I had the pleasure of helping my wife Karly out on her AZ limited opportunity elk hunt in north central AZ this October. She had an any elk tag for this hunt. Because I'd already filled the freezer earlier this year with my bull, she was planning on being picky and only shooting a bull should the opportunity present itself. This was Karly's second ever elk hunt. On her first hunt in 2008, she shot a tasty cow elk.
My friend Terry's wife had the same tag, and we scouted together and planned to work together to try and get at least one of the women, and hopefully both, a bull. Our scouting proved fruitful and we located a couple of herds prior to the season. With what we felt was a solid plan for opening day, we began the hunt. The elk didn't cooperate however, and we ended up hunting hard for the entire week.
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| Elk seen during scouting |
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| Bull we were watching the day prior to the season. |
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| Evening Hunt with the kids |
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| A nice mule deer shed we found |
On the last morning we enacted a plan that Terry had to go after a herd bull we'd seen previously, but hadn't been able to seal the deal on yet. The plan didn't work exactly as we'd planned, but with a little bit of adapting, Karly had the bull in range and she put a shot into him. After initially shooting him, we followed his trail and after we'd lost blood and tracks we were able to find him bedded above us and Karly put the finishing shot into him. The afternoon of the last day Karly had her first bull elk!
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| Cold morning for glassing! |
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| Karly's first bull elk! |
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| The crew (L to R): Cliff, Sandra, Terry, me, and Karly |
I'd like to congratulate my wife on a great first bull and I'd like to thank Terry and Sandra for their help and for being so selfless. I'd also like to thank my dad for watching the kids and allowing Karly and I to spend the prime time of the week hunting. Thanks also goes out to Cliff and Pat for helping to haul Karly's bull off the mountain.
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| My dad, Ryan, Pat, me, and Cliff hauling meat off the mountain |
In all it was a great week of hunting in which we got to involve the kids some, spend some good quality time outdoors, and in the end be successful.
On the last morning we enacted a plan that Terry had to go after a herd bull we'd seen previously, but hadn't been able to seal the deal on yet. The plan didn't work exactly as we'd planned, but with a little bit of adapting, Karly had the bull in range and she put a shot into him. After initially shooting him, we followed his trail and after we'd lost blood and tracks we were able to find him bedded above us and Karly put the finishing shot into him. The afternoon of the last day Karly had her first bull elk! 
Congrats to your wife Ron. Looks like a great family event! Love the pictures of everyone hauling the quarters out!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. It was a lot of fun and I was glad for the help in getting the elk off the mountain.
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