This is a story sent in by a friend of mine, Ernest Griego. Ernest did a great job writing about his hunt and we would like to share it with you. Thanks Ernest for sharing it with the Arizona Outdoorsman staff and Arizona's Sportsman.

Robert Willis

AZOD Editor

The hunt began with pre-scouting three days before the beginning of the 2000 Muzzleloader season. Archery elk was in progress winding down with just three days left. This was the first time the Game and Fish had offered a archery cow hunt in Area 3A 3C which put an additional 200 archery hunters in the woods. Normally there are only 50 Bull Elk permits during archery. The rut was in full swing, but It was very apparent that the archery hunters had put a lot of pressure on the elk. Areas where we knew we could find a good bull, archery hunters had been there, tooting every type of elk call from Wall Mart. Most of the archery hunters had giving up on Sunday and had pulled out. The elk were starting to settle down. We were very careful not to scout in any area where archery hunters were still-hunting. We stopped and talked to a few archery hunters that remained in the area to get an idea of where they were hunting. I assured them that we would scout in those areas at all. Most of them were very grateful and were willing to share what information they had.

Scouting after dark, proved to be a good way to locate the elk. You could hear bugleing just about every mile or so I starting marking the locations on my GPS. The first night I had marked seven bugleing bulls that we needed to check out a little more closely the next day.

The next morning I was awaking by elk bugleing right outside the motorhome. It was still dark and I could not see the bull or how many cows. We decided to scout an area where I had marked four bulls the night before and see if we could get a look at one or two of them. When we got there NOTHING. The bulls had shut up. The rest of the morning was spent road scouting, just getting a look at different country. This was my first hunt in this area. It took me 10 bonus points, 9 years of putting in for this area to finally draw a tag. There are only 20 muzzleloader Tags and lots of area.

That evening we located two nice bulls in the lower country. Both were 6 X 6. We were about 1/2 mile away on a hill glassing them and it was hard to tell how well they would score. One of them was definitely worth getting a closer look at. We decided to leave these two bulls for a last resort or if we couldn't find any thing bigger.

Wednesday we located a few small bulls, nothing I would shoot. We spent most of the time talking to archery hunters gathering what information we could.

Thursday morning the day before the hunt, we located a few nice bulls. Most looked to score around 320 B&C Points. I was a little discouraged with the quality of the bulls. Most of them had fair to good 1st, 2nd and 3rd points but the 4th 5th and 6th points were fairly weak. After talking with a few local guides scouting for their clients, I found out that the drought earlier in year had quite an affect on antler growth. One well known local Guide who had been filming the same elk over the past 2 to 3 years, said that a 360 bull last year may only score 340 this year. This was pretty consistent with what we had also seen in Area 9 during archery Deer season and pre-hunt elk scouting for a friend of mine.

That evening on the way to scout an area we had chosen, we spotted this bull with about a dozen cows. He didn't hang around very long, just long enough for me to get a glance at his eye guards up to his 3rds. The rest of his rack was hidden behind thick cover. I felt he was a good bull based on his 3rd points. The third points looked to be about 18 inches, which is hard to find on a good bull. We decided to hunt this area the next morning hoping to get a better look at him. There were other bulls in the area as well, which we hadn't had a chance check out. We felt this would be a good starting point.

Opening day of the hunt. We parked within a quarter mile where we had spotted the bull the evening before. My friend Glenn Bowman who is not only an excellent hunter but very good with an elk call, set out to locate the bulls. We immediately heard 2 bull elk about 1/2 mile away just bugleing their butts off. They were feeding and heading towards their bedding areas. We finally caught up with them as them were making their way across a small canyon. We stopped and Glenn bulged. One Bull and his cows that had already crossed the canyon bulged right back. The second bull and his cows who were on the slope on the other side of the canyon bulged. He then immediately began gathering his cows. That's when we got a look at him. He was a nice 6 X 6 but would only score in the low 300. That's when a third bull bulged from the bottom of the canyon about 1/4 mile downstream. He sounded like a nice bull. He only bulged once or twice then took his cows and went a different direction. We decided to follow the first two bulls hoping to get a look at the other bull. For the next few hours, we stayed downwind and behind them getting into the cows but never seeing the other bull. We stayed with them until they crossed the fence into the Apache Reservation.

It was about 10:30 and we had a long walk back to the truck. As Glenn and I headed back towards the truck we planned our hunt for the next morning. We knew that the elk were walking into the wind like they always do, so we decided that the next morning we would hunt from the Apache Reservation down toward the elk as they feed and headed up to their bedding area.

