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I've killed a few elk with my rifle, one being a nice bull that went on the wall. I've been apart of dozens of other rifle bulls killed, and cows killed. I've been apart of several archery bulls killed, and I've even had an archery bull tag myself about 10 years ago (Scouted 35 days, hunted 14, and went home with tag soup). Hunting elk with a bow is no easy feat. I scouted 15 weekends before my hunt this year. I also spent a full week scouting the week before my hunt. I then hunted hard for 13 days. On day 13 I finally was able to achieve the hardest thing I've ever done hunting........ Kill a bull with my bow. With all the scouting I did, finding elk was never a problem. I had plan A-Z, and then some. I was in elk every day of the hunt. The big problem was me. I was always able to screw it up some how. Lol. I've never been a super patient man. Well with every day that passed, I learned that patience is a very important tool to the elk hunter. I had opportunities every day of the hunt (most of which I blew), and opportunities at bulls much bigger than the one I ultimately killed. I had a standard of a mature 6x6 bull, score not being a factor. On day 6 of the hunt, I was able to make a shot on a very nice 315ish bull. He came in quartered to me, and I fought the urge to take the shot at 30 yards. He knew something was up, turned and started walking away. At the 40 yard mark, he was perfectly quartered away, and I took the shot. I hit exactly where I wanted. He took off like a bat out of heck, ran into a tree, and pulled the arrow. After tracking him for 400 yards, the blood was gone. My heart sunk. We backed out overnight, and began the search the next morning. After crawling on our hands and knees for another 200 yards, we lost all blood. We spent 2 and a half days searching for that bull, and I never found him. My only conclusion is, that I hit him a little too far forward, and only got one lung. I hope with all my heart, that bull made it. I spent the next half a day thinking about calling the hunt, or continuing on with it. I finally decided that I would continue hunting that area in hopes of finding that bull alive, or dead, and that I would only take another shot if it was a for sure thing. Once again I was on elk every day, and had more and more encounters. I had to stop myself from a few nice opportunities, on nice 6x6 bulls. I still wasn't over hitting the first bull. Fast forward to day 13. I get up a little bit late, but get into a spot that was close to camp, and had been abandoned by the rest of the other hunters. I hear 3 bulls going crazy, and I spent 2 hours shadowing the group, keeping the wind right, and the elk close. I finally get to where I can feel the bugles in my chest, and I can see elk feet. I let out a call, and my bull came running in like it was possessed. He ran in so fast, he actually over shot me by 9 yards. He was now quartered away, and only at 9 yards. I figured this was as good as it was going to get. I settled my pin 2 inches low, knowing my arrow would hit high at that distance, and sent one right through his heart. He ran less than 40 yards, got the shaky legs, and went over. 10 seconds later a 330 bull that I'd been after, comes walking right past me at a whopping 12 yards. He stops, he bugles, he pisses, he walks over to my bull, he barks at him a few times, and then he walks off like nothing happened. Every hair on my body was standing up!!! This will go down as one of my absolute favorite hunts!! It will go down as one of the hardest hunts (physically and emotionally) I've been apart of. It is also one of the proudest hunts I've ever been on. While I passed on bigger bulls, and saw much bigger bulls, I'm super pround of the little 5x5 I was able to harvest this year. I feel horrible about the one that got away, but I learned from it. ELk are big targets, but they're tough targets, and you have to be careful about your shot. While the kill zone is big, if you don't hit it right, you're doing yourself and the elk no favors. I could have left that bit out of my story, but it happened, and I wanted to be completely honest about my trip. I have a knew respect for how tough these animals are. Anyways, enough of my jabbering. Sorry for the photos, but I was solo, so I didn't have anyone to take them for me. I even had to do a selfie. Ugggg.

