dchambers629

I've taken mine over to Kayce Turley in Taylor. It's about 22 miles from the Snowflake/Taylor turnoff in Heber. He took my bull at about 12:30am and butchered it. We let it age for 17 days. They do a great job packaging and labeling. In 2014, he waited until about 7:00pm to take my antelope after I shot it. Same think, we aged the meat for 14-15 days, then they did a great job of packaging and labeling. He was also less expensive than the outfit in Forrest Lakes. Not only is he a butcher, but he is a taxidermist too. I need to get over and pick up my bull, but here is the antelope he did for me.

Congratulations! It took me 13 years to get my first tag, and it was in 3c in 2013. I shot the bull attached In 2014. See coueswhitetail.com here: "www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/43272-my-first-elk-hunt-and-my-first-elk-unit-3c/". I was really lucky and was drawn for a antelope in 4B and also connected there. See attached pictures. Last year, believe it or not, my 10yr old grandson and myself were drawn for the rut hunt in 3c again. I spent 10 days and about 20-25 stalks with my grandson, trying to get him one. He came really close a few times. After I took him home, I only had 3 days left. At about 12:30pm on the last day, I hit a bigger bull than I shot in 2013, but as soon as I released, I knew it was going to hit him low in the chest. After searching for about 3 hours with no blood or arrow, I got close to him and saw him take off over the ridge. I went up to where he had been laying down and found two blood pools. When I tried to go in the direction he took off, again, no blood. A friend texted me and said I have two giant bulls fighting, where are you, and I responded with, I hit a giant and can't find him. I gave him the coordinates and after the bulls quit fighting, about an hour later, he showed up and we searched until dark. Nothing. We went back to my friends truck, then heard him growling on the other side of the ridge. We decided to let him alone overnight and start on the other side of the ridge in the morning. The next morning, the day after the season closed, I called Game and Fish and told them I would be looking for a hit bull. They asked me to describe the bull, my arrow, and where I shot him, and I did. They told me to call them if I found him dead or alive and they would meet me on site. We searched until dark again. We found 3 more blood pools, but no elk. My friend lived up in Heber, so for the next 3 weeks he went out looking for birds flying, predators, smell of dead animal, and never found anything. I hit him low in the chest, I think the arrow hit bone and stayed inside him. I believe when he was on his feet, the arrow plugged the hole, and when he laid down the hole opened up and he bled. I sure hope he made it because we never found him. The sad thing... my friend showed me the video of the two bulls fighting and the small one was a typical 7x7 that he called in to 5 yards broadside. He has that posted on Facebook. I feel I did the right thing though. I moved up to Overgaard in January, and I have seen a lot of bulls in the past few weeks. They are still running together right now. About 3 weeks ago, we saw 10-12 big bulls running together... 3 of them were GIANT! On sunday night my friend that helped me last year and I went for a ride in 4B, and right at dark, we saw a group of 5 big bulls running together. 5 minutes later, we saw another nice bull running by himself. Last night we saw a herd of elk in 3c with a few smaller bulls, 5x5's, and a bunch of cows. In a few weeks the the forest is going to lite up! It's a great time of year!!! Good luck on your hunt this year. There are a lot of nice bulls running out there.

That's the beauty of rifle antelope hunting. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Drive around. Glass, find one that looks good and blast him. yep just like bc777 said "like shooting fish in a barrel". there are some nice goats in 4B, I took this one out of there last year. That is a nice buck! I shot this one in 4B in 2014.

