the mountain took us well into the night. We got back to camp with just enough time to get a couple of hours of sleep before we had to get up at 3:00 AM and drive for home to get Draysen to school. I didn’t make it to work that day as I had planned. I had another long day of butchering ahead of me. A little unknown battery corrosion may have suggested we were headed for a problem A nice young 320ish bull that was given a free pass. These wounds are the two exit wounds. Both arrows were clean pass throughs. The further back shot is the first shot. The second shot entered much lower on the other side. We spent a while searching for the arrows, but at 400FPS they went through so clean and hard that they may be half way to China. We are big fans of the Iron Will broadheads for big animals like elk. I probably wouldn't spend the money on smaller boned animals. But they are ridiculously sharp and well made. I have come to the conclusion that the first shot that hit this bull was moving so fast and the broadhead was so sharp, that he might not have even felt it initially. While still a top choice of broadheads, he clearly felt and reacted to the Ramcat. Two long full days of butchering two big elk. We had to buy an additional freezer, but now have close to 600 pounds of amazing meat.

Dude, you just shortened your learning curve by years! When I started hunting I was clueless. I spent weeks sitting in bottoms of canyons just waiting for a deer to come by me (archery guy). Although I was successful to some degree I wanted to be better. My first post here was about guide schools and someone mentioned Duwanes apprentice program. A couple years later I went for a glassing lesson like you did and man it was a game changer! Not only is Duwane a very good teacher he's just a great guy to be around. Not being savvy to the tripod and 15s after my lesson I came home and took the wife out glassing off 15s for the first time. We spotted 17 deer in about 1 hour of glassing. It was crazy to me that I spent literally months worth of days in canyons with my bow with little to show for it. Now I consider Duwane a mentor. Last year I joined him and his guys in camp for the early and late kaibab hunts and it was an amazing experience. I felt like a kid at disneyland glassing giant bucks. After my bison hunt and kids elk hunts next week I'm planning on being up there again for deer camp. Good luck on your hunt, you got this bro. Maybe someday our paths will eventually cross.

