Sneaker

Was blessed with this awesome bull yesterday at 2pm. This was a new unit for me, did quite a bit of scouting until I found the area with the highest concentration of elk. I hunted 6.5 days total. First weekend not much activity. Second week it was pretty good action in the morning on the 16, 17th, and 18th. Heard bugles every morning and bulls would come in to cow calls if you snuck in close first, some fully committed, some cautiously. I called in a bull my buddy harvested on Friday morning. This week was different. Hunted Wed and yesterday, Thursday, not a single call was heard. No herds found, no mature bulls. It was hot yesterday especially. I almost decided to call it a hunt, I'd hiked around 59 miles in those days of hunting and felt like our sweet spot had been burned up and maybe the elk had scattered, or at least the rut shut down because of the heat. But, my dad and wife encouraged me to stick it out the rest of the day. I decided to take a flyer on a dirt tank several miles away that had some recent tracks and wallows, even though it had rained Tuesday night. I had not completely finished getting situated in the tree/brush blind that I had made before the season than I hear some running. 7 cows and calves came in to the water on a trot. I was super pumped as I expected a bull to follow but started to lose hope as the ladies drank and played in the water for probably 7 minutes by themselves. All of the sudden, I look up and here he comes. He B lines it straight to the mud and turns broadside and starts pawing at the ground to make himself a new wallow. I wasted no time as the wind was right and none of the cows were facing towards me, pulled back and put one right on the money at 32 yards. All heck broke lose, he runs through the pond and I see the arrow just pushing out the skin on the opposite side. He puts the brakes on the the opposite bank and I hit him with a follow up just to be sure. I could not believe what had just happened. I was just half an hour removed from a decision that almost had me back at my house eating some tag soup, but I now found myself lucky as a leprechaun. I found my bull about 100 yards later.

Buddy got a small but cool 6x7, fully freshly mud bathed from head to toe. It was his first bull so he was really thrilled.

Anyone want to guess a score for me with what you see? I'm not too good at it. Didn't tape him and he's at the taxi. Not real wide. Thx

Pretty sure it is only parent to child or grandparent to grandchild.

It comes down to the value of the information. It takes alot of hard work, time and money to find good hunting areas. There are people that change their behavior based on a publicly available hunt info all the time. If you normally hunt unit A, but then see good repetitive evidence of people having much better luck or better animals in the next unit over in Unit B, what are you going to do? You'd be an idiot not to think about switching to B. If I'm a B guy, I'd rather the masses leave my area alone for me and my circles to enjoy, we are all self interested to a point. We help others out here a CW, but it stops a certain amounts levels of information. Help for Help goes a long way though. A long long way in the right situations.

Thanks everyone. ready2hunt, was using Viper Slick Tricks. The only bone it could have hit was Rib as this first kill shot was middle double lung...

All in two days, very cool

Looks like a wall hanger to me!

I can't imagine sleeping like that every night, cold, wet and bears. Wow.

A guy from Lake Havasu shot a 349 second day of the hunt.

Nice job. Hope to get it done myself the last two days of the hunt...

To OP, half of the other archery hunters in state right now are in your same shoes brother! Rut hasn't been strong in many units yet, so it happens, keep at it!

Definitely did not appear to be anywhere close to being started yet in 17a this weekend still.

Anyone else checking the weather way too much? Looking to be warm for the opener in NW juniper country... This is for Seligman's temps and todays rain.

At the last meeting I attended basically everyone was very opposed to having other elk hunts before the archery, but apparently that had no effect. All they said when we asked why the proposed change was "we received a COUPLE of comments" suggesting they do so...

AZ doesn't have any mandatory reporting, if you throw the card in the trash, there are no direct repercussions. Its all extrapolation and statistics my friends.

Are there any units that you have heard of south of the Colorado where the August archery kills alone are more than 20% of of overall kills? Around here I'm certain we are in low single digits as far as overall percent.

I hereby start a petition to change your avatar, it hurts me to look at it.

This thread has all the info you need from the experts: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/20386-velvet-antlers/

Are you saying buck fever is unethical? Haha. If you don't get at least some "buck fever" then you are a robot and should stop hunting.

Awesome buck

Just from an outsiders perspective, what I have heard about the hunt, the herd, and the relationship between the G&F and certain guides up there just seems very weird. I understand it is a very unique hunt, and maybe that relationship is just what they have found is what it takes to help the most hunters be successful.

Here is a thread about it: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/20386-velvet-antlers/?hl=formaldehyde&do=findComment&comment=215535

Some taxis use formaldehyde and soak it until it cures.

Wow. That left antler is unreal.