naturegirl

on my turkey trip last weekend nobody seemed to be following closures. I agree and my husband was told the same thing about it being liquid still but I don't think 1 person can change it. we all need to work together. 30' off a road for camping is very dangerous. I still can't fathom that one.

Pics attached and story updated! Finally had access to the home computer.

sycamore....sorry im not posting detailed info but its there. taking the horses this trip.

I can't wait til tomorrow when we go turkey hunting. hopefully I'll get my first turkey this year. lots of good feedback here. thx!

well got my map and it's the same. their estimate of road closures is wayyyy off. one area has so many roads closed its now bigger than many of the quiet/wilderness areas (appx 30 sq miles without roads now). makes no sense to me unless they had no closures in some areas but it just so happens the areas I know well were all closed.

ill take me one of those come my September hunt. sure did have a lot of eyes on you toward the end. did u bust em?

hubby just got off phone with coconino. BS. BS. BS. said they only closed 15% of the roads. im going to wait to get paper map but the online map has WAYYY more closures where I hunt. also said she is sending us a phone number where we can call to request roads be reopened. I will post this number as soon as I receive it. if we all are vocal maybe they will listen. she said they want input and feedback. write down road numbers and reason why it should be reopened and call them. this doesn't sound like a closed door yet. she also said it will be warnings unless its something blatant like the person is holding a closure map.

nothing by me was said about being lazy. I hike my rear off from sun up to sundown on every hunt I go on and not only do I hunt but we like to drive around and look at the beauty in the forrest. my father who recently passed was handicapped and walking (let alone hiking ) wasn't an option. he loved being outdoors. once again I agree with some closures but feel the amount of closures was excessive. and I feel their education about the closures needs improvement.

I asked the GW in one of the units i hunt this exact question last year and his answer was yes for personal protection. I always carry my LCP when im archery hunting. I hunt a bit by myself and I've come across some very strange people.

I can only speak for myself. I will NOT take a shot that im not 100% comfortable with. See my javelina story on this forum. I predominantly bow hunt but have hunted with a rifle. I personally call BS that you can't get closer than a half mile for a shot. we bow hunters do it all the time. of course to get closer it takes time and the chance of losing the animal but it is the right thing to do. the exception to this is an EXPERT marksman with ALL the right equipment, years of experience with LR shots, etc. I took a pig at 260 yrds with my 270 (heart shot) on a rest but that is a shot I had practiced 1000 times. i took a pig at 10 yards with my bow even though my buddy was encouraging me to shoot when it was running at 40 yards. I did not shoot until I knew I could make a good clean kill. Im one of those people where it will kill me if I can't recover an animal. I've passed on many many many shots because of this. there are many people who are hunting who absolutely shouldn't be. im super thrilled about my upcoming early bull Archery hunt but my ethics will not change. unless im comfortable that I will make the absolute best shot I can, I will not shoot PERIOD!

im a little upset by the closures and yes I guess I should've voiced it earlier during the public comment time period. I could kick myself for not. I 100%have agree that some roads needed to be closed. I just looked at 6a map where I typically hunt and camp. Im estimating 90% of the roads are now closed. im shocked. my 1st reaction is screw this. I know ill be using my horses a lot more now and ill probably be one of a few following the new rules. if they don't physically close the roads, people will continue to use the. safety is also a concern. all the quads and vehicles were dispersed over say 5000 miles and now will be condensed to say 500I miles. there will be an increase in vehicle accidents I am sure. ugh I am just plain pi**ed right now! my turkey hunts in 2 weeks. now my plans are all screwed up and I face the issue do I follow the new map pr wait to be fined. I can't imagine how many officers would be needed to patrol 5000 miles of old roads. I pay for these forests and now my access to it is restricted by 90%. just seems very excessive to me

success rate (all what u feel is success ie the hunt or the kill). late season big bulls are hard to find. many have been bumped or killed. weather is a big factor. have the elk migrated/moved to lower elevation? of course early hunt major plus bulls are with cows thus easier to find and they are vocal...another plus. they just don't think as cautiously when the rut us going on. late season they are holed up alone and much much harder to find.

success rate (all what u feel is success ie the hunt or the kill). late season big bulls are hard to find. many have been bumped or killed. weather is a big factor. have the elk migrated/moved to lower elevation? of course early hunt major plus bulls are with cows thus easier to find and they are vocal...another plus. they just don't think as cautiously when the rut us going on. late season they are holed up alone and much much harder to find.

this is the tag I drew also this year. u can find areas without other hunters. stay off roads!!!! at least half seems to road hunt or hunt close to roads. I also drew late rifle 6a three yrs ago. everybody and their mother was at stoneman then. I couldn't do it. we moved camp to where I knew less people would be. I ended up passing on some smaller bulls, missed a shot on a so so bull on day 6, came home empty handed. I still would do it the same again because I hate tripping over other hunters. I know parts of the unit very well (especially early season). there's many areas other people forget about or overlook and that will be where ill be in September. my husband "guided" the same couple 2010&2011 (lucky people drew early archery tags 2 yrs in a row) was on big bulls almost every day without many other hunters. get out as much as u can. like someone else said it's good to have multiple areas in mind.

3 yrs ago I had late bull rifle 6a. got skunked fpr a big one but had passed on spikes. any late hunt requires lots of scouting in the 1-2 weeks before the hunt because everything changes as the weather changes and the big ones go into hiding. scouting done months in advance means very little and i avoided the lower areas where there were what seemed like 1000 other hunters although that is where the most success was that year. I just don't like tripping over other hunters all day long.