About half way back to the truck, we were talking and walking along this ridge, an elk bulged from the bottom of this draw about 150 yards away. I looked at Glenn he looked at me and we both looked at our watches. It was a little after 11:00, this had to be that third elk we heard in the bottom of that small canyon earlier that morning. Glenn and I were both a little tired and hungry, but decided to bail off into that large draw and see if we could get a glimpse of the bull. As we slowly made our way down to the bottom, we seen or heard nothing. As we worked our way out the other side, still nothing. Glenn decided to Bugle once to see if we would get an answer. As soon as Glenn Bulged, about 50 ahead of us the bull bulged back. The plan was for me to move in while Glenn hung back and continued to bugle. As the Bugleing duo continued, I slowly worked my way towards the bull. I was within about 30 yards, when a few cows, which were bedded down, spotted me and crashed the forest. I managed to see the bull momentarily as he stormed off through the trees. It was the same bull we had seen the evening before. About 6 cows or so ran south and the bull and about 6 cows ran north. I meet back with Glenn and told him what had happened.

The bull ran about a mile and started bugleing again. I'm not sure if he wanted to know where we were or if he was trying to call up his lost cows. As luck had it he headed in the direction of our truck, so we continued to dog him. We managed to work our way to him again and got within 30 yards. He was still bugleing. This time Glenn began using cow mews followed by a bugle. This got him a little upset as he thought another bull was after his cows. He began trashing some small pine trees, snorting and grunting. The cover was so thick that we could not see him. I waited and watched but he would not come out of the thick cover. Glenn motioned me to began moving in. I got within 20 yards of the bull. The only thing that separated us was a large bushy Juniper Tree. I was on one side and he was on the other. He had stopped all his nonsense as he knew something was there. That's when I screwed up. Instead of being patient, I had to peek around the tree to get a look. As I did, he had his head down chin on the ground staring me right in the eyes. I at least got a good look at his horns and decided that he was a keeper. He and his cows busted the trees once again and off they went. I think this time he might have lost one or two more of his cows. He ran about 1/2 mile up a large ridge and began to bugle again. Glenn and I decided not to chase him as we were within 1/4 mile of our truck. We also decided not to work him any more that day, as we knew he was a keeper and wanted to compare him with other bulls in the area.

That evening we worked two different bulls both 6 X 6 and neither was as nice as the one we worked earlier that afternoon. Although they were all nice bulls, they were still weak on the top half.

The next morning, we worked the plan we had discussed the day before. As we moved into place before sun up, you could hear bulls bugleing down the ridges below us. We worked our way to a point to where we could see off the ridge down where the elk were bugleing. The wind was a little stronger and had more of a swirling motion. As the sun began to shine, we sat on the point and began to spot elk with our binoculars. There were at least 6 bulls with their cows in an area about 1/2 square mile. This time the elk didn't move as we thought they would. Instead the stayed basically in the same spot. The problem was that, all the bulls we wanted to get in on, the wind was blowing the wrong direction. The only way to get to them would be to go all the way around and come in from the other side. That meant about a three-mile walk. So off we go. At the same time my Best Friend and hunting partner Danny Lopez was on a point not far from the truck checking out a bull he had spotted off another ridge. He didn't have a tag, but was just along for the fun.

We managed to work into two bulls, but the swirling wind messed us up both times. I managed to see one of them, and he was not a keeper. The bulls stopped bugleing around 8:30 and we had no other bulls to work so we headed back towards the truck.

Upon returning to the truck, my partner Danny excited about the size of the bull he was watching told us this elk was still bugleing off in the distance. Danny, Glenn and I walked over the ridge to where Danny had be watching this elk and Glenn let out a loud bugle. Sure enough he answered right back. He was about 1mile away down and across a few ridges. We could not see him but that bugle sounded awful familiar. We decided to drive the truck down to the bottom of the ridge where we knew there was a road and then walk into the area were the bugle was coming from. When we arrived at the bottom of the ridge, Glenn and I set out to see if we could locate this bugleing elk. Glenn bulged but this time no answer. We continued to walk toward the area were we heard the last bugle when all of a sudden I see a cow that was bedded down get up. I motioned to Glenn to stop and that's when I saw the bull who was sound asleep awakened by the sound of the cow getting up. He was about 30 yards away. I took my muzzleloader off of safety and lifted the gun to my shoulder. That's when I noticed it was the same elk we had been chasing the day before. I placed my crosshairs right behind his front shoulder as he got up and began to run. One bad shoot and he wasn't going anywhere. It took one more shoot to finish the job, and the rest is History. The bull unofficially scored 346 B&C points.