daverp

We've dropped 3 critters with the 130gr Barnes out of my .270. Big muley buck. Quartering to shot. Went in front shoulder, out the back, bullet not recovered. Dropped at the shot. My cow elk on my U10 late hunt. Broadside, 170 yards. Broke her shoulder on my side, through both lungs, through a rib, nickel sized hole in her heart, and back out the other side. Bullet not recovered. She ran about 60 yards, but was dead on her feet. Son's bull. 175 yards. Lung shot. Bullet not recovered. He went about 100 yards. The 130 TSX seems "light" at first thought, but remember, these bullets hold together really well and retain almost all their weight. What's better, a 130 gr. TSX that holds together at 110 grains, or a 150 partition that retains 100? Not sure, but the differences are likely minimal. I have all the confidence I need to continue using the 130 TSX on elk. Talking the .270 with the 130 TSX's out for my deer hunt on Friday, and will be used again on my son's U10 Bull hunt in November. I'll have no problem on either hunt reaching out to 500 or so on either animal. Shoot what you can shoot well, put the bullet where it needs to go, and it will get the job done.

Good advice. I've got a couple of my favorite hot spots where you mostly will not see critters every day. Reminds me of my elk hunt several years ago. Same "hot spot" my boy shot his elk from a few years earlier. I'd been scouting the week before the season, and saw elk almost every day. Opening morning comes, and a couple guys wound up on the hill about a half mile away overlooking the same area I was. Nothing showed opening morning. They never returned. Me? I sat that spot every morning of the season. And other than opening day, saw elk every single morning. Elk you could put a stalk on, or shoot from my glassing point. I was holding out for a 350 plus bull, passed on one that fit that criteria but had a broken 3rd, and had plenty of opportunities on nice bulls as well. Those guy's lack of patience, and lack of familiarity with the area they were glassing saved my honey hole that year! Had the guys just walked the area a bit before the season, they'd have seen it was LOADED with fresh sign down below. Maybe they did, but they gave up far too fast on a fantastic spot. The buck in my avatar....scouted him and his pals out for months. They only came into this area every 3rd day or so. Got there five days before the hunt. Sat that spot every morning. It was not until we'd been through 5 days scouting and the 3rd day of the hunt they finally showed up. Eight days. Closed the deal. Patience, and a knowledge of the location paid off, without a doubt. That buck by the way... U10. One of the lowest density and lowest success rate deer units in AZ. Guess where I'm headed back to, deer tag in hand next Thursday night!!!

What units are best? If you're just looking to tag out, and don't necessarily want a monster, look at the G&F regs. At the end of the section for each specie, there are draw odds and success rates. Good place to start. If you are looking for a monster, I doubt anyone will provide that information! Very few will tell you of a hot unit or hot spot, especially on a forum. Google is a powerful thing, and people posting up hot spots can turn them into heavily pressured spots or areas in a short time just by trying to do someone a favor and give them some info. Even PM's are dangerous, as you never know how close to the vest someone you don't know will keep the information you just gave them. Look at the success rates for the units, then start the "couch scouting". Maps, G-earth, Google, etc. You can pick out some darn nice starting points before your boots ever hit the dirt. Look for places away from the roads where you can get up high, glass, and plan a stalk. Pick out a half dozen of those areas, glass in the morning, look for sign, walk down (or up) from where you're glassing and look for more sign. If that first spot is coming up empty, move on to the next one that night or the next morning. In short order you should have a few of your own honey holes.

Just a question here for the sake of discussion...no sarcasm. Is it a "lawful requirement" to report it? By that I mean if you are walking in the woods, see a dead bull, leave it, and do not report it, have you broken any laws? I don't believe that's the case. I do know there is a requirement to report before you can pick up a dead head, and if you take the head and have not reported it, at that point you are in violation. Seems to me no laws are being broken? As long as it is tagged within the season and unit by the shooter, I have a hard time seeing where a law is being broken, but I may be wrong?

No, unfortunately. It makes no sense, but they nail you twice. Even if you'd be out there scouting for elk anyway, and you're paying for full access from September through December for your elk hunt, if you want to hunt deer, it requires another permit, and another $60. It's BS, but it is what it is as they say. Don't like it, but I coughed up the $60 for scouting for my son's elk hunt, and $60 for my deer hunt. Even though I'd be out there anyway. Don't want to be the guy caught hauling a deer out with only an elk access permit, and get banned from the ranch, or give us guys that like to use the ranch a black eye (or the ranch lessee a reason to b!tch anymore than they already have to G&F and / or a reason to restrict access completely and obtain landowner permits...which seems is their ultimate goal).

