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One tough Elk Hunt By Louis Urquides AZOD Hunting Team Leader / Staff Writer
Just as any other hunt, prior to this years archery elk hunt we have these great illusions of screaming bulls answering our calls. We picture this monster 400” 7X7 tipping his head back and forth making his way through the jack pines looking to fight. He is right at 30-yards when he lets out a bugle and your arrow leaves the string. Well that is the dream that fills my head as I try to sleep the night before every archery elk hunt. This year shouldn’t be too much different from years past. I knew that things were going to be a little tough this year due to the drought. But I wasn’t anticipating that the hunt would turn out like it did. Prior to the hunt beginning we were seeing plenty of elk during scouting trips. It was the middle of August and I had just finished an Elk Hunting Seminar in Williams so I decided to do a little scouting while I was in the area. My plan was to check out some old honey holes and I counted about 300 head of elk. About 90% were cows but I wasn’t too worried I knew that bulls would be splitting up shortly after and would start building their harems. Around the end of August I was watching the bulls that were hanging out at Kachina Village and noticed they had started to rub off their velvet and the fights began. From the looks of things Mother Nature was right on track. It was going to be another decent year. It was the day before our hunt was to begin when the rains hit hard. As I drove across I-40 I thought to myself this should really set things off for the rut. When I arrived at the Navajo Army Depot I met up with Glenn Willis, Rick Williams, Creed Botts, and Chris Burkhart. Chris, Creed and myself were the bull tag holders and Glenn and Rick were along to film the hunt. I told the guy’s that we were going to have a great hunt with all this rain. With everything being so dry from the long hot summer I fully expected to wake up to sound of crashing antlers and screaming bugles. Man was I wrong! The next morning we woke up to more pouring rain. There didn’t look to be any end in sight. We finally got a break at around 7:30 and we were able to get out and start the hunt. The first thing we were going to do was locate some bulls by sending out some locator bugles. Well, all my calls fell on deaf ears. We never heard bugle one. From dawn till dark we covered as much ground as possible trying to get the herds located. Even that wasn’t providing anyone with any shot opportunities. Yea, we would see a few elk here and there but nothing too impressive. That is how the hunt went for the next 3 day’s. It was the evening of the 4th day when Glenn heard the first bugle of the hunt. We all thought to ourselves now we are going to see some action. I responded with a bugle and we would get an immediate answer. We put together a quick game plan and started the hunt that we were all waiting for. At one point I had 3 good bulls sounding off and one was coming towards us. A few cow calls and little racking of the brush and we should see the bull at any time. Wrong answer. The next sounds we heard were fading bugles as the bull pushed his cows up the mountain. No big deal we said. Now that these elk have started we will be able to get right on them the next morning and someone should be putting their tag around some antlers. The next morning we were up and on the mountain by 4:30 waiting to find out just where the herd was going to come off the meadow. The morning was almost dead silent. It wasn’t until 3:30 that afternoon when we heard the first bugle. This one sounded young but he was ready. With every cow call I sent his direction he screamed back at us, getting closer each time he sounded off. We had just gotten to top of a big ridge when I let off with a series of soft cow calls when he let one go not 100 yards in front of us. With the sudden rush of adrenalin came the quick let down. He must have seen us because he was nowhere to be found. He was sure there though because you could smell him like you standing right on top of him. The next 3 days only got worse. We sat tree stands on trails, blinds over water and still- hunted the dog hair thickets. It sure wasn’t due to the lack of effort but we were not finding elk. It was like they would just pull the earth up over the top of them while we were out there. One tough elk is an understatement. Through out the Arizona I have been getting reports from friends who are having one heck of a time just trying to find elk much less fill their tag. The hunter success rate in the areas of 10, 9, 8, 7W, 7M and 6B appears to be at a record low. The meat processors are also seeing a record low turn out. I spoke with my good friends at Sportway in Williams and by Tuesday, September 17th they only had 13 elk in the cooler. John Weatherhead told me that 7 of the elk were from the muzzleloader cow hunt going on in unit 8 Garland Prairie hunt. Last year they had about 60 head hanging in the cooler buy the first Tuesday. We experienced the same type of success on the Navajo Army Depot where Creed, Chris and myself went home eating tag stew.
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