During the hunt we saw just 15 bulls and 15 antlerless elk, and had to endure a lot of challenges including torrential rains, a full moon, a guy out there firing a machine gun burst at sundown, and if that wasn't enough, how about another resident who opened up a "toll road"?
The end of the hunt went like this.
We were walking down a ridge at dawn when I made a bugle. A bull immediately answered back about 100 yards away to our right in a canyon.
I told Rocky, "He is right there, get your butt over there!"
Then I turned, started walking away while cow calling.
Bull fired back a bugle, I did a high pitched bugle followed by more cow calls and here he came.
He somehow spotted Rocky and stopped and barked once. Then he turned and started to run off.
I started more cow calls and Rocky said the bull stopped and looked back.
That's when Rocky hammered him at 50 yards.
We waited an hour and went on the trail.
Found him 300 yards away dead as a rock!
Complete pass through! Hit him behind the last rib on the left side and exited through the right front shoulder!
Bull is a 7 X 6 with weak tops, but is 47 1/2 inches wide!
He scores just 309, but the "Arkansas Flash" is happy and so am I.
Tough darn place to hunt elk with all the private property issues than really can complicate things.
In the past the hunt success there has been just 16%.
And that includes the success of those that hunt on the X Bar 1 ranch--that private elk mecca that enjoys 100% success for their high dollar clients.
Definitely not a place for those who want to see a lot of elk, or hear a lot of bugling on their hunt!
Don Martin Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
We had a lot of adversity, but was happy in the end.
I like the fact there are so few tags (25) that you aren't bumping into other hunters all the time.
Don Martin AWO
