Koury Guide Service

I heard my first bugle of 2011 this morning. I also glassed up over 150 cow elk in the same drainage. I felt like I was in Alaska watching Caribou, not elk in AZ. Here is a picture from the video. Click on the link to see the video and hear these cow elk calling and a couple bugles...

What is happening on September 24th? The early rifle hunt starts on the 23rd and the archery hunt is over by then.

Today was a great day, I got to hear my first bugle of the 2011 year. There is nothing better to hear in the early morning dawn than a elk bugling with the sounds echoing through the canyons for miles. Scouting this morning only brings back memories of whats to come in the next 45 days. BRING IT ON... Here are a couple pictures of some of the cow elk I saw today. It was like I was in Alaska glassing the Caribou migration. I saw over 150 cow elk in one little area, bring on the rut and lets see what type of Bull Elk move in to take over a share of this huge group. Stay tuned and I will keep you posted on the scouting efforts. I hope you do realize if and when I find a real monster you wont see anything on it until we kill it or the hunt ends, SORRY.. Here is the video of the morning. Turn up the volume after I talk and listen to these elk cow calling and a couple bugles even. View the full article

Hopefully I will be able to tell you what he scores after this season. I have seen him over 10 times so far. He is living in an area that you would not look for Antelope, maybe thats why he is big.

Here are some pictures of Skyler's elk he killed in the limited opportunity elk hunt. This was a very hard hunt with not many elk. Ninety percent of the people we talked with on the third day had not seen an elk yet. Last year the success was ok but this year I know of two bulls and two cows that were killed, thats out of 75 hunters, hence the name "limited opportunity". Four hard days of hunting and numerous miles on the feet finally paid off. This elk was shot at 150 yards in his bed in flat cedar country. Click the link to see more pictures and read the whole story, also watch the kill footage of this awesome hunt!

Looks very close to the same gene. Was that 3A and did anyone ever kill him? If so do you know what he scored?

Skyler has success! With 15 any elk tags and 60 cow elk tags on a hunt with very limited number of elk it make for some tough hunting. After 4 straight weeks of scouting and 3.5 hours in the air flying the unit we had determined there were four shooters (Skyler's standards 320+ and no he has never killed an elk before, yes he is very picky). Opening morning had us 850 yards from a group of 10 bulls with one "shooter" before the wind changed direction and they were off running. Three miles later they crossed the highway into a part of the unit that we could not hunt. Day two and three went by without even seeing an elk. The morning of day four found us tracking a group of elk in the soft sand for over 3.5 hours in the dense tree cover in hopes of finally completing the task at hand. After bumping the group from there first bedding spot with out a shot the trek was back on. Approx. 1.5 miles later we came around the corner of a cedar tree and I hear Skyler say "there he is under that tree". Yes the "shooter" was bedded only 150 yards from us looking the opposite direction. After an awesome shot with no coaching from dad the journey was complete.Here are a couple pictures of the awesome velvet bull elk Skyler took.There is an extremely hard hunt. They don't call it limited opportunity for no reason. We talked to over 20 different hunts that had not seen an elk in three days. Today is the last day of the hunt and I have only heard of two bulls and two cows killed. Here is a short clip of Skyler's hunt with the kill shot, walking up to the elk and the interview is on a different camera. I will post the entire hunt video when it is completed later. Thanks to Jed Larson for getting the kill shot on tape. He did not have time to zoom in on the bull before Skyler put the hammer down. Congrats Skyler that's an awesome elk for a 12 year old. View the full article

Here are a couple of the sheep that we have filmed and later harvested. I will post some of the kill shots a little later but for now it is just the live pictures of these awesome aminals. Click here to see many more awesome live sheep pictures!

Rockies. Here are some pictures of the ram a year prior and the year we kill him. Also one of the smaller rams in the unit the year we killed the larger ram. They have since closed the unit. One of the smaller rams we found during the hunt.

This is the second scouting trip to Skyler's area and we have now found a bull that I hate and he loves. He is a real lover of non-typical racks. Here is a picture of the two together. Click the link to see more pictures and video of the pretty 6x6 and "knuckle head together!

