azcouesfanatic Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Well unlike myself my wife was fortunate to draw an archery cow tag in 3A/3C. Along with Nicole's good fortune her girlfriend drew a cow tag and two of my good friend drew bull tags in the unit. Since my parent's have a place in Heber I spent a lot of time in the unit scouting and putting up cameras along with treestands. I knew that a treestand would provide the best shot opportunity for Nicole although we would sacrifice seeing as many elk. I had been working on different stand locations since early June. By the time the hunt rolled around I had six different stands up and I felt confident we would get some opportunities at elk. Nicole worked on her shooting all throughout the summer and by the time the season rolled around she was ready. She was shooting very solid out to forty yards. Opening morning found Nicole and I walking into our treestands with bulls bugling all around us. As we got roughly 200 yards from the stand I could see the flash of my trail camera going off in the dark. Turns out there was a nice 6x6 bull already there. We waiting for him to leave and then made are way to the stand. Would you know it that at 7am a mule deer buck walks by at 25 yards. I guess he knew he was safe since the season had just closed. The rest of the morning was uneventful. At 3pm we started walking into the same stand only to bust a cow who was at the salt. Man our timing was off. They next morning we made our way into the same stand but it was very quiet. We got out of the stand early and foot hunted but we could not turn up anything. That afternoon we headed into the stand at 2pm to make sure we did not miss any early arrivals. It was a slow afternoon with very few bugles. At 630pm I heard rocks tumbling and I told her to get ready. A cow walked straight into the salt and stood broadside at 18 yards. Nicole drew her bow very slowly and made sure to aim and she made a perfect shot right behind the should. The arrow was buried all the way to fletch. I watched the cow run off and I was pretty sure I heard her fall. I got down because we were losing light quickly and I attempted to blood trail. The blood trail was weak mostly because her arrow had not come out the other side and the entrance was a little high do to the angle of the stand. We came back the next morning and after a twenty minute trail we found her cow only 150 yards from the stand. We are still working on killing a couple bulls and one more cow. Hope you enjoy Brian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Awesome!! Great job Nicole!! You guys must have a lot of game meat in your freezer with all the game taken! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Coues Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Congrats!!!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nanoHunter Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Nice Cow! That will get you something in the freezer for awhile. Congrats. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruthunter Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Great job! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pine Donkey Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Nice elk Nicole. Thanks for the story and photos. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
culpritz Report post Posted September 14, 2010 great job and good lookin cow Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lucky2hunt Report post Posted September 14, 2010 YAY NICOLE!!!!! Whoop Whoop - Atta Girl! Proud of ya... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EagleEye Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Congrats nice looking elk. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Joe Kauffman Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Wooohooo! Congrats on your first elk and an archery kill to boot! Great story, I love hearing those first timer tales. Good luck on the rest of your tags! Joe Kauffman Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bonecollector Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Congrats, thanks for sharing your hunt story! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BeardownAZ Report post Posted September 14, 2010 From the pics, it appears to be a pretty good size mature cow! Congrats. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tjhunt2 Report post Posted September 14, 2010 Congratulations on your elk Nicole. I hope your elk didn't spoil over night. Now you're hooked forever on elk hunting. Great picture by the way. TJ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azcouesfanatic Report post Posted September 14, 2010 The elk was not spoiled but a coyote helped himself to a small portion. Brian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