Hey CWT community, I posted up some of these pictures previously in another post about some bullet issues I had on my hunt, but since I have spent the better part of the past three weeks up in the mountains chasing bugles (or lack of), I really haven’t had a chance to tell much of our story. To give a full accounting would honestly take a post the length of a full novel (it was a mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting, but fantastic three weeks), but I would love to share a few highlights. I am sure it will be plenty long anyway. When credit cards started getting hit for elk tags early this year, I about fell over when my card was charged $135 by AZGFD. I use a combination of credit/debit cards for the draw, one for each family member, so I know who gets the tags. I had applied for two premium hunts that I did not have the points to draw. I had 9 points. Drawing my first choice, 3A3C early rifle bull elk, would have been like the Powerball odds, so I assumed it would likely be my second choice, 3A3C archery bull elk. Knowing that I likely won’t have many more premium elk tags in my pocket, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to give myself the greatest opportunity to kill a true giant this time. In 3A3C, NOOONE has a hand in killing more giant elk than my buddy Shane Koury. Over the past few years Shane and I have talked many times about doing this hunt together once I finally had this tag, so I was on the phone with him within 30 seconds of the card charge to make sure he didn’t book any clients. To my shock, about 5 days later, another one of my credit cards was hit for $135 charge by AZGFD, this time it was the card used for my son. I had put him in for the same hunt choices, but he only had 2 bonus points. When results, finally came out about a week later, I was even more shocked to learn that I had drawn the early rifle bull tag, and that Draysen had drawn the archery bull hunt that started the following day after my hunt ended. A lot of preparation and details went on over the next several months to get ready that I won’t go into detail on, but some of the highlights include: Getting my diet and cardio on point. I knew that if I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to kill a giant, I would have to be ready to move fast and hard over long distances. By the time my hunt rolled around, I had dropped 55 pounds and was at my lightest and leanest since I was a teenager. Draysen broke and reinjured his wrist in a combination track and football injury that required surgery late in the summer. Hunting with a bow would be impossible, so we had to get permission to use, get access to, and practice using a crossbow. With his broken wrist, Draysen (14 years old at the time) lost his spot as linebacker on the JV football team for the season. Determined to remain a part of the team, he got his doctor’s approval, took up kicking, worked hard to get good at it, and by the start of the season was the starting kicker for PATs, field goals, and kickoffs. He couldn’t punt since he could not catch the snapped ball with his wrist in a cast. With his position on the football team, he would not be permitted to miss practices or he would not be able to play in games that week. We would largely be limited to long 3.5 day weekends (Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and half day Mondays). I arrived for my hunt the afternoon before the opener and hooked up with Shane to go scout a couple of bulls. That evening, just before dark, we were able to stalk into a bugling giant bull and his cows and watch him tear up a tree about 50-60 yards in front of us. I was pumped and the following morning it would be game on! The next few days were pretty awesome and intense. Shane and I had talked and agreed that early in the hunt we would not be considering pulling the trigger on anything below the 380. The rut was still far from in full swing and bulls were only bugling for about an hour in the morning and evening at best. From Friday morning through Sunday evening we put a lot of miles on the boots (averaged anywhere between 10-20 miles per day). Despite the bugling challenges, we looked at a lot of great bulls, passing on at least one 360+ class bull each day as well as many smaller in pursuit of our giant. My wife was able to drive Draysen up after football practice on Friday, so he was able to hang out with us for much of the weekend before he had to head home Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening, after Draysen had headed home, we got into our first really good bugling. We gave Draysen a hard time telling him it was his leaving was that brought our good luck. We snuck into a little valley with several bulls going nuts bugling around a group of cows. We assume one of the cows in the group must have been pretty hot to get them going like they were. We looked over about 6 different bulls in the canyon, but none of them, including the herd bull, was what we were looking for. With about 30-45 minutes of light remaining, we bailed out of the canyon, back to the truck and shot up the road a little ways to listen for more bugles. It was extremely dry up there at the time and so we were hitting a few of the tanks still holding water. We stopped about 400-500 yards short of a large tank and hit the bugle. No reply. But we did hear an odd sound, splashing! Shane said, “They are in the tank, run!” We made a dash to get to where we could get a visual of the tank. Shane threw up his spotter from about 250 yards out and immediately said “SHOOTER!” I threw my rifle up on the sticks and stared down a monster bull through my scope. Even with my heavy breathing from the jog, it only took a second or two to settle my crosshairs on the target. I flipped my safety, at 250 yards the bull was taking his last breath. I a was about to squeeze my trigger and heard Shane say “Broken G1! Don’t shoot.” This bull was a giant! Incredulously, I replied, “I can get that fixed (speaking about the broken G1), are you sure???” Shane replied “Don’t shoot, we can do better.” I though about it for a couple of seconds. My tag, my decision. I flipped the safety back on and I incredulously watched the bull slowly work his way out of our sight. I think I was in a little bit of shock