Coach

Way to go man! That's a fantastic buck and a hunt you'll never forget. Thanks for posting it up here for all of us to enjoy!

Man, what an awesome story and truly amazing hunt. Stories like this keep me coming here day after day. Great job, and thanks for taking the time to write it up and illustrate it so well. Congrats on an amazing hunt and thanks for sharing. Keep 'em coming!

I'll be setting up camp this afternoon so my two oldest can be out chasing muleys in 3a/3c tomorrow morning. First deer hunt for both of them - should be a good time!

Congrats - that's a great looking bear!

Wow - that's a heck of a bull! Congrats, and nice write-up.

Ooooh - like that buck and what a great looking bear. Great spot you've got there.

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I'll take the .338 Lapua Magnum. Anyone have 5K to donate? I'll even do a write-up of how it shoots!

Congrats! Thanks for sharing your story.

+1 for the Winchester Ballistic Silver Tips. Great bullets for a factory load. My hand loads for .270 WSM and .300 WSM are very close to what you can buy over the counter. One thing, if you are going after elk-sized game, you might want a bonded bulllet. The same load as you would use with the silver tips, but using a Nosler Accu-bond or or similar bullet (Swift Scirocco, etc.). The silver tips are great for even larger deer, imo, but for elk I would use a sturdier bullet.

Thanks, Scott. I really wanted to have a full hunt, so taking him on the last day was really a blessing. There were so many close opportunities, and cool stories in between the highlights, but the story was already too long to include all the neat stalks in between. One thing about this hunt that was really fun was that every single day I was into some kind of action, usually multiple times, and every time I got that same rush, that maybe this stalk would be "the one". If I had tagged out on a bigger bull opening day or early in the hunt, I would have missed out on some amazing moments. One that sticks out in my mind came Saturday morning. I had been chasing bugles in the high country by moonlight and ended up in a series of meadows surrounded by pines. The weather was unusually warm, but this morning, the dew had turned to frost, and as I worked the treeline, the sun hit the grassy meadow, which had elk at all ends and huge sounding bugles all around. When the sun hit the frost, a misty fog started to lift out of the meadow making rainbows in what seemed like a smoke screen that I could use to slip past so many eyes and ears to get closer to what I'm sure was a stud of a bull. No shot that day, but I'll never forget the feeling of that stalk. That was exactly what I had hoped to experience on this hunt, and it was truly a blessing to experience.

What a great looking buck and supurb mount.

Why do I want to say "E.T. phone home"????

Wow - that is a GREAT looking bull. Congrats, and way to stick with it!

I was watching a large herd a few hundred yards off just before the archery hunt. The wind was wrong, but I figured there were always people in this area, as there is road construction going on just a quarter mile away. I felt the breeze blow over my neck and down the hill toward them. Sure enough, within 30 seconds or so some of them started getting real nervous and within just a couple of minutes, the entire herd grouped up and moved off into a secluded area surrounded by trees looking in all directions. There was no doubt they could tell by my scent that I was there and they weren't going to hang around.

Hey bobbyo, just keeping it real! You don't want someone just blowing kisses up your skirt do ya?

Great news! I'm so glad you finally found him. 2 things strike me as really cool about this post - 1) which I already mentioned, you never gave up looking and totally dedicated yourself to finding him - that speaks volumes about your character. 2) The support of other hunters who volunteered their time to come help look for him. Awesome job, awesome post - and a big thumbs-up to the Arizona hunting community who stepped up to help a guy find his bull.

Great looking rifle - can't wait to see how it performs for you.

Holy smokes! Great bull, but you can't leave us hangin' - let's hear the story! Congrats on an amazing bull!!!

Hey - nice bull. Bet he's exited! Congrats to the hunter.

Kudos to you for doing everything you could to find your bull. A lot of guys would have quit much earlier and tried to find another. You did all you could do, and I commend you for that. Great job, and sorry it turned out the way it did. Hopefully you've earned some karma points for next time.

Nice bull - congratulations!

My take is, a lot of people pick 400 as the magical number. Truth is, despite all the rumors, coffee-shop talk, blurry cell-phone pics...there just aren't that many 400 bulls walking around. Passing a solid 380+ bull that has been found and patterned in hopes of a 400 that might show up is, in my humble opinion, a little over-zealous. Many people see a 330 bull and think it's 360 or better. I've slowly learned that first impressions of bull elk are usually skewed quite a bit to the high side. To break the 350 barrier, takes a lot! I'll skip the math for now, but generally, a big 6x6 has to have EVERYTHING going on to break the 380 mark. It has to have huge (18+) fronts, deep thirds, very long royals (4ths, swords, whatever), long 5ths (10+), and good width (along with mass) on a 50+ inch main beam - okay I didn't totally skip the math. Point being, a legitimate 380 bull can't have ANY weaknesses. Yes, every year elk are taken that break into the 400's, but they are rare. Not every unit has them, and even some that do produce them from year-to-year, don't always have them. In my neck of the woods, unit 3C usually has a couple - but despite being watched for weeks before the hunt, a day or two before the hunt, they seem to vanish. Units 1 and 27 usually have a couple, but somehow they manage to elude hunters year after year. I watched a bull last year in 3C that was beyond a doubt, the biggest I had ever seen. I watched him through my binocs for about 5-7 minutes, then he was gone. I described him to a buddy who guides in that area and he knew exactly what bull I was talking about. They called him the "Burton Bull". He was a few miles away from where he had last been seen. As far as I know, nobody found him again during the hunt. This was a bull that had such a huge frame, and such long tines, you knew immdediately, he was unusually large. Here one day, gone the next. I've got a muzzle looader hunt in unit 1, 2B & 2C starting a week from today. I've been out glassing, scouting, watching bulls and cows for weeks every chance I get. In that time I've seen many really nice bulls, but few if any, that would legitmately break the 350 mark. If I had one bull located, that I knew was truly in the 380 class, that is the bull I would be focusing on.

Wow - that bull is an absolute TOAD! Congrats, and great work on your hunt. That 4th on his left side is amazing! At first I thought it was a huge 3rd also, but the other pics you included helped out - kinda strange how it starts so far down, but he's got an incredible 5th behind it, so long it looks like the royal - That's an amazing bull for sure! Had him scored yet??? I agree this would be a great candidate for "guess the score". He's huge, but hard to figure out. I'm just gonna throw out 388 gross - just from the hip. Anyway you slice it, that is one great bull.

Obviously 2 sides to every strory, but I can certainly sympathize with the hunter in this case. Of all times to do the arial survey, right in the middle of a hunt?? Seems from that vantage point they could have recognized that there was a stalk going on and moved to a different herd for the time being. I'm grateful for the efforts of G&F, and I don't think they had malicious intent, but they could have been a little more discreet, and mindful of the situation. I feel for you my2cats, waiting that long for the tag, only to have the perfect stalk blown - has to be hard to swallow. Good luck on future hunts.