Malbo
Member
I was feeling hopeless, wet, and freezing cold day 6 of my Elk hunt in 22N. I was feeling that way until I saw the good snow on the Mogollon Rim on our way home. I was on an emotional roller coaster the whole hunt until I put my hands on my bull. I put in a lot of work scouting for months on my days off, from about the time my tag came in the mail until my hunt started.
I had to work opening day, so I left work the earliest I could and got up to a spot I knew before sundown. I saw absolutely nothing. I went out with my dad the next morning with no success. Later that evening was also pretty rough. My brother joined us and we set up on some power lines facing a big hill. My dad hiked around trying to push something my way, but there wasn't anything in there. We hiked around a bit and found nothing but other hunters.
The next day my brother and I went to a spot my scouting buddy showed me. He had put up a tree stand a while back and told me I could use it. We got there well before sun up and listened to the coyotes. My brother moved up to a hill to glass as I sat in the stand. As the sun came up shots started ringing out all over the place. I heard a whistle and looked back at my brother who was making the international hand sign for antlers above his head. He came down and told me he found some with one really good one in there. We hiked down and came up empty.
We went back down the next morning close to where we found some bedding areas and glassed a couple of bulls in the distance. Again shots were going off in all directions and the bulls moved on before we could plan a stalk. We hiked around for a while with no success. Then all of a sudden I saw a big light golden brown body moving through the bushes. I tip toed over as fast as I could to get a good look and it was a friggin' TOAD! I couldn't count the points but I could tell by the mass of his body and big dark brown brow tines that he was a wall hanger for sure. He was moving slow and stopped less than a hundred yards away but I could not set up for an ethical shot on him. I almost teared up as he trotted off. Looking back I am kind of glad I didn't get him because packing him out would have been a nightmare where we were. We went back the next day, but it seemed like all of the shooting pushed most of the bulls elsewhere because we heard a definite decline in shooting going on.
While scouting I found a nice little creek bed full of grass and figured that would be a good spot to check out. We got there as the sun came up. We hiked along the edge and my brother stopped me and said "There's a bear!" I looked and saw it to be a little black calf. It did look like a Black Bear at first glance from where we were though. I set up across from a game trail going down into the creek and waited. It looked like we were only going to see cattle so we moved on.
We got to another spot I had scouted that had a ton of water and bedding areas close by. It seems like we hiked up a little too far though. I sat there with a good view of the water and beds and started hearing shots behind us where he had passed to get there. I waited a half hour after sunset and called it a day. The discouragement was really setting in.
On the sixth day after lunch. I decided to try another tree stand my buddy set up along a spring and game trail. Bad idea. It was raining and hailing on the way up and really started coming down while I was freezing up in the tree. Again nothing came out. I figured if the weather was that bad where we were, it would have had to snow on the rim. As the fog cleared off of a portion of the rim I could see good snow. My last hope! My brother found a spot on his map at the base of the Mogollon Rim, so we planned to get up there early.
The last day we got up and went to the base of the rim. We were the only people in the area. I looked North and saw the snow line just ahead of us and canyons full of snow. "Something would have come down" I said to myself. We got our packs on and started hiking up towards a snowy canyon. About a half mile up my brother stoped me and told me he sees bulls and to get ready. I got set up against a tree but couldn't get my scope on anything before they moved on. He said there was a big one there, and my blood started pumping. The wind was in our face so we pressed forward. My brother went up one side while I went up the other up a hill with my sling wrapped around my wrist ready for a quick shot.
I walked slowly up the hill thinking that they were gone and to shoot the first bull I could weather it was the big one my brother saw or not. Then I heard a rustle and saw something pop up broadside on the hill a little less than 100 yards away. I put my cross hairs on his vitals, and waited until I saw antlers and squeezed the trigger as soon as I saw them. About ten extremely long seconds later I heard a crash and coughing. My brother came up to where I was and we gave the bull some time to expire. We worked our way up to look for blood and my brother got close to where I shot him and the bull jumped up and took off scaring the crap out of both of us. He went back down about twenty yards later and kicked around. I shot him again so he wouldn't suffer any more, and the work started from there.
We were a little over half a mile from the my brother's vehicle thank God. So we got the head and all of the good meat we could in two trips.
