Whats going on in 10 this yr.

[elkaholic]

well heres another story - just makes one wonder - what the heck has happened to hunting in Arizona

 

I do not know if this hunter is a member here but since 10 is havin problems heres a few more issues archery hunters are facin in the woods.

 

Unit 10 Archery Elk/EARLY RIFLE"

Just got back from Unit 10 Archery elk after ten days of hunting. I still have a few mornings left to try and get it done! Overall it's been a fun hunt with a lot of interesting and bad situations along the way!

Here's the unlucky experiences we've had during our hunt.

 

1.) Brother hits bull, other hunter finds it and cuts the head off. Don't know who has the head. It's a bull with really good bottoms and royal with slightly shorter 5ths. Not many bulls were harvested during the 5 day rain storm and horrible rut for the first week of the hunt on the west side of the unit. If anybody knows who has this bull I would really appreciate some info by pm message or on here. Game and fish was called, if anything shows up of it.--More detail posted on this after the next two situations.

 

2.) Friday evening, the 8th day of the hunt. We glass four bulls up, two exceptional 380+ type bulls. Also an awesome 360 and 350 type bulls rutting and bugling good with only one cow between them. Saturday morning I set up perfectly on them. The bull is coming in extremely hot. Crosses a meadow and is now coming into archery range and on a direct path to me. All the sudden I hear somebody on the ridge next to me YELLING trying to scare the bull. Bull stops coming in and shuts up. Cow crosses the clearing scared to death. Guy slams his door, starts his truck and goes full speed away and onto the next spot. This guy was also going full speed in his truck that same morning just farther away from me, making noise with his truck and trying to shut the bulls up.

 

I'm assuming this is a guy out scouting for the upcoming EARLY RIFLE UNIT 10 elk hunt this Friday. I'm also assuming he has these bulls picked out for his clients and didn't want me to have a chance at one of them. So yes he saved that bull on Saturday morning but I'm LOOKING FOR A UNIT 10 EARLY RIFLE BULL ELK HUNTER TO HUNT THESE FOUR BULLS. It's going to have to be somebody who's serious and can be able to scout these bulls from a glassing spot days prior to the hunt. My brother will still likely be hunting these bulls on the archery hunt, but these bulls seem to be staying in the same isolated spot so I'm confident they will be in there on Friday morning. I'm not the type that like to cause conflict, but these guys that are messing other people's hunt up need to be taken care of; especially after I possibly could have had an opportunity of a lifetime. I hope the guy that did this will also read this and understand that this crap needs to end!!

 

3.) If I sit a tank I'll usually put a sign saying I'm at the tank ahead just to let other hunters know I'm on the tank. I don't mind if people drive by the tank, they have places to go hunt also. What I didn't like about this hunt and in unit 10 is the guy who drives past my sign at 5:00 p.m. on a dead end road. Then he drives back by the tank at 5:40. Then he comes back by my sign at 6:30 p.m. and drives back by at 7:00 p.m. Not only that but he decides on his last trip to slam his door just after passing my tank. Just a lot of careless disrespectful people in unit 10, and I hope the people doing this will read this and start respecting the archery hunters in the field. I know you've got the early rifle tag coming up, but the archery hunters have a tag also and they don't come that often either!!

 

 

Here's more detail on how the tracking and finding of the bull went. 1.) Brother hits bull at 20 yards in the chest. After 1 1/2 hours of waiting we track blood trail with a ton of blood. Blood starts to fade to drops after .30 of a mile. It's now getting dark so we decide to come back in the morning to finish tracking. Next morning we track blood to two beds where he bleed a pool of blood in each. Continue tracking with good blood and then to drops again. Finally after .50 of a mile drops and tracks had run out, with no sign of a trail. We looked hard in the direction of travel and everywhere we could but the bull had just stopped bleeding. End up finding the bull with it's head cut off by another hunter several days later 1.60 miles from where he had shot it. Same ridge and direction of last blood trail we had, We just missed getting to it before someone else found it. Good luck to whoever has the antlers, I'm sure you have a good story of how you harvested a dead bull!

 

 

Other than that I had a great time even with all the rain. Usually I wouldn't post, but after all that's happened in that unit I'm was pretty diss-appointed with how other hunters are acting these days!

[donniedent]

Well, add another story of BS happening to hunters up in 10. I was excited about our 10 late rifle tag, now I'm getting a little concerned.

[ultramag]

Its sad...We have some real douche bag outfitters out there. I ran into some so called guides in 5bs. same crap. they must really feed there clients some high expectations and are willing to do just about anything to put a tag on something.

[4Falls]

Its not just guides. Its everywhere. This is just what hunting in Arizona has become.

Most guys in general dont give a crap about the hunt anymore and just want to be the guy that killed the biggest whatever.

Obviously they dont care whose hunt is ruined or even really care that much about the animal they are pursuing. Their ego is starving and has to be fed.

[Non-Typical Solutions]

The spooking of game has been a pretty common practice in Unit 10 for years, we were hunting some bulls up close to the rez line, archery, had some nut keeping the bulls from coming across the fence to water on the Unit 10 side.

 

That is pretty frustrating, I love unit 10 and sure enough hate to see junk going on out there....you really gotta wonder what fun it is to cut the head off of a bull that you didn't actually hunt.....wow what a thrill....must be an adrenaline rush......

[elkaholic]

Finding your bull several days later with the head gone , really shouldn'tsuprise you. most likely a hunter came accross the bull- saw he couldn't harvest the meat and salvaged the antlers. though we all know this is against the law, it doesnt surprise me.

