Wife’s Semi-Live Late Bull Hunt

[el diablo]

Better luck today hopefully 

[AzRaised08]

Day 2 Update:

The morning was slow, probably one of the slowest mornings of hunting I’ve had in a while. Not only did we not see any elk, we didn’t hear any shots (we heard about 6 different groups of shots yesterday morning). My wife spotted a deer for a brief moment on the opposite ridge,, my father in law bumped a couple mulies while hiking through an area further into the canyon, and my buddy spotted a deer for a quick second right as we were about to pack up from our morning spot. Definitely a slow morning. I wish I could report the afternoon was different, but it was more of the same. We spent a few hours glassing a big ridge line but we weren’t able to turn any up. We also didn’t hear any shots either. We decided to move to an area about 5 miles to the north where it’s a bit higher in elevation just to see if we could get anything going for the evening. We did about a 1.5mile loop and don’t see anything but as we are about 20 feet from the truck, I see my wife crouching down and my brother and friend are waving at me to get up there. I couldn’t see them but there was a small herd of elk right on the other side of the forest road. Unfortunately, we kind of spooked them because we didn’t know there would be any right next to our truck. Lesson learned. I get up to my wife and she told me that she’s pretty sure there were some bulls in the group. So we slowly make our way back into the area we last saw them go. After following their tracks about a quarter of a mile, smelling them, and just looking ahead we finally decide maybe it just wasn’t worth blundering through the woods. We decided to loop back to the truck thinking with any luck maybe the group will double back and we’d get a chance to see them again. Right as we’re about to get back to the road, I spot them about 100 yards ahead walking quickly. This time I’m getting a real good look at them through the pines and tell my wife to get set up! I got the video camera zoomed in and I see cow, cow, cow, cow, cow. I’m thinking “where are the bulls??”. Finally, I see the first spike followed by several more cows. I start hoping that maybe there are some bigger bulls bringing up the rear. I check on my wife and she wasn’t able to find a good rest to get set up for a shot. I tell her not to worry cause all I’m seeing are cows and small spikes. Unfortunately, the rest of the group was more of the same—3 spikes and maybe 20 cows. No tag filled. We still have 4 days of hunting left so we are hoping tomorrow we get into more elk like we did this evening. Almost 20 miles hiked so far and we are starting to feel it but the thought of a filled tag keeps us going! Thanks for all the well wishes and following along!

 

[goinhuntn]

 Good luck & thanks for the play by play.

[Couzer]

Keep at it!

[Big Browns]

Thanks for the updates.  Stay positive and most importantly "have fun"!!!

[AzRaised08]

Day 3 Update:

Still no bull down. But we are trying!! The morning was a little bit more active than yesterday. About an hour after sunup, my buddy spotted two bulls at the very top of a ridge. In hindsight we should have watched them a while longer since he was the only one who saw them but I knew we would only have a limited window to get a shot off if they ended up feeding down. So we hoofed it about 3/4 of a mile to the one spot that had a decent view of the ridge but we couldn’t turn up the pair. It’s possible they never came down off the ridge, but we’ll never know. About 15 minutes after getting over to that ridge, my father in law who was set up on another ridge said a bull was feeding down into the canyon and we should have a view of him from our original spot once he came off the ridge. So we hurry back to that spot and wait. And wait some more. In 2 hours he never showed up. He probably ended up bedding in this really thick patch in a cut just off the ridge, but there was no way for us to really get a view into there so we decided to call it. After having a difficult go in this part of the unit, we decided to really switch things up for the afternoon/evening. We drove an hour north to the pines and found a good area to hike in to. We found 3 piles of bull sign from today but didn’t bump anything during our hike through the woods. As we were about 1/4 mile from the truck, in the last 15 minutes of light, my buddy spotted a group of elk about 100 yards from us running through the trees. My wife hurried up but they were moving so fast she barely even got a chance to see them. Her and my buddy went up ahead of us trying to see if they slowed down or stopped and unfortunately they didn’t spot them again. My buddy said there was at least a raghorn but again, no good opportunity to make anything happen. Been hard hunting the last 3 days, but we got 2 left to go and we’ll do what we can to get it done! Thanks again for the support and following!

[CouesPursuit]

You're right there, hammer one tomorrow. Good luck. 

