AZ Elk Hunt Journal 2012

[gundog870]

Love it. That is a lot of bone.

[AZHunter]

Last Thursday, I took the day off work to spend some time with my daughter before she flew to see her aunt and uncle for 2 weeks. We drove her little brother out to his summer camp day at the Flagstaff Arboretum outside of town, which is also on the way to the mineral lick and the area where I pulled the 3rd camera down, not realizing there is a nice bull in the area. So we decided to go make a quick adjustment to the angle of my lick cam and then hang the 3rd camera back up in the same spot it was. Having my daughter with me has truly been one of my favorite parts of scouting and prepping for my hunt. When we are not shooting our bows together (recently got her a Hoyt Ruckus), we are running cams, hiking around, and eagerly looking at pics. She is going to be one helluvan outdoors woman in no time at all. Here she is pouring some Deer Caine while I hang the cam.




Yesterday, I received a text from my buddy that showed me the lick site and loaned me the camera letting me know that his buddy (who showed him the lick site) was out there Tuesday and pulled the card. I won't even try and put my initial reaction on here because it is still somewhat a family forum. To put it mildly, I was not pleased. After realizing I was between a rock and a hard place since my buddy showed me the sight and loaned me the camera, I got myself under control and texted him back that I would appreciate him letting his friend know I've been running that camera regularly and asking his friend coordinating with me so we are not in there bumping elk and putting scent all over the place too often. To my pleasur, my buddy had the same concern and when he told his friend what was going on, his friend said he'd stay away. Its nice to know there are still good guys hunting out here and the "friend of a friend" card can still be played and end up in your favor.

Over the years that I've been on IW, I've had several inquiries as to what it takes to get drawn for anything in AZ and how long it can take. I know there are some of you on here who do, in fact, regularly apply for AZ tags, so feel free to jump in and offer a NR perspective on AGFD's lottery. Personally, I don't care for the lottery system as it runs. Honestly, I'm glad it limits the number tags to NRs, but, when I look at it from the perspective of my NR friends, it doesn't favor NR's budgets and I can't seem to see where it favors residents, period. Several years ago, you had the option of not buying a NR hunting license if you weren't drawn in the lottery. Then AGFD got sued by some NR outfitters saying the 10% cap on NR tags was hurting their businesses. In response to the lawsuit, AGFD agreed to revamp their whole system. Now, as a NR, you HAVE to buy the $151 NR hunting license just to be in the lottery. If you are drawn for an elk tag, then you are paying $595 for an elk tag. The overall total of roughly $750 is actually comparable to other western states, but you don't have to buy the license if you aren't drawn in those states. So if you aren't drawn, you are still holding a $151 NR hunting license in your pocket. Even if you want to buy a bonus point every year to build them up in your favor, you HAVE to buy the NR hunting license. Its no wonder at all why none of my NR friends want to come hunt with me. Actually, they do, but it is very cost-prohibitive. The one consolation I can find for NRs is that you can still get an OTC archery deer tag for $225 or you can get left-over deer tags (lots of left-over Coue' WT tags in the southern units) or you can likely be guaranteed to get drawn for a javelina tag.

There is still a 10% cap on NR tags and I've heard about 3 different ways that it works. And we have a bonus point system that is completely different than a preference point system. As you know, in a preference point system, those with the highest numbers of points get drawn first. In our bonus point system, you simply get that many more chances based on the random number selector. In theory, it is supposed to increase the chances of those with more points, but still give hunters with low point numbers a chance. 3 years ago, I had a friend with 16 elk bonus points finally get drawn for archery bull in Unit 9 (TROPHY unit). This year, I know of a boyfriend/girlfriend who got drawn together for archery bull in Unit 9 with only 2 points. Another friend of mine was drawn for archery bull tags in Unit 3C three years in a row (only 40 tags issued and its a trophy unit) and then went 8 years in a row of not getting drawn before getting drawn in 6A and the following year (with 1 loyalty point) he got drawn back in 3C. For one last example, I am sitting on 10 turkey bonus points, holding out for my Gould's tag, and I know of one individual who has been drawn for a Gould's tag twice in five years . In general, I've heard a NR can plan on waiting up to 10 years for an archery elk tag if they are holding out for one of our trophy units. But I've seen NRs get drawn with 0 points, and I've seen them have to wait up to 15 years. Of course, there are general (rifle) hunts where I know a NR can get drawn rather quickly and rather frequently. It took me 6 years to get my archery bull tag, but to be fair to the system, there were 2 years where I only bought a bonus point because I had a tarpon fishing trip in Mexico planned and I went to Iowa in 2011 to harvest a nice archery deer. One of my buddies down here had an archery bull tag in 6B last year and got drawn for an archery bull tag in 5BN this year. Go figure! As I have said many times, if any of you have any questions about hunting down here, please do not hesitate to get ahold of me and I'll help you through our process and point you in the direction of good animals!