 

As far as your hunt being harassed by a hunter or tree hugger - here you coulda taken time to call g&f-if possible and hopefully they may have been some help. I hope you have at least reported this. take vechile description , if possible , hear him coming , your cover is blown anyway for a while. get out and confront person and at least notify that hisactions are screwing up your hunt - get license plate and description. Lot's of things you could have possibly done.

 

Still sorry these things happen but sometimes you just have to do something.

[robertramsey61]

That is just bad, flat out bad. If that would happen to me, I would do one of two things 1) confront him 2) go on the rifle hunt and fallow that guy around and yell and make as much noise as possible for him and his hunters. Payback is a bitch, and people need to be tought a lesson.

[sjvcon]

I have bonus points out the Wazzoo...all this crap is making me want to put in for rifle cow next year. I was a little leery about my Strip hunt last year being a DIY. I'd heard some of the rumors about shennanigans with trophy class animals...not there specifically, just in general. Pleasantly, all the folks I ran into up there were helpful and nice.

 

Spooking game from hunters is illegal. Gotta call that in if it happens...with description and plates if you can.

[AZorion]

I was up in unit 10 helping some guys out on the cow archery hunt. I was up on a ridge over looking my firends waterhole, he just had 4 cows come into water and they were just starting to settle down when a jeep came down the main road, this would have been fine if they kept on going, but they took the two track road that took them right to the water hole. The elk busted out of there as soon as the jeep turned down the two track. These "hunters" drove right to the edge of the water hole and one got out of the jeep in full camo and started looking around the water hole for tracks, they finally noticed the blind on the other side of the tank and they got back into their vehicle and left. I know it is a public land hunt but to do this "scouting" on the evening of opening day kills me!!! Did they not think that there would be someone at the water hole at prime time(6 PM)? I guess some people do not know hunter etiquette!

[111]

I was the hunter in this situation. I'm almost certain these are not anti's. The reason is this is a closed area to vehicles on the boquillas and this person has access to the area. Also these elk are isolated, this was not a rancher they were perched on the hill above obviously glassing these bulls and have been for a couple weeks most likely. They knew when to let out the yelling, and they knew to speed off as fast as possible so I couldn't get a license plat on them. If I give away the location someone would probably have a lot better idea of who it could be or a better lead but I probably won't do that; except the first person with an early rifle tag that wants to hunt these bulls!

[.270]

here's my take, and everbody knows i'm always right.

 

if you were real serious about recovering what was apparantly a bull that wasn't hit real good, you shoulda went back with lanterns and flashlights and stayed on it until you found it. i also wouldn't have waited an hour an a half to track it. nothing aggravates me more than for folks to "back out and come back in the morning" like they always do on the hunting shows. anyway, that's what i woulda done.

 

the guys doing the hollering and stuff are jerks and oughta be shot numerous times with a pellet gun.

 

if you don't want folks driving down the road by a waterhole, find a waterhole that doesn't have a road next to it. just because you're sitting there doesn't mean other folks hafta change their plans. Lark.

[sjvcon]

I was the hunter in this situation. I'm almost certain these are not anti's. The reason is this is a closed area to vehicles on the boquillas and this person has access to the area. Also these elk are isolated, this was not a rancher they were perched on the hill above obviously glassing these bulls and have been for a couple weeks most likely. They knew when to let out the yelling, and they knew to speed off as fast as possible so I couldn't get a license plat on them. If I give away the location someone would probably have a lot better idea of who it could be or a better lead but I probably won't do that; except the first person with an early rifle tag that wants to hunt these bulls!

Man ... that really sucks. So the thought is that it is a Guide who wants these bulls for his client??? If that is the case, I'd be really pissed if I were you. Total BS. You did your homework. You found them square away. This sounds like the stuff I had heard about the Spider Bull ... interference with lawful hunting.

 

Man that pisses me off. Wish I had a rifle tag ... I'd take you up on your offer.

[Hunterjohnny]

here's my take, and everbody knows i'm always right.

 

if you were real serious about recovering what was apparantly a bull that wasn't hit real good, you shoulda went back with lanterns and flashlights and stayed on it until you found it. i also wouldn't have waited an hour an a half to track it. nothing aggravates me more than for folks to "back out and come back in the morning" like they always do on the hunting shows. anyway, that's what i woulda done.

 

the guys doing the hollering and stuff are jerks and oughta be shot numerous times with a pellet gun.

 

if you don't want folks driving down the road by a waterhole, find a waterhole that doesn't have a road next to it. just because you're sitting there doesn't mean other folks hafta change their plans. Lark.

 

Dang it, I agree with all of it! You are my new spokesman.

[cowdogs]

Mike, sorry to hear about your problems in 10, I have a early rifle tag in 10 this year and hope that sort of thing is not going on for my hunt. I was talking to a hunter yesterday that was telling me he was ran out a tank by a guide. I hope you get back up there to finish out your hunt. I will be up Wed afternoon, pm me if I can help ya out.

 

Bill

[elkaholic]

. I was talking to a hunter yesterday that was telling me he was ran out a tank by a guide.Bill

 

 

who'm ever this the hunter is - too bad we can not get this story - good or bad.

 

Maybe if more such first hand reports, by "whom ever" this hunter is, gets told that we as hunters/sportsman&women, will start watchin out for each other.

 

I'm sure the hunters or the guides story would be different but still needs to be told.

 

hook'm up BILL