about what I had just done. This was the biggest bull I had ever put eyes on. He was gorgeous, long beams, ridiculously long tines, everything I wanted in my dream bull, and I let him walk away. About this time Shane got a text from Todd, one of his guides. Todd and hunter had been chasing one illusive giant since opening morning. They had finally put him on the ground. We headed back to the truck to meet up with them to lend a hand getting him out in the dark. As we headed out Shane could tell that I was in an incredulous stupor about what had just happened and decided to get my emotions on video. I believe my words (jokingly of course) were “Shane Koury either just became my best friend or worst enemy for convincing me to pass on that bull.” As the night went on, and I looked over and put hands on the other giant that had been shot, I really began to second guess myself and question my decision. Shane could tell. It was a short night, as we didn’t get the other bull out till close to midnight, and we were back out and after it at about 4:30 AM. Earlier in the hunt we were looking for a giant bull several miles to the north of the big bull we had passed the night before. We had only seen that bull’s top ends in the trees, but based on those, believed he had to be a monster. We got into the area and listened to a few pre-dawn bugles in to dark. As it slowly began to get light we picked one of the closer bugles and set off after and see what he looked like. After following this bugle through the trees for about a mile and closing in, we came to a drop off. On the opposite ridge (162 yards across) we spotted cows and herd a bugle just below where we could see in the bottom of the drainage. Knowing the bull would likely be coming up the ridge, just behind his cows, I threw the rifle up on the sticks and got ready. Seconds later he walked up and pushed the cow we had been watching. The second I saw him I knew I was shooting this bull. Shane confirmed my decision with the words “Shooter!” As he stood broadside at 162 yards, I flipped the safety, centered my crosshairs, squeezed the trigger, and “CLICK!”. Nothing, the bullet didn’t fire! I slammed open the action ejected the bullet and chambered another round. I think the first shot had me a little rattled on the second. I knew the second I squeezed the trigger that I had pulled the rifle and the bullet wound be a miss. Without needing Shane to confirm the miss, I immediately grabbed for my bullet pouch at my waist. My big Remington Sendero 300 RUM only holds two rounds in the magazine. I slammed in another round, and to my luck, the bull hadn’t yet moved, but was looking right at us. This gave Shane time to get his PhoneSkope on the spotter to record the next events. I quickly reacquired my target just as the bull began to take off. BOOM!!! This shot felt good and looked good! My bull jumped forward, but only on three legs. The front shoulder was hanging limp. The bull rushed out of view on three legs, but we were confident he was down in the trees just beyond our sight. Shane turned to me and said, “You know that was the same bull we passed last night?” I didn’t tell you because after last night I knew you would shoot him even if I suggested not to.” Shane was 100% right. I think I felt it might be the same bull, but certainly wasn’t certain. Not a chance he was walking away a second time! Overnight he had taken his cows and moved a few miles to the north. We gave him a few minutes and watched the video of the shot to confirm what we knew. Right behind the front shoulder and into the vitals. We made the short walk over to where we last saw the bull. To my horror, he was not where we expected him to be. Worse, there was about three drops of blood and then nothing! Over the next hour or two we did our best to stay on his tracks, but it was tough. The area was loaded with elk tracks. After about 600 yards of tracking and three different spots where we could tell he laid down, we found about a teaspoon of blood in the third bed, we decided it would be wise to back out and come back in about 4 hours later. Clearly something hadn’t gone as expected with the shot, and we needed to give this bull some time to lay down and expire. My stomach was in knots and I was sick with worry over those four hours. What had I done wrong? Did I just shoot, wound, and lose the bull of my dreams? I called home and talked to my wife and son. They tried to fill me with confidence, but it didn’t help. I sent them the video, we sent it to several members of Shane’s crew, I sent it to several buddies, etc. Everyone said the same thing, “The shot looks great, this bull should be dead!?!” About 1:00 PM we headed back out to look for my bull. We returned with a crew of 7 guys so we could fan out if necessary. As we drove in, I looked at the thick gathering clouds and began to feel even sicker. Moments later rain started falling. Not a super heavy rain, but enough to ruin any blood or fresh tracks. We reached the final bed we had found with the blood in it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before we had completely lost the tracks. We fanned out and began to look. I headed south while much of our group stayed closer the bottom where we thought the tracks had headed. After probably an hour of searching in the light rain and not seeing anyone in the group for a while, reality began to settle in. I was walking back to find the group and honestly felt that I was about to break down in tears over wounding this beautiful bull that I would not be able recover. I reached in my pocket to retrieve my phone to call and tell my wife we had lost him. As I looked at the screen I saw that I had missed a call from Shane. A little hope??? As I fumbled at the buttons to call him, my phone started ringing again. It was Shane. “Hello Shane?!?” I exclaimed! “We found him!” was the reply. “We bumped him up, he is hurting, but still moving good. Where are you?” not knowing the area well, Shane described a near meadow I was familiar with where I would meet him while others stayed on the new tracks. Lungs burning, I ran as hard as I could till I saw Steffen and Skyler, Shane’s sons. Moments later we were back on the tracks! The rain that was earlier my nemesis was now my savior. The bull, was