When A Rifle Hunter Goes Archery Hunting

firstcoueswas80 · September 24, 2022

When my buddy Jake and I drew our tags, we assumed they were rifle tags. Imagine our surprise when the tags turned out to be out first choice, early archery bull tags! That meant new strings, new arrows, lots of gym time and upcoming 3D shoots in Flagstaff! Unfortunately, the family cabin in Pinetop sold right before the 4th of July Sunrise shoot.

On to the hunt.

Jake and I were able to get the entire hunt off from work, and we were both pumped!

First few days were a little rough, full moon, etc you know the drill.

On September 13th, we followed a huge train of elk with many bugling bulls for a few miles. We never truly caught up to them, but we marked the area on the GPS and decided to beat them to the area the next day.

As some of you will remember, in 2014 my grandpa passed just a couple days before opening morning. I killed my bull 4 days later, on my moms birthday, September 14th.

The next morning (the 14th) Jake, his brother Tate and I headed in to the area where we followed the train of elk, with the idea of beating them to their bedding area. As we approached the area, there was another truck where we wanted to be. We backed off a couple hundred yards and changed our strategy a bit. As we walked to our ambush point, I found a spot that gave me shooting lanes above and below my position, asked Jake his opinion and he said it looked good, so I settled in. After doing a little landscaping, I settled in for the wait. After an hour or so, I hear a bugle right behind me. I grab my bow, turn around, and glass a elk behind me. As I am looking at what appears to be a spike, I see a small 5x5 below him in shooting distance. I went in to this hunt wanting anything 5x or better, as I am not a dedicated archer and the idea of tagging a 5x5 or better on our own sounded plenty fulfilling to me. After assessing that his bull met my reasonable standards I ranged him at 56 yards. As soon as I snapped on to the string, he took a step and exposed his vitals. One Slick Trick Magnum to the top 1/3 of his lungs and he was dead in 75 yards. A quick look at the phone and he was shot and dead at 7:13 Am on 9/14.

56 yards: my sons football number

7:13, my birthday

9/14: my moms birthday.

The hunt was fantastic and one of my best times in the woods ever. Fourteen days in the woods is a long time, even in a comfortable trailer!