cohntr6

Where is a good place to post the video? Jeff

Some more... I grossed him about 95 inches with two little extras coming straight out of his brow tines. STORY: I was fortunate enough to draw a late tag in unit 31 this year and was very excited. Due to work I wasnt able to get out until December 14 and 15 but only saw small bucks those days. One 80 or so inch 3 point was following a doe, making scrapes and rubbing on small trees so that made me hopeful for the next week when I would be able to get out again. Little buck making a scrape. Doe is in picture too. On monday, december 19th I was on the trail and half way were i wanted to be when It was barely getting light. I made it to my first glassing spot, sat down, got behind the binoculars and almost immediately saw a couple deer. I knew the way one buck was acting there was a doe around and he intended on keeping a 2 point away from her. I couldnt see the 3points rack very well so I just sat and watched for a while. I got a little video of him with my phone through the binoculars of him raking over a tree and keeping the 2 point from his lady friend. Some fog rolled in so I took advantage and moved down the steep hill another 200 yards or so. It took a few minuted to find them again as the buck followed the doe up the hill into some thicker brush and trees. I ranged him at 374. My ballistics chart said a drop of 16.4 inches with the 90 grain Hornady GMX for 400 yards. I knew though to aim lower than that because of the the downhill angle. After 4 shots however the buck just looked around and walked off perfectly fine! I had to walk down the ridge to my truck, cross over to the next ridgeline and go up the hill to check and make sure though. About half way up I saw his doe so I froze. She moved and sure enough he moved to where she was just standing. I saw him lip curling and was suprised that this doe was in heat in the middle of December! They walked off in the thick brush but I was able to keep tabs on them as the buck grunted constantly wherever he followed the doe. I had never heard a buck grunt so much. Well it was quiet for a bit so I moved to my right and saw them on a knob between to ridges, I got ready as he offered a good broad side shot so I stood and took a offhand shot. Boom, blew up a rock next to him. Off he went up the hill, when he temporarily forgot his hot doe and did a 180 when I got another shot, missed again! I jacked another round in and led him just a bit and squeezed, whack, I finally heard what I wanted! I saw him hunch up, go uphill, then turn and start going back down the hill very slowly. I lost him in the trees and brush and I thought I was going to lose it! I had to walk back down the hill, back to my truck, then back up the same ridge I first shot from just lower. As I got to where I thought he was I couldnt see anything till i got a whiff of rutty buck, looked down the hill and there he was! I was dang happy! Thanks for all the comments and Merry Christmas! Jeff

Nice eye! LOL It looks like he bumped the left beam in velvet and it kind of grew into what could have been a dropper.

Where can I post the video? Anybody?

I was fortunate enough to draw a late tag in unit 31 this year and was very excited. Due to work I wasnt able to get out until December 14 and 15 but only saw small bucks those days. One 80 or so inch 3 point was following a doe, making scrapes and rubbing on small trees so that made me hopeful for the next week when I would be able to get out again. On monday, december 19th I was on the trail and half way were i wanted to be when It was barely getting light. I made it to my first glassing spot, sat down, got behind the binoculars and almost immediately saw a couple deer. I knew the way one buck was acting there was a doe around and he intended on keeping a 2 point away from her. I couldnt see the 3points rack very well so I just sat and watched for a while. I got a little video of him with my phone through the binoculars of him raking over a tree and keeping the 2 point from his lady friend. Some fog rolled in so I took advantage and moved down the steep hill another 200 yards or so. It took a few minuted to find them again as the buck followed the doe up the hill into some thicker brush and trees. I ranged him at 374. My ballistics chart said a drop of 16.4 inches with the 90 grain Hornady GMX for 400 yards. I knew though to aim lower than that because of the the downhill angle. After 4 shots however the buck just looked around and walked off perfectly fine! I had to walk down the ridge to my truck, cross over to the next ridgeline and go up the hill to check and make sure though. About half way up I saw his doe so I froze. She moved and sure enough he moved to where she was just standing. I saw him lip curling and was suprised that this doe was in heat in the middle of December! They walked off in the thick brush but I was able to keep tabs on them as the buck grunted constantly wherever he followed the doe. I had never heard a buck grunt so much. Well it was quiet for a bit so I moved to my right and saw them on a knob between to ridges, I got ready as he offered a good broad side shot so I stood and took a offhand shot. Boom, blew up a rock next to him. Off he went up the hill, when he temporarily forgot his hot doe and did a 180 when I got another shot, missed again! I jacked another round in and led him just a bit and squeezed, whack, I finally heard what I wanted! I saw him hunch up, go uphill, then turn and start going back down the hill very slowly. I lost him in the trees and brush and I thought I was going to lose it! I had to walk back down the hill, back to my truck, then back up the same ridge I first shot from just lower. As I got to where I thought he was I couldnt see anything till i got a whiff of rutty buck, looked down the hill and there he was! I was dang happy! I grossed him about 95 inches with two little extras coming straight out of his brow tines. So I missed 4 shots because of the steep but eventually got him! Jeff

Very nice Brent! Congrats! I am still hunting, we'll see what next week brings. Jeff