If you didn't have an elk tag you were scouting for, I don't know that I'd do it. The area has some nice bucks, but densities are pretty low. I took the buck in my avatar out of there, but we scouted our azzes off and kept tabs on him and his group for months before closing the deal during the season. But if you definitely want a buck, it's not a high percentage hunt. But, as you've got your late rifle elk tag, I'd do it, and use the deer season as an opportunity to scout for elk...and if you happen to see a buck worth pursuing, you can then do that. This is exactly what I'm doing this year. Son drew a the late rifle bull hunt. Knowing that, I put in for the U10 deer hunt, which I drew. I'll be out there for rifle deer season with the rifle slung over the shoulder, but the time will be 100% geared towards scouting new locations we may want to use during his elk hunt. If I glass up a nice buck while scouting though...game on. If I don't see a single deer, I'm perfectly content with that as well. But I know going in it's not a full blown deer hunt for me.

You can get on to scout now. Permits are available as of a couple weeks ago.

You can't access the ranch without paying the fees. I don't like it, as I believe that with the "recreational impact fees" to offset "damage" by hunters, the "damage" done on the ranch by hunters has been hugely over exaggerated. I've spent a lot of time on the ranch, and it is consistently much cleaner than nearby NF lands. This was little more than a means to make money off the many hunters who use the ranch. A bad precedent. But, this year, I will be paying the fees again, and doing my best to be a good and careful visitor during my deer hunt, and my son's late rifle bull hunt. If you tire of ATV'ers running cross country, and big crowds, this is a good place to be. If you want to use an ATV, or don't care about the crowds, then there are other options outside of the ranch. But I personally don't let the $60 sway me because I prefer the type of hunt I can get there versus the NF areas. Congrats on a good tag. The late rifle hunt is not the sexiest hunt in U10, but it is still a U10 elk hunt...nothing to sneeze at! Hopefully it's not as tough of a hunt as last year's was. As for advice....come up with a good solid "Plan A" hunt plan, AND a solid "Plan B"....and be ready to move if you aren't seeing the elk / signs of elk the first couple days of the season. Made that mistake last year on my newphew's hunt. Scouted a few days prior, and saw little. Stayed through day 3 before we moved off to another area with loads of elk sign. Then the fog hit and we lost more time. Everyone was saying the same thing...."they were here last week / the other day" etc., "and now they're gone". No matter how much I love my "go to" areas, I will move in a hurry this year if we encounter the same thing as last year. My summer / fall scout plan revolves around one thing...finding good "Plan B" and "Plan C" areas. Scouting the week before the hunt will make the final decision for us on where we start out at come opening morning.

Congrats to you both. Sounds like an amazing hunt. Most impressive (more impressive than the bull itself) was her calm in the heat of the moment, and holding off on the shot when she was not ready for it. There are not many adults who could do that - let alone a such a young hunter - with such an awesome trophy in their scope. Sounds like she's been taught well, and had the discipline to do what she knew was right. Congrats as well on the Eastmans' story. Great magazine, and it will mean a lot to her now, and when she gets older. My boy and I took this buck... <<<<<<< a half dozen years or so ago. Nowhere near the class of animal your daughter took, but it was an amazing hunt, and when it came time to look for a magazine to publish the story, there was only one choice for me (and only one submission), and that was Eastmans'. The accepted it, and as with your daughter's story, published it in the Public Land / DIY issue, which meant just that much more. A suggestion....do as I did...and get a couple dozen issues of the magazine now. The first dozen I got went fast to family and friends, and when I went for more, they had to search their shop, and came up with just 10 back issues. Those now reside in the safe for him to give to people important to him later in life. The hunt sounds amazing. Amazing animal, amazing young hunter, amazing father / daughter hunt. The magazine is a very sweet icing on the cake. Hope you both enjoy the memories of this success for many years to come.

