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My daughter after a dozen years, decided to start hunting again. Her fiance passed last year and has moved back home at our request. Her sadness has been apparent. First time putting in, in that time and she gets the coveted 37a late season bull tag. Fortunately, for her, there are few people that know late season elk as well as me. 🤣 Scouting was difficult, my usual spot on had 10 broken bulls in it, so I decided to check other areas that I know. Wednesday, I find a spot with a herd of about 25 bulls, but a guy in a gray single cab Toyota pulled behind and these elk acted very skittish. I wasn't comfortable focusing on them. Yesterday, I decide to go to my original spot and 15 bulls are off in the distance. One weird one with a double main beam I wanted her to take. This was the final dress rehearsal. I had everything timed from house to shooting position, including pee stops and circle k shopping at two hours and two minutes. Everything, for once, goes perfectly. Then the unexpected happened. A newer Ford started following us down a two track with very limited access points. I speed up and he speeds up. This causes me to go way closer to our hunting spot than anticipated. My brother took off his jacket and asked to be let out too discuss hunter etiquette. We get to a spot where a tacoma is better than a full size ford and leave him behind but very close to the hunting spot. We get to our spot and I see a silhouette of a man a few hundred yards from us. I curse out loud(very loud) then glass the field and find 15 elk bodies to our left and 850 yards into the field. The silhouette was 90 degrees to our right. I go through options in my head and for a brief time my daughter was not my daughter she was a hunter. I tell her 'let's c'block the m'fer'. The terrain and visibility was in our favor with him having a slope in front of him. I tell her let's cut across the open field into the little valley keeping the hill between the hunter and us and getting closer in the progress. We set up 3 different times before I dare not get any closer in the wide open. I'm anxious and texted Flatlander this Pic. He knows this spot in 37a Then I started texting ranges when they get to 500ish yards a fog bank rolls in and my rangefinder reads 7 yards. Last night my daughter said in a stern voice "I am shooting the first bull i see. I am not a trophy hunter". As we are in front of 15 bull elk, she says I like the gray one and the one way in the back. I am going to shoot the last one. I tell her weirdo is in the middle, a 4x6 with a split main beam, and there is a giant in the way back in the herd to the right. The fog lifts a little and the ones up front are under 400. The first ones cross at 307. Some broken small bulls. She let's them pass. She's set up and ready. I am thinking she is going to shoot weirdo as i swing the binoculars to the front of the herd. Boom! I ask her which one did she shoot at. Then Grey falls, not taking a step. After a few seconds it trys getting up and she puts a second round into his neck. Then he'll breaks loose. The elk just next to Grey make it look like Grey ran off. We stand there in disbelief. Then we look where she shot and see antlers sticking off the ground. Elk are running in every direction with this batch looking at its leader just lying there as we get closer i see this. as she walks up to it. My brother comes and we pose for a pic. this fat old 7x7 was shot at 705 am and we got the last piece out at 230pm. She did the majority of the field dressing

And here is the problem…. Just because it’s not something that you agree with or wish to participate in you automatically want to take someone else’s legal right away from them. Pathetic. Hunters are hunters worst enemies. Always looking to take away another hunters method of take or way they hunt. I don’t understand why people can’t just live and let live.

soy boys on the website now. Sad

And there's plenty of people on this site that would happily give up scopes on muzzleloaders and plenty of other hunting restrictions. Hunters are our own worst enemies.

You're an idiot as well.

I did

Gaslighting 1000%. Hoping it passes is you in support of taking away peoples livelihood away and opportunities away from people. I would also venture to say you probably have never been on a pursuit/hunt with dogs. Trailing a pack of good working dogs is watching natural art unfold. The shot of a treed animal is 1% of the hunt with dogs. There’s so much more to it. I’d suggest you try something and do it before you speak on something you have no knowledge of besides what you assume the hunt is. Regardless I hope all hunters can support this petition not passing as the last thing hunters need is more opportunities and rights being stripped from them because its something the uneducated public doesn’t support or know anything about. If you truly like hunting coues, mule deer, sheep, antelope, and elk id support the houndsmen as they make a big difference taking the lions and predators they do.