I got the opportunity to help out my good buddy Dan for his archery 3a/3c bull tag this year. After 10 years of applying he was lucky enough to get one of the last tags available. Opening morning we went in to an area we have hunted in the past and as the sun came up we were greeted to a few bugles but nothing to really get your blood pumping. We tried a few intermittent cow calls and bulges but the bulls just were not ready to cooperate. Finally about 8am we got a bull fired up and were able to work into bow range of him and his 10 cows. Being the first day of the hunt we decided to pass on the bull and hold out. it was way to early to fill the tag with a smaller 5x6 bull and end the fun. That evening we moved to another spot and did some looking around and glassed a few canyons. Found a few waterholes that had water still and pretty good sign. We made the decision to hunt this area in the morning. The second morning we parked and started our hike into the area we checked out the evening of the first day. With no road traffic we figured the elk should be more vocal and receptive to calling. We were right about the bulls being vocal, we had 5 bulls going crazy bugling all around us. As the sun came up they continued to bulge and could hear one group splashing around in the waterhole near us. We called with no luck, they bulls were not ready to commit and come in to our set ups. we decided to circle around to get the wind in our favor and make a play on the 2 bulls we thought might be worth shooting. After an hour we worked our way down into the draw we thought they would bed in and got in front of a decent 6x6 bull (think this is the bull he ended up taking on day 7). That afternoon we decided to sit on a waterhole that was in the area the elk were in and had a good amount of sign on it, we had a bunch of deer and elk come in but no bulls that peaked out interest on day 2 of the hunt. the most excitement came in the form of a sow with cubs coming in for a drink The 3rd morning of the hunt was much like the previous morning, lots of screaming bulls all around us but could not seem to get them to interested on our calling. not sure if it was our calling or set up but we could not get them to commit. We again decided to just play the wind and move in quietly and try and get in front of them as they headed to their bedding area. With the wind in our face we slowly moved in to where we thought we could get a chance and everything worked out perfectly. Unfortunately this bull too was not quite what my buddy was looking for and he made the decision to pass, in a year or so he should be a pretty good bull. Days 4-6 were much of the same, the only day we really did not get much bugling action was day 5, not sure why but they decided to stay quite. made the decision that morning to call it a little early and head back toward the cabin making a detour over to Three Bears Cafe for a good breakfast to recharge the body. we did quite a lot of glassing as well as sitting water just trying to figure out if there was any type of pattern we could put together. Day 7 of the hunt we hiked in to our area to find the bulls screaming, we were able to get our eyes on three of the bulls and watched them all morning until they headed into their bedding areas. We could not make a play on them due to where they were bedded and the wind direction. We decided to hike back out and head back to the cabin for some breakfast and cat nap. We got to our parking spot and made the hike to our area. we set up on a finger leading down the canyon to where the elk were bedded. I glassed up the bull my buddy Dan ultimately ending up tagging bedded across the draw from us. We talked back and forth for a couple hours trying to decide if he wanted to make a play on him or not. He decided not to and wait it out, that is when things got a little haywire. About 4pm a bull down the ridge starting piping off pretty good. that is when the hole canyon became a bugle fest. we did some quiet subtle cow calls and had a bull coming running in from behind us. The bull stopped broadside at 43 yards but decided to pass as he was smaller than the bull across from us we did not go after. Dan and I continued to call and made the decision to get a little bit more aggressive. After a few minutes of calling the bull we had been watching across the draw made a bee line down the hill to the bottom and started up the ridge we were on. We could hear him crashing through the thick scrub oak, I told Dan to move around the other side of the jack pine we were sitting by and get ready just in case he changed his mind and wanted to take this bull. The bull kept screaming as he worked his way up toward our position. I got my camera out to record just as the bull crested the top of the ridge and stopped broadside at 32 yards. Dan told me he was going to take him and let the arrow fly, The shot was a little bit back but looked fatal. we called called and got him to stop at 57 yards and Dan was able to put a second arrow in him. The bull got wobbly and fell over just 10 yards from the second shot, we were thankful we would not have to track him. Unfortunately during this whole turn of event my phone did not record, i was bummed to not have it on video. I can only figure I forgot to hit record with all the excitement. When we got to the bull we paid our respects and looked back at the fun we had for 7 straight days. He was not the biggest bull by any means on the mountain but one Dan could be proud to have harvested. We got him taken care of and packed out, we were thankful to have some friends show up for the pack out. I am sitting on 13 bonus points and will hopefully be able to draw this tag next year and do it all over. for some reason the pics are turned and I cannot turn them