Hunted U10 last year for late rifle with my nephew. Tough hunt. I got there about 3 days before the season...the night it snowed. Hunting about 6500 feet. The storm put anywhere from 2" to 6" on the ground. And the elk vanished. All my usual glassing hot spots were coming up empty, with the exception of a very broken up 5x the day before the season. Kicked another nice 5x up on the road after dark driving back to camp a couple days later. Only bulls I saw in 7 days. Was seeing very few tracks in the fresh snow or mud. On the way to one point I like to glass, I had a 3.5 mile round trip walk. I cut one single elk track. Was seeing no bulls, and seeing no cows. Everyone we talked to said the same thing...."they're gone. They were here last week, now they're not to be found". Opinions on why ranged from the snow, even though it wasn't much, to helicopter herding on Babbitt Ranch a few days earlier spooking them out of the area. A guide my brother knows said they took one bull all season, a 340" bull, right about where my favorite spot is that I glassed up that 5x, but they were otherwise having a terrible time locating elk. Not sure what happened, but here are my thoughts....there was that inversion layer that hit the area about day 2 that had the area (and the canyon) socked in with fog. Once in a 10 year or so event, to have the canyon completely socked in with fog, or so I'd read. Thinking that weather weirdness may have had something to do with it. That, and I've read a theory on elk....they don't like snow from the trees melting and dripping on their heads while they bed (annoying, and noise) and will move lower to avoid it. Not sure about that, but, while we did have 2 to 6 inches on the ground, it warmed up the day after the storm, and snow was melting pretty good. I don't think the pressure (at least where we were) was that bad. I usually walk a mile or more in, and with a couple exceptions (a couple guys who beat me to a spot very early), I saw almost nobody once I was on foot. I was at one glassing point...too close to the road (1/2 mile), and some guys started up until they saw me, and left. Some pressure, but not terrible, IMO. So, this year my son has a U10 late rifle tag. We will be spending our next couple trips scouting out alternate locations in lower elevations and even less accessible areas as our backup plan in case this happens again. I still feel very confident in my trusted spots, but will abandon them in a hurry and move to the spots we're scouting now if we see the same thing we did last year. Think we waited too long to move. Once we did, I saw more elk tracks in one hour of walking up a hill to glass than I'd seen in the previous 5 days combined.

Unit 10 confirmed. Not a big surprise, only unit I put in for since I'll be scouting my boy's late rifle bull hunt during that time, and it was the only unit I put in for. Would love to pull another buck like this.... <<<<<< out of there again! But if I can't, at least I'll be able to have the ol' .270 slung over the shoulder and "hunt" while I'm scouting out bulls for the boy! AND, the bro texted...he drew same tag, and will be signing over to his boy. Going to be a good hunt, and try to get the kid's tag on a buck.

Very cool picture, but I'd have been doing a 180 with pee running down my leg. Got caught on top of a small mountain one time in 7W about 8 years ago in a very fast developing lighting storm. Have never been exposed to anything like it before. By the time I got packed up, it was too late. That thing hung over head for 45 minutes, and was firing off bolts in rapid succession striking all around me. I took refuge under a ledge near the top. Not the best place, but every time I tried to run off the mountain, it seemed as though a bolt of lighting was striking right in my intended path. Ridge, draw, didn't matter. Must have had a dozen lightning strikes within 100 yards of me that day. Same storm took out 3 trees in camp a half mile away. I'm the biggest lighting baby to this day as a result. Nothing sends me running off high ground or into a vehicle the way a lighting strike within 20 miles can as a result. Left an impression on me I'll never forget. Funny story...about a few weeks later, was out scouting with my son. Sitting around the fire one night, and unbeknownst to me, went to take a picture of me. The flash from the camera made me jump so hard that I had a serious crick in my neck for a month afterwards. Lighting = Me somewhere else...fast.

Hit for U10. Will have an opportunity to put a shot on a nice buck if I can glass one up while I'm out scouting my boy's U10 rifle bull hunt.

I'm HIT! Looks like I get to have that U10 deer tag in my pocket when I'm scouting for my son's U10 late rifle bull hunt! Suhweeeet!

Man, 15 years, give or take, without hunting elk? No way. Years 1-4 would be 1st choice early rifle, 2nd choice late rifle. Years 5-7 would be early rifle only. Years 8 plus would be back to early rifle 1st choice, late rifle 2nd. I love chasing elk too much to not do it for 15 years. I also like the strategy of following up a successful bull draw with a cow 2nd choice for a year or two max.

Well, that's gotta feel like a kick to the nut sack. I have no problem hunting cows, and have done so when I feel the need to hunt, but using 8bps to get there would not be a good feeling. If it makes you feel any better, I completely MISSED the elk draw last year. Never understood how anyone could "miss the draw" until I did it myself. Son had 9bp's. Lost his loyalty point. How in the WORLD I could have been so dumb is beyond me. Got busy at work, and in personal life. One day I thought "hey, it's gotta be about time to put in for elk" and pulled up the website a week after the deadline. I was in shock, and a deep funk for weeks after that boneheaded move. Thankfully my nephew drew and I got to go help out with that, but my son wasn't too pleased with me! As it turns out U10 was a tough hunt last year, work was heck, finances tight, and I'm a bit thankful he drew this year instead of last. You never know when a bad thing can turn into something good.

