AZwest16

I had a 5Bnorth Archery Bull tag last year as well. After I shot my bull I took it to Casey's processing in Flagstaff. He did a great job and has a clean facility. Casey also offers several different options of what you could do with your elk. Also take into consideration, its pretty warm during that hunt and you could risk losing some of your meat if you risk transporting it back to the valley. Hope this helps.

111 2/8

Earlier today I was informed about the crushing news of Marvin's passing. Several years ago when I graduated from high school I applied for the NWTF scholarship and lone and behold I was selected to recieve this honor. Never would I have imagined what a great man and role model would be introduced into my life. When I was presented the scholarship Marvin Robbins who was the current president of the Arizona chapter presented it to me. Not knowing Marvin other than speaking with him on the phone I shared my love and passion for the outdoors in which he insisted that I come free of charge on one of his "in the woods turkey seminars." This man took me under his "wing" and taught me from square one how to hunt turkey's the right the way, all along the while praising god and teaching his word. In the years to come I would return to the turkey seminar along with Marvin helping him in any way possible. This man took a kid off of the street, a complete stranger, and dedicated his own personal time to install the great morals and values that he possessed. Marvin would always ask me about my personal life and share his own lessons so that I could learn from my mistakes and always revert back to God and his word. I would just like to say that this world is a less a place without Marvin Robbins and he will be forever missed. My prayers go out to his Family and friends.

Double Bull hands down... Almost three years ago we had a really dry winter and deer (carp) were watering everyday on the water I was hunting. I used a Ameristep blind for the first couple of days of hunting and every deer that walked into the water were very spooked and would never settle down. After a windstorm and a broken blind I got my hands on a Double Bull and it was amazing. I placed the Double Bull in the same location as the Ameristep and the deer hardely payed me any attention. Just my opinion but if you can afford the Double Bull its way worth the money..

Hey everybody. I'm still fairly new to the website and I don't want to disrespect anyone who hunt's 31 by asking for any specific area's to hunt. This is my first late tag (Unit 31) for coues and now that archery elk is over I am really excited to get down there and get some scouting work done. I have been spending a lot of time on google earth looking over the unit and have noticed the wide variety of country this unit has to offer. My question is approximately what elevation give or take 1000 feet would be a solid area to start focusing on. Second I have the week off between Christmas day to New Years Eve and am interested to know if there would be a good chance of solid rut activity during this time.? Just any input from people that have hunted this unit would be awesome. Thank you guys.

Dang check out those thirds.. Great story on a tough year to be huntin elk. Congrats to your wife.

Great write up.. I think its great you were able to connect on elk with dad and son.. Congrats to you guys.

That buck has some sweet character..! Awesome job with a bow.!

Add another one to the trophy room brother.. Thats a sweet find. Any day in the woods is a good one let alone when you get to bring home somthing like that. Great pictures.!

Well for anyone who doesn't know RAM is my borther and like he said after discovering in March of 09 that we drew a bull elk archery tag, we couldn't have been more pumped. With RAM scoring on a nice 300 bull in 08, and myself shooting a 323 bull in 07, our expectations couldn't have been higher. Over the summer we took several trips up to our unit in preperation to find that monster we were both looking for. Our scouting trips did not disapoint, between trail camera pictures and glassing off of high area's we were able to glass up several bulls between the 300 to 340 range. It seemed like over the summer leading up to the hunt the only bulls that we could find were 6 points (not a bad problem to have). So as most of you read through RAM's post we set up the mountian from the Phx area on Sep 8. in an attempt to bring home a monster. The beggining of the hunt was tough as most of you fellow 09 archery tag hunters probably ecountered. We were lucky enough to have four bull tag's in our camp in which up tell Tuesday the 15th none of us had a legitament close encounter with a bull. On that moring RAM (Ryan), my step-father (Jim), good friend Josh, and I set out into an area that was covered in elk sign. Once we reached the area we were going to be hunting we split up in two different directions in hopes of locating these elk. Jim and I set off in a different direction than Ryan and Josh. The morning for Jim and I started out the same as the ones prior with no bugle's heard and the faint bugle of a fellow hunter. It was hard not to be discouraged this far into the hunt with the way the rut was going, however I knew from past expierence's what would be coming in the near future! The morning finished up with a close encounter with two cows and a spike at approximately 5 yards in which the lead cow got in between Jim and I(pretty cool expierence). During the long walk back to the truck we discovered that Josh was at the truck by himself. Josh soon informed us that Ryan had stuck a great 6 point and was awaiting our help to pack the bull out. If you havn't check out RAM's post for pictures of his bull. So the next day came around and found all four of us back in the same area with a plan to ambush the elk herd that was seen in the area yesterday. We made our way slowly through the area where Ryan had killed his bull the day before with no encounters or bulls heard. We kept on slowly making our way through the brush cow calling every couple hundred yards. We finally made our way to a decent vanage point in which I let out a couple of soft cow calls. No bulls answered my calls in which I heard Josh cow call a few times approximately 50 yards away from me. Almost immediately after Josh had called he and Jim motioned toward the oppsite side of him indicating they had just heard a bull. I quickly made my way over to josh's location in which he advised he had just heard a bull chuckle about 200 yards away. I moved from Josh's location to a small opening where I had shooting lanes that covered all possible approaches the bull might take. I managed to pull up my range finder and range one tree at 42 yards until I realized the bull appeared out of no wear and was walking right into that same lane. i could see the bull had a decent 6 point frame in which I drew back almost instantly and let out a grunt stoping the bull in the same lane. I settled my thirty yard pin just a little bit high seeing as he was a couple of yards closer to me that the tree I had ranged and let my carbon express fly. I followed the arrow until I saw it disapear behind the bulls front shoulder a little higher than I would have hoped. The bull swung around and almost instantly vanish into the brush. I indicated to the guy's behind me who were still trying to get set up to call that I had just hammered a solid bull. After some high fives we walked up to the area the bull had been standing and found my arrow on the oppsite end sticking out of a agave plant. It was covered in bright red blood with bubble's indicating a lung shot. After an hour wait we began down the blood trail that really turned out not to be much of a blood trail at all. The four of us struggled to find an sugnificant amount of blood however the ground had been soft due to recent rain and it was easy tracking the bulls trail he had left from bolting out of the area. About a quarter of a mile later we walked around a brushy corner to my bull all piled up underneat a ceder. I felt fortunate to take this quality of bull during a tough hunt. And did I mention we still had two more tag's left in camp. Continueing On..! Well the next couple of evening's and mornings started to become more active with rut activity in the area and I was beggining to feel confident that we would fill the remaining two tags. After a couple of close calls and missed shots we found ourselves packing up camp on the second Monday of the hunt and making our way back down to the valley. After sitting at home for a day I couldn't get the sound of bugleing bulls out of my mind so I contacted my good friend Deron one of the guy's that still had a tag and asked him if he would want to leave at Midnight on Tuesday night to get to our hunting area before dawn. He agreed and on an hour's sleep we made our way back up the hill. At first light we found our selves glassing due to not hearing any bulls in the area. Almost immediatley I picked up a solid bull in the bottom of a canyon and the race was on. After almost a half a mile dead sprint down a canyon Deron and I found ourselves in the middle of three bugleing bulls. After a few failed set ups on the bulls it was apparent they were moving away from us. We quickly packed up and began moving to get in front of the elk. After approximately a half hour of walking as fast as we could we found ourselves in the middle of several cows. Knowing this could be a possibly great or possibly horrible situation at the same time to be in, I ripped off a bugle trying to make one of the bulls jealous. Almost instantly I could see a elk come crashing through the brush in which i whispered to Deron to draw back. Next a solid 6X5 stepped out at 45 yards and Deron let him have it. We decided to make our way back to the truck and drive much closer prior to searching for Deron's bull. Turned out we could have probably gone right after him as we found Deron's bull not to far away all piled up. I would like to wish a special congratulations to Deron as this was his first Bull elk ever let alone with a bow. I would also like to add Deron had just recently lost his wife Kim to cancer at the begginning of this month and that this trip and expierence was a blessing for Deron and everyone else involved. Congrats to everyone else out there who was successful this year and I know I won't soon forget 2009 when our camp went 3 for 4.

