A 2022 6A elk hunting saga

[Neverdrawn37A]

Don't post a whole lot here, but lurk around a lot and thanks to all the info everyone has provided has helped me out a ton with AZ hunting.  Started out hunting from treestands back in Virginia so learning western hunting has been a long work in progress for me.

*Disclaimer- this is a long story of a newbie’s first elk hunt- no bulls were killed so sorry no pics but just thought I’d share my hunt experience: 

So got drawn early archery 6A bull with 6 points this year and had been stoked all year about this hunt. This was my first ever elk hunt in Arizona during the rut so wasn't sure what to expect.  Did some scouting in July, found what seemed like a good spot to hunt loaded with elk in the northern part of the unit where I was able to hike in and get away from all the roads and Razors/SxS's and quads.  

Ended up having to hunt the opening weekend b/c of the way things fell with work and family obligations (wanted to do the 2nd week but oh well).  Got up to the area I wanted to camp Thursday evening before the opener.  Brought my bike so I could ride in quietly up this super rough road that would take my truck forever to crawl up. 

Day 1

Woke up at 4 got packed up and rode out to where I wanted to go and hike in off the road at least a mile and try to listen for bugles/locate elk.  Well about a half mile down the road my bike chain gets caked up with mud and snaps the gear shifting thing on the back wheel in half, so much for that plan.  I pull my bike off the road as a quad is coming behind me full speed and stash it behind a tree.  As I am trying to see if I can fix it in the dark I start to hear bugles off in the distance.  I say screw the bike and I start heading towards the bugling, still waiting on first light.  After hiking in circles chasing multiple bugles for about an hour and a half I realize that these bugles are not necessarily elk, they are other hunters calling like crazy.  I stop chasing the bugles and decide to hike to the area I wanted to initially get to that was far from any roads and get away from all these other hunters that won't stop bugling.  I bump into about 3 other hunters on the way but finally get some distance from roads and it is quiet.  I bump into a cow while still hunting, she spots me immediately and trots off in the other direction.  I realize I need to slow down and that these cow elk can pick up movement extremely well.  I stay out all day and don't hear any bugles once I left the area that was packed with hunters.  Bumped into a spike still in velvet with two cows, the one cow stood in front of the spike, so didn't have a shot, but didn't want to shoot him anyway as he looked the size of a calf.  The other cow had me pegged anyways so couldn't move from my position without getting busted.  Hiked back to camp and bumped into two more cows in the evening and again, they had me immediately as soon as I got within about 80 yards and ran off.  Again I am realizing how difficult it is to move in on these animals.  

Day 2

Not having my bike, I get up earlier and hike the extra 2 miles into my roadless area I want to hunt.  On the way I bump into another spike with cows that seem to be fleeing a crazed hunter that won't stop bugling at them.  This guy was literally bugling every 5 minutes and I could tell it didn't sound like a real elk.  Anyways, I try to get close to the spike for a shot but get busted again just outside bow range by the cows.  I continue to the roadless area.  As I am walking in quietly on top of a small ridge I hear something coming below me.  I get down on a knee to lower my profile as it sounds like a group of elk trotting fast towards me. I pop my head up for a split second to see if I can locate them and right away I see the head of a cow elk starting right at me, already caught my slight movement.  With that, they start to bolt away, they are maybe at 50 yards.  I see about 9 cow elk pass, what looks like at least a 5x5 running at the back comes by, I draw my bow quickly but it was impossible to get on a running bull elk at 50 yards, so much for that encounter.   I am starting to get pretty hyped up though about seeing elk especially getting that close to a bull.  I slowly still hunt the rest of the day about 3 miles through the woods back to camp. Right a sunset, I bump into a good size bull probably a 6x6 out in the open at about 120 yards with about 10 cows.  I slowly try to get my pack off my back and get set up for a stalk, immediately busted by one of the cows catching my movement, they run off.  I continue on my slow still hunt and it is almost dark.  About ¼ mile later, I glass up another nice bull by himself at about 100 yards.  I duck behind a pine tree and again take my pack off to try to get close.  Then I think well, stalking hasn’t work well at this point so let me try my cow call to get him to come close to me.  I hit my cow call twice and I thought they sounded like good calls but the bull didn’t and he bolted off at the sound of it.  At this point I realize these elk are totally averse to any type of calling due to all the hunting pressure.  I make it back to camp feeling frustrated but also stoked about all my encounters. 