My hunter killed a rag this morning, think he didn’t want to hike anymore LOL blew a 380 bull Friday morning, had a 340s bull yesterday morning and he didn’t want to hike down. Cleaning up the house and headed down to the valley, good luck boys!

Good luck to all those out hunting Elk these next few weeks. I wish I was out there with you! If your in the East Valley and need a euro give me a call. All skulls are macerated, no boiling. Adam 928-595-1554 Anyone who brings me a skull is automatically entered into a raffle to win a free guided Striper fishing trip with JG Fish on Lake Mead or Mojave. Deer $100 Bull Elk $200 Cow Elk $130

The problem isn't about it being fair chase or not. The problem is that they are taking away one more little bit of our hunting privileges. And then they will go after the next low hanging fruit on the tree. And there will be a few that don't agree with that type of hunting so they will not have a problem with that being banned. And so on until they have all our hunting rights taken away. How fair is it to sit in a tree stand and shoot the first animal that unknowingly walks under you? Or doing a deer push? We are stressing the deer out and they are "scared for their lives". Should we ban them types of hunting also?

We went back to the scene of the crime yesterday to get an Xmas tree. Paloverdes make the best Xmas trees. Midday, he was there leaving, as i was driving in. He was giving me stinkeye to the point that my wife said that guy hates you. Lifted new ford with an led bar and brush guard, couldn't make the turn to go up the hill, that a stock Toyota could. I guess, I c'block him again for the evening hunt. He didn't know our intentions was to get the tree my daughter saw on the way out and would take us 20 minutes.

Opening Day Afternoon After the morning hunt we headed back in to grab a quick bite. After lunch, we went back out around 1 to do some spot and stalk hunting in the pines in an area that we have seen elk before. The afternoon was slow, as expected, for it being a warmer day. The wind was in our favor so I felt confident that we wouldn’t blow anything out before we saw something but for about 3 hours we didn’t see or hear a thing. About 2 1/2 miles in right when we were thinking of starting our loop back to the truck, I thought I heard a cow call. I told everyone to stop so we could stand there and listen. Then I heard the sound again. Bird. Darn it, I could have sworn it was a cow call. A couple minutes went by and heard the sound again. And again. Bingo, cow calls. Now that I was sure there were elk around I was starting to get excited. Sure, just some cows but with some cow groups come the bulls. And then I got even more excited. A bull ripped a bugle a couple hundred yards to the NE of us. I sent my brother in law and father in law ahead so they could be a bit more quiet just the two of them. Then we heard even more cow calls and a different bugle. Definitely unusual to be hearing that this time of year, but I’m just thinking some cows didn’t get bred and were coming back into season. Whatever the case, it was cool to be hearing all these elk in the woods. One bugle sounded so pure I would have thought it was some hunter had it not been for all the other noise we were hearing. Over the course of the next hour, we were playing cat and mouse through the trees. There were two good bulls moving between the lines but the they had several cows with them. The elk would be visible but the bulls would either be obscured by the trees or covered by a cow, so there was never a clear opportunity for my brother in law to take a shot. We kept pushing further and further in with the elk taking us further in by almost a mile. While my father and brother in law trecked ahead of us, my nephew, brother and I heard another group of elk making noise in the meadow off in the distance. And there was another elk bugling over there. Not knowing if my brother in law could hear this other group, I let them know we could hear more elk to the south of us. And since it was starting to get close to sunset and the initial group was driving us further in, I was wanting my brother in law to turn back to where we were so we could pursue this other group that were on our loop back to the car. After a few minutes went by and they seemed to have lost track of the elk, my brother in law and father in law turned back to meet up with us to find the new group. As if on cue, right after they picked up everything and started walking back to us the larger bull ripped a bugle from the meadow over. I saw them double back and they signaled they would make one last play on the group we’d been following for an hour. I figured while they did that, my nephew, brother, and I could try and locate this other bull bugling to the South. If he couldn’t get a shot off, at least we could check out this other bull and see how big he was and if there would be an opportunity on him before sunset. As we cut through the trees preparing to head to the new group, we heard the shot go off. BOOM! After a minute and no follow up shot, we hoofed it over to them to check out what happened. My brother in law had caught up to the small herd and the elk were out in another meadow. The 5x5 ripped our another bugle and walked out of the trees to feed across the meadow with some cows and smaller bulls. My brother in law was still hidden in the trees and made a 300 yard shot across the meadow once the bull was out in the open. Tag punched! Definitely excited for him to seal the deal after pursuing this group for so long. We hiked over the bull and he was a really nice one. For my brother in law’s first bull, he was very happy! We were all happy! Now the real work was beginning. He took the shot 4 minutes before the end of legal shooting light so we had to break out the flashlights and get to work. Luckily, we found another road about 1 1/4 miles from this meadow, so that would be a much nicer pack out than the 3 miles we went in. My brother in laws friends were able to bring a truck to that spot and help with the pack out. We got out of there around 9:15 in 26 degree weather but we were glad to have a heavy pack with celebratory drinks waiting for us after all was said and done. We spent the day today deboning and processing while reliving a great day of hunting. Good luck to all of you still out there. Already looking forward to next time!