Stay tuned for more pics early next week after I get out and check cards and get the card from my buddy that his friend pulled. I've heard a rumor of something good on there that doesn't necessarily have any bone growing out of its head!

[AZHunter]

Late last week, I got the card from my buddy who's buddy went out there to the lick site with his dad. He said there were some "small bulls", but nothing really to get excited over. After looking at the card, I'd really hate to see what he calls big and gets excited over! There a couple of returners that I haven't seen in a while, which was nice. A couple of new bulls, some feisty bulls, and a couple of mule deer does hit the lick as well. Where there are does, there will eventually be bucks and our early archery season opens a month from today. To be fair, though, I told my wife that unless she really wanted muley meat in the freezer, it would have to be a buck that makes my heart stop to go after him, what with all of the vet expenses of late and planning for the elk hunt expenses. My buddy also asked for his other extra cam back, so I pulled that one. It was no problem as there were only mediocre bulls, but I know bulls are in that area and my other camera at the stock tank was getting mostly pictures of cattle. In two card pulls of that cam, I had over 1,000 pics of cattle and shadows with only a handful of elk and deer pics. I was looking for an excuse to pull that camera, anyway.

Last Sunday, I went out and pulled my buddy's extra cam and then went to swap cards on my lick camera. There came the frustrtion. The camera only had 37 pics in a few days and had been turned off. Come to find out a local sheep herder had his 100+ sheep in there and decided to turn the camera off (got pics of him). Apparently he did this last year a couple of times to my buddy and hid behind his nasty-vicious herding dogs, cornering my buddy and his wife a couple of times. I really hate that it comes to this, but my 1911s will now be in my truck for all future trips out there, especially if my kids are with me and his dogs are as aggressive as my buddy says they are. I will also be locking that camera to keep him out of it as well as replenishing the mineral rocks that his stupid sheep obliterated.

We continued on out and scouted another remote area that only has one road in and out. Its definitely got some promise and I'll probably spend some time out there during our 3-week early archery deer season doing some on-the-ground scouting. Stay tuned! I found another canyon/travel corridor that elk should be using (found a trail, so I guess they are) and hiked a little over a quarter-mile down and dropped a mineral rock with some block topper on it. The guys at the archer shop here recommend it as a strong attractant to get a mineral lick going. I guess time will tell and when my son and I go out there this Friday, we'll find out how well it works.

I did say that this was a pic-heavy update, so here you go:

Spot made a return visit and is looking even better:



Fours also came back and is still a top contender to have my tag on his antler!



A new bull showed up and he is also another great contender for my tag. I love the way his sixths sweep back. Sixes:



Another view of Sixes:



And it looks like the tension is starting to build. I love these!







I had to throw this one in for my kids. Every time they see these kinds of pictures, they start screaming "Elk Butt!" and giggling. Of course, I see them and start thinking about an elk hair caddis and how great that fly is!



One of a handfull of muley does:



And I also mentioned a surprise in my title. I heard a rumor about this next pic from my buddy, but I didn't actually see it until I was going through them. I know you all see these every day in Iowa , but enjoy this anway!



If you look closely, you can see the eye shine of something behind the log. To put it in size perspecitve, that is about 5-6 yards from the camera and that log is just over knee-high on me at the very end where the cat is crouching. I'm guessing its a first-year female. My buddy was a little worried, but I assured him that elk and cougars have co-existed for millennia and there was no way it could take all of the elk in that area between now and Sept 14. For no bigger than she is, she'd be hard pressed to take a mature bull at all. My buddy did go back out there last Friday with another buddy of his who is training a couple of hounds and they tracked it over 4 miles (without finding it) in the direction of the remote area we drove into Sunday.

I've only ever seen 2 confirmed mountain lions in the wild here in Arizona and one unconfirmed (moving too fast), but have come across fresh tracks, fresh scrapes (marking territories), and fresh kills. Its one of those things you just get used to dealing with. Besides, the last fresh scrape I encountered, I decided to have fun with. This tom had been running his territory pretty regularly in a canyon I had been doing wildlife surveys in about 3 years ago and his scrapes were very fresh and very big. It was my last night in that canyon and, by the freshness of his scrapes, I'm figuring he was watching my partner and me pretty closely. To show him that I accepted the fact that he could kill me anytime he wanted to, but I was better at psychological warfare, I peed in one of his biggest scrapes, thereby marking over his territory and claiming it as my own. I figured that would get inside his brain long after I was out of that canyon and show him who was really boss! All my other biologist friends were laughing their butts off at me (and not just because of the predatorial instincts I just triggered in that tom). Yep, I'm a science geek, too!

