Average Joe Hunting Adventures with Dan and CJ

After almost an hour of waiting, the guys finally got back to camp, and I immediately noticed blood on Ryan's hands. He got "the one." Ryan's dad put out a few trail cams prior to the season and this nice 6x6 was one of the bulls Ryan immediately added to the hit list. He came into the water a few times during the season, but we weren't in the right place at the right time.



After a few high fives and congratulations we watched the video Steve recorded and they told and retold the story. It was a blast watching the two of them re-live the moment, and to witness the emotion of someone killing their first elk.





One heck of a nice bull for a first elk.


We had a long night taking care of the animal and getting him back to camp. The next day we headed back to town to butcher the animal, to clean up, and get some rest for the next day. It was still early, and Ryan really wanted to experience some rut action. Since the bugling was heating up, we headed back to woods to try to get some pics and video of the action.

Things kicked off fast Thursday morning. We were in bugles almost immediately. The first bull to come in snuck in silently. He was a heck of a bull, and a one hell of a satellite bull.



One thing that really sunk in on this trip was how difficult it is to get good photos of rutting elk. I need to pick up my game, but I'm getting there.







What was supposed to be a quick and fun morning quickly changed when this bull walked past us with an arrow in his side. The hit didn't look good, but there was a good amount of blood as we tracked him backwards to try to find the hunter. We waited 2 hours before we decided taking up the trail and leaving flagging tape for the hunter to follow was the right thing to do for the situation.



It was not an easy tracking job, but we spend 7hrs following blood and tracks that covered 2.5 miles. It didn't look very good. We decided to call it a day when the bull finally crossed a road that we could easily mark and come back to.

There were many times we wanted to call it quits, but each time we ended up finding more blood. "Blood" was the word of the day. Toward the end of the day we lost the bull's track and couldn't find any blood, and after we decided to go back to camp, Steve found a tiny spec of blood. After we followed that track a few hundred yards and lost it again we called it quits, "for real" this time. As luck would have it, I found a tiny drop of blood in the middle of the road and we were walking back to the truck. We flagged it and decided to come back in the morning. It was 4pm and we hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch. We were a bit hangry.

No more than 100yds down the road where we had last blood, we ran into the hunter who shot the elk. He was extremely grateful that we'd spend an entire day trying to find his elk.

Unfortunately, the elk was never found, but we believe the elk is still alive, based off the fact he didn't bed down after 3 miles of walking and having not found much blood.

It was a bittersweet way to end my time in Arizona, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything (except of course finding the bull dead.)

It was a great experience to be able to hunt new country and using different tactics than what I'm accustomed to using. I had a blast spending time with great people, and I can honestly say I learned a lot.

Can you tell I was just a little tired...



Had a great day of hunting antelope today, but couldn't seal the deal. I'm waking up in 4 1/2 hours to get back out there for the last day of the season. I'll post the complete story after it's finished.

Wow..that looks like a blast in Arizona! Congrats to you guys on getting a great bull.
Great job trying to find the other guy's bull too. Sounds like you put in more effort than a lot of guys do on their own animals.
Good luck on your antelope hunt today!

I just got an interesting text from CJ

I got another one of these today.



I'll get all of you the story tonight after I'm done editing the pics and video.

Bowhuntrben said:

Wow..that looks like a blast in Arizona! Congrats to you guys on getting a great bull.
Great job trying to find the other guy's bull too. Sounds like you put in more effort than a lot of guys do on their own animals.
Good luck on your antelope hunt today!

Click to expand...

It was a blast for sure. The trip solidified my yearly deposit to AZGFD.

Got an update from the hunter who hit that bull. He found its first bed, but couldn't find any blood after he got up. The bull will most likely be ok.

I got home from AZ around 930 Friday night, and was back in the antelope lands by 0630 the next morning. It felt like I hadn't slept in over a month, but that didn't last long after I spotted the first group of antelope.

Hunting this spot is... tough. And that might be a huge understatement. I'm sure I could find an area more conducive to stalking critters, but I haven't found a spot that has more antelope or bigger antelope. The flats I decided to hunt have had antelope every time I've been there, which is the single most important factor I look for when selecting a place to hunt. My grandfather always said to hunt animals where they are, not where you want them to be.





After the first group of goats walked by outside of bow range, I passed these lost bulls on my way to the more hilly/less flat area. Idaho never ceases to amaze me.



Just after noon, I spotted an antelope head in the grass. He was in a hunt-able spot and the wind was perfect. I'll let the video explain how that worked out.





After the stalk didn't pan out, I spotted a really nice buck drinking water from some rock pools on the edge of the mesa. So I dropped down, meandered across a thick boulder and sagebrush side-hill, and popped up where I had last seen the buck. Unfortunately, he had finished drinking and was feeding his way back to the main herd.



I followed the buck from a long way off with the goal of figuring it where the herd was bedding down for the night so I could get back on them in the morning. After watching the herd get nestled into this secluded drainage, I had high hopes for the morning. Strictly based on numbers, I figured my chances of one of those critters walking close enough to me were better than zero.