This is the first year this unit has been open for sheep in a long time if not forever. There is a chance for a huge ram, he is just going to have to start putting in the time. Access in this unit is very limited. I hope he is in shape. How many points did he have?

Some of you may have seen this. I was waiting to become a sponsor of CWT before I posted this story. Jeremy Martinez guides for me but this hunt was his personal tag. To my knowledge this is the largest scoring buck to come off the Kaibab this year. If someone knows of one larger please post. Click the link to see additional pictures and Video!

Here is a bull we have found while scouting for my 12yr old sons limited opportuniy elk hunt that starts in Aug. Sorry its been a while since I posted. The forests were closed and since they have opened it has been all little league all star games. Click the link to see more pictures and video of the scouting.

I guided the hunter that has killed the only Rocky in that unit. I have video of the white ewe when it was just a lamb. It is amazing that it is still alive and not mountian lion food as white as it is. I will find the video and post this week.

Here are a couple Antelope we have taken in the last two years. We have seen others in this catagory while hunting these units. This buck is a 90 net B&C. Here is another look with me and Brian. Here is the score sheet of Brian's Antelope! Here is the buck that we killed last years with Jed that scores 85 net B&C. Here is a picture with my youngest son that was along on the hunt. Click on the link to see live footage of Brian's Antelope. Along with with more Pictures and stories.

I dont want to be the person with the bad news but 4a is not a trophy unit. The average elk in 4a is probably between 260-315. A 330-350 average is more of your trophy quality units and that still could be high if your talking average. A true 350 class bull is a big bull. 4a does have good numbers of elk though. Once the elk rub the velvet off they will most likely not be where you find them during the summer in their bachelor heards. They will start moving to where they are going to rut. so some early scouting is good to get to know the area but dont count on the bulls you see in the summer to be in the same place once the hunt starts. Good Luck..

Check out the post under Youth Hunters to see some very happy youth hunters. It is so cool to watch these junior hunters get all excited and very happy when they kill. Hopefully with more Junior hunts we can get our youth interested in the sport we all love and keep the tradition alive for years to come.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Congrats on a windy bird. Maybe next hunt will be a little more relaxing.

The junior turkey hunt started off great for us. We killed three birds on Friday morning and two more Saturday morning and rolled a big gobbler that got up and ran away unharmed on Sunday morning. The birds we calling good enough for us to get on them and finish the job. We found some birds that were alone and they came on a string strutting the entire way. It is just awesome to see these kids get this type of an opportunity to watch and then shoot one of these amazing birds. Here are some pictures, I do not want to load this post with pictures so I will put a few and then you can click onto my blog for more pictures and Video of some of the hunts. Congrats to all those junior turkey hunters that had sucess this weekend and good luck to those that are still hunting! Click the link to see more pictures and video of these hunts.

Very cool.. Congrats on your sucess. A turkey with a bow is awesome......

Sorry in advance for the soap box speech. I think these junior hunts are awesome and help the youth of today. I have heard adults saying the juniors should not be able to hunt first before the general hunt, it is not fair. For those that are complaing you are an adult, give me a break. There is nothing better than watching your own kid or another junior hunter harvest a big game animal. In these hunts we will not accept any money at all. We do it to help the youth get excited about the sport we all love. Thanks to all of you who support these types of junior hunts. Before the junior hunt is completed this year we hope to help 10-15 juniors kill their turkey. To all the rest of the juniors good luck and shoot straight.

The junior turkey hunt was very good for us. I will have a post later today with pictures and video. We killed 5 long beards in 2 1/2 days of hunting even with the wind. We had to work the birds a little more to get then to pull but most of the gobblers we got on were by themself or with another gobbler. This made it a little easier to get then with in range since they were not with the hens yet. Maybe the last two weeks of the hunt will be better for you and he can finally kill that old long beard. Good luck.

Congrats on a great bird and a great adventure calling turkeys. When it all works out it is awesome.

Congrats to dad and Cole. Persistance pays off in the long run. Those memories are priceless. I love the youth hunts, it keeps the up coming generations in the sport of hunting and creates a heck of a family bond. Congrats to all the youth turkey hunts.

132 4/8.