This is my first antelope hunt ever. This was my 2nd year in the draw for an Arizona Antelope Hunt and I got really lucky, two times! I was drawn, and I shot a nice buck yesterday afternoon. I don't know how to score it, but I would guess it scores around 70-75. It was definitely fun to hunt these things. I was up here about 2.5 weeks before the hunt getting used to the unit. I saw bucks every time I went out, then on opening day, I never saw an antelope... in fact, I never saw an antelope until Tuesday evening. Then I saw a few more on Wednesday morning and evening, from a mile or more out, but was never able to pick them back up when I got into the areas I originally saw them in. Then on Thursday morning, I found a whole herd with a few nice bucks in it. I got to within 634 yards of them then they went over a ridge and into thick brush and I lost them. When the evening hunt came around, I spotted a herd about 1500 yards out from a high vantage point. The were weaving in and out of the cedars across a valley. I took off to the bottom of the valley and followed a little creek bed up to the area where I had seen them. I spotted them more than 600 yards out and moving away, so I picked a path where I could move fast and make up some ground. I popped out, in the shade of some cedars, and found them at just over 400 yards. I crossed over an open area while they had their heads down eating, then moved up to about 330 yards. The grass was too tall to go prone, my bipod is only about 13" high, so I had to use a dead snag as a rest. The wind was moving the snag around, so I had to "time" my shot with the movement. I tried to make the shot and missed. I got another shot at a second buck, just as it took off running behind the others, but with the moving snag, I missed again. After that 2nd shot, more antelope came out of the bushes, along with "the big one". After the first shot, the herd started running to my left, west, at first, then after that 2nd shot, they turned south and ran directly toward me. I saw the biggest one in the herd and focused on him, but couldn't get a bead on him as they were running toward me. They looked really skinny at this point, and fast. They ran right past me at about 25 yards. As they went by me, all I saw in my scope was hair and legs going by. I sat up and turned to my left, since they were passing me. I picked out the biggest buck and put my crosshairs on the very front of him and shot. He went down, head first, like a rock. I hit him in the left ham and the bullet quartered him, just grazing the right ham and lodging there. The butcher saved the bullet for me. I must have hit a major artery because he had expired buy the time I got to him, and all I did was pick up my brass then walked over to him. It was fast and furious and I got a nice buck out of the deal. The butcher said the bullet didn't do too much damage to the meat so I won't lose many steaks. My Equipment: Rifle: Howa Gameking (1500 action) - I bought this for coues deer hunting and was drawn for antelope. Scope: Nikko Stirling 3.5-10x44 GameKing Bullet: 6.5x55 Sweedish Mauser Reload Data: 48grains "old IMR 4350" Powder, Nosler 120 grain Ballistic Tip "Hunting", Muzzle Velocity 2850fps. Binoculars: Nikon 12x50 on my tripod and Nikon 7x50 around my neck. Rangefinder: Nikon ProStaff 7 Backpack: 2003 Badlands 2200

Keep an eye over your shoulder, I think you took Bigfoot's horse and he's going to be mad! LOL What a beast!!!

I just posted a few more pics from different views. His left horn is broken on the tip, and his right cutter has a little spike sticking out the right hand side of it, right on the tip. Unfortunately I can't measure anything right now. Because of the heat, I took it straight to the butcher/taxidermist over in Taylor last night. Since it is a nice buck, and my first, I'm going to get a head mount. I'm giving the taxidermist some business with my 8x7 elk from last year and now this antelope.

I drew this tag for the first time on my second try. This time last year I was on my other first ever hunt... scored on that one too. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/43272-my-first-elk-hunt-and-my-first-elk-unit-3c/

Is it legal to put an arrow through the back of a thief? I took my wife to the emergency room on Friday night and ended up staying home for the weekend. I got back to the mountain this afternoon and drove up the mountain in the snow. I packed a refill of corn up to my blind and when I got there my ground blind was gone along with 2 game cameras. It was so nice of the theif, they left my chair sitting out there next to where the blind was. My cameras are marked and engraved, inside and out, so I will be looking for them in the coming years. If I find who did it, they will pay a lot more than what it cost me in replacing my blind and cameras! It's pretty sad that there are theifs out in the woods. They ought to stay in the concrete jungle with all the other riff/raff.

I have not been back up there. I think I will wait a few years before I go back to Mt Ord. Wait and see if the traffic dies down after that burn across the highway starts getting used again. Last year was the most people I have ever seen up there. Except for two years after I had shoulder surgery, then broke my neck in 2008 and 2009, I had been hunting there since about 2001.

Go to www.youtube.com and look up "brushing in a ground blind". There are lots of example videos on what to do.

I had the same problem last year. My blind and 2 cameras were ripped off on Sunday of the last weekend of the season. I would like to come across somebody stealing gear from anybody... They deserve an arrow in the back!

