C
cohntr6
Guest
Thursday evening the 11th I arrived south of Williams to my lucky friend who drew a archery bull tag in unit 8.
We went out that evening before the sun went down to find lots of water in the ruts of the road and guess what kind of tracks went around every one of these "water holes"?
yep, well we ended up hearing acouple faint bugles after the sun went down and we were walking back to the truck but didnt see anything.
That night and into the wee hours of the morning bugles were heard all around camp. We went to a spot he scouted and immediately heard a bugle around 5 in the morning. We started chasing it and heard another. After a couple hours of chasing bugles (we finally focused on the biggest baddest bugle) we finally set up to see a small (270-280) 6 point bull screaming at any cow call or bugle that was thrown his way as he worked his 5 or 6 cows away from us and two other groups of hunters. Yikes!! We quickly pulled away and went another direction we hadnt been and started chasing another bugle. We did this till allmost 12 in the afternoon! Sat a tank in the lower P/J country (not a lot of water in the area) in the evening...nothing.
Friday night, same thing, bugles all around camp all night long. I walked to a tank 1/2 mile from our camp in the moonlight and watched the biggest bull I have ever seen (I have only lived in AZ 2 years, CO prior to that) come into the tank with his cows screaming at everything, cutting his cows, it was cool. I guessed him around 380 but I may be way off, he was ahuge 7x7 nontheless!
A march to find him ended up saturday morning hearing no bugles and not seeing a sinlge elk, bummer.
Saturday evening nothing.
Heard lots of bugles around camp all night again.
Sunday and Monday were carbon copies of each other as we (finally) decided to hunt out of camp and got on elk immediately only to have my friend blow stalks by not doing what the wind was dictating what route we should go (yes we had words!). Sunday and MOnday night still had bulls bugling all around us. Tuesday we went to a nasty canyon and the elk where on fire!! I left my friend to follow a bugle and ended up watching a 310-320 with a few cows for 45 minutes, sometimes as close as 30 yards! I had to head back Tuesday afternooon.
Some conclusions I drew while being out for the first 5 days of the season:
-any decent bull (branch antlered bull) had cows, up to 8 or so
-some mature 320+ bulls were very rutty and talkitive
-cows are very close to estrous
-the big herd bulls had cows but had not started kicking the 320/330 bulls butts and taking their cows to form the bigger harems
-there was still small cow/calf groups without any male companionship
-this weekend and in the next few days some cows will start coming into estrous
-most bulls would not respond to cow calls or come in
-most bulls would respond to bugles but would not come in
-tank sitting was extremely unproductive (most places we went had lots of water puddles scattered from the rain the week before)
-Anybody else in unit 8?
That was my observation. hope it helps.
If my buddy sticks one I'll post it (if he lets me)
I am not afriad to answer most questions, he he.
Oh he drew with 2 points, resident!!!!
Jeff
We went out that evening before the sun went down to find lots of water in the ruts of the road and guess what kind of tracks went around every one of these "water holes"?
yep, well we ended up hearing acouple faint bugles after the sun went down and we were walking back to the truck but didnt see anything.
That night and into the wee hours of the morning bugles were heard all around camp. We went to a spot he scouted and immediately heard a bugle around 5 in the morning. We started chasing it and heard another. After a couple hours of chasing bugles (we finally focused on the biggest baddest bugle) we finally set up to see a small (270-280) 6 point bull screaming at any cow call or bugle that was thrown his way as he worked his 5 or 6 cows away from us and two other groups of hunters. Yikes!! We quickly pulled away and went another direction we hadnt been and started chasing another bugle. We did this till allmost 12 in the afternoon! Sat a tank in the lower P/J country (not a lot of water in the area) in the evening...nothing.
Friday night, same thing, bugles all around camp all night long. I walked to a tank 1/2 mile from our camp in the moonlight and watched the biggest bull I have ever seen (I have only lived in AZ 2 years, CO prior to that) come into the tank with his cows screaming at everything, cutting his cows, it was cool. I guessed him around 380 but I may be way off, he was ahuge 7x7 nontheless!
A march to find him ended up saturday morning hearing no bugles and not seeing a sinlge elk, bummer.
Saturday evening nothing.
Heard lots of bugles around camp all night again.
Sunday and Monday were carbon copies of each other as we (finally) decided to hunt out of camp and got on elk immediately only to have my friend blow stalks by not doing what the wind was dictating what route we should go (yes we had words!). Sunday and MOnday night still had bulls bugling all around us. Tuesday we went to a nasty canyon and the elk where on fire!! I left my friend to follow a bugle and ended up watching a 310-320 with a few cows for 45 minutes, sometimes as close as 30 yards! I had to head back Tuesday afternooon.
Some conclusions I drew while being out for the first 5 days of the season:
-any decent bull (branch antlered bull) had cows, up to 8 or so
-some mature 320+ bulls were very rutty and talkitive
-cows are very close to estrous
-the big herd bulls had cows but had not started kicking the 320/330 bulls butts and taking their cows to form the bigger harems
-there was still small cow/calf groups without any male companionship
-this weekend and in the next few days some cows will start coming into estrous
-most bulls would not respond to cow calls or come in
-most bulls would respond to bugles but would not come in
-tank sitting was extremely unproductive (most places we went had lots of water puddles scattered from the rain the week before)
-Anybody else in unit 8?
That was my observation. hope it helps.
If my buddy sticks one I'll post it (if he lets me)
I am not afriad to answer most questions, he he.
Oh he drew with 2 points, resident!!!!
Jeff