now digging into the soft wet dirt and making a very distinct track with the wounded leg. He had a good lead on us and was still moving fast. We all set after him. We would be right on the tracks for a while, then would lose the tracks when he would enter a thick area with lots of pine needles or rocks. When that happened, we would spread back out and move in the direction he was going until we picked the track back up again. This went on for probably a couple of miles. It was at one of these spots, where we were trying to relocate tracks, when we heard some cracking in some really thick willow type brush maybe 60-70 yards ahead of us. It was him trying to hide in the thick stuff. We told the group to stay on the tracks and Shane and I bolted in the direct of the sound. The bull must have heard us hot on his trail because he began to put a lot of distance on us again. We never saw him, but the tracks were deep and we could see several places where he stumbled on the wounded shoulder in his effort to stay ahead of us. We were hot on him, and went as fast as our lungs would allow us this time. Conditioning before a hunt is a good thing! Had I not dropped those 55 pounds in the prior six months, and literally worked my butt off, I might have been in trouble. After a mile or two of this high paced action, Shane and I monetarily lost the tracks again in some rocky stuff. I looked to the left while Shane went up into a wash bottom 40-50 yards ahead to look for tracks, the rest of the group was quite a ways behind us. Shane relocated the track and called me over, as I rushed over I scanned the trees ahead of me and noticed a butterscotch patch tucked up under some trees about 100 -150 yards ahead of us. I excitedly motioned to Shane and asked, “Is that and elk?” He rushed over, whipped up his binos and exclaimed “That’s him, shoot him!!!” I already had the rifle on the sticks. BOOM!!! With a loud thump, the bullet reported the impact as my bull rocked back and dropped. Exhausted, I dropped to the ground, again near tears, but this time for good reasons. We heard excited shouts in the distance on the hill behind us, and then I hear Shane say “He’s getting back up! We need to hit him again!” I slam another round into him, again he dropped. Three rounds from my 300 RUM! We (my son and I) had previously never shot an animal with this rifle using these 210 grain Berger VLDS, and not had it drop instantly. This bull was tough! Once we collected ourselves, we decided to approach the bull cautiously. He was still fighting to get up, so we approached African safari style with Shane holding the sticks as I inched forward with him in my scope. At about 50-60 yards, my bull made one last attempt to stand and run. I put one more round into his chest, head on, and he was done. As we talked about what happened with this bull and these bullets we agreed, and later proved, that these Berger bullets were not penetrating. As good as they were on smaller animals (mule deer and smaller), they weren’t getting the job done on this tank. The first shot hit right where we thought (location seen in pictures below). But the bullet appears to have grenaded on impact with a rib. While breaking the rib, it did minimal damage to the vitals. The consensus is that the final HARD push that Shane and I put on him completely exhausted the wounded, but possibly not mortal wounded, bull, and that he was trying to hide it out up and under the trees where I spotted him in. Were in not for that hard exhaustive push that wore him down, I don’t know if we would have recovered him. Sometimes you experience ground shrinkage as you walk up on an animal. My beautiful bull was a 180 degree opposite. The closer we got, the more he grew! There was a lot of gawking, school girlish shrieking, and unrestrained joy! The tines on this amazing bull are ridiculous, as are his beams. The combination of these had given the deception of him being smaller than he was. With the exception of a small kicker on his left side, his tines are almost perfectly symmetrical. All intact points G1s through G4s go over 20 inches, most over 21. His G5s measure 15 inches, and his long beam is right at 57 inches. We green scored him without the broken G1 at 385.5 inches. The intact G1 is 21.5 inches. Given his symmetrical points, we believe he would have been right at 407 intact, and will be once my taxidermist molds the intact G1 to fix the broken one. I know not everyone believes in fixing points, I get it. But my bull, my decision. This hunt was amazing. It was tough. At times tougher than I expected, but I was able to harvest the bull of my dreams, and not everyone can say that. To this point, as we broke my bull down, Shane jokingly said to me, “You can now say something few hunters can. You can say you passed on a 400+ inch bull!” Yes, Shane took a lot of grief from all of us over telling me to pass on a 400 inch bull. We can all laugh about it now! I stayed up on the mountain for an extra day after that to allow the meat to cool and help spot/locate for another hunter. I got up at about 3:00 AM Wednesday morning (9/18) to drive home, arrived just as my kids were headed to school, and spent the next 12 hours butchering the massive bull. With one more bull elk hunt, three deer hunts, and two javelina hunts still to come this fall, I headed to Lowes Thursday morning to buy ANOTHER freezer. Got it all set up, repacked all my gear, bought more food, went to Draysen’s JV football game, and immediately after, headed back up the mountain. We arrived around 12:30 AM for Draysen’s opener, just a few hours away. That is its own story… Hope you enjoyed the write up. It ended up being quite long. Enjoy the pictures. A blind bull we came across. He appears to have broken off his antlers while still in velvet running into things. He was called into AZGFD. The second shot that "missed" my bull, didn't miss the tree. Spot of blood in the third bed. The round that misfired. When I collapsed to the ground after putting round number two into my bull. This picture shows the shot placement from round number one. All other shots were from the front or other side. No pass throughs. The tree I ran up to try to get a cell signal to call my wife after getting to my bull. I am up there near the top.