After 13 years of trying, I was finally drawn for an elk hunt. Unit 3C Archery Bull Rut Hunt. I shot him probably sometime between 5:15pm and 5:45pm. The bulls pretty much quit bugling all day long on Saturday afternoon. Every day after that they would quit bugling just after daylight. I saw 6 bulls in 5 days, one of them being another 7x7, but not this one. I was still hunting through a timber stand cow calling once in a great while. After I called one time this guy answered instantly, the another one bugled just south of me immediately after this one called, then a third one threw out a bugle just north of me. This guy was raking a tree all by himself. I can't imagine this was a satellite bull, but I have to wonder, unless he was getting ready to steal some cows from another bull nearby??? I ranged him at 68 yards. He was quartering away from me. My arrow blew through the lung on the far side. After the butcher skinned him we looked at the entrance and exit wounds. My Montec G5 made a perfect triangle entering the left rib cage area and exited the right rib cage area just behind the shoulder. My arrow never hit a bone. It threaded it way through the rib cages and through the chest cavity piercing the right lung. He ran about 20 yards as I cow called frantically, and he just stopped, put each antler around a large pine tree and just stood there rocking back and forth. He turned and took a few steps back in the direction that he came from then layed down and expired about 15 minutes later. This was one of the most fun hunts I have ever had!

Thanks, and yes I did find it. It was about 10 yds behind where I shot him. A little meat, lung blood, and one torn vane.

Where do I find the video?

That's an awesome bull! Now I can see what mine would have been in a couple of years!

I have finally been drawn for a bull elk after 13 years, unit 3A/3C, archery rut hunt, 2 weeks. This is my first elk hunt. I've been up here, in Heber, for just over two weeks. I have been jumping in my truck or on my quad and riding all over the area just looking at country, trying to find sign, and elk. On the water in 3C, afternoon storms have been common since I've been up here. Over the past week they seem to have picked up and are more intense. Friday night it rained almost all night, and it started raining so hard at about 6:45pm last night that I had to put my rain gear on, jump on my quad and head back to my RV. It rained a little again this morning around 7:00am. In short, I've seen water everywhere! My gut tells me the elk don't need to go to a tank to get water; I've seen prints around water holes in the roads, so the "sitting a tank" strategy is out for me, unless the rain stops completely between now and the 13th. Over the past two weeks Almost every elk I've seen have been on the ridges, either moving or feeding. I have sat with my chair and tripod and glassed burns and meadows in the evening until I can't see with my binoculars any more with no luck seeing anything come out of the timber. I think maybe, because of the moon being so full, they are coming out of the timber later right now. Unfortunately during the week I have to get up and work, so I can't go out for morning scouts, but I've been starting work a little early so I can leave the RV and start checking things out in the 3:00~4:00pm range almost every day. I didn't go out this morning because I have to button things up and head down to the valley for a few days. It really sucks too... Over the past two days, I have seen more elk than I have seen the whole time I've been up here. If things stay the way they are now, my strategy for the evenings may be to locate cows and try and keep tabs on them for the next few weeks, then when the bugling starts, listen for a bull and try and get out in front of them somehow. I am kind of afraid to put my trail cameras out... Earlier this year, I had two cameras and my ground blind stolen during the last weekend of the January deer hunt. I have two more cameras and I bought a new ground blind. I may even use my climbing tree stand to sit the travel route on a ridge, if I can locate one that is used every day. At least I can bring my tree stand back with me every night and it won't get stolen. I have one more trick I get to use too. A guy I used to work with grew up in Snowflake. His dad has been hunting here his whole life, and he's about my age, in the early 50's. He got a 350 class bull in a November hunt two years ago. I went javelina hunting with him and his dad 5 or 6 yrs ago and we got three javelina on opening morning. My buddy made arrangements for me to contact his dad, so I did. After Labor Day weekend, he is going to sit down with maps and show me some "good spots" he has hunted over the years. It sounds like some of them may be in some areas that weren't affected as much by the Rodeo/Chediski fire way back when.

The sad thing is now every person I run across up there now, I will think,""THIEF". You can't trust anybody anymore! What happened to the days when you run across another hunter, tip your hat, smile, wave, and if you have time stop and exchange stories... Now you drive by somebody, I won't call them a hunter, cause they might be a thief, and you wonder if that's the asshole that stole you're equipment. I hope somebody eventually catches the jackass! Liars and thiefs should all be shot! Discusting!!!