Alpinebullwinkle

I have a slightly different perspective on elk hunting with horses. They are more valuable for the November hunts but slow me down and are a pain in the butt mostly on the September hunts. Of course it is always great to have a horse when your bull no longer has any air in him, particularly now that I am older. When I was younger and still somewhat today in my older age horses still slow me down. My style in September is hunting 3-4 different areas daily looking for a cow in heat for lots of action trophy hunting. Horses definitely are not helpful in that situation and would slow me down. I do recognize the value of horses in November to get into some of the remote areas they usually are in that time of the year. Then again I used to get to areas faster than horses because I could take the shortcuts while the horses generally had to take the longer routes on established trails. Having said that I still welcome bumping into you on your horses when my bull is down and without the air in him!

April 6 4:00 PM

Back in the 1980's I got on a run of drawing successfully 11 out of 12 years in a row. It was the barrel system with all paper applications back then. My trick was to put in the last day of the application process which almost always spelled success. My bulls back then died of "centrifugal force" from the barrel rather than "blunt force" !!!!

We currently have a blizzard going on in Alpine at the moment. Hopefully will be followed by a blizzard of elk tags for the family soon!

Unfortunately I have to agree with most of above comments for Unit 27 which I have lived in for almost 40 years. The elk hunting experience is now about 50% what it was in 1999. Root causes for the decline in the herd are 1) wolf reintroduction, 2) excessive cow hunting (especially in August when they are with newborns) and to a limited extent less rainfall. I have a friend that owns 50 acres at Beaverhead and a few years ago had 46 calves come to his pond each evening within a herd of about 80 elk. Each nite the wolves forced the herd out into the pond taking refuge. By that September there were only 6 of the 46 calves coming into his pond. He witnessed many of the kills from his porch. Simply discraceful that AGF would allow this devastation to our elk herd but most of us realize it is all about managing money first .....and then wildlife. I am afraid it is too late for the trend of the significant herd reduction to be reversed in my lifetime.

Noticed in the news the other nite two different individuals bitten by coyotes within Phoenix city limits. We need to capitalize on these occurrances and educate the public about the need to reduce predators.....and the benefits we will realize from the efforts!

I am aware that AZSFW has recently met with outdoor clubs in an effort to gain "conceptual agreement" so that SB 2072 can be renewed (re-written) and possibly passed on a second attempt. We all need to be vocal about the good, the bad, and the ugly about this effort.

Thank you for posting this info Amanda. Can someone summarize the meeting as I missed all but the last half hour

I have hunted or helped family members and other friends on almost every September archery elk hunt since 1999. What I have noticed in unit #27 is the hunting experience is about 50% the quality of what it was in 1999. IMHO our elk herd peaked about that year. After that the wolves have really taken a toll on unit #27 elk (both cows and big bulls). AGF have acknowledged that the wolves might have cost us 30-40% of the former tag count for the unit. Also I believe AGF has issued too many cow elk hunting permits. Herd sizes are definitely down and AGF has also acknowledged that possibly too many cow permits have been issued and the herd size is now less than targeted (unless you are talking to a rancher). I have complained about August cow hunts as many times I see two week old calves (from the second heat in October) that lose their mothers in the hunt. I'm for doing away with the wolves and August cow hunts in unit #27.

Good advice Ultramag. What I have learned from 40 years of elk hunting is the bulls are usually pretty vocal the first week of September. They then go fairly silent the next 5-7 days and things continually get better until the full rut kicks in about the 23rd-24th of September. The bulls lose their minds from September 24 to October 5.

Nice bulls. I think we have chased the same bulls in that same area with you and had some good discussions. Any tags in your group this year? We have just one tag which is mine.

Talked to an AGF wildlife manager yesterday and he confirmed to me that the cows in #27 are generally very split up into herds of 10 or less (unlike prior years)

I have been disappointed in my scouting efforts for the upcoming unit #27 archery elk hunt. Have found a few nice bulls which have already moved or will move soon. Not finding many cow herds other than the same couple of locations that everyone is aware of. I'm wondering if more elk burned than disclosed or maybe they are all in New Mexico and the reservation after fleeing the fire. Is anyone else having any luck locating cow herds in unit #27 ?

I hunted it a few years back on the muzzleloader hunt. Found a few good bulls I was interested in shooting but didn't get a shot. I found the hunt to be more disappointing than units 1 and 27. Not as many elk as what I was used to in those units. But this year could be the best due to the Wallow Fire. Good luck and please share a success story with us!

One thing you can ususally count on is you will not find the bulls in the same location in November as where you might find them during the rut. Once the rut is over look for deep canyons within a few miles or so that hold water and food source with excellent cover. They get very reclusive when done with the women.