Day 3

I get my friend who drove up to camp for the night to drive my to the roadless area well before dawn, saving me 2 miles of hiking. I hike in the dark about a half mile from the road and start hearing bulges and these sound like real deep sounding, legit bugles, not other hunters.  I slowly move into the continuing bugles as the sun starts to come up.  I can hear them and I know they are close so I drop my pack to prepare for a stalk, this sounds like a huge herd.  I slowly move in glassing every few steps into the pines and see multiple elk but the cows see me again and they slowly move away from me.  The bugles are non-stop at this point so I know where they are and can gauge what direction the herd is heading.  I move fast to try to cut them off and get ahead of them. After about another half mile of hiking I am set up in a good ambush spot and I hear the bugles getting closer.  I move very slow, taking a step, glassing into the pines and listening. I spot a nice bull in my binos and he looks to be about 90 yards just slowly feeding and staying in generally one spot, it is either a 5x5 or 6x6.  I decide this time I am not going to get busted and will belly crawl into bow range.  I slowly crawl about foot at a time with my binos, range finder, and bow dragging the ground bumping into the millions of rocks that are all over the ground in 6A.  I slowly peak up and get my eyes back on the bull, a 2^nd bull starts feeding near him as well about the same size.  I think I am at a decent bow range so I attempt to range him but my range finder is all fogged up can’t see anything. I lose sight of the bull while trying to wipe to fog off my range finder lens.  I saw screw it and I get up on one knee to try to see where he went- bam, there he is, staring straight at me broadside, I nervously range him through my foggy rangefinder, it reads 62 yards.  I feel like that is an easy shot for me as I had been practicing out to 80 yards all summer. I draw my bow and put my 60 yard pin just behind his shoulder, middle of the body height-wise and release thinking it was a solid shot.  Too my horror, and seemed like in slow motion, the arrow sails high about 1 inch over his back.  I couldn’t believe I blew the shot, 60 yards was automatic for me on my practice range, what the heck?  Was my range finder off?  Did I accidentally range a tree behind him? I’ll never know.  So anyways the bulls run off along with the rest of the heard I can hear them moving off in the distance, not at a run though, just a medium paced walk. They are still bugling like crazy (this is about 830 am at this point).  I sit there distraught about my missed shot and ponder whether I should walk back to my pack I dropped about a mile away at this point.  I still hear crazy amounts of bugling in the distance and so I decide I will continue to chase this heard.  I move fast again to try to cut them off once again.  I get to a relatively open area and spot two lead bulls coming in towards me with the rest of the heard behind them. I drop to my belly and slowly crawl up to a large deadfall for cover.  The bulls are slowly moving in and I decide this is my 2^nd chance.  I am ready to draw and I range them, 80 yards.  I decide to let them move in close before I shoot.  All of a sudden they stop and turn direction and walk into some thicker pines out of range.  What the heck again?  They couldn’t see me, wind shift maybe?  The herd continues to move slowly and I parallel them about 200 yards away attempting to move faster and catch up to cut them off yet again.  At this point I can see the full size of this heard as they cross an open area, there is a continuous stream of cows and bulls moving at a walking pace and they just keep going and going, there must have been close to 150 elk in this heard, maybe 20-30 bulls.  I try again and again to get close enough into bow range but can’t seem to get in closer than 100 yards without being spotted and the herd moving off.  I do this for almost two more miles and can’t ever get close enough for a shot. I am now about 3.5 miles from my pack with no water at it is like 11am.  I decide I need to regroup, get water and rest as I am getting very reckless and sloppy trying to stalk in on these elk.  I start the long walk back to my pack and thunderstorms start to roll in.  It starts pouring rain and visibility drops (don’t have any rain gear either as that was left in my pack also).  The rain seemed to make the elk go even more wild as I hear bulges going crazy again and I keep bumping into elk off in the distance.  I try again once more to get close to a bull with about 5 cows in the pouring rain.  I move in slowly thinking the rain will hide any noise and movement but busted by a cow again, they move off just out of bow range again.  I continue to run into elk and hear bugles until the rain stops after about an hour.  I finally make it back to my pack in shock of the amount of elk I just encountered.  I take a break and still hunt the rest of the evening, running into a spike with two cows but again, can’t get close enough for a bow shot. 

Day 4

Have to leave this day due to work and family constraints, was thinking about not hunting and just packing up and going home.  I decide I have to give this hunt my all so I wake up early and decide to hunt a half day and check out an area north of camp that looked good on the satellite imagery.  Right at first light about ¼ mile from camp I have a two cows move in towards me, I have them at 40 yards and I stay still, they never see me, no bulls follow though.  I move into a small canyon thick with pines very slowly.  (I have learned that if I think I am moving slow, I need to move even slower).  I take 2-3 steps, listen, and glass, repeat.  I start to hear bugling off in the distance.  I move in very slow as the bugles get louder and I make out some antlers off in the distance through my glass.  It is a nice bull either 5x5 or 6x6 moving towards my position.  I very slowly crouch down to hide my silhouette behind a large rock in front of me.  The bull must have caught  my slight movement and stops, staring right at me for about 5 minutes.  I think he is at about 60 yards away at this point but I don’t want to risk ranging him as he would pick up on that extra movement.  After staying motionless for a few more minutes, he decides to turn broadside to me and begins to walk off down the canyon.  I decide this is my only shot at this bull so I draw my bow, no time to range him.  He stops and stares at me broadside giving me a perfect shot opportunity.  I feel like this bull is at 60 yards so I again level the 60 yard pin right where it needs to go and let the arrow fly knowing that there is no way I can miss a second time.  To my shock and horror once again, the arrow flies about an inch over his back and he trots off over to the other side of the canyon.  He stops back to stare at me some more at about 150 yards.  I collapse on the ground in disappointment and disbelief that I have missed two shots on bull elk that took 6 years of applying to get this tag.  The bull casually moves over the top of the ridge and I figure why not try an move quickly to get in front of him again.  I give him some space and circle up to the top of the ridge he went over.  As I crest the ridge I spot a cow elk moving right towards me.  I freeze and lean against a pine, she doesn’t notice me.  Before I know it, I have 8 cow elk surrounding me feeding on top of this ridge, one decides to bed down.  I stand motionless for about 20 minutes while they are within 20 yards of me. One of the cows gets a little suspicious of me and starts staring at me.  Just them I see another elk moving in behind some brush, I see antlers and velvet hanging off, another bull!  He was at about 40 yards but no shot because of brush in the way and one of the cows staring right at me.  I can’t believe I am this close to a bull within 25 minutes of just missing that other one.  I get nervous and my legs start shaking from standing still for so long. No matter how hard I try and can’t get my legs to stop shaking and the cow elk picks up on the movement, alerting the rest to my presence and they quickly walk off the ridge down to the canyon below. 

