My 2013 Season

[Condor]

My 2013 hunting season began when I purchased an OTC Colorado Elk tag for September, because for the 9th year in a row I did not draw my Arizona elk tag. I was confident I would find elk, because I have hunted this area before for mule deer and got see plenty of bulls. I was told by some friends in Colorado that this was a meat hunt and to shoot any legal bull or cow. I had originally planned to hunt most of the month of September, but I was put on the September Natal Origins Trip in the Grand Canyon. I only had a fraction of the time I had originally planned on hunting now. I began the adventure at about 4am and drove from Flagstaff to Grand Junction in good time. I arrived with enough time to hunt the evening after setting up my base camp at 10,000ft. I loaded up the pack and began hiking out of my camp.

I immediately glassed up 4 cows hanging out at the next stand of timber. I got a good look at where they were and dropped down into the adjacent canyon to creep in. My stalk took about 45 mins and still rusty from the off season, the elk had moved on before I got there. Darkness descended on the Mesa and I hiked back to camp to enjoy some Ramen and tuna a la Jetboil.

The next day I backpacked across the private land I had permission to hunt on, into public land and still-hunted the thick timber, stopping only to setup a decoy and call.

On the way back to camp I stumbled upon the thoroughfare as I call it. A 6x6 bull was feeding on aspens while working its way up the trail. It was clearly a game trail that the elk were using daily.

I decided my new plan of attack would be to hunt this game trail by sitting on the edge of a thick stand of trees where some saplings would give me cover. For now I would stalk this bull. I got into about 70 yards without the elk noticing me. The Sitka pattern worked amazingly well in this meadow. The bull then started the small aspen trees in the meadow, believing this would mask a quick move into a close range, I made the move. I got to 55 yards when the bull abruptly stopped raking. As I drew back he took off into the timber.

The next morning I got hung up in some thick brush and didn't make it to where I wanted to sit on the trail before light. I bigger 5x5 was already using the trail. Cursing myself silently for taking the wrong path to the trail I began another stalk. I got to about 70 yards before he sped up his pace and I couldn't silently keep up with him so I let him walk. I then got into my blind of saplings and sat there for the entire day. At about an hour until sunset 3 cow elk started making their way up the trail. I ranged them and drew my bow, settling my pin on the lead cow which appeared to be the biggest. Out of the corner of eye I noticed antlers! I let down and reranged the small 6x6, but the tall grass was making my rangefinder jump from 40 to 50 to 40. I settled my 40 yard pin on his shoulder and slowly squeezed off the shot. The arrow went under him the cows took off up the meadow and the bull ran back the way they came from. Frustrated beyond belief I sat smoldering for the next 20 minutes until redemption decided to blossom. 2 bulls, a small 6x6 and large framed 5x5, began walking up the same trail. The 5x5 being bigger was naturally my target. I patiently waited for them to walk into my shooting solution. They obliged and I settled my 50 yard pin on the bull’s vitals. I slowly squeezed my shot and watched the arrow bury itself in the vitals of the big 5x5. I dropped my bow and pulled my chest pair up to my eyes to get a better look at my hit. The magnification confirmed the hit was near perfect and the elk would quickly expire. I waited quietly for an hour in the now pitch black woods before hiking back to camp.

The next day I hiked back to the spot and began blood tracking with my GPS running and the landowner chip in just in case. I tracked him onto the neighboring private land plot and before entering I called the game warden to get permission to track on their land. He got me permission to track until 3pm on the first persons land, but he said the landowner on the other side expressly forbid me to go on his property. I tensely but slowly tracked him across the first person little plot of land. About 100 yards from the next boundary the blood really started gushing. I knew it would be only another few hundred yards before I found him. At the boundary the blood clearly kept going into a stand of aspens located on the other side of the fence. Not daring to cross where I didn't have permission I called the game warden again, but he said in kinder words that the guy told me to F OFF and don't set foot on his land. This was one of the worst experiences I have ever had hunting. Knowing my bull was just on the other side of this fence and not being able to retrieve it was sickening. I was not willing to kill another bull on the same tag, so I packed up camp and drove back to Arizona that day. My buddy Joe had just got back from his Mountain Goat hunt near me and tagged this awesome goat with bow.