I totally agree with a one year wait. I had a buddy who drew early bull archery 2 yrs in a row with his girlfriend. I was bummed. it was 3 yrs for me but 7 for my husband. I think a year is a fair wait

6a early archery! Yippee Yahoo! I've never had the pleasure of hunting during the rut! I can't wait!

Looks like I'll be getting up in the middle of the night. I've tried and tried like all of you since about 2 pm and nothing but busy signal and website down. Hope I can get them about 1 am or so. So happy I'm drawn but killing me to know if it's the early or late archery hunt!

does anyone hunt elk with horses? if so can u share the good, the bad, the ugly? we've acquired horses since our last elk hunt and are thinking about giving it a whirl. we are taking them up this weekend for some high country trail riding. we've been told that elk do not get spooked by horses. im guessing the horses will get spooked by the elk at least at first. just curious if anyone has any experience with hunting with horses.

lots of great information! thx to all!! now let's get some draw results sooner !

I know my account got tapped for 3 bull tags. im dying to find out if it's the early or late hunt. I wish they'd post soon. I had a plate put in my wrist last week ( broke it good -fell off my horse ) and im praying I can get back to my 60lb draw weight if I got drawn for September! or for that matter august deer otc. Ill be shooting a shotgun for spring turkey. no choice there. Good luck to all!

wow. that is amazing! someone on here had a game camera pic of a buck with a drop tine...looked similar to this one but im not certain and i don't remember where I saw it on here.

wow. that is amazing! someone on here had a game camera shot ofid a buck with a drop tine...looked similar to this one but im not certain and i don't remember where I saw it on here.

very nice!

I've been hunting with a bow for a little over 3 years pig, turkey and both deer seasons every year. My persistance has finally paid off and boy was it an exciting hunt! We started off on Saturday. We got into pigs around noon. The only shot that I had that day was a 51 yard head on shot on a small pig. I passed and the others never gave me a shot. Day two...got into pigs again. This time I stalked while hubby and his buddy sat at the bottom of the hill with the binos and walked me in. I got close but snapped a twig on the ground and pigs went running. I had a mama and baby at 40 yards. She stood there for 2 minutes broadside and I'm thinking why can't she NOT have that baby with her. It was a bigger baby, but still a baby. Day three..After less than 5 minutes of glassing hubby said "I've got pigs, but they are at the top of the mountain." Uggh, I'd been sick for the whole hunt and everyday we end up climbing the tallest mountain around (or so it seemed) but oh well I was ready to go. Me and Rudy (our hunting buddy) climbed the mountain as Tom (hubby) spotted from below. We got up it as quick as we could, used the wind in our favor and boy was it windy up there. We got to the top and came in at an angle at them. We crept to about 30 yards from them and by then all but 2 were huddled under a big palo verde bedded down. Those 2 were 65+ yards and 50 is my limit. Tom was strongly encouraging us to move closer, but Rudy & I decided to wait them out because they had no clue we were there and we really wanted to both get a shot if possible. After sitting there for at least 20 minutes I decided to inch my way to try to get a better shooting lane and of course for whatever reason (wind, movement, who knows) they started scattering. Rudy said a few words I won't mention, but I'm trying to tell him there are still a few just down the hill. He said "should I call?" I've never seen pigs called in before and he's never called to pigs, but had been practicing. I figured what the heck. Can't get much worse than what it was. So he's calling, which of course I find the calling process quite hilarious. It literally cracks me up. Tom's down at the bottom on the radio telling him what a good job he's doing calling and low and behold they start coming back. Rudy started calling a little too aggressively and they started turning away so Tom told him to shorten up the calls a little and I'll be damned they were coming right to us 6 or so of them lined up and on a mission. Now Rudy's behind me telling me to shoot. I had no idea how far they were and I didn't have time to range them. It would have been a heck mary shot for me that I wasn't comfortable with. Buy they were closing in fast and I drew back. Now they are about 20-30 yards to my left and still moving in, but mostly behind bushes. I'd have to time it just right in between bushes cuz they were moving and moving right towards us. I could hear Rudy behind me. He had tried to knock an arrow while calling and the arrow fell out of the knock. I can't help it I wanted to laugh. It was pretty funny. Next thing they are literally straight up the hill from me and closing in at 10 yards or less. I held onto the lead pig, followed her as she was moving, and let the arrow fly. I heard a thump. Now I've never killed anything with a bow and I've actually only killed one animal before and that was a pig with a rifle at 260 yards so I'm not very experienced, but I was pretty sure I'd hit it because of the thump. Tom was on the radio saying one ran off to the left and he didn't think it ever came out. I climbed up the hill and there's my arrow covered in blood. Yep a hit! I pull out my marker I've been carring in my pocket for 3 years just waiting to use it sometime and throw it down (yes, I was quite happy to be given the opportunity to use that marker). I followed the blood and I didn't have to go far maybe 15-20 yards and there she was with frothy blood coming out of her side and she was dead. It was a perfect lung shot with no suffering. We high fived, did a little hootin and hollering, and I had a smile from ear to ear. I did it! Just thought I'd share my story. I'm mighty proud of myself. I was getting pretty discouraged the night before(yeah, I can be a moody woman=one disadvantage to taking us females hunting). I just couldn't seem to close the deal on anything even though I'd get close over the years, but now I know I can do it!