Sheep and Elk!!

Thanks to the Game and Fish moving back every elk hunt in the state, now the late elk hunt and the AZ sheep hunts start a day apart.  That is a big issue if your trying to guide hunters in both hunts.  With the long weekend we got out and glassed a couple different Rocky Mountain Sheep units and also some of the elk  units we will be hunting this coming weekend.  The late elk hunts are just not as fun as the early hunts by any means! The quality goes way down and it is way colder and the biggest reason it is not as fun is they are not bugling.. Enjoy the pics and check back to see how the elk and sheep hunts went!  Good luck to all that have elk and sheep tags that start this weekend, shoot straight or shoot often what ever works better for you....

The picture of the ram that is blurry and a little farther away is a different ram than the one with the one ewe.. Some good rams and a couple smaller rams.

3A-3C General Mule Deer Hunt Success! Big Bucks!!

Koury Guide Service had 5 clients for the general deer hunt in unit 3A-3C for 2012.  The hunt started and on the opening evening Tyler S. from California harvested his first Mule Deer.  We glassed this buck at about 3:30 in the afternoon with five other bucks.  They were 660 yards when they stood up to start eating for the evening, we were able to close the distance to around 479 yards before we ran out of cover to hide in.  We dialed the scope and Tyler's first shot went just high but the second shot hit the mark and Tyler had just killed his first mule deer.  Here are some pics of his great deer.



Here is a couple pictures of Tyler's deer from some video we took in early August 2012.

 

Kill Photos of Tyler's buck!

Check out the video of Tyler's mule deer hunt.  ENJOY!!!!



Tyler's father Jack and younger brother also had the same tag and after glassing up some nice buck but just not being able to close the deal they all headed back to California to work and get back to school.  They were to be back on Friday morning and to hunt the last three days of the hunt.  So I headed over to help a friend and also my guide Josh that was guiding two hunters for me.  While helping Josh try to find a buck they had located earlier in the morning we located this buck right at dark and Jake made a great shot at just over 300 yards as last light was fadeing to anchor this beautiful 4x4.

After Jake had killed next up was Joel his father.  Joel had taken a back seat so far so his son Jake could kill first but now it was his turn on the gun.  Josh had located a wider buck that Joel wanted to shoot and called me for a little help in watching the deer while they closed the distance for the shot.  As they stalked the deer he decided it was time to get up and move over the ridge he was bedded on.  After the buck went out of site Josh, Jake and Joel made the move to in position for the evening when the buck would get back up and start feeding.  Around 1:30 josh glassed up the nose of a mule deer at approx 275 yards from there location, they got Joel ready and when the buck finally stood it was all over for this great 4x4.



With a couple days before Jack and Alex would be back from California to hunt I went over to help a good friend that was having a little trouble finding a good deer.  I walked into an area with Pat that usually holds some good bucks.  After 45 minutes of glassing I had located a very tall 3x4 with 5 other bucks.  After looking over all the bucks Pat decided he wanted to try and harvest the tall 3x4 so the hunt was on.  This buck walked over a small ridge where he was out of our site just about the time we though he was going to bed.  We had the move and glassed this buck in his bed and Pat made the perfect shot on this bedded buck. Here is a picture of Pat's buck from August of this year.

Here are some kill shots of Pat's buck!

Here is the video of Pat's hunt! ENJOY!!!!


Friday morning all of the California boys were back and Alex was next on the gun.  After walking into a back canyon I glassed 6 bucks and there was a 3x4 that Alex decided he wanted to shoot.  We made a short stalk and then Alex made a great shot at almost 300 yards to anchor this awesome buck.  Alex is 15 and this was his first Mule Deer also.  Here are a couple pictures of his buck from a prior video of the buck.

Here is a kill photos of Alex's first Mule Deer!



Video of Alex's hunt! ENJOY!!!!

 

With both of his kids tagged out it was finally Jacks turn. Me and Jack hunted a spot where I had a really large buck that was very hit and miss for the first evening after Alex killed with no luck.  The next morning we hunted the same spot but with only two days left we did not have time to loose just looking for the giant, so I had my two boys go to another area and glass for a good buck.  At about 7:45am I got the call "Dad you need to get to us, we have a possible shooter".  After a quick trip to there location they had found a buck that I had seen earlier in the hunt and he was a very large 3x4.  After Jack looked at this buck through the spotting scope he decided to hunt this buck.  We thought this buck would be the low 170's as a 3x4 and we were right on.  As me ad Jack closed the distance my two boys stayed back and burned some video of this awesome buck.  Just as we were getting ready to shot this buck in his bed wild horses got this buck and his friend up and had them running down the ridge quickly.  With a well placed rushed shot Jack had just completed the 3 for 3 quest on AZ Mule Deer.

Here are some pics of Jacks buck.

Here is the video of Jacks buck ENJOY!!!

I would like to thank all my hunters for the chance they gave us to make there AZ Mule Deer Hunt a success.  A HUGE CONGRATS to all our General Deer Hunters, you guys were awesome!!!

2012 Early and Archery Elk Review! Lots of HORN!

With the general deer hunts complete I have a little time to do some much needed updates on the blog.  We have harvested some awesome mule deer in 3A-3C again this year but first a little review on what happened on the elk hunts so far.
We started out with my Guide Ken Owens putting the first elk on the ground. Kens hunter Lauren had traveled 18 hours from his home town in Virginia.  On day two Laurens PSE bow hit the mark.
Great job Ken and Lauren.

I was next up in unit 3A-3C.  I was hunting with Glen.  He had made the drive from L.A. to hunt with us.  Glen had been on 8 elk hunts prior and had shot one arrow with no success. I made Glen pass on lots of elk prior to this bull making an appearance at 28 yards.  Glen made a perfect shot and the elk never left our sight.

After Glen had killed I went over to help a good friend that had the 3A-3C archery tag also.  Two days into helping Russell connected with this awesome elk. 

With the archery hunts complete we got to break out the rifles and muzzle loaders.  We had hunters in units 1,3b,3a-3c, and 4b.

In unit 1 my guide Phillip and his hunter Wayne connected on this awesome bull with a 8 inch kicker on the left side to go with the additional 7 points per side the bull already had made for an excellent trophy.  They had hunted numerous days and passed on over 30 bulls before putting the scope on this big old bull.

Guide Josh and hunter Gary were hunting unit 3b with a Muzzle Loader and we all know that 3b is not know for its great quality.  Josh made poor Gary pass on over 50 bulls before they finally found the bull they were looking for.  The 2nd bull they passed Gary looked over at Josh and said that "today is that bulls lucky day, cause if you were not here he would be dead".

Myself and John were hunting 3a-3c and were looking for a giant bull to put his tag on. The only issue I had was that two of my giant bulls had broke horns during the archery hunt.  Here is on of the bulls that we watched late in the archery hunt but with one day before the rifle hunt started this bull broke one beam off just past the fourth point. Sorry for the poor quality of this pics the bull was a long ways away and with low light so we gave up quality of the pic not to spook this bull.

Then with one day before the hunt started good friend Dwayne and his son Zack videoed this awesome bull.  We tried but never could seem to be in the right place to harvest this bull, matbe next year.

Then with only one day to go John and I found this awesome bull just before shooting light evaded us his bullet hit the mark and his hunt was complete.  The great thing was Jed got the entire thing on video. I will post it later.

Next we go over to unit 4b and guide Ken on day three brought down this beautiful bull with a long 50 yard shot.  This AZ bull is now back in the great state of Georgia.

A huge thanks goes out to all my guides for making Koury Guide Service what it is today.  I could not do it without them.  And a HUGE congrats goes out to all my hunters....