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Day 4 Update: TAG FILLED! My wife decided she wanted to head back up to the northern part of the unit to hunt today since we just couldn’t seem to make anything happen in the areas we had scouted pre-season. So we made the hour drive north in the dark and parked the truck, hoping that the early morning light might finally get us into some elk. We settled on doing a 4 mile loop out and back to the car since the area wasn’t too steep and it was a nice break away from the canyons we’d been hiking in and out of the last 3 days. About an hour into shooting light, after not having seen anything, a decent mule buck ran across our path about 30 yards in front of us. If only it was a bull instead of a buck haha. At least we had finally seen some signs of life. Another hour went by and we still hadn’t seen anything. We were starting to get a little discouraged that another morning had gone by with minimal activity but tried to stay positive. I found an antelope “shed” which was super cool cause I’ve never seen one and I’m pretty sure they fall apart quickly after falling off. That got us a bit excited for a while. As we approached a tank about 3/4 mile away from the truck, I looked at my map and realized there was a nice little bench just up ahead. From past experiences I’ve seen elk bed on little benches like these even though they’re only 30 feet tall, so I told my wife to keep an eye out. We hadn’t gone more than 15 yards when I spotted four oval looking things. I immediately thought how out of place they looked amongst all the jagged edges that are natural in the forest (branches, logs, etc)so I knelt down. My wife whispers “do you see one”? And I reply “I don’t know I thought I saw something weird but it’s probably nothing”. I pull out my binos and sure enough, there are two pairs of ears and I see two cows bedded in grass that’s almost blocking their entire bodies. I let my wife and father in law know and we slowly start glassing. The next cow I see was 80 yards directly in front of me bedded under a tree with a completely unobstructed view of me. How she didn’t spot us walking surprises me, but I have had that happen several times where I’m close to elk and they don’t know you’re there. I’m just glad I spotted them so quickly or they likely would have seen us walking and spooked. The longer we sit there we start finding more elk, maybe 10 total, but several of them are blocked by trees. I asked my wife if it’d be ok if I backed out slowly to try to glass them from another angle to see if there are any bulls. She agrees, and I move as slowly as I can but one cow spots me and stands up. Luckily the elk slowly start getting up one by one but none spook. I finally get a good look at some elk that were out to our right and there was a bigger spike in that group of elk. Then I look over to the elk that had stood up on the left and there was a spike there too. I try to look at the rest of the group and don’t see any other bulls so I tell my wife, 2 spikes and the one on the right is the bigger one. Thankfully they slowly start feeding down into a more open area off the knoll and I tell my wife to get ready. I lose the bigger spike between the trees but I know he’s coming out and will step out soon. Second later, I see him come out and my wife’s gun goes off! Perfect lung shot at 130 yards, slightly quartered away. I know people have reservations about spikes, but this bull was the best of them all for us. Not only was it my wife’s first elk tag, it was her first big game tag ever! Sure we were slightly disappointed we werent able to turn up/make a play on any larger bulls we had scouted earlier this month, but that’s ok. The look on her face and her excitement after her shot is something I’ll always remember. I wanted this so bad for her since she’s put in so much work practicing shooting, scouting, getting the right gear, and finally being drawn after 7 years. I’m so so proud of her and our family and friends that participated in the hunt couldn’t be more stoked! I’m glad I was able to end this “semi-live” thread with a success story! Thanks again for all the well wishes and following along! Until next hunt, John

My 10 year old daughter was able to harvest her first coues buck here in NM last week. We spent a lot of hours behind the glass, battled the flu, got screwed by adult hunters on two big bucks, and finally put it all together to harvest this little guy. My daughter made a great shot to put this buck down. We have been very blessed this season!

I took this picture out by Clay Springs I probably could order a print if you want. I just do it for me and my office I don’t sell them.

