Hoof Hearted

Thanks bigorange. That is a great suggestion and I appreciate you mentioning it. I had looked into it but they already had the max 200 people sign up, so they weren't taking any additional youths. Honestly, I'd rather avoid that rodeo anyway and just hunt solo with my son, but it was certainly worth a look in case we got desperate. 🤣

Curious how you 36A guys have done so far. My son has the youth hunt starting this Friday and I'm having a bit of an existential crisis. He's 13 and has killed a couple Coues deer already so I'd like to get him on a muley, but we're not picky either and only have a couple days to hunt. I'm very familiar with the unit so I have plenty of places to go look for either, but I admittedly haven't hunted down there since 2018 and it's been 15 years since I was looking for muleys on purpose. I know I can find a Coues buck, but muleys are more of a nemesis for me, especially in these desert units, so just curious what your experience was in the earlier seasons if you're willing to share (publicly or PM). Thanks! -Luke

Solid advice. One of my honey holes is much further north, but I was worried after last year that there wouldn't be any water up there and that the elk had moved south where more reliable sources could be found. But I imagine once the rains hit this year that they had no problem pushing north, especially with all the human traffic to the south. Gonna give it heck and see what we can do, but no road hunting for us. I refuse to let my kid kill one close to the road. He's got to pack his first elk out some distance. I've guided 5 different kids (family friends; before my kids were old enough) to their first elk and all of them had to haul out meat. That is a huge part of the process to me. You learn to respect the animal more, IMHO. My boy, Gunnar, killed his first Coues deer when he was ten ~1.5 miles and a thousand foot climb from the trailhead, and he talks about it constantly 2 years later. It's a huge source of pride for him, and I don't want him thinking elk hunting is easy since, as you guys know, it's usually not.. 😉

Well that's certainly encouraging! Thanks, guys. I think we'll stick with the rifle instead of the rock. My boy has a decent arm, but his effective range would be pretty limited. I'll come back (hopefully) with a good story.

Hi all, heading up in a few days to 4a for my 12 year old's first elk hunt and I was curious for those who've been up there lately or had the archery tag to hear if the elk were in similar locations as in previous years since the monsoon was so terrible last year and good this year. I've helped on youth hunts in the unit for the past 10 years and have always done very well, but I didn't make it up last year and been too busy with work/football coaching to make it up there yet this year so I'll be flying by the seat of my pants a little bit. I will be able to scout a couple days before the hunt so I'm hoping my old haunts still hold a few cows, but I thought I'd throw it out there to see if anyone had any recent intel they felt comfortable sharing. Feel free to PM if you do. Any info, good or bad, is greatly appreciated. Thanks!