Catfish Angler Forum at USCA banner

2012 Arizona Bull Elk

8K views 32 replies 23 participants last post by  Cody Bigelow 
#1 ·
Finally drew a coveted Az. bull elk tag for unit 6a. Headed for Prescott Nov 28 to meet up with my friend /guide. Following am we loaded up the quads & headed for 6a. 95 miles later & some 4x4n on back roads we sat up camp among the tall pines. Freezing cold at nite in the mid 20s but the days were nice in the mid 50s. Hunted for 6 days from dark to dark. Each morning we headed out on the quads. Frign COLD! & ride another 2 to 3 miles back farther into in the boonys. Hunted on water holes, ridges, open flats, heavy timber, & canyons. Glassed about 50 elk during the week. Mostly cows. Located 2 nice bulls & several spikes. Each time to far to shoot at. And terrain that always restricted a successful stalk. Saw 15 mule deer also. At the end of day 4 my friend had to get back to work in Prescott. So with him & the quads gone it was "Solo Hombre" on foot! Decided to go for it & drove my truck all the way back to were we had been hunting. 3 miles of 4x4n over rocky back roads. Parked back in some trees & called it camp. We had placed a game cam on a "secret" natural waterhole the nite before the opener. Picked it up eve of 4th day. Clayton downloaded pics after arriving home. Turns out 2 bulls & 4 spikes had been in & out of there a few times. We had sat there 2 am's & 1 pm but NOT when the elk came thru! Argh! Soooo my game plan was to sit on that waterhole dark to dark the next rest of my time & wait them out. After 2 full looooong days nada por nada had showed up other than LOT's of squirrels & birds. Final am hiked to waterhole as usual an hour B4 sun up. Had just finished lunch at 11am. OMG! saw an elk for bout 5 seconds pass thru some brush just above waterhole.. Prayed to the elk Gods that he would come up the draw to the water. Couple minuets later I see his head come from around a rock out cropping bout 95yds out. He takes a few steps & the sweet spot is in full view standing broadside. I was sitting on a flat rock & well consealed in my blind at top end waterhole. With rifel on a tripod always at the ready. Slid the safety off, took a few deep breaths, exhaled & put the cross hairs on the mark. BOOOOM! 160 grain 7mag away. The elk stands there for a 1/2 a second, didn't hunch up just slowly lifted his head. Then B4 I could get shot 2 on the way turned & walked back behind the rock the way he had come. Out of site again. With rifle in hand circled slowly around & above him. I could smell him as I got near. There he laid about 100ft from were he had been standing. Piled up on a small flat spot in the rocks. A beautiful animal with a 5x6 rack with 3 broken points. Needless to say I was excited. Wow, now the work really begins. Started cutting at 11;30am. Quarted, back straps off, ribs off, neck boned out, fillets out, & the head off & heart baged by 3;45pm. Now to get it to truck! Ended up 4x4n my truck to with in 100ft of elk. My friend from Prescott showed up & helped get the last couple bags of meat up the hill. By around 5pm had all the meat & horns in the camper. Holly kwap! what a day. My pants were soaked with blood, had cramps in my hands & legs & was running on an adrenalin high. Drove the 14 mi back to main hwy & headed to Prescott for the nite. Next am piled 20 10# bags of ice on the meat & headed for San Diego. Usually do all my own butchering. BUT---got a remodel going on & house is torn apart. So dropped the elk off at a butcher to finish up the processing & the antlers to the taxidermist for a plack mount. Just so happens I had my fire place torn out during this remodel. Guess were that rack is going!! Been very fortunate to draw 3 elk tags in Az. in 5 years of applying. And to have harvested 2 elk. I certainly count my blessings.​
 

Attachments

See less See more
5
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top