huntjunkie

Unbelievable!! Your my new hero! Buy me a lotto ticket to!

WOW! That is awesome! I love Ibex. Cant wait till I can take my girl ibex hunting. Congrats!!

not a member of this website and asked not to show his face. He in the witness protection program. LOL

I must say that this hunt was the total opposite of what I expected! Everything I've heard about Unit 10 is how great it is how theres's bulls behind every tree. My buddy Jeff drew the tag with 12 points. We were so excited to finally have a crack at some giant bulls. As you can see from my posts it was a little rough.(that's an understatement) Everyone we talked to had the same problem. We hunted hard everyday trying to find the elk. We hunted nearly everywere in the Pica Camp area. We had many close calls. On the 17th we saw a bull that was a toad! 200 yrds away walking in our direction. It was in late afternoon, in the open, no cows, all by himself?? Needless to say we blew it! Came back the next moring to try and patten him. We found out that he was a" satellite" to a 7x7, another big bull. But "growler" was MUCH big than the 7x7!! Huh.... The top 2 pics are the 7x7 through my 15's, not a great picture but I think you'll get the idea. Notice the 6th on the right main beam.Unfortunately they only bugled 15 minutes after sunrise and after 8:30 at night. Another Coues member that helped us now knows the location of these bulls and he has a unit 10 rifle tag. I hope he gets one of them! I'll keep him name less for now. Time was running out so we lowered our standard and moved to a location were we had been getting close to bulls every time. Yesterday morning(25th) we got in the area early and set up in front of the bulls. They went by us and we found ourselves chasing them AGAIN. As they topped the ridge heading for their bedding area they continued to bugle. Usually they would shut up. So we continued the chase. Called another bull in for a close encounter but... another tree in the way. After he left we sat down, had a snack and made a plan. I told Jeff that our last opiton is to stalk them. We had a 10-15 mph wind that would provide sound cover for a stalk. We left our packs and headed toward the bulls. About an hour into the stalk a 350 class bull stood broadside but a branch blocked Jeffs view. As the bull circled to wind us I motioned for Jeff to kneel. As he did, the bull saw him and walked away and started bugling. We started another stake on a bull that was going crazy! Jeff snuck in to about a 100 yards and i stayed back about 100 yards from Jeff. I gave one soft mew and i had a bull breathing down my back behind me. Not wanting him to see me and him possibly barking. I ran over to Jeff. The bull hung up were i had been sitting. The bull we had originally targeted went ballistic! and started racking a tree. I looked at Jeff and said, this is our chance make a quick stalk dont worry about sound while hes raking! I laid down one the ground and tried to follow the action through my binos looking under the trees. The anticipation was killing me!! It seemed like an hour! Finally i see him walking back. I look at his quiver and all the arrows are there, CRAP! He tells me how when he drew on the bulls raking the tree he turns and walks away! Then he went after another bull raking a tree 60ish yards away. He had an opening in the trees and when he shot.....not even finishing that sentence. I literally wanted to cry!! They were both 360 class bulls. We've been 4 hrs without water so we head back to our packs to hydrate. As we walk about halfway to our packs another group of bugling bull are heading for us. I tell Jeff you stalk them I'll go get the packs and I'll meet you back here. Bulls are literally coming in from every direction!! We were surrounded. There were around 20 bulls going crazy! Never seen this before. Only one cow that we saw, no mews. Poor cow! I retrieve the packs and head back to Jeff. When I see him, he's playing his bow like a guitar combined with some fist pumping and mouthing words i cant say!!!! I look at his quiver and an arrow is missing. I knew what happened. I walked over and said,DUDE WHAT HAPPENED! He told me that after I left he just picked a place to stand with a good shooting lane and this bull walks right into it and stops 16 yards. "Here let me show you". He shows me the blood trail that is really good and up a head i see the bull laying down. I think he's dead so we head that way. He jumps up and then falls down, gets back up and staggers away. After a short track job(60 yards) we find him. Not the monster we we're after but a great trophy. Trophy's aren't always measure by the inches of bone. He's an old bull. Big roman nose. His teeth were nearly worn away. I love the fact that he's old and has a lot of character! Every point was busted. The old man was rough and tough! We both were very excited! Especially with the way the hunt has been. This is his first bull and first archery elk hunt. The entire time we were quatering him the other bulls never moved. We had a 2 mile hike to the truck which we made 3 times. Bulls bugling the entire time. The last round trip i was falling asleep while packing a hind quarter out(sleep packing). I was completely exhausted!! We finished at 2:30am that's a 23 hour day.

