Neverdrawn37A

Been lurking around this site for awhile so decided to finally make a post. Tons of great info on here that I have used trying to learn how to hunt Arizona. Originally from southern Virginia, hunted whitetails from treestands for many years. Moved out here about 7 years ago and absolutely love AZ, the open space, dry weather, and conservative (for now) gov't. Tried my hand at a few rifle coues hunts with no luck down in 34A as the change from treestand hunting to glassing open country is still a work in progress for me. Read about Duane Adams and watched all his videos so getting better at the whole glassing thing. Got close on my last two years bowhunting desert mule deer in the rut and love that hunt but man is it challenging. Been trying to get that 37A rifle mule deer hunt but never seem to draw it (hence the username). Pumped that I drew my first AZ elk tag this year 6A early archery so really looking forward to that hunt. Have 3 kids waiting for them to get old enough to put in for big game youth hunts but they love going dove/quail hunting with me for now. We also like trout fishing the lakes up north (have had a lot of luck at Ashurst). Anyways that's me and look forward to posting an AZ hunting success story on here in the near future!

Don't post a whole lot here, but lurk around a lot and thanks to all the info everyone has provided has helped me out a ton with AZ hunting. Started out hunting from treestands back in Virginia so learning western hunting has been a long work in progress for me. *Disclaimer- this is a long story of a newbie’s first elk hunt- no bulls were killed so sorry no pics but just thought I’d share my hunt experience: So got drawn early archery 6A bull with 6 points this year and had been stoked all year about this hunt. This was my first ever elk hunt in Arizona during the rut so wasn't sure what to expect. Did some scouting in July, found what seemed like a good spot to hunt loaded with elk in the northern part of the unit where I was able to hike in and get away from all the roads and Razors/SxS's and quads. Ended up having to hunt the opening weekend b/c of the way things fell with work and family obligations (wanted to do the 2nd week but oh well). Got up to the area I wanted to camp Thursday evening before the opener. Brought my bike so I could ride in quietly up this super rough road that would take my truck forever to crawl up. Day 1 Woke up at 4 got packed up and rode out to where I wanted to go and hike in off the road at least a mile and try to listen for bugles/locate elk. Well about a half mile down the road my bike chain gets caked up with mud and snaps the gear shifting thing on the back wheel in half, so much for that plan. I pull my bike off the road as a quad is coming behind me full speed and stash it behind a tree. As I am trying to see if I can fix it in the dark I start to hear bugles off in the distance. I say screw the bike and I start heading towards the bugling, still waiting on first light. After hiking in circles chasing multiple bugles for about an hour and a half I realize that these bugles are not necessarily elk, they are other hunters calling like crazy. I stop chasing the bugles and decide to hike to the area I wanted to initially get to that was far from any roads and get away from all these other hunters that won't stop bugling. I bump into about 3 other hunters on the way but finally get some distance from roads and it is quiet. I bump into a cow while still hunting, she spots me immediately and trots off in the other direction. I realize I need to slow down and that these cow elk can pick up movement extremely well. I stay out all day and don't hear any bugles once I left the area that was packed with hunters. Bumped into a spike still in velvet with two cows, the one cow stood in front of the spike, so didn't have a shot, but didn't want to shoot him anyway as he looked the size of a calf. The other cow had me pegged anyways so couldn't move from my position without getting busted. Hiked back to camp and bumped into two more cows in the evening and again, they had me immediately as soon as I got within about 80 yards and ran off. Again I am realizing how difficult it is to move in on these animals. Day 2 Not having my bike, I get up earlier and hike the extra 2 miles into my roadless area I want to hunt. On the way I bump into another spike with cows that seem to be fleeing a crazed hunter that won't stop bugling at them. This guy was literally bugling every 5 minutes and I could tell it didn't sound like a real elk. Anyways, I try to get close to the spike for a shot but get busted again just outside bow range by the cows. I continue to the roadless area. As I am walking in quietly on top of a small ridge I hear something coming below me. I get down on a knee to lower my profile as it sounds like a group of elk trotting fast towards me. I pop my head up for a split second to see if I can locate them and right away I see the head of a cow elk starting right at me, already caught