kadillackountry

Great story Lance and a mighty fine bull. Way to stick with the hunt and get it done...albeit last minute.

Great Bull. Saw these pics on social media. A whopper.

Thanks chico, jim, and pelapapas. Everything went according to plan (minus getting lost a little bit on opening day, but once again, I'll thank my Pap for that one...).

My first hunt summary post. What a great trip this year. Got drawn again for Unit 23 late rifle hunt after hunting hard last year and missing out on filling my tag. Started with a scouting trip weekend before Thanksgiving. Found a nice point with 270 degree views and glassed up about 10 bulls. Mostly spikes and smaller bulls but three definite shooters. Decided to set up camp relatively close to this location and glass this point on Thanksgiving to find one of the shooter bulls. Went in on Wednesday night and got all set up. Woke up early on Thanksgiving and got to our glassing spot. Almost no activity to start the morning, so I got a little worried that the bulls had moved out during the week. Then about 8:30, I spotted one of the big bulls that we were hoping for. He had moved over one finger, but was still hanging out. We kept eyes on him all day and put him to bed at night and went back to camp to wake up way before light and get back into position. My grandfather passed away this year, and he always wanted to go on an Elk hunt. Being from Pennsylvania he had always wanted to hunt for Elk in the American west. He was incredibly excited last year for my hunt and we couldn't get it done. I'd like to say that he was here with me this year, through the draw process and guiding my hunt. So, we woke up early to get into position. We hiked up, and my hunting buddy, who never gets lost while hiking. Never. Got lost heading up to our glassing spot. We ended up in the saddle of the point we were heading to, and decided to alter the plan a little bit. I think this was my grandfather doing some guiding here for us. We decided to pop out of the saddle towards where we had put the bull to bed the night before. We went about 50 yards down the backside of the hill and spotted the bull on our side of the hill. He had moved up to feed a little bit. We set up at 340 yards, but the bull spooked and ran back through the canyon to the other side where he had bed down the night before. We ran down to this area and set up for a shot across the canyon. We spotted the bull at 661 yards and set up my gun on him and waiting for him to move broadside. Took one shot over his back, and then plunked him with the second shot. He went about 10-15 yards and started thrashing some manzanita, and then no more motion. We were 60% sure he was completely down. I stayed on him with the glass, and my hunting buddy went to retrieve the ranger and move into the canyon for the pack-out. I met him down in the creek bottom and we started the look for the downed elk. Sure enough we found him in a thick patch of manzanita that he dropped in. Field measured at 348 1/4"!! So incredibly excited. Glad my Pap could be there to watch. He definitely helped on the hunt.

I'm in a wedding that night or I would be all over them. Went to the last "cowboy rides away" concert in Vegas.

Gauge?

Hey, they can all keep applying for the Unit 9 archery hunt...

As a resident it also should lower the bonus point round as now 15% of tags are applied to residents through the bonus point round.

The NR that don't draw in the bonus pool, will be put into the regular pool with higher draw odds due to more numbers in the hopper. It's also significantly better for G&F to have a 50+ year old continue to place applications with the off chance that they are able to draw in 5 years instead of 15 years. Keep the G&F budget strong without having to levy increased fees to residents. As a resident, this is a slight benefit to me as the non-bonus pool is now "up to 5%", so in theory there could be less than 10% of tags going to NRs. But its a huge benefit to the G&F budget overall to have more applications from NRs helping to bolster their funds instead of tag rate increases to ALL applicants, NR or Res.

I'm a resident, but I've been reading up on the changes for some buddies that have been trying to come down to AZ to hunt Elk. Basically, they are allotting 5% of the tags to non-residents during bonus point round. Thus, the other 5% of tags will be allotted to non-residents through the regular draw rounds. Goal from G&F is to keep people interested in having a chance at drawing before they reach the bonus round. Before, you basically had to have the bonus points necessary to draw in a particular unit to get drawn. With the change, theoretically, you could draw starting in year 1. G&F were loosing a ton of applicants that would put in for 10-15 years, but once they draw wouldn't want to wait another 10-15+ years for their bonus points to build up (maybe they are in their 50s/60s and don't think they will be able to hunt AZ again). Implication will be hard to tell, but in the short run it should raise the bonus points necessary to draw for sure (since there is only half the tags available in the bonus round for non-residents). Long run though, it should lower the bonus points since 5% of the tags are now being drawn outside the bonus point round. Hope that helps.

I completely agree with the Jeep comment. 10 year old Jeep really wont go down much in price over the next 5-10 years (or you can drive it till it dies). Can probably get one already loaded at about $10-12k...tricked out with the winch, lift, big tires, and tons of after market accessories. Will go anywhere that a UTV can go. This is the direction I'm going when the lady is done with her wrangler in a few years...

I purchased the 5x20x56 shv for my 300 wsm and so far love it. It does need higher rings on my gun but so would any 56 objective bell. Great scope in this price range.

Looks like a great hunt! Good write up Lance.

I've considered my next build to be a 6.5 of some sorts for a more "mountain" gun. Lighter stock, lighter scope, short action, lighter barrel, etc. You can reach out decently, but the gun is going to jump.

Keep me on the list for backup on Swaro range finder...