As we left the trail head to go home, a small armada of atv's started driving up to where we were. It looks like we got in there at a good time and got the job done with a few hours of day light of the last day to spare.
(please excuse my writing style and any grammar or other errors, I am not the greatest at composing on forums)
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I had to work opening day, so I left work the earliest I could and got up to a spot I knew before sundown. I saw absolutely nothing. I went out with my dad the next morning with no success. Later that evening was also pretty rough. My brother joined us and we set up on some power lines facing a big hill. My dad hiked around trying to push something my way, but there wasn't anything in there. We hiked around a bit and found nothing but other hunters.
The next day my brother and I went to a spot my scouting buddy showed me. He had put up a tree stand a while back and told me I could use it. We got there well before sun up and listened to the coyotes. My brother moved up to a hill to glass as I sat in the stand. As the sun came up shots started ringing out all over the place. I heard a whistle and looked back at my brother who was making the international hand sign for antlers above his head. He came down and told me he found some with one really good one in there. We hiked down and came up empty.
We went back down the next morning close to where we found some bedding areas and glassed a couple of bulls in the distance. Again shots were going off in all directions and the bulls moved on before we could plan a stalk. We hiked around for a while with no success. Then all of a sudden I saw a big light golden brown body moving through the bushes. I tip toed over as fast as I could to get a good look and it was a friggin' TOAD! I couldn't count the points but I could tell by the mass of his body and big dark brown brow tines that he was a wall hanger for sure. He was moving slow and stopped less than a hundred yards away but I could not set up for an ethical shot on him. I almost teared up as he trotted off. Looking back I am kind of glad I didn't get him because packing him out would have been a nightmare where we were. We went back the next day, but it seemed like all of the shooting pushed most of the bulls elsewhere because we heard a definite decline in shooting going on.
While scouting I found a nice little creek bed full of grass and figured that would be a good spot to check out. We got there as the sun came up. We hiked along the edge and my brother stopped me and said "There's a bear!" I looked and saw it to be a little black calf. It did look like a Black Bear at first glance from where we were though. I set up across from a game trail going down into the creek and waited. It looked like we were only going to see cattle so we moved on.
We got to another spot I had scouted that had a ton of water and bedding areas close by. It seems like we hiked up a little too far though. I sat there with a good view of the water and beds and started hearing shots behind us where he had passed to get there. I waited a half hour after sunset and called it a day. The discouragement was really setting in.
On the sixth day after lunch. I decided to try another tree stand my buddy set up along a spring and game trail. Bad idea. It was raining and hailing on the way up and really started coming down while I was freezing up in the tree. Again nothing came out. I figured if the weather was that bad where we were, it would have had to snow on the rim. As the fog cleared off of a portion of the rim I could see good snow. My last hope! My brother found a spot on his map at the base of the Mogollon Rim, so we planned to get up there early.
The last day we got up and went to the base of the rim. We were the only people in the area. I looked North and saw the snow line just ahead of us and canyons full of snow. "Something would have come down" I said to myself. We got our packs on and started hiking up towards a snowy canyon. About a half mile up my brother stoped me and told me he sees bulls and to get ready. I got set up against a tree but couldn't get my scope on anything before they moved on. He said there was a big one there, and my blood started pumping. The wind was in our face so we pressed forward. My brother went up one side while I went up the other up a hill with my sling wrapped around my wrist ready for a quick shot.
I walked slowly up the hill thinking that they were gone and to shoot the first bull I could weather it was the big one my brother saw or not. Then I heard a rustle and saw something pop up broadside on the hill a little less than 100 yards away. I put my cross hairs on his vitals, and waited until I saw antlers and squeezed the trigger as soon as I saw them. About ten extremely long seconds later I heard a crash and coughing. My brother came up to where I was and we gave the bull some time to expire. We worked our way up to look for blood and my brother got close to where I shot him and the bull jumped up and took off scaring the crap out of both of us. He went back down about twenty yards later and kicked around. I shot him again so he wouldn't suffer any more, and the work started from there.
We were a little over half a mile from the my brother's vehicle thank God. So we got the head and all of the good meat we could in two trips.
As we left the trail head to go home, a small armada of atv's started driving up to where we were. It looks like we got in there at a good time and got the job done with a few hours of day light of the last day to spare.
(please excuse my writing style and any grammar or other errors, I am not the greatest at composing on forums)
