Maybe forget your wind checker or milkweed for the afternoon/evening stroll in the JP flats. Elk just love a good scenting event.
The Dog That Caught the Car - AKA Lazy Arizona Elk Hunt
- Thread starter Bullshot
- Start date
Bullshot
Well-known member
Believe me it wont be hard for them... it's been hot the past couple days and I havn't changed hunt clothes yet. I'll soon be able to kill an elk without firing a shot!
Sat water tonight, after a long, rough quad ride to get there. Watched cattle all evening, heard a few distant bugles than one closer with cows, near dark. No wildlife seen.
Congrats to the Yuma boys I met on the way back to camp. 6 pt down at (or I should say IN) a waterhole. They had dragged it out by the time I happenend upon the scene. Nice bull, guys!
Hearing bugles repeatedly from camp even as I write this. Arizona is trying to get me excited but I resist with powers previously unbeknownst even to me. The foot/heel pain I have been having the past two days is keeping me grounded, thank god I didn't shoot one of those bulls this morning. I am more than a little nervous of my capabilities right now so that's got me bummed to a degree. Shooting a dink by a trail is starting to look like an appealing goal for this hunt....
Redmt
Well-known member
Go big or go home! Don't be a wimp!
Gerald Martin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2009
- Messages
- 9,704
Dinks deserve love just like big bulls….
Bullshot
Well-known member
Sooooo that was exciting.
I decided to hunt the same slope I did yesterday morning, above a tank. Just as I was leaving camp, a truck got in ahead of me and parked where I wanted to go in. I rode up another 1/2 mile and went in from there. Immediatly hearing some bugles on the mountain. Most far but one within a 1/2 mile or less. I angled up to try to get above but kept falling behind. Then I heard bugling where I had them yesterday, so I changed course to try to get slightly above where I had them. 500 yards. 400 yards. All of a sudden a bugle about 100 yards in front of me. I stalked a few more steps and saw movement in the brush. Elk! I dropped and froze and watched cows filter up. Then they hooked left, right above me. A cow and calf milled about within 25-30 yards then reversed course, and fed through a gap no more than 20 yards away. Cow was broadside for an eternity.
(Ha ha...oh...bull just sounded off again as I am writing this.... pausing to try an approach. You wanted a live hunt, right?)
My peripheral vision caught another cow right above me. She passed by and never noticed me (more on her in a minute). The bull had been quiet for awhile and I figured they were going to bed so I backed out.
Which catches us up to that last bugle.
I tried again to make a play but as I inched around, that cow had apparently bedded immediatley after I saw her. I caught her just as she caught me and stood up. I backed out again. Dang.
So now I have another bull bugling and this one seems gettable. I loop under the other herd, and stalk in, occassionally cow chirping. He keeps bugling. I loop up and over with the wind in my favor, thinking I am getting close, when a lone bedded cow busts me and runs off. Then I hear the rest of the hooves. Dang again. I take a few more steps and a bull is all of a sudden above me and running. I am putting on an elk spooking clinic! There are still bugles ahead so I throw any remaining caution to the wind and run ahead. Along the way I found a whole MESS of elk sign. Clearly they are loving this spot and tearing it all up. I go a few hundred more yards and decide to sit in a little snipers perch until about noon. There seem to be so many elk in here I just need one bull to go stretch his legs!
I decided to hunt the same slope I did yesterday morning, above a tank. Just as I was leaving camp, a truck got in ahead of me and parked where I wanted to go in. I rode up another 1/2 mile and went in from there. Immediatly hearing some bugles on the mountain. Most far but one within a 1/2 mile or less. I angled up to try to get above but kept falling behind. Then I heard bugling where I had them yesterday, so I changed course to try to get slightly above where I had them. 500 yards. 400 yards. All of a sudden a bugle about 100 yards in front of me. I stalked a few more steps and saw movement in the brush. Elk! I dropped and froze and watched cows filter up. Then they hooked left, right above me. A cow and calf milled about within 25-30 yards then reversed course, and fed through a gap no more than 20 yards away. Cow was broadside for an eternity.
(Ha ha...oh...bull just sounded off again as I am writing this.... pausing to try an approach. You wanted a live hunt, right?)
My peripheral vision caught another cow right above me. She passed by and never noticed me (more on her in a minute). The bull had been quiet for awhile and I figured they were going to bed so I backed out.
Which catches us up to that last bugle.
I tried again to make a play but as I inched around, that cow had apparently bedded immediatley after I saw her. I caught her just as she caught me and stood up. I backed out again. Dang.
So now I have another bull bugling and this one seems gettable. I loop under the other herd, and stalk in, occassionally cow chirping. He keeps bugling. I loop up and over with the wind in my favor, thinking I am getting close, when a lone bedded cow busts me and runs off. Then I hear the rest of the hooves. Dang again. I take a few more steps and a bull is all of a sudden above me and running. I am putting on an elk spooking clinic! There are still bugles ahead so I throw any remaining caution to the wind and run ahead. Along the way I found a whole MESS of elk sign. Clearly they are loving this spot and tearing it all up. I go a few hundred more yards and decide to sit in a little snipers perch until about noon. There seem to be so many elk in here I just need one bull to go stretch his legs!
Bullshot
Well-known member
I blame you! I apparently lost my wind checker on my ride out last night!
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