Its getting that time of year, where velvet should be coming off the elk, so hopefully there will be some hard horn pics coming soon! More next week after my next card pull! Hope you enjoyed this installment.

[biggest buck]

Once again, awesome trail pics. And that cat, sweeet! Youve got some good bulls there buddy, cant wait for the hard horn pics.

[dedgeez]

One of the best threads on here! Keep em coming

[jmoose]

this entire thread is awesome! thank you for sharing!!

[Skully]

Originally Posted by dedgeez

One of the best threads on here! Keep em coming

I agree! Can feel the anticipation and adventure in this thread!

[Packnasty]

I'm really hoping this thread ends with you standing over one of those beasts. This is seriously spreading some elk hunting fever. I've gotta draw a tag in one of these states soon enough.

[AZHunter]

I had a chance to get out to my cams again Saturday morning in between rain storms. My son and I were supposed to head out Friday morning, but after a huge morning thunderstorm, I opted to avoid the forest roads so as not to tear them up. When you work in natural resource management, you don't want to become the people you cuss for causing resource damage. So we gave the area the rest of the day to dry out and my wife, son, and I got up Saturday morning and drove out to my cameras.

Before I get into Saturday's ventures, I realized I forgot to post a picture in my last update. Last Sunday, July 28th, when we spent the day scouting a remote area of my unit, we stumbled across a nice horned lizard. My 4.5 year old son (4 3/4 as he says) has never seen one up close, so I took the time to grab it for him and let him hold it. If you don't take time from your "hard core" scouting to make it fun for your kids and take the time to make moments all about your kids, you'll probably never get them interested in being out there with you down the road. Right before finding this adult, we found a hatchling that was about the size of a quarter. I still need to get that picture from my wife. So here is Jacob with an adult greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi for any herpetology geeks like me out there).


I was pleasantly surprised that the previously mentioned sheep herder hadn't messed with my camera lately, but there were only 22 pictures in a week's time. I don't know if it was thanks to him and his 100 sheep in a lick site that is about 20'x20' recently or if it was due to the heavy rains of late. To be safe, though, I put a padlock on the camera to keep the shepherd from turning it off again, but now I realized I should head out there and lock it to the tree, too, just to be safe. My wife and son helped me place two new mineral rocks and we covered them both with Block Topper to jump start the attraction again. Fingers crossed! In the 22 pictures, there were a couple of does (one with interesting markings) and one bull. It turns out Unicorn returned and he is actually looking even better than a month ago. I swear, he is tempting me to place my tag on his antler! Of course, I wasn't until I got home that I realized that my date stamp was off, so next trip out, I'll have to fix that!

This doe was in several pictures and has a funky racing stripe down her left side. I got good close ups of her stipe and I can't tell what it is, but its not a lack of fur. With her racing stripe, I'm calling her Danica!



And here is Unicorn a month after his initial appearance:



After finishing up at this camera, we hiked in to my other camera which is along a fairly well used trail on a bench up above a narrow canyon. This canyon widens out and gets deeper farther down and I'm hoping to hike more of it in the coming weeks. As we approached this camera, Jacob took off running to the mineral rock to show me where it was and point out that "all the foamy stuff was gone!" (Block topper he helped me with the week before). When I was scrolling through the pics back home, I said "Jacob, come look at this little buck. In a few years, he's going to be amazing!" Jacob came running and started giggling something fierce when he saw his own picture!



I was very pleasantly surprised to find a handful of pictures of 2 bulls at the rock at around 1000 in the morning. I was even more surprised when I saw that one of them is just branching into a 6x7. Even more pleasing is that, if I'm seeing one of the pictures right (head down), he may even be an 8x6 since it looks like he might have some junk just sticking off of his left brow tine. Right now, I'm just about tapped on fancy names, so I'm simply referring to him as the "6x7". However, the young raghorn 5x5 with him has been dubbed "Joshtin" in honor of Teenage Hunter on here, because I know this bull, like TH, will blow up into a respectable guy in the next few years if the conditions are right!

6x7 and Joshtin:





Although my mom is flying down here from Iowa this Thursday for two weeks, I'm heading back out this weekend sometime to swap cards, lock up my other camera, and hopefully, hike this canyon. Our early archery deer season (OTC tags) opens three weeks from this coming Friday (24 August) and I will be spending quite a bit of time on the ground during that three week season ramping up my "beyond the camera" scouting by sneaking around several places that I have driven by and through, trying to see if the elk are getting ready to rut and are starting to gather their harems or if they are still in bachelor groups. I will be hunting a new moon come opening weekend of elk season (14 Sept), so I am definitely excited about what that can mean for elk movement!

Thanks again for all of the words of encouragement on this journey and for reading along.

[sureshot]

Awesome stuff. I am looking forward to seeing your hardwork pay off here soon.