Devil Diver Down

Congratulations! I'm hoping this is my year to go from bowhiking to bowhunting, too.

Nothing wrong with that buck at all. Great job! Those of us who are desk jockeys (still working at 10pm since 8am on opening weekend Saturday ) are really jealous. Still looking for archery kill #1 after foolishly letting a small forky walk, not once, but 3 times last year.

The new models (that came out last year, I think) have 3 different settings for wide angle, medium or tighter - I don't know if the older versions have that ability too. You might try looking into the menu on yours. That said, they're made for capturing a large field of view - with details coming only on extreme close ups. Not really ideal for hunting but pretty dang effective for lots of uses. I'd be real hesitant to mount a camera to my bow, but that's just me. I'd think the head mount would be much better for capturing the entire sequence since there's no viewfinder. Best of luck on your hunt and capturing great footage!

Will the Hunt Gods do the same? Sept archery bull - 6A Oldest boy -JR rifle cow 6A Both of us rifle deer Unit 7 My youngest didn't make grades and didn't get to apply. Wrong year for that! We will have a good time, even if we end up filling our freezer with Tag Soup. Best of luck to all!

Nice! Congrats on getting more great video of some fantastic bulls. Already shot field tips and broadheads this morning. Already worked on some soft cow calling with the diaphragm call. And now I get to spend the rest of the day trying to forget about those bulls and focus on the work I need to get done so I can get out of the stinking office and into my unit for some scouting.

As Lance said, there will be cows all over the unit. Bonus points for shooting a cow closer to a road than farther, IMHO. You'll want to get it cool asap, though weather should be a bit cooler 3rd week of October than mid-September. But if you're still looking for a wilderness option, I sent a pm.

I'll be there with my oldest boy.

That bull with the target on his shoulder sure is nice. Hopefully you can get on him first morning and spend the rest of your hunt with your feet up and a cold one in hand. Nice pics for your first set up ever! I hung my first camera ever too on Saturday. I'll be up before long to see what kind of results I got. Hopefully more than 450 pictures of a squirrel. We saw a handful of cows/calves but not one bull. The rain was coming down hard for the day we were there so we couldn't cover as much ground as I wanted to. Good sign in some areas. Not much in others. I know some hunters would rather go home empty but I'd be happy with a nubby little spike. I just want to get on the board!

That 6 (now 9) page thread is on the Coues board. I suspect guys who put in for a mulie hunt only are the ones on this thread. Speaking of which... I'm hit! I'm hit!

6A mid-September archery for me; same unit for my oldest mid-October for the youth cow rifle. Did some scouting last weekend during and between rain storms. Not too encouraging but we'll be back up in a couple weeks.

Thanks for the replies. I will definitely be out scouting this summer--hopefully 3-4 times, including my OTC archery deer tag hunt in August. I'm hoping to locate some less congested areas, even if it means fewer elk. I'm not particular--I'd say I'm at the 'it's brown (and has antlers), it's down' mentality for my first archery attempt at AZ elk. Heck, I'd probably think the same on a rifle hunt. Need to put that first one on the ground. I do plan on being at the AES clinic on 7/28 if I can move vacation dates around. I've been on one of the AES work projects before--didn't pick up any tips but it was a great time for a great cause--and hoped to make Buck Springs this month, but it doesn't look good since we're buying a house. I don't even really know what I don't know yet about bow hunting or hunting in general. It's tough to learn when you get lessons so many years apart in the AZ draw

I have the same hunt, too, and I've been working on my calling. Haven't had much luck with the reed calls so far--my usual response is my wife asking me to please stop. I bought the elknut playbook but I have a really hard time hearing the difference in the different sounds. Cow sounds mostly sound like other cow sounds and bull sounds mostly sound like other bull sounds to me. I'm probably going to be up there the whole time on my own. My dad might come for a couple of days but most of my hunting buddies have hung up their guns over the years and none of them shoot a bow. Do any of you have suggestions on single set-ups or where I can find good info/diagrams? Other than keeping the wind in my face, I'm a little lost on bowhunting elk.

What do you look for on Google Earth? /newby

Sausage fest. I have to stop watching your vids or I won't sleep until September.

Thanks for posting and the clarification. Like everyone else, heard you tell him to wait for the cows to be clear then my neck got all red when I saw the second shot. Until the slow mo version when you can see the trail come from the left hand side. I hope to be joining that First Bull Club in September!

Gear lists will vary from hunter to hunter--especially depending on how you plan to hunt. I'm in no way an expert (and don't know that unit at all) but if you have any specific questions, shoot me a pm and I'll be happy to answer. I agree with needing quality rain gear. Weather can turn on a dime, especially up in the high country. Wet and cold or even wet and warm can soak the will to hunt out of you. I bought some Sitka stuff last year--guess the fashion police will be happy --for my Colorado archery elk hunt. It was blistering rain and hail down on me for 3 days, but I stayed warm and dry. It's also more comfortable than any of my other hunting (or street/work) clothes so it will be my go-to set up this September, too. I think the buzz on camo patterning is way overblown but I figure I spent some extra money on comfort and durability, which are high on my list. I got 'deals' on them so my wallet only took a little bit of a beating. My best advice would be to get up there to scout with the equipment you plan to have for the hunt. Test everything, whittle down the unnecessary extras and make sure you're ready to go hard by mid-September.