 

My next adventure was my Arizona October Coues tag. I had seen a monster buck that I guessed around 140 during the January archery season and wanted to get him in the rifle season. I had seen a bunch of people in my spot where I have never seen people before the week before season started and only knew one guy who went in there. I only knew he went in there because he arrowed a nice buck I had seen the week before during January and congratulated him on this forum. We began talking, though cryptically at first, and decided we both were hunting the same area and had both seen this monster buck. It turns out he had a bunch of his sheds from previous years, so he had known about this buck LONG before I had. Anyway long story short, the auction tag holder ended up killing this buck fair and square before me. I hunted til the last day and ended up shooting a little buck to put some meat in my freezer.

 

My last hunt for the year was on my farm in Oklahoma. I met up with my brother, Joe Keys, my cousin, and my dad to hunt. A cold front blew in the morning before the season, so everything was looking quite promising. The first morning we saw several bucks, but nothing I wanted to shoot. My brother was setup on the north part of one of our fields and took a decent buck with the 257 Weatherby Mag I built.

During the middle of the day I decided to check out another field and saw a cool looking buck that was broke up from fighting. I couldn't resist so I took him at about 230 yards with my 300 Win Mag.

After that I broke out the bow and sat on my platform stand for the remainder of the hunt. The last night I could hunt a nice buck kind of like the one I had shot the year before walked by stand I put an arrow through him. He ran 200 yards and piled up on the tree line.

 

That was my season.

 

Thanks for reading,

Connor

 

[Matt Meyer]

Great write up and pic's. Congrats on all the animals taken. Sounds like a great year

[Couestracker]

Wow, what a season you had. Bummer about the Colorado hunt. You have some awesome pictures going along with your hunt story- very nice. Congratulations on your hunt season.

[AZbowhntr]

Looks like a great season with the exception of the Colorado hunt. That is too bad. Almost seems like they should be able to get cited for waste when they allow access for retrieval.

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations on one heck of a season. Thanks for sharing it all with us. That's a tough pill to swallow on the Colorado hunt.

[capoeirajosh]

Nice season! Sorry, to hear about your bull. That is bull!!!

[kidso]

Would the landowner rather have a hunter retrieve his downed game or deal with the stench-pot of rotting meat that would result from an unclaimed trophy? Was that land occupied or vacant?

[brent]

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing.

 

Kidso: One would assume so, but its just not always the case. Luckily we don't run into that problem as often in AZ.

[bojangles]

great story!

 

too bad about colorado, and the unsportsman like conduct of the landowner, but i guess he has the right.

 

all in all, doesn't look like a bad year.

[tjhunt2]

Congratulations to Joe on his goat and to you on a good 2013 season. Bummer about the bull in Colorado. I would have been sick to my stomach as I'm sure you were. If that ever happens to me I would look the land owner up and have him tell me in person. I would offer to butcher the meat for him in return for the head. You might have gained a friend and access in the future. If he still insisted on not letting me retrieve my bull I would at least feel some what satisfied after what I would have said to him. Thanks for sharing and good luck with the 2014 season.

 

TJ

[muledeerarea33?]

Awesome season for you. And wow!! A land owner would rather see waste of an animal than let a hunter retrieve his harvest! Not sure what to think of that guy?

[ScottAdams]

Nice recap of the season, thanks for posting!

[Snapshot]

That's a bummer about the guy not letting you retrieve your bull. I hunted the Grand Mesa in 1998, which was a trespass hunt operated by Broken Spoke ranch. Took a 5 x 5 bull on that hunt. The ranch adjacent to where I was hunting had a caretaker who rode around on an ATV to keep hunters from trespassing.

[randyolson]

What great adventures!! Congrats!! Thanks for sharing that!!

[joeeden]

Looks like a great year! Personally, I think I would have risked the trespassing charge. What a rotten guy that must have been.