Posting on behalf of my buddy Sir Royal. Congrats to everyone involved. Absolute stud of a bull.

Duck blind. Lol

High tide! Lol

Wow! What a hunt! You had all the highs and lows that come with hunting. Great job and great write up.

Oh man, don't get me started on rattlesnakes. Over the course of 50 years of wandering around AZ, I've probably seen at least 75-100. Three of my encounters were too-close-for-comfort ones, however, and they were all in daylight. Like a couple others here, I'd rather have a lion encounter regardless if it's dark or not.

The problem exists when the measurements themselves are done incorrectly......so the posted score sheet means nothing. I offered to measure an elk (officially) for a local ‘famous internet’ guide so he could advertise an accurate number......funny he wasn’t interested in that. 😎

Looks like sneakers 440 bull he has been bragging about

No bull 350!

Great Year for you guys so far. Congrats to both of you and I hope you knock down a giant Muley soon too.

If stickflikr and bohuntr measured any antlers I would believe the score.

Awesome.

I was one of the hunters from this last January that hunted ranch 2. I would hunt the ranch again in a second if everything worked out. Here are a couple pictures of the buck I ended up shooting. I can tell you that I missed a bigger buck more than once the night before I shot this one. I had a blast and the ranch is beautiful. I would be glad to answer any questions that I could if it mattered. I am out of town for a few days but I am connected.

Fantastic story. Thanks for taking the time to document and share it with us. Way to go Drayson! I predict many more successful hunts for you two in the future

I walk every night in the dark no flashlight,lots of snakes and stink pig close encounters....but its the single cougar next door eying me up that scares me the most

Several years ago I opted to go predator calling at night during a Super Moon. I arrived at my hunting spot at sunset. Decided to take a quick hike down into a drainage to see if there was water. There was a small pond and very fresh lion tracks around it. I had hiked down from the vehicle unarmed. I felt a little vulnerable as I jogged at dusk the couple hundred yards back to the truck to set up. Got to the back end of the truck and as I reached for the back door, I glanced at myself in the tow mirrors for a second but saw movement behind me. I turned around in time to see a lion peel off from the trail we'd both been on. I was on the left side of the truck, it ran at a 45' to the right of the Ford and disappeared into the brush. The cat had followed me from the water down below and was probably sizing me up as prey as we went up the trail. My last encounter with a lion was just north of Reavis Ranch. My dog is normally about 50 yards or less ahead of me while trail riding. Just as we headed along the canyon side before the turret, my dog suddenly ran back to me in a panic. I looked up in time to see a lion a hundred yards ahead of me jump down from a boulder above the trail and then race down into the canyon. I think if my dog had been fifty yards farther down the trail that cat would have taken my dog with him.