Get topo maps of the area. Start looking for bits of high ground away from the roads. Get some elevation and glass. Once you spot something, plan your stalk. I like to look for high ground that others miss (not easy to do). You don't need a lot of elevation, but enough to get you to see into the junipers, little draws, and open areas. Look for areas like this on the topo maps, mark off a dozen or so of them, then get out there during scouting and go to them. Chances are you'll come up with a couple spots you'd really like to hunt. If not, get back home, and repeat the process for your next scout trip. If you've got areas you can glass from in your unit, I'd forget the mid day still hunting of the bedding areas. I've watched guys still hunting through prime areas, and there wasn't an elk within a mile of them on that particular day. I prefer to get a good vantage point, and be ready when the guys still hunting the bedding areas kick elk out towards me. Happens every single season I hunt elk. Some of my best opportunities during a rifle elk hunt were being in a good "spot and shoot" spot from 11 am to 3 pm, as big bulls were being pushed out of their beds and fled to other areas. Forget hunting water. Too many people do, and so many that don't want to drive up to it and look for tracks. I can't think of a truly great spot I have that isn't at least a mile from water. You may think you've found an out of the way "secret tank", but I guarantee that 20 other guys have found that "secret tank" as well. As long as there is water within a couple miles of where I hunt, I don't worry about it. Find your prime spots during early season scouting, settle on a few of them, and hit those every morning and evening for the week before the hunt. If you see elk, you're good. If not, make adjustments and look at other spots you've scouted. By opening morning you should be in a spot you've seen elk at the week before. Late rifle bull is a spot and stalk and spot and shoot game. And for the most part, you won't be spotting them at water (they've already left if it's morning, and aren't usually close if it's evening). Get your butt up at 4 am, and get to the spot you want to glass well before first light. In the evening, do not leave until after last shooting light. You'll need to get used to walking in the dark. Get a headlamp. Get good 10x binoculars and a good packable tripod to put them on. Then use them. Take a class on how to glass if you are not sure. Some guys offer them up from time to time. If you can't afford really good binos, look at the Nikon Monarchs. Reasonably priced, and I glassed up a ton of animals with those before I got better glass. If you go cheap, you're going to feel like the binos are trying to suck the eyes out of your head after a couple hours glassing. Eye strain is not a good thing. I spend minimum 6 hours a day with my face glued to the binos when scouting or hunting. After a week, you'll wish to heck you got decent glass. If you make it 2 weeks with crappy glass, you'll never repeat the mistake again. Get good boots. You're going to put a lot of miles on them. Then waterproof them the right way (beeswax...the real stuff bought in block form, not the stuff in the tube that says it has beeswax in it). It may not rain or snow, but if it does, and your feet get wet walking to and from your glassing locations, they're gonna get damned cold. Find out what works for you for cold weather. It gets dang cold sitting on top of a hill in the wind, exposed, after you've been sitting still for a couple hours.

If the hunt numbers on your receipt are what you thought they were, I imagine you'd have a good shot at if nothing else surrendering the tag and getting your bp's back, if not best case of getting the right tag. Worst case, the numbers don't match and you may have made a typo when entering them?

Check your email. G&F should have emailed you a receipt showing your hunt numbers.

My home unit. 7W is one of the best units EVERY year. Only reason I prefer U10 over 7W now is it is easier to get away from the crowds. Congrats on the tags guys!

Just got the results online! Son got permit #37 Unit 10 Rifle Bull!

Tucson should stop answering their phones. Some poor woman is now fielding non-stop calls because people are impatient and would rather inundate some poor woman with phone calls when she's probably got other business to tend to. My guess is she's going to stop being so nice and polite here real quick.

"No results found for DOB and Hunter ID" is being shown now. Tick Tock. Aaaaannnnyyyy minute now!

I got a new looking page (different design) for entering DOB and hunter ID twice. Entered the info, and once it took me to the page unavailable thing, the other time it took me to existing bonus points. Any time now I'm guessing.

I'd guess about 30 to 45 mins before they're up online. That seems to be the pattern when the page goes "this page cannot be found" or is "temporarily unavailable" mode.