BULL DOWN!! Finally I'll post pics later. Can't do it on my phone.

Thanks! Been chasing them all morning! Always 50 yrds on the other side of a tree. Making a stalk right now. Still haven't seen or heard cows with these bulls. ????

Heading back to unit 10 for the last 4 days of the hunt. Hopefully the bulls will be more vocal! They shut down early and start again 30 min before dark. Had some close encounters last week but there is that one tree in the way. Sat water 4 days in a row. Bulls are watering at night. Time to get serious! Lol!! Been running on 5 hrs of sleep a night since the 14th.

I've seen some good bucks durning the elk hunt in yrs past. Drew that tag the last 2 years didn't see squat!!! palivs2hnt loves that hunt!!

Sorry man that SUCKS! Hope you can get back into them!

First of all thank you Verizon wireless! I am able to read this entertaining post in the middle of unit 10 while sitting a tank! Lol! Frankly I hate sitting tanks! It sucks. Had an encounter 2 days ago. We were set up on a tank a guy from Tucson comes over says it's his, we left and found the honey hole were sitting now. First come first serve, period. Don't care if you been sitting there a month. I beat you there you should have woke up earlier or cut your lunch break short. We don't need more regs. Can't legislate good behavior. Oh, +1 on driving by a tank. Stop driving back and forth like your crusin main street looking for chicks! Gosh.....

Congrats!! Good to see someone filling their tag! Elk are bugling a little more. Some areas more than others. Still not great. This is unit 10 right..... Everybody we talk to is still having a hard time. We got into elk monday night Tuesday morning. Had a few good callins. Tues and Wednesday found a couple bulls worthy of putting a tag on. We're focusing on them. Unfortunately they are not bugling much. They go silent after 6:30 am bugle a couple times in the day and nothing at night. Trying to be patient and not push them. Had a good set up this morning. Got up really early got into position. Bulls were headed right for us. We thought the stars were aligned. When a truck drove by, twice. Bulls stopped calling and hear we are. Good news though, saw 2 big bulls leave in the back of a couple truck on Monday when I was coming back in. Congrats to those guys! Got me excited again!

That's where we are camped and theres probably 10 camps within a mile and a half. But that's not the reason the elk are hard to find. We don't see anybody out in the "field". Struggling is an understatement. Talked with another hunter who had hunted this area before. He could believe how bad it is in that area. I hope it turns around for everyone's sake! Probably the most frustrating hunt I've ever been on! It will change soon. My buddy with the tag is really wondering if he made the right decision to pass on that 340 bull Friday night. Lol!!

Last 2 days have been tough. Moving to a different part of the unit were the bulls are vocal. Starting to see a few bulls in the outfitter camps. Bulls look to be in the low 300's, but I didn't ask.

Last night we got on the bulls we glassed up Thursday night. Bulls were up about 5:00pm we followed them till just before dark then started calling. Couldn't call them in but they were vocal. Had to get agressive with them. Had one bull screaming at us just on the other side of a couple juniper trees. Sweet talked him through the trees and stood broadside for Geoff, who was at full draw. 30 yrds. I was behind the decoy calling. He stood there for about 2 min staring at me. Geoff let down after hold for a min. He was a nice bull but not a shooter opening day unit 10. He had great tops! Bottoms were weak. 340ish bull. Cool call in though! Got us PUMPED! Then this morning NOTHING, no bugles, no sign, no elk. Talked to another hunter and he hadn't heard or seen anything yet.

I think your right. I just have to keep my buddy from getting and itchy trigger finger!

