No Time Wasted – Western Hunter

An Arizona Late-season Elk Hunt

After 4 years of ready, my bank card obtained hit as soon as once more for a late-season rifle elk tag in northern Arizona. I had drawn the identical tag as a resident in 2017, my first late-season bull elk hunt of any variety, however after 10 weekends of scouting and per week of looking, I went residence empty-handed. Within the intervening years, I’d spend numerous hours reliving the hunt and all of the shut calls, decided to study from my errors after I returned for an Arizona bull. Looking much less intuitively and extra intentionally, targeted on the essential wants of elk, can be the important thing to my redemption.

Two days earlier than the hunt, round midday, my father and I rolled into the world. After establishing camp, we headed out for a night glass. I parked off of a less-traveled forest highway, and we hiked as much as a glassing knob that rose just a few hundred toes from the desert flooring. From right here we might see the higher a part of the mountainside I needed to hunt and decide aside the excessive nation the place expertise advised me some mature bulls would possibly nonetheless be holed up.

Gathering Clues

A thick coat of white snow graced the mountaintop, fading away a quick thousand toes beneath. A minute or two of glassing knowledgeable me that the snow was enough to cowl all the feed up excessive. I shifted my focus just under the snow line, the place a patchwork of grass sprouted from small openings within the decades-old burn. The grass was yellow to the bare eye, however previous years knowledgeable me that recent, inexperienced blades had been tucked down by the roots. These supplied the popular meal for late-season bulls, intent upon including energy and bulking up after the rut.

Because the solar started to set behind the charred, rocky ridgeline in entrance of us, the primary bull of the journey made an look. He was a mean five-point with a pair of turndown fronts. A buddy stood up behind him by the evergreens that served as their afternoon shade, and a 3rd popped up 20 yards to the left, feeding alongside the sting of a small clearing. All had been five-points, and none had been overly mature. The final half hour of sunshine turned up nothing greater than a loner spike. One night down, and there have been elk proper the place they need to be!

The next morning introduced yet one more scouting day, which was invaluable for placing us one step forward of each the elk and the competitors that was slowly submitting in. A repeat of final evening’s plan was in retailer, and we hoped to dig out some bulls that will have eluded us twelve hours earlier. At dawn, we rapidly discovered the bachelor group from the evening earlier than, although this morning a smaller-framed 6×6 joined them. Almost an hour later, no additional elk had appeared on the mountainside. With the climate heating as much as the 50s and elk of their beds, I spent the center of the day checking tanks for water and exercise. The foremost tanks within the space had been, in reality, full and bordered by mud dotted with elk tracks.

Neglected Areas

At this level, my scouting had been intentionally targeted on the wants of late-season bulls: meals, water, and sanctuary. The meals supply was obvious and obtainable all the way in which as much as the snow line. I had confirmed that water was accessible close to the meals supply, which isn’t a given within the arid local weather of northern Arizona. This sanctuary can be key, as it’s with most late-season elk hunts. But, thus far, I used to be working probably the most remoted and unpressured space within the unit and hadn’t turned up something particular. My subsequent transfer can be to test the smaller areas that, although not as removed from open roads, nonetheless supplied sanctuary on account of tough terrain or lack of established entry factors.

For the ultimate night of scouting, I needed to test an neglected spot on the sting of my most popular looking space. This was a location that held all the things elk wanted, but with no path or parking zone, most hunters drove proper previous. I picked a glassing level that allowed me to see right into a hidden lower that wasn’t seen from the principle highway and had a transparent view of a south-facing opening with ample feed at a excessive elevation. An hour later, and solely minutes earlier than darkness set in, the tan coat of a bull elk materialized on the high of the clearing, rising from behind a white fir. At simply over a mile away in fading mild, he clearly sported a large six-point body with ample mass and a darkish, shaggy cape.

I rapidly determined he was a lot massive for this tag – definitely large enough that I needed a more in-depth look. Barely to the south of the place he was feeding sat an open, distinguished knob that was a wonderful capturing location and was inside vary of the bull. The plan was set, and if the bull didn’t transfer far in a single day, he was killable at first mild.

Proper The place He Ought to Be

On opening morning, we began our hike simply over an hour earlier than first mild. Clear skies and 1 / 4 moon lit up the terrain forward of us, the mountain’s profile looming ominously, bigger than reminiscence served. Daybreak marked the official starting of the season, but I used to be nonetheless just a few hundred yards in need of my vacation spot. Because the crest of the knob got here into view, I famous a small group of burned ponderosa pines on the skyline. These can be good for breaking apart our outlines, so we headed straight for them.

Simply on the close to facet of the knob, we stopped to drop packs. Earlier than shifting ahead, I glanced up and over the knob from a small rock outcropping to test the opening from the evening earlier than. I glassed slowly from left to proper and, to my shock, the bull was proper throughout from us! He was calmly feeding, just under the tree line on the sting of a rocky avalanche chute bordered by pines. As he was preoccupied along with his morning meal, we crawled as much as a capturing place with out drawing his gaze.

The solar broke the horizon as I chambered a spherical and obtained lined up within the scope, illuminating the bull’s rack by the crosshairs. I might solely make out his again finish with him quartered laborious away, head down. I double-checked my bubble and turret within the time it took the bull to take a step or two ahead. He was only some yards from pines above and in entrance of him and inching nearer. I wanted to decide rapidly or threat watching him disappear into the duvet. “I’m capturing him,” I whispered as I flipped the protection off.

A rock-solid relaxation saved the crosshairs fully nonetheless, and I held mid-body, simply behind his entrance shoulder. BOOM! The primary shot, after which a second, hit vitals. The bull took a few steps ahead and commenced to wobble, however I wasn’t taking any probabilities. A 3rd shot, adopted by a fourth, struck residence and thru the recoil, I misplaced view of the bull. “I believe he went down,” shouted my dad because the bull stumbled to the sting of the rockslide and out of sight. Attempt as we would, we couldn’t discover the bull with the glass. Knots in my abdomen materialized and wouldn’t dissolve till I laid eyes on the bull. With that in thoughts, we strapped on our packs and began the hike throughout the draw.

I picked my means down the bottom of the knob, then by the burnt deadfall within the backside of the draw. As soon as up the opposite facet, we had an excellent vantage of the place the bull stood on the first shot. I impatiently scanned to the appropriate on the fringe of the rockslide, lastly with sufficient elevation to peek into the timber the place the bull had vanished. With the bare eye, aided by the shine of the rising solar, I noticed the tan glisten of a bull elk laying solely toes into the bushes!

After celebrating with my father, I hurried over to my bull, and he didn’t disappoint! A crown level on his proper facet was a pleasant shock, as was a freakishly lengthy turndown entrance. This bull was all the things I had hoped for and with character, besides!

The breakdown and pack out over the following few days had been satisfying and fair-weathered and, finally, I made the ultimate hike again to my truck, antlers in tow. I might see many of the unit from atop this mountain, and as I regarded out throughout the huge ponderosa forests and lava domes of northern Arizona that I had turn out to be so acquainted with, I considered what led me to this second. The effort and time put in 4 years in the past wasn’t a waste as I had thought then, however quite the expertise I wanted on my path to redemption.