mcelkhunter

Ah, the good old days!!

Bob's hunt started about 5 years ago during a conversation when he was on a visit to Arizona. Bob and I are long time friends from high school and have seen each other only a handful of times over the last 30 years. He happened to be out visiting during an archery pig hunt and came along for a ride. During the day we talked about him coming out although at that time he really hadn't started archery hunting. He took it up a few years ago in NC and was finally ready to come out. He called me and got the info and flew out on Jan 4th. We only had a few days to hunt as I was starting a new job on the 9th. The first day we were able to get Bob on a herd of pigs but he was not able to get a shot due to the thick brush although we were right on top of them. He was pretty excited being so close and hearing them whoof at us. The next couple of days we had a hard time finding any pigs except for a herd up on a very steep mountain too late to go after. On the last day we were on them before we even got to where we were going jumping a herd a the side of the road. They crested a ridge and Bob and I decided to try to get on them while the rest of our group went to our glassing spot. After going over the ridge we were unable to locate the herd but did find one lone pig but couldn't get on him. We decided to skirt the wash we thought the pigs went into, of course further away from the truck. When we were a ways from the truck we got a call that our spotters had another herd, unfortuneately way up on the same steep mountain we had seen them the day before. We high tailed back to the truck and headed for the rest of our party. After a quick bite to eat we headed after the pigs. It took all of about 2 hours just to get in the general vacinity we last saw the pigs. It was so steep and thick with brush that our spotters lost the pigs. When we finally got to where we thought they were we were pretty wore out so we took a break on the mountain. At this point Bob commented that if we didnt find the pigs he might just shoot the guy who glassed them up (my good friend Pine Donkey) We knew they had to be close so we decided to skirt the ridge. We finally jumped them out of their bed and Bob was able to make a great shot, the pig ran about 30 yards and expired in a pile of brush right in front of us. My son and his buddy offered to hustle out to us and pack the pig back, an offer we graciously accepted. What a great time with an old friend. I think he will be back and will probably be applying for elk since he already has the license.

Congratulations!! That is a good looking deer. When I first saw your post I started jumping for joy thinking that Arizona was going to get some more rain!!

Congrats on your first deer. I hear those sporkies are rare critters so that is a great trophy!! Tried to talk a friend into going after the rare sporkie buck yesterday but he didn't believe me and wouldn't go. That last picture is awesome!

Gonna do both. A little rug and do the skull

Wow!! Congratulations.

Two very nice bulls. Congratulations!

Heck Yeah!! Go Lumberjacks!!!

I am guessing that there are a lot more stories like this than the ones about so and so messed it up for me, they just don't get told like the others. Good to see one! Thanks

That is one awesome story! That, right there is what hunting is all about. Congratulations to both of you.

+1 as I have yet to see a single game warden. I saw the same game warden twice this past deer season and saw another on an elk hunt a few weeks ago.

Very well done. Thank You!!

Red drill for me!

That is one huge lion!! Congratulations!!

I don't think I know anybody that hunts that has not seen a game animal while driving and gotten out of the vehicle to pursue it. I see game animals all the time just driving to and from work and have gone home and retrieved my method of take and gone after them or just pulled off the road and went after them if I had a legal weapon. This season I would stop along the road in several places that offer decent glassing vantage points to look for deer while driving home from work. The law is very vague and while a game warden could probably cite many people for road hunting for what they believe the intent to be, being able to prove your intent in court is a totally different matter.