Hunted the rest of the morning then had to pack up and head back down to the desert for work.  I couldn’t believe the amount of elk I encountered on this hunt and it was a blast.  I also am so pissed at myself for missing two shots that I felt like I should have been automatic at based on all the practice I did before the hunt.  Thankful for a great experience up in the pines that was the best hunt I’ve ever had, but also the worst hunt ever with those two misses.  Hoping to get back up there again before the season ends!

[Lucafu1]

dang man, I hope you can get back out there!!!!

[JSR]

Screw work. 

[CatfishKev]

Sounds like you saw quite a few elk and had a good time.  Sorry it didn't happen.  Did you have a chance to shoot your bow since? Maybe your sight got bumped?

[dustin25]

Thanks for the write up! Not enough people take the time on here anymore. I enjoyed reading your story, hope you can get back out!

['Ike']

Don’t over think it…You don’t need to make yourself smaller every time, just make sure you have cover behind you, breakup your outline…Practice shooting from your knees, if you haven’t…It’ll happen!  

[trphyhntr]

Do you have a rangefinder?

[BowHuntAZ]

I think here’s the reason you missed high twice.  “I decide this time I am not going to get busted and will belly crawl into bow range.  I slowly crawl about foot at a time with my binos, range finder, and bow dragging the ground bumping into the millions of rocks that are all over the ground in 6A.”

I’d shoot the bow at foam before I shoot at another elk to see if your sight got bumped. 
 

cool write up thanks for sharing!

[bigbuckfever]

Great write up!  Thanks for "taking us along".  Hopefully you can get back out for another go.  There's nothing like chasing elk with a bow and getting into them.  

[Newbie2012]

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like my first elk hunt. Haha. It’s definitely a learning curve trying to avoid all the cow elk eyes! Just when you think you have them all spotted, a lone cow will appear outta nowhere, staring at you. Just keep at it. 

One thing I would suggest and it’s just a personal opinion, but practice shooting with your pack on. I noticed in your writeup you mentioned taking your pack off during every stalk. You even mentioned in Day 2 getting busted doing this. One less movement to worry about by keeping it on. 

Hopefully another tag is in your future. Good luck!

[AZLance]

you get a book contract for that post?

[Neverdrawn37A]

Yeah, so have a rangefinder, I think what happened on the first shot was it was all fogged up and I must have had bull fever and shakily ranged something behind him because I just got done practicing at the range behind my house and I am dead on still at 62 yards so sights didn't get bumped.  

Looking at the target on the range, I am thinking the first shot I was off using the rangefinder, then the 2nd shot I missed I totally misjudged the range thinking he was 60 yards, I think now he was probably more like 45-50 yards and I didn't take time to range him with the range finder.  

So on the 2nd bull I should have taken ta quick second to verify my range with the rangefinder and prob would have had him.  Very frustrating, mad at myself.  I guess the worst part of it is I feel like its gonna be another 6-8 years before I can draw this tag again unless I get real lucky.  Trying to stay positive and be thankful for the nonstop encounters with elk I had.  

[Neverdrawn37A]

4 minutes ago, AZLance said:

you get a book contract for that post?

haha, yeah it all kept running through my head over and over, felt like I needed to get it down on paper and share with some one as I was hunting by myself so no one knows the drama I went through.  Maybe submit the story to bowhunter magazine lol. 

[Ed67]

Be sure to practice In every possible shooting position imaginable. I missed a bull 2 years ago at a mere 27 yards while hunting in a brush blind near a wallow. Bull came in while I was laying flat on my back during a time I wasn’t expecting elk. I sat upright, drew (it’s difficult while sitting), turned my body 90 degrees to the right to shoot and let one fly right under him. 😮

[AzRaised08]

Wow that’s great you were able to get into so many elk but I’m sure it stings with those misses. The important thing though is you learned a lot and already know what to do better next time. Thanks for taking us along on the hunt with the great write up!