Update: we found him this morning. We are going to sound like idiots... but we drive to our hunting spot, park.... something really smelled and we looked to the right and we were parked 2 feet from him. Maggots everywhere.... we cut the horns off, punched his tag, and I went after another one. His shot ended up being perfect and even broadside I wouldn’t wish for a more perfect shot... it just didn’t bleed well.... he didn’t make it more than 200 yards, however the trick was he circled back away from where we last saw him. Ended up in a ditch on the side of the road. No elk deserves to rot like that... maybe Hillary Clinton.. but not an elk. We had looked long and hard but unfortunately we came up empty last time looking for him. A definite blessing to have found him today, but sad about the meat

Hunter continued his quest to complete his AZ Big 10 last night. We hunted this bull for a couple days. He was a gladiator and kept injuring and running off bigger bulls. We were on him twice before without being able to complete a shot. To his credit he just wouldn’t shoot unless he was perfectly steady. When the moment came just before dark he made it count taking out the bulls front shoulder on the first shot. He went 30 yds and piled up. I have to say what an awesome experience from the great friends who made it possible when I couldn’t be there to start, and some others who came out to help late last night. You only get so many firsts and this one was awesome. Watching Hunter and his brother fist pump and high five was priceless. There are great lessons to be learned in the outdoors about persistence and strength and effort. So proud that he stuck with it and didn’t give up.

Not this bullshit again

Cool that you found it, even cooler your dad Punched the tag not many people do that anymore.

Selling for my son. 2000 Jeep Cherokee 219000 miles 3 inch lift (new springs, control arms, shocks) 31" tires (Cooper MTP) New Napier fender flares Front and rear bumpers Rear swing out tire rack Ron Davis all aluminum radiator New high flow water pump rubber floor liners AC system replaced, blows cold Asking $6500 on Craigslist. Negotiable for CW members. https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/d/apache-junction-2000-jeep-cherokee/7205073144.html

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.

My little brother got it done!

Let’s not confuse moving from point a to b and finding a target of opportunity. and driving around looking for something to shoot. one is just good sense and ones illegal.

Thought at first it was a spammer post, but it was a little too coherent on the topic.

This is the kind of how-to info I wanted to see. And if 311 is on the playlist I’m definitely down. Last archery kill I may not have used my truck as cover...wasn’t road hunting per se but definitely an opportunity.

a trophy cow elk is one you kill with one neck shot, dies with its back legs sticking out into a two track road with a huge oak tree overhead to hang and skin it from. lee

$%&*@#$!! I always miss the good deals! If for some reason the KSG falls through I'll take it.

That looks like a really nice M 88.

Got the Unicorn Antelope back from Rossislider Son and sitting up there with the rest of the boys. Matter of fact Rossisslider son has done them all Ha ha.!!

Another Hunter just took the shot. From a side by side

I'm getting the play-by-play right now on this baull they are 187 yards away from the cows

IMG_6284.MP4

Go by Good Feet and get insteps fit for you.

Horses view.... “these cowboys get easier and easier to buck”

" Should we tell mom the horse came back without dad?" " Nah, I'm sure he's fine."

Hillary is more like a coyote!

I have a whole playlist on my ipod for hunts. Mountain wild man - Chris ledoux Call of the wild - Chris ledoux Ole slu food - Chris ledoux Beneath these western skies - Chris ledoux Drinkin beer n wasting bullet....can't remember who Dead skunk in the middle of the road - ray Stevens Let the bodies hit the floor - drowning pool Quite a few others ill have to look.