I would be dang proud of her too! Congrats! Jeff

We had a heck of a great hunt on the junior elk hunt. My daughter, Kaitlyn, is 11 and drew a elk tag before me! A HUGE THANKS GOES TO YOUTH OUTDOORS UNLIMITED AND AZ FISH AND GAME (specifically Mike Godwin, Jason Capps with AZGF)and the RMEF and Arizona elk Society for sponsoring the Elk camp. It was great food and company despite the snow and freezing temperatures. IN late may we camped just east of big lake on the 249 road and had elk walking thru camp in the morning. With the fire I wondered if the camping spot was toast but we were able to camp in the same spot! MOst of the area around us was burnt but the elk were still there. OPening day we saw turkey, deer, grouse, and several bulls without cows! One 6x6 even let me take pictures of him 50 yards from the road! I think he was tired from the rut! LOL It was cold!!! On saturday morning we hunted from camp as elk were running around our tent some of the night. It took a couple hours but we found some cows as they topped over a ridge. A bull was pushing them and we tried to catch up but we only found some tracks in the mud and snow that had not melted. It amazed me that on the map there was no roads shown but we crossed 5 spur roads off the east side of the 285 road. The elk crossed at least four of them before we couldnt track anymore. We were almost 2 miles from camp and my little Kaitlyn hadnt complained one bit! Now we had to get back to camp! Almost four miles before lunch so we took a rest. Saturday afternoon we headed out to a area along the paved 273 road that we had seen a bull with cows the night before coming back from elk camp. We hiked back in about 3/4 mile while clouds moved in and it started snowing again! We settled into a good draw and sure enough at 430 a bull started bugling. It wasnt 10 minutes and three more bulls lit up the draw! It was loud and intense! We could hear two bulls fighting and I couldnt tell if one or two bulls had cows so we stayed put and listened to the sweet mountain music. At about 515 I decided we better move closer to a bugle because light was starting the fade. We quietly moved in and listened. I knew we couldn't get much closer because the bull only sounded 50 yards away but couldn't see him because of the trees. All of a sudden the bull appeared and was pushing a single cow that limped down the hill and started feeding 20 yards from us. I slipped a round into the chamber and kneeled down holding the fore end of the gun while Kaitlyn shouldered the .250 Savage and prepared for a offhand shot. I tried stopping the cow with a squeak, it worked but Kaitlyn had to shoot between some branches. The bull was looking at us a screaming at us from 20-25 yards away and I was whispering "do you have the crosshairs behind the shoulder, shoot, shoot, squeeze the trigger,!!" Talk about intense! The gun went off and the cow went up the hill a short distance. The bull stood there and screamed at us some more! We were jumping up and down, hugging and couldn't be more excited! Kaitlyn wanted to go right after it but i knew we needed to wait, which only lasted maybe two minutes, LOL. We walked over to where she was and couldnt find any blood. We circled and retraced our steps and nothing. The bull had moved somewhere up the hill and was still bugling so I figured he was by the cow. Sure enough the cow had bedded down and at only 10 yards I finally saw her in the dark timber, she turned to look at me and I tried to get Kaitlyn to shoot but the cow got up and took off. I saw where the cow was last and we looked and looked. NO blood, the sun was down and I was in a panic, "no way, where in the heck did she go"! We looked until it was dark, flagged a couple trees and decided to head out. Unfortunately we were not able to get back until monday afternoon. We went back to the area and we jumped 6 or 8 cows and a bull heading in! AHHH! It didn't take long after that I could smell dead animal, checked the wind and and my nose led me to the dead cow in a thick patch of dark timber. I was sick cause i knew I had walked by this spot at least twice within 5 yards. Kaitlyn and I had a discussion about the ethical and legal dilemma we were in. She made the right choice to end her hunt so we took pictures and headed out. On the way back to camp, not 75 yards off the road three cows stood patiently in a meadow, ahh, man that was tough! It was a fun and bittersweet hunt with some great lessons learned. Jeff

Crap! Thats top five in the world typical! Congrats a bunch! Jeff

Mule deer. Congrats to the young man! Jeff

I had to show my six year old son this post! It is awesome! Congratulations Jett! Jeff

Very nice! Good to see all the success in unit 1 for the kids! Jeff

Thats awesome, I am glad we (Kaitlyn and I) finally got to hear the story! I think I saw your tire tracks in the grass just off the road by that burned canyon, lol. My eight year old likes the story too! Congratulations again! Jeff

Very nice!!! Great pictures, video and what a memorable hunt! Jeff

COHOFISHING, We are waiting on you and your daughters post!!!LOL

Sorry BRKNARW but if you believe in sure thing hunts you should be hunting in a high fence area. NO offense. I was told this would be a easy hunt but driving around opening morning was anything but easy. I am sure lots of kids got pretty lucky but hunting is HUNTING. I would be more than happy to tell you specifically where we saw and eventually shot an elk if you have the rest of today and tomorrow to hunt. We had an incredible hunt and hope my daughter draws again next year! IT was great meeting parents and kids at the elk camp and hearing the stories!

my daughter and I will be there tomorrow! Jeff

Thanks for sharing the pictures!! Jeff

See if I can get over there after work. Jeff

Unit 27 is open. All of Apache-sitgreaves national forest is open. iT opened the other day. http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2011/07/20/news/breaking_news/doc4e206bbfe294d726216789.txt

Looks like Kari Greer from USFS took most of them...great pictures again

Excellent pictures! Anybody know who took them? Shame to see the beaurocrats making it worse! Hunting should still be good this fall! Jeff

Hunt cmc, just get out, scout and hunt. They're is plenty of 27 that wasnt burned and even the stuff that was ] burned will still hold elk. If you are concerned I will happily accept your tag! NOt being harsh, but my daughter has a unit 1 youth cow tag and as soon as the forest is open again we will be up there scouting. I would like to see the campground where we were at on May 21! LOL Jeff

Has anybody sent that to the Department of the Interior? Well done!! Jeff

Thanks Lance! It is all about the (mis)management of habitat. Jeff