Let me start with the obvious: I'm not much of a rifle guy. I was planning on buying a new, lighter weight rifle this year to use on some bivy hunts for deer & elk (and if I ever draw antelope). My other rifles are pretty old and HEAVY. I'm also not a fan of recoil, so I was thinking Tikka T3 Lite in a 30.06 or maybe the .270WSM with a limbsaver pad. Long story short: I won a 300 WBY Mag Vanguard Series 2 in the AES Banquet raffle a couple weeks back. None of my few friends who hunt own one and the feedback (about recoil) I have gotten from those who have them is mixed--some say it 'kicks like a mule' and some say it's nothing, if I put a muzzle break on there. They all seem to agree the Weatherbys are tack drivers but I'm not into punishing my shoulder to shoot. Yes, I'm a baby and it's okay to call me one. I'm curious what those who have one/shoot one think about the recoil.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective. For many of us, that would be a sunrise, opening morning shooter. Of course, some of us have yet to put a bull on the ground. Nice video!

What a toad of a bull. I'm pretty sure I'd make that shot at that distance on that bull... right after I went back to camp and got a change of drawers. Thanks for posting the update--I wasn't on this board last year but read the whole thread a couple weeks back and laughed at the typical message board behavior, jumping to conclusions, etc. I'm glad to see that he didn't lay down and die in a brushy drainage for the coyotes to feast on and that some other hunters got to see him cruising the flats one more time.

Donate it: Hunt of a Lifetime Keep in mind that Outdoor Experience 4 All is run by Eddie Corona and Chris Denham, who can pack sand IMHO, along with their other SFW buddies. They wouldn't/won't get anything from me. TheGrayGhost- best of luck on the job trail. You're going to make some kid's year (and maybe life) with that tag and here's hoping you get a reward somehow.

Some years back I wanted to glass the late afternoon/evening before opening day of the late rifle elk season. It was an area was about a half mile from our camp where we'd seen a real nice bull up close (about 30 yards) during scouting. I suggested that my dad stay at camp because he was pretty worn out and out of shape and we needed to hunt the next week hard, but he insisted he was coming. He found a level spot behind a log and stretched out and it wasn't long before he was sawing that log, loud and clear. I moved 40 yards farther up the hill to get away from his snoring and glassed without seeing any elk. Just as it was getting dark and I was fishing my headlamp out of my pack, in sneaks this bull bee lining right past my snoring dad. It starts to walk right by him, then must have gotten curious about the sound and stops to look. Then it walks over to the log and puts his snout down by my dad's head. My dad claims the bull nipped at his stocking cap and my dad stops snoring, lets out a 'huh?', sits bolt upright and I watch this beautiful bull wheel around--the way they do that looks almost slow-motion--and then high tail it out of the area. No bull for either one of us on that hunt, but my 2 cousins showed up at 11 that night to that area they never scouted and both shot bulls with rifles they borrowed from me. That big bull is probably re-living his version of the story right now and can't sleep.

I'd have a hard time watching the television in that room. Those are two outstanding bucks! I can't decide which one I like better--I'm a sucker for wide ones but any archery mule deer buck is a trophy IMHO and that one is a toad. Awesome job!

The guidelines state that, where possible, there shouldn't be a junior deer hunt and a junior elk hunt going in the same unit at the same time. That's why the 3AC junior elk hunt used to be a week later than the other junior elk hunts. Now that the junior deer hunt has been moved to November, the junior elk hunt is the same date as the other junior elk hunts (except for the elk hunts in 22 and 23). To the general question of why they junior elk and deer hunts tend to take place at the same time: First, the guidelines state that they should try to schedule the hunts at the same time as a school break. These hunts often fall during fall break/Columbus Day (although this year fall break is the week before the hunt). Second, they've got to fit junior hunts in when there aren't any general hunts for any other species going on in the unit. If you set aside certain weeks and decide that all junior hunts should take place at that time, it makes it easier to fit all of the general hunts within the schedules provided in the guidelines. It's all about uniformity...where possible. Finally, and this isn't in the guidelines, but I've always assumed (as stated above) that the thinking is that when a kid draws a junior elk tag, scheduling the junior hunt on the same week may open up opportunities for another kid to get a junior deer tag. uglydude- You raise some good points. It would have been great if the Jr elk hunt lined up with my son's fall break--they did in the past, but not this time (his first draw)--so we have a more limited schedule with school days conflicting. I can see the point about not having a kid draw both deer and elk (junior hunts) but I was hoping either of my boys (or both) would draw a Jr deer tag--they'll be in the general draw instead. Thanks for the responses everyone!

I don't have any experience in other states and have only helped (?) my sons on junior hunts last year and this in AZ, so my turkey knowledge is almost zero. From what I understand, turkey season in many other western states like Idaho, California, Montana and Wyoming (but not NM) takes place around the same calendar time which is earlier in the mating cycle, so the toms are more susceptible to being called in because they haven't 'henned up' like they have in AZ. Anybody know for sure if that's the case? It sure would be interesting to observe the birds in that earlier phase, just to get a better idea what their behavior is like. Just wondering, since I plan on hunting them the rest of my life and hope my kids will too.

I can't speak about those 2 areas you mentioned, but I rolled the dice and got an Any Elk leftover tag a few years back for one of the Hopi hunts on East/West Sunset. Definitely not a great or even good quality hunt--the game manager I spoke to told me to shoot the first elk, if any, I saw. Even a calf, he said, because they were that scarce in numbers. I scouted 3 days and saw only 1 cow. I found a nice 300" set of sheds and the second evening, just before sunset, I found the old boy who dropped them the year before about 3/4 mile away. Unfortunately, I closed the distance but couldn't close the deal on him and never saw another elk the rest of the hunt. I did get a couple of flat tires and a sunburn, though. I'd say hunting elk is better than not hunting elk in almost any set of conditions. It's been a long time between tags for me and I think those long layovers have really hurt my already questionable hunting skills. I'd say go for it and get there early on Monday!