Giant 7x7 down!

After 4 days of looking under every tree and walking endless miles zig zagging through the thick draws the hunt is over.  This afternoon Russell decided to go to on the uphill side of the draw we shot the bull in and that was the break we needed.  After looking over a dirt tank dike and seeing a horn in the air Russell made a mad scramble to the tank.  Once arriving at the tank the AZ Game and Fish were there along with another older couple that had seen the bull and called it in.  After supplying numerous pictures of the bull and explaining exactly where the bull was shot in the body and location of the last blood the elk was turned over to Russell by the AZ Game and Fish game warden.


We shot this awesome bull last Friday morning at 39 yards and hit him in the left shoulder and the arrow penetrated approx 25 inches into the bulls chest cavity.  After we lost the blood trail and could no longer follow tracks due to to many elk tracks in the area it was not a happy site.  At that point Russell told me "I'm done hunting, that was my bull and I will look until I find him".  And that he did.

I would like to send out a special thanks to all those that have helped us look for this awesome elk. And also a huge kudos to Russell for never giving up and shooting another elk.  You don't hear of people like this very often, instead you hear about the guy that shoots and wounds numerous elk and just keeps hunting instead of putting all that effort into finding there elk.  A Huge CONGRATS Russell.
Here are a couple pictures from the video before we shoot him.  Look at the left third in these pictures and then look at the kill photos.  This bull fought right before we got the shot and broke his third.

Here are a couple of the kill photos! The right beam is over 60 inches!

 

Here is a short video clip of the bull before we harvested him.  Enjoy!

 

Mid Hunt pictures!

Here are a couple pictures from the last couple of days in the field.  We have killed another great bull and will be posting more on that soon.  In the mean time here are some rutting action pics from the video we take.

AZ Archery Elk Success!

After traveling 18 from his home in Virginia Lauren sends an arrow out of PSE bow on day two of the AZ Archery Hunt. More info to come later when we are done with some of the hunts.  There is not enough time to cover everything right now.  Tomorrow I will post some video of the bulls we have let live another day.
Here is a picture of Lauren and his bull. CONGRATS Lauren, nice shot!!

Pre Season Scouting-2 Lots of Bugling!!

Just another day of scouting.  It is so awesome to hear the elk go crazy! Enjoy, this should get the blood boiling for this Friday if you have a tag or just helping a friend.
Here are a couple pics from the morning, the video is a must watch to get you all fired up for the opener.  Good luck to all!!

Here is the video of the morning!

Pre Season Scouting!

Here are a couple of the bulls I was able to video this morning.  Looks like it is going to be a great next 21 straight days of hunting.  The horn growth looks to be ok with maybe a little drought on some of the G5's that I have seen. Enjoy and good luck hunting!

Here is a little video of the morning!

Archery Antelope Success!!

Recently I received a call from an individual that was hunting unit 1 archery antelope and wondered if I had a little time to throw his way for some help.  We agreed that we would hunt the last three days of the season in hopes the pressure would be a little less since Labor Day would be over.  We knew we had a tough task at hand to try and kill an antelope with a bow in three days when the success rate of the hunt is under 5% and those individuals get to hunt for 14 days.  It was an awesome three days.  While standing at the truck with the antelope loaded Andrew look at me and said are you going to put this on your blog? I told him "Sure Thing" but I wanted him to write up the story part from the hunters side since people get sick of always hearing it from my prospective, and he agreed.

  Here are his words on the whole situation "When I drew a 2012 archery Antelope tag in AZ I knew it would not be easy. I scouted a lot of weekends and knew where to find large numbers of Antelope. I had no idea how hard it was once I got out! I hunted 4 days with help from a couple friends with no luck. No shots. Nothing. I decided I needed to hire a guide so that I may have a chance to fill a tag that took 9 years to get. I contacted Shane at Koury Guide Service and we went out. He took me in spots I had not previously been in and we got on animals right away. Day 1, pulled back but no shot. Day 2, I missed! Day 3, I shot this one!! I had such an AWESOME experience hunting with Shane and Koury Guide Service that I can't wait for any tag so that I can hunt with him again. Shane is a MACHINE! He knows more than most hunters out West combined! And his enthusiasm and love for hunting is seen every minute you are out with him. He absolutely goes the extra mile to make your hunt exactly what you want. I could go on and on about the experience I had on this hunt, but this would be long! If you want a great hunt, you won't find anyone better. Thank you so much, Shane!"

I would like to say that a guide is only as good as his hunters ability and Andrew made an incredible shot on this antelope or we would not have the success we did.  Congrats and awesome shot Andrew, together we deified the odds and created another memory.
  On a side note after we walked up to the antelope we looked up on a ridge about 500 yards away and saw a hunter walking off the ridge toward us.  The other hunter walked up and congratulated us on the success.  He said it was the coolest thing to get to eat his lunch in the shade of a tree and watch the entire process unfold.  He had found the antelope and then looked out and saw us watching the antelope also but from his vantage point it was wide open and no way to get any closer so he just kicked back and watched the show.