Thanks everyone for all the prayers and support you have a given to my mother and my family at this time. The power of prayer is absolutely amazing . Since Sunday morning my mom has been fighting for every breath she has taken and was unable to eat or drink.. She didn't recognize anyone . And actually thought I was her father who has been dead for 40 years.. When I left her last night at the hospital and came home to sleep..I really believed that I would never see my mom again alive.. I cried all the way home with my 28 year old son crying along with me. When I got home I was able to read all the responses from All of You.. then I hit my knees and thanked God for All of You and the love and support you all have shown.. Then asked him to give me more time with My mother.. This morning I went back to the hospital with my son and daughter.. this was at 8 am and I left the hospital at 1030 pm the night before.. when arriving at the hospital in the parking lot my son was physically sick throwing up and couldn't breath and I was so nervous of what I would see when I walked into my mom's room.. I myself could not breath either.. To everyone's surprise my Mom was up out of bed and sitting in a chair looking out the window.. Talking drinking eating and cracking jokes.. like she was never sick.. The only explanation for her recovery is All off you, and the prayers and love you have all shown for my mother.. Thank each and every one of you.. And thank you God..

Awesome! Congrats young lady! Some of my favorite hunts have been with my daughters. Good luck on all your future hunts and thanks for sharing.

Very nice , had a similar experience on jr cow hunt this year

I have a few from GC and WY. https://www.plateaulightphotography.com/Wildlife-photography/Wildlife/

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you were all able to enjoy a nice day giving thanks with family and friends. As has become tradition for the past few years, I’ve posted a “semi live” thread for anyone who is interested in following our hunts. I know when I’m not out hunting, I enjoy hearing about how you all are out doing on your hunts. I was lucky to be drawn for two late bulls hunts in 2019 and 2020 and then an October whitetail hunt in 2021. Well this year, the one to finally get drawn was my wife! I was super excited when she finally drew, and she’s been getting more and more excited over the past few months. We’ve scouted our unit several times since July, and we have a good idea of the canyons and areas we want to be hunting in. Last weekend during our final scouting trip, we found a decent bachelor group with at least one shooter. Hopefully we can turn up those same bulls tomorrow morning. While I’m not sure anyone likes getting up before 4am, I know I’ll be looking forward to it as I hope my wife is able to fill her first ever tag!! If we can’t find that group of bulls tomorrow morning, that’s ok. We have 5 1/2 days to get it done, and lots of family and friends to share the experience with. I’ll post an update at least once per day (maybe twice) depending on service. Thanks for following along!

One of the guys at work gave me these new binoculars. There Bushnell 10x50 to donate to a young person. FREE TO ANY KID THAT WANTS THEM.

Congrats! Those late hunts can be tough, way to stick with it.

I was going to post a Remington 700 .223 ADL for sale with some ammo here on CWT Saw this and thought I might offer it to you first? I was thinking $500 for everything. Rifle has about 200 rounds through it and I put a Timney trigger on it. If not, I'll post it on here for sale.

Thank you!

Sent you a message

End of december

prayers for your mom, you, and the family.

Told My Grandson JW if he didn’t get drawn and I did I’d transfer my tag over ! The hunt lasted 1 1/2 hr hope he don’t think that’s how easy hunting is lol !! I’m a Proud Grandpa ! His Great Grandpa got to be there to which made it extra special !

That's awesome. Hope you still get more quality time with her.

Saying prayers seeking Serenity and Strength for your Mother and all of her loved ones during this difficult time......

