Another Serving Of Tag Soup..

This was supposed to be a redemption year...  Last year I drew the late Arizona archery bull tag, and although its not a prime tag by any means I did my homework, found the elk and had some good opportunities. So this year I said to myself that I would give it a shot again hoping with some actual vacation time to take I would be able to seal the deal.

Scouting is key for this hunt.  Its a unit that I know very well and spend a lot of time in.  Using the knowledge from years past I focused my scouting in these areas and finding bulls wasn't a problem.

A decent Bull we called in while scouting in mid October

Id found some decent bulls and some were hitting the tanks pretty regular.  We had had a good monsoon in late summer but the fall had pretty dry, up until the week before the hunt.  Snow covered the ground leading up to the season opener and the elk quit hitting the tanks because of all the standing water.  So it looked like it would consist of the usual spot and stalk which is fine with a spotter but down in the PJ country by yourself, glassing them is one thing, cutting them off heading to their bedding areas by yourself is another.

After the initial snow, temps came up and made for a sloppy commute

I had help on the weekends from Rob and Ron as spotters and opportunities were constant.  Continuously changing wind directions made for a handful of blown stalks.  Overall I was able to make multiple stalks with and without help.  When the winds picked up we were able to find bulls bedded out of the wind and worked in on them.

I can never really complain about getting out in the field and even though I eating tag soup again this year, I got to spend some good times with great friends and was into elk everyday.  A successful trip in my book.  Here are a few pics I took along the way.

Elk from years past at our Elk hunting camp