my slight movement. With that, they start to bolt away, they are maybe at 50 yards. I see about 9 cow elk pass, what looks like at least a 5x5 running at the back comes by, I draw my bow quickly but it was impossible to get on a running bull elk at 50 yards, so much for that encounter. I am starting to get pretty hyped up though about seeing elk especially getting that close to a bull. I slowly still hunt the rest of the day about 3 miles through the woods back to camp. Right a sunset, I bump into a good size bull probably a 6x6 out in the open at about 120 yards with about 10 cows. I slowly try to get my pack off my back and get set up for a stalk, immediately busted by one of the cows catching my movement, they run off. I continue on my slow still hunt and it is almost dark. About ¼ mile later, I glass up another nice bull by himself at about 100 yards. I duck behind a pine tree and again take my pack off to try to get close. Then I think well, stalking hasn’t work well at this point so let me try my cow call to get him to come close to me. I hit my cow call twice and I thought they sounded like good calls but the bull didn’t and he bolted off at the sound of it. At this point I realize these elk are totally averse to any type of calling due to all the hunting pressure. I make it back to camp feeling frustrated but also stoked about all my encounters. Day 3 I get my friend who drove up to camp for the night to drive my to the roadless area well before dawn, saving me 2 miles of hiking. I hike in the dark about a half mile from the road and start hearing bulges and these sound like real deep sounding, legit bugles, not other hunters. I slowly move into the continuing bugles as the sun starts to come up. I can hear them and I know they are close so I drop my pack to prepare for a stalk, this sounds like a huge herd. I slowly move in glassing every few steps into the pines and see multiple elk but the cows see me again and they slowly move away from me. The bugles are non-stop at this point so I know where they are and can gauge what direction the herd is heading. I move fast to try to cut them off and get ahead of them. After about another half mile of hiking I am set up in a good ambush spot and I hear the bugles getting closer. I move very slow, taking a step, glassing into the pines and listening. I spot a nice bull in my binos and he looks to be about 90 yards just slowly feeding and staying in generally one spot, it is either a 5x5 or 6x6. I decide this time I am not going to get busted and will belly crawl into bow range. I slowly crawl about foot at a time with my binos, range finder, and bow dragging the ground bumping into the millions of rocks that are all over the ground in 6A. I slowly peak up and get my eyes back on the bull, a 2nd bull starts feeding near him as well about the same size. I think I am at a decent bow range so I attempt to range him but my range finder is all fogged up can’t see anything. I lose sight of the bull while trying to wipe to fog off my range finder lens. I saw screw it and I get up on one knee to try to see where he went- bam, there he is, staring straight at me broadside, I nervously range him through my foggy rangefinder, it reads 62 yards. I feel like that is an easy shot for me as I had been practicing out to 80 yards all summer. I draw my bow and put my 60 yard pin just behind his shoulder, middle of the body height-wise and release thinking it was a solid shot. Too my horror, and seemed like in slow motion, the arrow sails high about 1 inch over his back. I couldn’t believe I blew the shot, 60 yards was automatic for me on my practice range, what the heck? Was my range finder off? Did I accidentally range a tree behind him? I’ll never know. So anyways the bulls run off along with the rest of the heard I can hear them moving off in the distance, not at a run though, just a medium paced walk. They are still bugling like crazy (this is about 830 am at this point). I sit there distraught about my missed shot and ponder whether I should walk back to my pack I dropped about a mile away at this point. I still hear crazy amounts of bugling in the distance and so I decide I will continue to chase this heard. I move fast again to try to cut them off once again. I get to a relatively open area and spot two lead bulls coming in towards me with the rest of the heard behind them. I drop to my belly and slowly crawl up to a large deadfall for cover. The bulls are slowly moving in and I decide this is my 2nd chance. I am ready to draw and I range them, 80 yards. I decide to let them move in close before I shoot. All of a sudden they stop and turn direction and walk into some thicker pines out of range. What the heck again? They couldn’t see me, wind shift maybe? The herd continues to move slowly and I parallel them about 200 yards away attempting to move faster and catch up to cut them off yet again. At this point I can see the full size of this heard as they cross an open area, there is a continuous stream of cows and bulls