The way things have gone over the last few years, I hate to throw info out on the Internet but I also don't want to be the guy that doesn't give an update. The guys that said they would be in the usual spots were kind of half right. There was a rain/ice/snow storm the Wednesday before the hunt. We didn't see an elk until Saturday afternoon. Sunday was a nice day with highs in the mid 40's and elk were everywhere in the morning. My brother-in-law scored on a 3x2, his first big game animal. You would have thought he shot a world record, it was awesome. We dropped him and the meat off at my mom's on Wednesday and my wife and I went back for the last day and a half. She was finally able to get it done on a 4x3 the last morning. That was the biggest bull we saw the whole hunt. Other than two days, it was windy and cold. The last day topped out at 50, but started at 19. I have discovered in 20+ years of hunting elk, that they are pretty soft for such a big animal. I have witnessed a bad rain storm(with some hail) drive them into the canyons to hide. This hunt was no different. The storm(and the snow storm the week prior) drove the elk lower. The big bulls never came back. I am not a biologist, but it makes sense to me that after expending so much energy during the rut, once they went lower, the big bulls weren't going to expend energy to travel back and/or to fight the cold. Everyone we talked to said/saw the same things we did. No elk, then cows and spikes/rag horns. In the end, I am glad we were able to give my brother-in-law a good experience and that we filled the freezer again. We want to shoot big elk as much as the next guy/gal but the meat and the opportunity to get in the woods is the most important. Definitely learned some lessons, as I do every elk season. Happy Thanksgiving and good luck to those that still have tags. I don't know what's going on with the pictures. I know this is a common problem, but not one I have ever had before. But, you get the idea. I

I added a couple side views.

We gave one a ride to Yuma from the Kaibab. My wife peeled her first tag ever.

My daughters late hunt.

For 2022, I drew an early November tag for a southern AZ unit as my fifth choice. I’ve hunted this unit several times previously with tags I’ve picked up on the leftover draw, so I know of a couple areas that hold bucks, but numbers are usually low and good bucks are few and far between. Nevertheless, I was happy for the opportunity and excited to have a week off of work to do some glassing and, hopefully, find some bucks. Day one was pretty slow, hiking about a mile in and only seeing a few does and a small fork. Interestingly, this small buck was noticeable bigger than the two deer he was with. At first, I thought it was a doe with two fawns until I made out the antlers. I assume the fawns mother was killed (saw some lion sign in the area) and the fawns hooked up with the small buck. Day two started off slow, only seeing one doe before kicking up four deer out of the bottom of an area we had been glassing all morning. Should have climbed a little higher, so we could see the bottom of the hill we were on. The first two were small bucks, but I couldn’t ID the last two. That afternoon, we decided to try out a new area that I had wanted to check out for years. For the first couple of hours, we only found one doe and fawn, but just before dark, we found 3 bucks. One looked like a pretty good 3 point, with a smaller 3 and a fork horn. The bucks were too far for a shot and with light fading fast, we decided to wait until morning to go after them. Sunday morning started off with a half mile hike to get in to position to try to find the bucks from the previous night. It only took a few minutes to locate the deer, but they were still about 900 yds away. After crossing a small drainage, I was able to cut the distance to 600yds, but could not immediately relocate the bucks. I slowed down my glassing and started picking apart the likely bedding areas. I was confident they were still there because I had a good wind and felt I would have seen the deer if they had moved off of the hillside. After about 30 minutes, I was able to find a buck bedded behind a yucca cactus. I ranged him at 468 yds and decided to take the shot. The 140 gr Accubond from my 26 Nosler X-Bolt found it’s mark and the buck never stood up. It was a long, difficult pack out and we didn’t get back to the truck until after dark. We returned to camp to find it had been ransacked by a bear. It destroyed my brother-in-laws truck tent and got in to most of our coolers and food boxes. The bear returned that night and left a pretty good paw print on my truck window, but I never got to see it. FYI, bears prefer teriyaki beef jerky over regular, apples over bananas and Coke Zero over Diet Pepsi.

Already posted my buck but wanted to post up some pics of a hunters first deer kill. was able to glass up 3 bucks bedded and managed to move into 352 yards. Since this was his first chance at a deer I told him to pick the deer and when it gets up we will count down and shoot. His deer was bedded in the open, one was very small and the one I shot was in thick brush with only the head showing through an opening My deer was bedded but I could make a easy, clean head shot so I was not worried (looking forward to the haters on the shot), well his buck finally got up turned broad side and the rest is history. 1,2…..bang 2 dead deer.

wine burger at the den.