[AzRaised08]

Day 4 Update:

TAG FILLED! My wife decided she wanted to head back up to the northern part of the unit to hunt today since we just couldn’t seem to make anything happen in the areas we had scouted pre-season. So we made the hour drive north in the dark and parked the truck, hoping that the early morning light might finally get us into some elk. We settled on doing a 4 mile loop out and back to the car since the area wasn’t too steep and it was a nice break away from the canyons we’d been hiking in and out of the last 3 days. About an hour into shooting light, after not having seen anything, a decent mule buck ran across our path about 30 yards in front of us. If only it was a bull instead of a buck haha. At least we had finally seen some signs of life. Another hour went by and we still hadn’t seen anything. We were starting to get a little discouraged that another morning had gone by with minimal activity but tried to stay positive. I found an antelope “shed” which was super cool cause I’ve never seen one and I’m pretty sure they fall apart quickly after falling off. That got us a bit excited for a while. As we approached a tank about 3/4 mile away from the truck, I looked at my map and realized there was a nice little bench just up ahead. From past experiences I’ve seen elk bed on little benches like these even though they’re only 30 feet tall, so I told my wife to keep an eye out. We hadn’t gone more than 15 yards when I spotted four oval looking things. I immediately thought how out of place they looked amongst all the jagged edges that are natural in the forest (branches, logs, etc)so I knelt down. My wife whispers “do you see one”? And I reply “I don’t know I thought I saw something weird but it’s probably nothing”. I pull out my binos and sure enough, there are two pairs of ears and I see two cows bedded in grass that’s almost blocking their entire bodies. I let my wife and father in law know and we slowly start glassing. The next cow I see was 80 yards directly in front of me bedded under a tree with a completely unobstructed view of me. How she didn’t spot us walking surprises me, but I have had that happen several times where I’m close to elk and they don’t know you’re there. I’m just glad I spotted them so quickly or they likely would have seen us walking and spooked. The longer we sit there we start finding more elk, maybe 10 total, but several of them are blocked by trees. I asked my wife if it’d be ok if I backed out slowly to try to glass them from another angle to see if there are any bulls. She agrees, and I move as slowly as I can but one cow spots me and stands up. Luckily the elk slowly start getting up one by one but none spook. I finally get a good look at some elk that were out to our right and there was a bigger spike in that group of elk. Then I look over to the elk that had stood up on the left and there was a spike there too. I try to look at the rest of the group and don’t see any other bulls so I tell my wife, 2 spikes and the one on the right is the bigger one. Thankfully they slowly start feeding down into a more open area off the knoll and I tell my wife to get ready. I lose the bigger spike between the trees but I know he’s coming out and will step out soon. Second later, I see him come out and my wife’s gun goes off! Perfect lung shot at 130 yards, slightly quartered away. I know people have reservations about spikes, but this bull was the best of them all for us. Not only was it my wife’s first elk tag, it was her first big game tag ever! Sure we were slightly disappointed we werent able to turn up/make a play on any larger bulls we had scouted earlier this month, but that’s ok. The look on her face and her excitement after her shot is something I’ll always remember. I wanted this so bad for her since she’s put in so much work practicing shooting, scouting, getting the right gear, and finally being drawn after 7 years. I’m so so proud of her and our family and friends that participated in the hunt couldn’t be more stoked! I’m glad I was able to end this “semi-live” thread with a success story! Thanks again for all the well wishes and following along!
 

Until next hunt,

John

[Couzer]

Congrats! Those late hunts can be tough, way to stick with it. 

[stanley]

 VERY cool!!!!   AWESOME few days of hunting!

I don’t have any reservations about spikes what so ever!   Also, for the record, that’s a 2-point in my book! 😉

S. 

[firstcoueswas80]

For one that's not a spike, its a branch antlered bull!

Two, it sounds like she handled the shooting part like a pro!

I really enjoyed this. Great work!

[ctafoya]

+1 on not a spike. Good job. Hopefully my wife can finally draw next year after what has seemed like forever. 

[NOTAGS]

Excellent! And for what it’s worth, spike bulls have been the best eating elk I have had. Thanks for taking us on the hunt with you !

[twigsnapper]

Congrats, thanks for sharing!

[DUG]

Awesome!! I enjoyed following her hunt! We call that a spork. Enjoy the meat!