Anyone ever seen a $6,000 reward for a 350 bull?? 😂

He's big, but I am not seeing 430+ unless A3 tapes him.

Tagged out on my last available day to hunt on a tough hunt. Pics and story coming. Not the big bull I was dreaming of but I went into this hunt with the reality I would shoot the first bull I saw. When I first found out I drew my first archery bull tag I was surprised and excited. I only had one bonus point besides my hunter safety and my loyalty point. Right away I told myself i would be scouting like a mad man and dedicating all my spare time to making the best of it. I work six days a week and scouting was slow on my only day off but I found some good elk activity in spots I already knew of and felt confident. Then the sheridan fire started. My top 3 spots were shut down to entry . Well good thing I still had plan D and a few more spots I had hunted on previous cow hunts. Opening day my plan D spot had a couple hunters working it over so I went to plan E. Plan E turned out to be where half the cow tag holders were hunting and only half the tanks in the area had water. Monsoons sucked this year. After a few days of searching and only finding old sign and multiple hunters getting to water earlier and earlier to beat the next guy in I decide to go back to plan D. A couple hunters for competition beats a dozen. Went home on wednesday night to take care of some business and was back to the hill Thursday night. I woke up Friday morning to the first sounds of the rut I had heard all week. Tried multiple times to close in on the action throughout the weekend and either got busted or they were moving to fast. Sunday night I was kicking myself for not taking my only week off work on the second week of the hunt instead of the first. My hunt was pretty much over accept for the last sunday of the hunt. Spent the week grumbling at work and thinking about my sons junior deer hunt coming up. My reason for not taking two weeks off for elk, I wanted my second available week off to give him the whole hunt to get his first big game animal. Well thursday came around and my boss found out my hunt was a three week hunt and not a two week hunt and told me I could have a two day weekend. Go hunting he said! Thanks boss!! Saturday I hit the woods and spend some time doing recon to find fresh elk sign after the big rain storms we had. No fresh sign found. Slightly discouraged I park my truck and decide to head into an area i had a blind set up on a trail at a fence crossing. Ten minutes into my trek as im slowly moving and looking for any sign of elk still being in the area I see something out od the corner of my eye. I turn, its an elk . I Can see everything but the head. Then it lifts its head to take a break from eating acorns off the scrub oak and I see horns. No time to range! He is looking right at me. He is not running away. He lets me knock an arrow, still not running away. He lets me draw! Still not running away. He is farther than 20 yards but not farther than 30 yards i tell myself as I set the 30 yard pin on his third rib and aim for the opposite shoulder for the quartering away shot. Release and thump!! He takes off. I just shot my first achery elk!!. I cow call a few times and hike back to my truck. Gotta give him an hour at least. Call in the buds to help haul out and sneak back in while they are getting geared up to come meet me. Track good blood a hundred yards and find him on the ground..with his head still up and he is looking right at me. Not what I wanted. He didnt try to move so I stuck him again and he stood up. Stuck a third arrow in the boiler maker and he walked about ten yards and did the drunken merry go round and hit the dirt. My first archery elk was down! Friends arrived and we gutted and loaded him and headed out with an amazing sunset. All three hits were vital hits. Was surprised that the elk was so tough. But, I was dissapointed that my first shot went through both sides of the elk but didn't completely pass through at a range of 25 yards. Im going to do some more thorough research on what im using before my next archery elk hunt.

Yes, he could get two youth tags from different hunt numbers. 18B and 17B are different tags/hunt numbers, so he could do that.

I know what you mean