I slept like a rock last night, but waking up this morning was just as easy as it is on opening morning. It's the last day of the season. You gotta give it everything you got on the last day.

After 15 failed stalks and one missed shot the first 2 days of hunting I needed to change my tactics. I watched the herd of goats walk past the same pile of rocks every morning and afternoon. I got to the area well before first light, snuck into the goat bedroom, and setup next to the rock pile. I sat and glassed in the direction I had last seen the animals the night before.

The difference with this mornings hunt was the direction the animals came from... They came in from behind me and surprised me... The entire herd of 20+ animals was running straight to me and I didn't see them until they were inside bow range. I didn't have time to setup the camera or even snap a pic.

I scanned the herd and picked out the nicer bucks. If one lonely fawn had walked past me I would have gladly shot it, but it's hard to do that when there's several big bucks throughout the group. I let a doe, two fawns and a small buck walk past me, before this buck came to 35 yards! He was broadside when I started to draw, but he turned to face me after I started moving. Luckily he didn't bolt out of there and I was able to land the chip shot directly into his heart.

(This is the herd immediately after I shot my buck)


There are few things in life more satisfying than finding an arrow soaked in thick blood and knowing you made a good shot.


I still can't believe how fast it finished. Even though I only spent 2 1/2 days hunting these antelope, it was easily the most frustrating hunt I've done so far. I walked a combined 36.7 miles and did 15 unsuccessful stalks with 1 missed shot. Having this buck walk straight to me seemed too easy. I have a tendency to work harder and not smarter... So it was nice to see a plan come together so perfectly. Luck was definitely on my side this morning.

As far as the buck goes... I'm still in awe. He's far better than I initially thought he was, and I couldn't be more happy with him.







I like a little campfire in a bottle after I kill something. This bottle was cracked open after my buddy killed his elk last week. I guess I'm going to have to start sipping it to make it last longer.

Congrats on another great animal!

Very cool looking buck..congrats!

Congrats!

Awsome hunt

Thanks guys. It was a hunt I'll never forget. I made it a lot tougher that it probably needed to be, but that's what made it so awesome.

I had a few highs a lows, and here's the video of the lowest moment of the hunt... my miss from Saturday.

[video=youtube;lSofuuoBQ3U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSofuuoBQ3U[/video]

If I could do it over again the only thing I would have changed was not aiming low with my pin. I should have just put it on him where I wanted to hit. The shot execution felt good and the arrow flew where I was aiming, but I was aiming too low. All that practice of aiming low on whitetails doesn't apply to a bedded animal.

I also wish I could have gotten some video of the kill on yesterday, but I just didn't have the time or cover to get it all setup.

Well I'm one week away from driving back to New Mexico! This is going to be such an amazing trip.
I'm not leaving until I put down a beautiful antelope buck (or until the season is over )

I planned on stopping in Oklahoma on the way home to hunt antelope, but I've been getting hit bad by the whitetail bug. I'm almost as addicted to chasing whitetail with a bow as I am to elk with a bow. So depending on how I feel, I may go to my whitetail spot!


My buddy in Kentucky was nice enough to check my cameras and he helped feed the whitetail fire.
Here are some deer that are crossing that creek spot I found...






He seems to be pretty consistent in there.
There are also of plenty of does and other bucks as well!
Needless to say, I am AMPED UP!

Boy you guys are slamming the animals this year, freezers are overheating trying to keep up with all the meat your putting in them!!! Keep the stories coming because this is awesome to read and watch.

probably the pics I sent ya didn't help that whitetail fire!!!! lol

haha it definitely didn't help.... I get excited very easy!!!!
It's ok, I get my fix again here soon!!!!

FYI:


The ranch that I am going to hunt this year for antelope is a beautiful 45K acre ranch that I helped a first time hunter on last year.
It was actually a great trip and if you are bored, feel free to read about it.

https://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?273002-Buddies-NM-speed-goat

The same guy will be on this trip again with me and so we will try to get him his second big game animal and teach him some more!

With the September hunts in the books and October's about to kick off, we figured we'd do a little recap of our September hunts. Basically some cliff notes

Dan:
September was my 3000 mile road trip from FL to NM, to OK, and then back to FL.
September 1-10th was my New Mexico elk hunt. I shot my bull on the 6th and was able to see my buddy fill his tag on the 7th.
It was such an amazing experience, great time in camp with friends, and it always kills me to leave the mountains.

IMG_2260 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

Then on the 11th both my buddy and I tagged out opening day on our Oklahoma antelope hunt. This was my buddies first western game hunt and my first antelope doe hunt. We had a ball!

IMG_2335 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

September was 3K+ miles driven, two tags filled, and over 250lbs of meat for the freezer.




October 5th I hit the ground running and start my journey back out to New Mexico for my antelope buck tag. I cannot wait to have some fun!