A
AZbowhntr
Guest
(sorry for the long read)
Well I was lucky enough to get to tag along on my buddy Greg's bull hunt this fall and everything worked out for us. It started out a little rough though. It rained in our unit all day Thursday and on and off on Friday making the roads a muddy mess. We left my house at about 3:30AM to get there by sun up and because of the roads we ended up getting there about a half hour late. Luckily we already new exactly where we wanted to be and drove straight there and started glassing. It only took us a little while before Greg spotted some cows on a slope about a mile and a half away but we didn't see any bulls that morning. So we decided to move to our next spot and start glassing the north facing slopes. I had set up a ways below Greg and had glassed a slope for about an hour and decided to switch to a different slope. Once set up it only took a couple minutes before I had a pretty nice bull spotted that was bedded down at about 300 yds. So it was a scramble trying to get Greg to come down and check him out. By the time we got all set up the bull had got up and started slowly moving away from us and was at about 350 to 400 yds. After looking him over we decided to pass since it was the opening day. As he moved around the mountain he pushed another smaller raghorn bull out but decided to call it a day and head back to find a place to set up camp.
So the second day started off with a view of our glassing area of this. Needless to say that was a bust.
So we headed back to camp and made a nice breakfast and waited for the fog to burn off so we could get out and do some glassing. So we decided to drive to the spot where we had glassed the two bulls and hike over one ridge so we could glass the next ridges. Once we got there we glassed in the first spot for about an hour or so before moving through a saddle to the next ridge top and glassing some more. There it only took a few minutes before I glassed this 4X4 bull up at about a 1000yds bedded down. See if you can find him. Shouldn't be to hard.
So I continued glassing and found a bull up at the top of the same ridge as the 4X4 but he would never give us a good look at him and we were not about to make the hike without knowing what he was. So we decided to start back and swing around to see a couple other slopes on the way back to the truck with us seeing nothing but a few deer. The middle one is a little fork horn.
So Sunday morning we wake up to no fog and head to our original glassing spot and it only takes a couple minutes before I spot a cow and a calf on a far ridge but no bulls on the mountain side. So I reposition to the left and start to glass and it doesn't take long before I have a nice bull(this is about 8:30am). And about the same time I glass this bull I hear a couple quads come driving down the road and actually drive between the bull and I. They stop their quads and get off and look over the edge where the bull is for a couple minutes and get back on their quads and drive off. Talk about sweating bullets. They had no idea that he was anywhere around. I could watch the bull look up to where they were and he just held tight. So we decided that Greg had better close the distance so he heads to the next ridge to set up. Once there he can't see the bull from his position so he waits for a bit and decides to move one more ridge over to put himself within a couple hundred yards. At this point I decide to pack up and move to the second ridge to set back up and watch again. By the time that I get set up again it is now 2:30 in the afternoon. Greg finally gets tired of waiting this bull out and starts cow calling and making a little noise. It only takes a second and I see the bull moving to the right. I can only watch through my binoculars and hope that Greg is paying attention. I hear the first shot and find the bull in the binoculars again just in time for the second and final shot and to see the bull disappear. When we finally got to the bull it was so nice seeing the hard work from most of the day pay off. He isn't quit what we were set out for at the beginning of the hunt but because of the conditions we were very happy. He has about 12" of antler broken off of his right side but still very nice. Of course then the work began. Holy Crap!!! Here are a few pictures of the bull.
As the bull lay.
Greg with his bull.
And a picture of the spotter and packmule with the bull.
Well I was lucky enough to get to tag along on my buddy Greg's bull hunt this fall and everything worked out for us. It started out a little rough though. It rained in our unit all day Thursday and on and off on Friday making the roads a muddy mess. We left my house at about 3:30AM to get there by sun up and because of the roads we ended up getting there about a half hour late. Luckily we already new exactly where we wanted to be and drove straight there and started glassing. It only took us a little while before Greg spotted some cows on a slope about a mile and a half away but we didn't see any bulls that morning. So we decided to move to our next spot and start glassing the north facing slopes. I had set up a ways below Greg and had glassed a slope for about an hour and decided to switch to a different slope. Once set up it only took a couple minutes before I had a pretty nice bull spotted that was bedded down at about 300 yds. So it was a scramble trying to get Greg to come down and check him out. By the time we got all set up the bull had got up and started slowly moving away from us and was at about 350 to 400 yds. After looking him over we decided to pass since it was the opening day. As he moved around the mountain he pushed another smaller raghorn bull out but decided to call it a day and head back to find a place to set up camp.
So the second day started off with a view of our glassing area of this. Needless to say that was a bust.
So we headed back to camp and made a nice breakfast and waited for the fog to burn off so we could get out and do some glassing. So we decided to drive to the spot where we had glassed the two bulls and hike over one ridge so we could glass the next ridges. Once we got there we glassed in the first spot for about an hour or so before moving through a saddle to the next ridge top and glassing some more. There it only took a few minutes before I glassed this 4X4 bull up at about a 1000yds bedded down. See if you can find him. Shouldn't be to hard.
So I continued glassing and found a bull up at the top of the same ridge as the 4X4 but he would never give us a good look at him and we were not about to make the hike without knowing what he was. So we decided to start back and swing around to see a couple other slopes on the way back to the truck with us seeing nothing but a few deer. The middle one is a little fork horn.
So Sunday morning we wake up to no fog and head to our original glassing spot and it only takes a couple minutes before I spot a cow and a calf on a far ridge but no bulls on the mountain side. So I reposition to the left and start to glass and it doesn't take long before I have a nice bull(this is about 8:30am). And about the same time I glass this bull I hear a couple quads come driving down the road and actually drive between the bull and I. They stop their quads and get off and look over the edge where the bull is for a couple minutes and get back on their quads and drive off. Talk about sweating bullets. They had no idea that he was anywhere around. I could watch the bull look up to where they were and he just held tight. So we decided that Greg had better close the distance so he heads to the next ridge to set up. Once there he can't see the bull from his position so he waits for a bit and decides to move one more ridge over to put himself within a couple hundred yards. At this point I decide to pack up and move to the second ridge to set back up and watch again. By the time that I get set up again it is now 2:30 in the afternoon. Greg finally gets tired of waiting this bull out and starts cow calling and making a little noise. It only takes a second and I see the bull moving to the right. I can only watch through my binoculars and hope that Greg is paying attention. I hear the first shot and find the bull in the binoculars again just in time for the second and final shot and to see the bull disappear. When we finally got to the bull it was so nice seeing the hard work from most of the day pay off. He isn't quit what we were set out for at the beginning of the hunt but because of the conditions we were very happy. He has about 12" of antler broken off of his right side but still very nice. Of course then the work began. Holy Crap!!! Here are a few pictures of the bull.
As the bull lay.
Greg with his bull.
And a picture of the spotter and packmule with the bull.
