DonMartin
Very Active Member
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- 2,077
Seems that about every time I read a post here on MM and other sites about a successful hunt, the question that is eventually asked is "What does he score?"
Guess most of us--and I'm guilty of this too--seem to believe that the "score" is only what matters most on a hunt.
But after coming back from an early rifle hunts, I had an experience that really causes me to stand back and re-evaluate what the definition of a successful hunt is.
Case in point.
Randy Hopp from Oregon drew a tag for Unit 23N this year. He applied with 19 bonus points and drew tag #1.
Randy, as many who know him are aware, has always been very successful when it comes to hunting, especially elk. Prior to this hunt, Randy had taken 39 bulls, and obviously has hunted all over the United States.
I've known Randy for many years; we have more than a outfitter/client relationship. I am very proud to call him a friend!
However I assumed like most of us would, that Randy, after waiting for over a decade and a half, would be seeking the absolute largest bull on the mountain.
So I assigned to him one of the best 23N elk guides I know of, Dave Bruns. Bruns spends over a 150 days a year in this unit.
Dave and a couple of his friends had conducted a ton of pre-season work in unit and had located bulls they estimated would score from 350-390.
Dave even sent Randy photos of these great bulls.
When Randy and his awesome lady friend Kathy arrived a few days prior to the start of the hunt, they were treated to the sights and sounds of what many of us in Arizona take for granite.
The sounds of many, many bulls screaming in the forest as they were in full rut, is something that I like a lot of you just take as this is what happens every year in September in Arizona especially in Unit 23N.
But for Randy, a world wide traveler and sportsman, this hunt was to be much more. It was in his words,"The Experience."
What Randy and Kathy got to experience for three days was the sights and sounds of a true Arizona elk experience.
This part of the story may be hard to believe, but it is absolutely true. During the pre-dawn and first light of opening day, Dave, Randy and Kathy, along with Jay Chan and myself an a number of other sportsmen, watched and listened to over 30 bulls that we could see, and many more we couldn't see, but could hear, as they screamed out insults and challenges as they worked their way towards a bedding area.
Randy estimated, and he is probably being conservative, that in the first two hours of opening day, he and Kathy heard at a minimum of 500 bugles!
Randy said in all his travels, and he's been to the best elk areas in North America or both private and public lands, that he has never seen or heard this kind of elk activity. And remember this hunt was on public lands!
While I watched as bull after bull walked well within rifle range by the hunter and his guide, I kept looking for the biggest bull on the mountain.
But Randy wasn't. You see, it seems that his "special bull" wasn't what I was looking for. His special bull was a multi-pointed bull. As Randy later told us, "I have never taken a bull with more than six points on one side, and my dream for Arizona was to take a multi-pointed bull."
We all watched as a 23-year-old young lady on her first elk hunt, took a magnificent 6 X 6 bull off that mountain. It was a bull that Randy had already decided to pass on, but a great trophy none-the-less.
For Randy, this hunt wasn't about just taking a bull and what it scored. He was going to wait until he saw "The One" or else he was fine with just taking his hard earned tag home, unfilled.
One bull that Randy spoke about with interest was a 8 X 8 that unfortunately had broken off the extra points on the end of his rack. "Had he been in tact, I don't know," Randy said, shaking his head.
The next day in the pre-dawn darkness, all of us were again on the hillside watching and waiting. Now there were less than 20 elk on the mountain. Bugles were less frequent and sightings of bulls were down at least 75%.
But suddenly, we heard a single shot from up the valley. A few minutes later, another shot echoed off the canyon walls and Randy's elk hunting experience had came to an end.
Jay and I didn't get to see it, but here is what happened.
As the bulls were making their way back towards the bedding areas, Bruns kept making plaintive cow calls.
Several bulls responded.
Then Randy saw "The One."
The bull actually ran up to the fence line that separates Unit 23N from the White Mountain Reservation. Hearing the calls, the bull left his cows, jumped the fence and headed straight down the mountain towards Bruns and Hopp.
It was Hopp that first saw the extra points on the rack and that immediately sealed the deal.
"I had never seen a bull with nine true points and am sure I'll never see one like him again," Hopp said.
For Hopp, score wasn't even a factor to be considered beofre he took the shot.
Hopp's message really hit home when I was videotaping him and the crew at his elk. He made a statement to me that I will never forget.
"Don, if there had been a 370 bull standing next to this guy, I would still have taken this one," Hopp said. "This is my bull of a lifetime!"
Wow, that really says a lot about the man and what his goals were.
I have to admit that I knew that we could have put Randy on better scoring bulls, and I wondered if taking this bull had been a mistake.
But in the end it wasn't at all.
Bruns had done his job well and Hopp was one of the most happy guys I have ever seen as he talked about his Arizona elk hunting experience.
Sometimes, especially in the outfitter/guide business, we forget that it is the hunter and not us, whose values we need to keep in mind.
Sure some hunters are score driven, wanting only the largest scoring animals out there. I know that and accept that.
But when you hunt with guys like Randy Hopp, whose values and goals are different than most, that the experience and the look of the animal and not the score is what is important to them, makes me take a step back and reconsider what my role in this sport really is.
There was not a tape put on this bull and I suspect there never will be.
Enjoy if you will, one of the greatest and most handsome creatures that God put on this earth.
Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photo...dy_hopp,_kathy_&_dave_23n_9_x_6_bull_2011.jpg
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/174randy_hopp_antlers_23n_2011.jpg
Guess most of us--and I'm guilty of this too--seem to believe that the "score" is only what matters most on a hunt.
But after coming back from an early rifle hunts, I had an experience that really causes me to stand back and re-evaluate what the definition of a successful hunt is.
Case in point.
Randy Hopp from Oregon drew a tag for Unit 23N this year. He applied with 19 bonus points and drew tag #1.
Randy, as many who know him are aware, has always been very successful when it comes to hunting, especially elk. Prior to this hunt, Randy had taken 39 bulls, and obviously has hunted all over the United States.
I've known Randy for many years; we have more than a outfitter/client relationship. I am very proud to call him a friend!
However I assumed like most of us would, that Randy, after waiting for over a decade and a half, would be seeking the absolute largest bull on the mountain.
So I assigned to him one of the best 23N elk guides I know of, Dave Bruns. Bruns spends over a 150 days a year in this unit.
Dave and a couple of his friends had conducted a ton of pre-season work in unit and had located bulls they estimated would score from 350-390.
Dave even sent Randy photos of these great bulls.
When Randy and his awesome lady friend Kathy arrived a few days prior to the start of the hunt, they were treated to the sights and sounds of what many of us in Arizona take for granite.
The sounds of many, many bulls screaming in the forest as they were in full rut, is something that I like a lot of you just take as this is what happens every year in September in Arizona especially in Unit 23N.
But for Randy, a world wide traveler and sportsman, this hunt was to be much more. It was in his words,"The Experience."
What Randy and Kathy got to experience for three days was the sights and sounds of a true Arizona elk experience.
This part of the story may be hard to believe, but it is absolutely true. During the pre-dawn and first light of opening day, Dave, Randy and Kathy, along with Jay Chan and myself an a number of other sportsmen, watched and listened to over 30 bulls that we could see, and many more we couldn't see, but could hear, as they screamed out insults and challenges as they worked their way towards a bedding area.
Randy estimated, and he is probably being conservative, that in the first two hours of opening day, he and Kathy heard at a minimum of 500 bugles!
Randy said in all his travels, and he's been to the best elk areas in North America or both private and public lands, that he has never seen or heard this kind of elk activity. And remember this hunt was on public lands!
While I watched as bull after bull walked well within rifle range by the hunter and his guide, I kept looking for the biggest bull on the mountain.
But Randy wasn't. You see, it seems that his "special bull" wasn't what I was looking for. His special bull was a multi-pointed bull. As Randy later told us, "I have never taken a bull with more than six points on one side, and my dream for Arizona was to take a multi-pointed bull."
We all watched as a 23-year-old young lady on her first elk hunt, took a magnificent 6 X 6 bull off that mountain. It was a bull that Randy had already decided to pass on, but a great trophy none-the-less.
For Randy, this hunt wasn't about just taking a bull and what it scored. He was going to wait until he saw "The One" or else he was fine with just taking his hard earned tag home, unfilled.
One bull that Randy spoke about with interest was a 8 X 8 that unfortunately had broken off the extra points on the end of his rack. "Had he been in tact, I don't know," Randy said, shaking his head.
The next day in the pre-dawn darkness, all of us were again on the hillside watching and waiting. Now there were less than 20 elk on the mountain. Bugles were less frequent and sightings of bulls were down at least 75%.
But suddenly, we heard a single shot from up the valley. A few minutes later, another shot echoed off the canyon walls and Randy's elk hunting experience had came to an end.
Jay and I didn't get to see it, but here is what happened.
As the bulls were making their way back towards the bedding areas, Bruns kept making plaintive cow calls.
Several bulls responded.
Then Randy saw "The One."
The bull actually ran up to the fence line that separates Unit 23N from the White Mountain Reservation. Hearing the calls, the bull left his cows, jumped the fence and headed straight down the mountain towards Bruns and Hopp.
It was Hopp that first saw the extra points on the rack and that immediately sealed the deal.
"I had never seen a bull with nine true points and am sure I'll never see one like him again," Hopp said.
For Hopp, score wasn't even a factor to be considered beofre he took the shot.
Hopp's message really hit home when I was videotaping him and the crew at his elk. He made a statement to me that I will never forget.
"Don, if there had been a 370 bull standing next to this guy, I would still have taken this one," Hopp said. "This is my bull of a lifetime!"
Wow, that really says a lot about the man and what his goals were.
I have to admit that I knew that we could have put Randy on better scoring bulls, and I wondered if taking this bull had been a mistake.
But in the end it wasn't at all.
Bruns had done his job well and Hopp was one of the most happy guys I have ever seen as he talked about his Arizona elk hunting experience.
Sometimes, especially in the outfitter/guide business, we forget that it is the hunter and not us, whose values we need to keep in mind.
Sure some hunters are score driven, wanting only the largest scoring animals out there. I know that and accept that.
But when you hunt with guys like Randy Hopp, whose values and goals are different than most, that the experience and the look of the animal and not the score is what is important to them, makes me take a step back and reconsider what my role in this sport really is.
There was not a tape put on this bull and I suspect there never will be.
Enjoy if you will, one of the greatest and most handsome creatures that God put on this earth.
Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photo...dy_hopp,_kathy_&_dave_23n_9_x_6_bull_2011.jpg
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/174randy_hopp_antlers_23n_2011.jpg