When i post a successful hunt, I get 15 PMs from people that do not post anything, saying how I'm screwing up there odds and the unit.

I’ve been drawing these late archery bull tags now and then for a while. I’m just tired of wearing myself out. I’m strongly considering just putting in for rifle hunts. It would be nice to just hear bang, then flop for a change. Well, my oldest son and I both drew this year. I wound up letting him do most of the stalking. We would glass in the morning, and try to get on them. We located some of the biggest bulls I’ve ever seen. Most of them were located in completely unstalkable locations. I thought my son was gonna seal the deal a few times, but he always got discovered at the last second right before a shot opportunity. He never did connect, but time spent with my son can’t be replaced. On our way home from work, my wife saw a bull she thought I could get to. She’s be praying that God would give me a nice bull on this hunt. I’d seen a few bulls on my commute, including some real studs, but never had time to go after them on days I had to work. But the hunt was drawing to a close, and this bull was low hanging fruit. Even after a terrible shot, I got it done. My wife’s prayers were answered! Also, my youngest son filled his first youth tag and got an elk. IMG_3284.mov

Where you are wrong and shows you don't know what you're talking about is you think these animals are scared for their lives. I've seen lions and bears falling asleep up in the tree with dogs barking below them. They have no idea they are in any danger and they get shot and die 5 seconds later. You can disagree with it but don't act like you know anything about it. It is by far the most productive way to keep lions and bears in check so if it is banned don't cry about not having as many deer or elk to hunt.

It's ok, you're just uneducated. 100% it will not be in a few years. Lots of ducks and quail will always be hunted with dogs.

Big browns does excellent work, I have taken countless skulls to him ! You won’t beat his service, turn around time or price!

You are a complete joke. You couldn’t catch a lion in a zoo. You have no idea how difficult hound hunting is. It takes years to train a successful dog. Most hunts are failures, and are extremely difficult.

I’ll post the rundown tomorrow morning. A bit too tired for that right now. But in the meantime….

Congrats and well done. Fantastic pix too. And these pix are just begging to be oriented correctly. And lastly, and I'm assuming (I know, I know) you are in AZ, but don't tell G&F there are elk in that unit. 😀 Eddie

I Have the following rifles for sale. Just clearing out the safe. 1. Browning 6.8 Western Hunter comes with scope mount and Vortex 6.5-20 x 44 $800.00 OBO https://www.browning.com/products/firearms/rifles/x-bolt/x-bolt-western-hunter-lr.html?srsltid=AfmBOor8RlB4T4s_LmbFmbZD6YmbVmYTZsHSh3_Hr9W8Anf52Fg2M4s Pictured with Vortex Diamondback not does not come with it. Located in Tucson

+1 on Mattman215's comments regarding Adam's service! He did the skull for my Utah buddy's son's first coues a few weeks ago. Came out excellent!

This is an amazing community!

It's about which one is going to take the most hammering and which is going to get back in your hands quicker when it fails. Nightforce will take the most beating with a heavy recoil caliber and has the best resale value than the two scopes you suggest. If that build is a light gun, yes even more recoil. I'm always surprised that shooters don't consider recoil more often when buying a scope. I wouldn't want the scope quitting on me in the middle of a hunt.