wannakillabigbull

That thing is half a fallow deer!

Ya know, on the packout it kind of felt like he was...hunting solo made for a rough couple days after I got him down.

Just shot a bull in Colorado during fourth season. He's got crown points with some palmation in that area.

Ive used a Kifaru for four full seasons now and dont at all regret that purchase. I backpack in frequently so having a pack that can carry camp and part of an animal at once is a must for me. If you intend to carry heavy loads (i.e. hunting solo or with only one buddy) then investing in a top notch pack is worth it IMO. I have tried Kifaru, Exo and Mystery Ranch packs and would recommend any of them. As HH said Stone Glacier also has a great reputation but I havent got my hands on one yet.

I drew my third choice, a third season rifle tag that isn't very good at all. My brother hunted it last year and filled the freezer. Point creep got me on my second choice that I was hoping to draw...

Thanks for the help Blake. Some of us haven't lived in Arizona long and aren't familiar with its quirks. Again, thanks for the help.

Everyones says that right now. Just making sure. Thanks Flatlander

When I log onto the portal to check out my application, and I click on application details, it lists my "individual bonus points" for my elk application as 0. I don't have any charges on my card, but I definitely have bonus points going in. Can anyone who didn't draw tell me if they see the same thing? I'm not sure why it would say that.....

I hunted the San Juan National Forest two seasons ago for archery elk during opening weekend. I'll tell you that most of the San Juan is very difficult to get away from roads, and that it's incredibly crowded compared to Arizona. And that's coming from a guy that grew up hunting OTC elk every year near Grand Junction which is one of the most popular areas in the state. I was curious so here's some comparative stats. 71 and 74 are two of the better units in the SJNF and 7W was where you got your bull this past year. 7W 71 74 Hunters 175 1049 853 Sq Miles Public 416 441 519 Hunters/Sq.Mi. 0.42 2.38 1.64 Success Rt. Bulls 33% 5.8% 9.3% The harvest and total hunter stats are never perfect but they give you an idea of what to expect. So for every hunter you ran into in 7W expect to see between 5 and 6 times that many in Colorado. And it's perhaps 3 to 6 times easier to kill a bull in 7W than in those Colorado units. All that being said I had a fun time and you can too. Opening day I had two separate chip shots at cows that I passed on, and ended up sneaking up on a 5x5 bull feeding in the evening but couldn't get closer than 100 yards before the wind switched. Second day was a wash, literally, it never stopped raining. Third day I hiked to the highest peak in the area in the dark to get away from all the people and got into a small herd of cows above treeline, then another on the way back to the truck. Issue was all the rain had frozen and I was basically trying to sneak in on elk while walking on an ice field. Tough conditions for staying quiet. My hunting buddy is a wuss though and refused to go back with me any of the other weekends because it was too wet and he refused to invest in rain gear or waterproof boots. I hunted the rest of the season elsewhere. I would not assume that the woods will be alive with bugles, though. Those elk are heavily hunted and heavily hunted by lots of first timers and guys with not a lot of experience. As such a lot of the elk are extremely call shy. You're likely to hear more bugles from hunters than elk. Hopefully you can find that pocket where the elk are having a rut fest. Regardless, with a positive attitude and good company you'll have a great time! Let me know if you have any questions about the SJNF or any other general questions.

When you paste it into Excel it'll paste it in as a big string of text. Luckily the two things you want are on the right side of the text. You can easily enough extract them using excel's "right" and "left" functions. To extract the draw odds you can use the code "=LEFT(RIGHT(A1,5),2)" and to extract the success rate just use the code "=RIGHT(A1,2)" assuming your data is in cell A1. Does that help?

15 different bulls opening day. Then only 9 bulls over the next six days. If I could shoot worth a darn and not get bull fever I could have even tagged one!

7W was tough but fun. Saw a couple dozen mature bulls and missed two shots on 6x6s. First time hunting there but saw a lot of elk. Could have taken some young bulls but didn't. Those two days with super heavy wind didn't make things easy.

Got out yesterday and walked up on 4 bulls at 100 yards in the morning, then glassed up another 3 bulls at last light. None of them that big. Lots of elk to be found but I'll have to get a lot closer than Lance....

Magnification aside how do you think these would compare to a set of Swarovski 10x42 slc, last years model? I called up Outdoorsman's at lunch and then dropped by their shop after work. I asked the guys there what they thought of the GPOs and they felt they were similar in glass quality to other binos in that price range, and didn't truly compete with SLCs. The GPOs may be slightly better than Razor HDs but you'd have to be looking very hard and on a tripod to tell. That was their opinon. After looking through them I agree. The GPOs were definitely high quality built, though. They felt very nice and very solid.

Is there a place in AZ that carries the GPO? I've been wanting to check out their 12.5x50 but can't find anywhere that has them. Oh wait, looks like Outdoorsmans has them

That's the kind of trophy you don't measure in inches. Love those character bulls!

Love the look of that bull. Congrats!

Great bull, congrats Lance

Can't wait to see it

Great story! 7W last weekend was lit up with bugles. Glad they kept up throughout the week and you were able to tag one. Super unique bull.

Gotta love the fronts on that bull! Congrats

Gotta love devil points. Very cool bull!

Where we were in 7W they bugled all night last night and didn't stop until 11 AM. It was my wife's first time in the middle of elk and she was loving it. Fun seeing that look on her face when a bull screams from 40 yards away. Good luck guys keep after them!

I was just on Google Earth while "working" and the imagery around Kendrick Mountain is updated to 6/12/2017. You can see the smoke on the north side of Kendrick, as well as over by the 180. Pretty interesting to see from that perspective,

I'll be there on the weekends driving around, sticking to hiking only to the winter elk range so as not to disturb anybody's hunt. I've got the late rifle tag. Driving around in a black silverado crew cab. Good luck to everybody!