Just fyi for those who don't know the game and fish don't look at the calender and pick out which Friday of Sepetember would be the best time to start the hunt. It's based off of a certain week from the beggning of the year. Game and Fish will always start the archery elk hunt on this same week. It just happens that once every 4 or 5 years the hunt reset's to earlier Friday in the month. The reason for this is because there are several other hunts stacked up behind the archery deer and elk hunt that won't allow them to move it back a week.

Hey Kurt, I just wanted to say thank you for the kind words about our family. It was somthing I was fortunate to grow up in and I don't really know any other way. We will have to all get drawn again next year (Hopefully) and do it all over again. You have me screen name now and Ryan's is RAM. He has a post about this years hunt under the bowhunting section of the forum as do I. Regan

Thank you all for postive comments. lol and yes we got a good crash course in boneing 3 mature bulls out, and of coarse than the half mile walk out with a hind quarter or two front quarter. Just adds to all the great memories..

I'm new to CWT.com and believe that some of Arizona's finest outdoorsman frequent this website and enjoy its postings. I have read many posting about several different topics and have received a lot of good information. However after sitting back and reading this topic over the past few days I felt it was necessary to voice my opinion. (i.e. "I am disrespecting the profession." " I have no issues with someone trying to warn others about possible civil citations they could receive while enjoying our outdoors. The issue is when you start throwing out there "A-Hole" and that "you haven't wanted to punch someone that bad in the face in a long time," or something along those lines. In my opinion the citations were valid in this case. If you ask why??? It's simple you were breaking the law. Maybe next time you won't just try and suggest all the different options to try and get out of the citation such as ("I will park my HOV on the side of the road and bring my truck back here to pick them up," or "I could understand if we were driving like idiots"). And please don't say that just because you have been on a few ride along’s you would have any idea what LE officer’s job is. Until you walk in the boots of a LE Officer day in and day out and see and feel the type of things that they do, then maybe you could go ahead and attack there character. I take pride everyday on putting on my uniform. I'm not looking for any sympathy from anyone else, because I chose my profession and accept the consequences of what could happen. But you don't hear anyone trying to tell you how to do your job. LE Officer's have discretion in writing civil citaions, and in this case this Deputy used his in writing you a citation for the violations you were committing. Also for your comment indicating that you are being forced to take a day off of work to go Flagstaff, that just isn’t the case at all. I know for a fact that the court I issue citations into you can just pay for your fines over the phone without having to set a foot in the courtroom. However since you want to exercise your right to talk to the judge, don't complain about having to miss a day of work when you have an option of not having to go. TAM is right on in his opinion by accepting responsibility for his actions and not passing the blame onto others. There are members of this website that have posted comments on this issue that know me personally and can vogue for my character. I consider myself a fair officer and I would say 9 out of 10 traffic stops I would issue a verbal warning. So please don’t be fooled in my writing. P.S. Just because people post there opinion that may not agree with yours doesn't mean they are jumping on the bandwagon.

Just for a heads up I know Coues will make several scrapes in a genral area. Roughly about the size of an acre lot, you will find several different scrapes made by passing bucks. Not 100% sure about rubs but definetly a good spot to find out. Good Luck