Bill's 1st Az bull

[azryan]

Bill is a good friend of mine and has been a big hunter all his life. He has never taken a bull elk in his life. He has been on plenty of successful elk hunts just has never had a bull tag for himself. This year he got drawn for a Utah early rifle bull hunt and an Arizona early rifle bull hunt. He was a little overwhelmed since his Utah hunt was a week before his Arizona hunt. What a problem too have! He was nice enough too invite me on his hunt. Now I had a good reason too be up in the woods as much as possible. We made a lot of scouting trips just mainly learning the area better and dissecting it. We were not too concerned about finding bulls and patterning them like most of you know they move a lot once they are done growing. We started finding some very good areas and pretty much got it narrowed down too 3 main areas too keep our eye on. I have a ton of pictures from all of the scouting trips and the hunt but Ill just post a few. I wanted to do a big post of all the scouting trips and the hunt, but I just dont have the time

 

 

One of the days we did a very long hike, during that we stopped to glass and Bill, came up with this

 

When he got back down he said there were a bunch of sheds up there but did not want too carry em down. Could not find the other side too the big shed yet. We are planning a trip back up to that spot very soon. His nephew has the late rifle tag in that area.

 

Ran across a few of these on some scouting trips

 

 

Here are a few pics of some bulls during the hunt and scouting

 

 

During the hunt and the weekend prior most of the bulls were busted up. We looked at a ton of different bulls and they seemed too always be broken up. It was one of the most fun ruts I have seen. The bulls were just going nuts. We had a small support group up there compared too most camps. Of all the time behind the glass and hiking we did, we could not find that big ol' toad bull. Biggest bull we saw was 365"-370". It was weird most of the mature bulls we saw had very weak top ends, which seemed to be the general consensus with everyone we talked too. Bill lowered his standards due to what we were seeing and all the busted up bulls. Bill ended up shooting a 310 bull in Utah so now his goal for Arizona was just a good solid mature bull that was not busted up too badly. Bill shot his bull on the 2nd morning. There was a bigger bull that Bill passed on due too his one of his 4th's being busted and parts of his main beam broken. Well you never know what he really looked like since he was broken. Bill shot the bull at 17 yards. He was ecstatic about the whole situation. It was depressing too me we were done by the 2nd morning when we had the whole hunt off. The rut was going the best I have seen it at that point. O well we had a hoot of a time up there. This bull was the only animal left for Bill too receive the Arizona Big Game award.

 

 

The evening after he shot his bull we all gathered around and watched Bill cape his bull while we drank some cold ones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DUG]

Great pics Ryan! Now you need to start hitting 6A for your Aunt's hunt............

[The Coues]

Congrats on a great bull!!!

[200"mulie]

nice job

[Chef]

Much congrats to all of you!

Thanks for taking all the pics and sharing the story.

[Ron G.]

Congratulations Bill! Thanks for sharing the story Ryan! Looks like a great hunt and a lot of fun!

[izquik72]

Nice bull

good job guys

[slopoke36]

Nice, very nice bull!

[bonecollector]

Nice bull! Congrats to all involved. Great pics too except that snake I didnt need to see that one!