Upon returning to retrieve my elk meat I found this bear eating the gut pile. I was looking at my GPS trying to locate my elk. The forest was so thick that I nearly walked right to him(guess my GPS works!! lol ). I first saw him at 30 yrds. WHOA, a bear!! I dropped my pack, grabbed my iPhone snuck in a little closer and recorded this.... This is the second bear in 2 months I've had at 20ish feet. The other video:" How close would you let it get?" [media=] [/media]

Any body had bad luck with cold steel? Say.... like breaking. I love this knife. Had it for 5 years. Gutting my elk last week and..... snap! I had to skin, quarter, etc.. with a square knife.

Went to Colorado Sept. 1 with a couple of friends. It was a rough hunt, elk were very quiet. Temps were in the mid 80's in the day and low 40's at night. Moon was bright and no cloud cover. I was a little worried that I came to early. We put some miles on the boots trying to locate elk but weren't having much luck. By Tuesday we had only seen 6 elk and heard 2 bugles, not good. Especially considering we walked about 25(colorado) miles just trying to locate em. Wednesday morning my friends decided to head home. Their feet were blistered and could take it any more. I was going to leave also because I am helping a good friend on his Unit 10 archery elk hunt. Getting home early would score points with my wife. Right? Well Wednesday morning I woke up to rain sprinkling on the trailer. Oh boy! I LOVE HUNTING IN THE RAIN!! Good things usually happen. So I said, SEE YA!!!! To my friends a literally ran out the door. With in an hour I was on bugling bulls! Boo... Yaw...!! Played cat and mouse with them for 4 hrs. The wind was swirling and I wasn't going to force it. Eventually I lost them so I headed down the ridge cow calling ever so often. Well I bumped em and they ran off. Wasn't happy about that! So I moved down the ridge and...... bumped some cows! Crap! There was so much dead fall and it was so thick it took alot of attention just walking. Hence the double bump. Now I'm really ticked. I find a game trail and walk it. Its a little less congested with dead fall. I walk a little ways, look down and see a steaming pile of crap. I think to my self, "man they are really close!" I look up a see a bull looking right at me about 80 yards away. CRAP!! literally! He just turns and walks away real slow. I look to my left and a cow and calf are looking at me and they do the same. Cool, their not real scared. So I grab my calls a start sounding like a heard of elk.(for about 20-30 sec.) Then go silent for 30 sec. Then hit a real soft estress call and I get a real crappy bugle back. So I kick it up a notch and he fires right back with a little more aggression. Sweet! I give it 10 sec. and give him a real nice estress call and he fires back again. Ok, now I'm shaking! I look up and see antlers headed my way. I put the call in my pocket and found a shooting lane. As the bull approached my shooting lane, I drew as he walked behind a group of trees. He stopped behind a tree and began feeding. I was at full draw for nearly a min when he finally stepped in the lane. I touched the trigger and I heard, WHACK! The bull jumped, ran 10 yards and stood there looking around. After a few seconds he began to stager and then fell down. In less than a min it was all over! Wow!! I couldn't believe it! I had just take my first "solo" bull. He won't score much but definitely a trophy. I called in, shot, quartered, and packed it out myself. Can you say, sore back?! Oh, and I shot him at 11,600 ft. My last colorado bull was taken at 10,800 ft. What next? The next day when I returned I found a bear eating the gut pile. Which I filmed (thread "Colorado Bear"). It was a fun and exciting hunt! And the best part, a freezer full of meat! Good Luck to those who hold AZ archery tags!! Can't wait to see the pictures and hear the stories! Hope this gets ya fired up!

Man!! What haven't you shot this year! Dang! U Da man! Congrats!!!

Amazing! I love back country hunts! Congratulations on a GREAT hunt and a Great buck! IMO theres no hunt more rewarding. Fantastic Pics BTW!

Yes, it's the Pendleton hunter.

Yes, thats my elk head by the log. The 4 quarters are about a 100 yards away hanging, untouched. The TP on the tree was to help me locate my elk. It was so thick in there that I had trouble finding it every time I went back.

Yes, bears can be unpredictable. People are way to scared of bears! Definitely be careful! You have to read the situation. Their not the man eating beast we think they are. BTW, what you don't see right below the screen is my 45 with 14 rounds ready to rock and roll.

I was in unit 27 Aug 27-29 hunting deer. I saw a 6x6 chasing and pushing his cows(4). He bugled alittle.

Sorry, changed settings should work now.