moving at a walking pace and they just keep going and going, there must have been close to 150 elk in this heard, maybe 20-30 bulls. I try again and again to get close enough into bow range but can’t seem to get in closer than 100 yards without being spotted and the herd moving off. I do this for almost two more miles and can’t ever get close enough for a shot. I am now about 3.5 miles from my pack with no water at it is like 11am. I decide I need to regroup, get water and rest as I am getting very reckless and sloppy trying to stalk in on these elk. I start the long walk back to my pack and thunderstorms start to roll in. It starts pouring rain and visibility drops (don’t have any rain gear either as that was left in my pack also). The rain seemed to make the elk go even more wild as I hear bulges going crazy again and I keep bumping into elk off in the distance. I try again once more to get close to a bull with about 5 cows in the pouring rain. I move in slowly thinking the rain will hide any noise and movement but busted by a cow again, they move off just out of bow range again. I continue to run into elk and hear bugles until the rain stops after about an hour. I finally make it back to my pack in shock of the amount of elk I just encountered. I take a break and still hunt the rest of the evening, running into a spike with two cows but again, can’t get close enough for a bow shot. Day 4 Have to leave this day due to work and family constraints, was thinking about not hunting and just packing up and going home. I decide I have to give this hunt my all so I wake up early and decide to hunt a half day and check out an area north of camp that looked good on the satellite imagery. Right at first light about ¼ mile from camp I have a two cows move in towards me, I have them at 40 yards and I stay still, they never see me, no bulls follow though. I move into a small canyon thick with pines very slowly. (I have learned that if I think I am moving slow, I need to move even slower). I take 2-3 steps, listen, and glass, repeat. I start to hear bugling off in the distance. I move in very slow as the bugles get louder and I make out some antlers off in the distance through my glass. It is a nice bull either 5x5 or 6x6 moving towards my position. I very slowly crouch down to hide my silhouette behind a large rock in front of me. The bull must have caught my slight movement and stops, staring right at me for about 5 minutes. I think he is at about 60 yards away at this point but I don’t want to risk ranging him as he would pick up on that extra movement. After staying motionless for a few more minutes, he decides to turn broadside to me and begins to walk off down the canyon. I decide this is my only shot at this bull so I draw my bow, no time to range him. He stops and stares at me broadside giving me a perfect shot opportunity. I feel like this bull is at 60 yards so I again level the 60 yard pin right where it needs to go and let the arrow fly knowing that there is no way I can miss a second time. To my shock and horror once again, the arrow flies about an inch over his back and he trots off over to the other side of the canyon. He stops back to stare at me some more at about 150 yards. I collapse on the ground in disappointment and disbelief that I have missed two shots on bull elk that took 6 years of applying to get this tag. The bull casually moves over the top of the ridge and I figure why not try an move quickly to get in front of him again. I give him some space and circle up to the top of the ridge he went over. As I crest the ridge I spot a cow elk moving right towards me. I freeze and lean against a pine, she doesn’t notice me. Before I know it, I have 8 cow elk surrounding me feeding on top of this ridge, one decides to bed down. I stand motionless for about 20 minutes while they are within 20 yards of me. One of the cows gets a little suspicious of me and starts staring at me. Just them I see another elk moving in behind some brush, I see antlers and velvet hanging off, another bull! He was at about 40 yards but no shot because of brush in the way and one of the cows staring right at me. I can’t believe I am this close to a bull within 25 minutes of just missing that other one. I get nervous and my legs start shaking from standing still for so long. No matter how hard I try and can’t get my legs to stop shaking and the cow elk picks up on the movement, alerting the rest to my presence and they quickly walk off the ridge down to the canyon below. Hunted the rest of the morning then had to pack up and head back down to the desert for work. I couldn’t believe the amount of elk I encountered on this hunt and it was a blast. I also am so pissed at myself for missing two shots that I felt like I should have been automatic at based on all the practice I did before the hunt. Thankful for a great experience up in the pines that was the best hunt I’ve ever had, but also the worst hunt ever with those two misses. Hoping to get back up there again before the season ends!

Congrats awesome bull and story and tough shot at 65 yards in thick cover!

Yeah learned a hard lesson on that one this time, about 3 extra miles of hiking back away from that big herd! Going to always practice with the pack on now and need to buy a nicer, quieter more comfortable one. Was using an old green standard army issue frame pack.

haha, yeah it all kept running through my head over and over, felt like I needed to get it down on paper and share with some one as I was hunting by myself so no one knows the drama I went through. Maybe submit the story to bowhunter magazine lol.

Yeah, so have a rangefinder, I think what happened on the first shot was it was all fogged up and I must have had bull fever and shakily ranged something behind him because I just got done practicing at the range behind my house and I am dead on still at 62 yards so sights didn't get bumped. Looking at the target on the range, I am thinking the first shot I was off using the rangefinder, then the 2nd shot I missed I totally misjudged the range thinking he was 60 yards, I think now he was probably more like 45-50 yards and I didn't take time to range him with the range finder. So on the 2nd bull I should have taken ta quick second to verify my range with the rangefinder and prob would have had him. Very frustrating, mad at myself. I guess the worst part of it is I feel like its gonna be another 6-8 years before I can draw this tag again unless I get real lucky. Trying to stay positive and be thankful for the nonstop encounters with elk I had.

Drew the early archery 6A bull tag this year and I know there could be 700 other hunters plus all their helpers, spotters, etc. So my question is, if you had this tag and couldn't hunt the entire season (sept. 9-22), would you rush up there and make sure to hunt opening day on the 9th or is it better to wait and hunt the second week/weekend. I'll have about 5 days total to hunt it and would like to avoid other hunters as much as possible but don't know how critical the opening first few days are. Back in Virginia where I grew up, you never missed opening day of deer season. It was normally consider the best day of the deer hunt before all the hunting pressure makes the bucks disappear. Is it similar with early archery elk or maybe it is better to wait and hunt the 2nd week and have less pressure out there/quieter. Thanks for any feedback!

Haha, True statement! A wise man told me once (he's on his 3rd marriage), if your wife doesn't like your hunting schedule, change the wife!

Is that Hesperus Mtn? SW Colorado is awesome, going to buy a cabin up there one of these days soon to spend the summers. Gotta hit up Serious Texas Bbq if you pass through Durango!

Went up to 6A on 4th of July weekend to camp and check out some of the areas I was going to hunt for the early archery bull tag I have this year. Took the Munds park exit to get up to the northern part of the unit and holy s**t what a mad house on the forest roads through there! 5th wheels at every camping spot for the first 5 miles in past the neighborhood, Razors/quad/ dirt bikes racing up and down constantly, dust everywhere. No offense to some of people on here with those Razors, but I just don't get the appeal of it. Anyways, not taking that way in anymore to say the least. Once I got up to where I wanted the crowds thinned out and went up a rough forest road and didn't see anyone for about 2 miles which was nice and didn't see a soul in the woods while out scouting the whole weekend. Was in elk as soon as I started setting up my camp Saturday evening, heard cows and an occasional weak bugle so decided to check it out before dark, walked up on a huge herd with tons of calves, cows and spotted two young bulls with them as well which was cool. Next morning heard elk again at sunrise from camp and headed out on a hike to check out the area. Was in elk throughout the day, continuing to bump into the same one or two herds. One herd at at least 50 healthy looking calves and the weird thing was there was a couple Antelope mixed in with the herd traveling with them which I had never seen before. Ran it to at least 6 different elk skeletons picked clean (I am assuming lion kills). Bumped into a couple small bulls (got within 40 yards of one). Saw mule deer, 2 gobblers, and tons of elk, never seen so much game in a weekend. On the way out, Mormon lake was full of herds of elk as well. Tanks I checked out had decent water in them but still seemed pretty dry overall up there even though I know they've had some monsoon rain so far. Also, didn't notice any trail cams on the tanks so looks like maybe people following the new law... Here's some pics and looking forward to the hunt in September:

Thanks for all the feedback on this I really appreciate it. I was leaning towards going at the end of the hunt and what was said here reinforces that.... but at the same time, I don't want to over think it either. If I didn't have a job, wife, kids etc. would be out there the whole hunt but maybe I can sneak in an extra day or two. My plan is to get as far from roads and other hunters/quads/razors, weekend campers/hikers etc. as possible. Hearing quads go by every hour really kills my motivation.

Thanks, yeah I drew with 6 points so still pretty lucky to get it. I keep hearing there are tons of elk in there but also you got 700 tagholders too. My strategy was going to be to get as far off roads as possible, in shape and have a buddy that will probably go with me so don't mind packing out on foot if I get one. I figure I'm going to go by the rule if you'd shoot it on the last day its good enough for the first day of the hunt so yeah won't be picky as I'm just trying to get my 1st elk.....but at the same time would really like to get something bigger than a spike so might pass one of those up on the first couple days...

Thanks, yeah I'm trying to be in the woods for at least 7 days which is pretty good for me with work, young kids, wife that works but she is real supportive of this elk hunt, she wants the freezer full of elk meat since the price of beef is so sky high these days!