nickman123
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- Dec 21, 2012
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My youngest son turned twelve so it was time to take him elk hunting. We usually go to Colorado but I read some stuff about Arizona's youth hunts and decided it sounded too good not to apply. Youth cow elk is only $15 to apply and only $65 for the tag if successful. So I put him in for it and he drew a tag for unit 22 near Payson.
Never been to the area so I tried to do as much research as I could and I got some good tips from chap dog48 and few others here on Jesses.
Heading out, I was pretty confident of success cause my research led me to believe the area was recently burned over and very open. I thought that even with a twelve year old and my 79 year old dad with a bum knee, we wouldn't have too much trouble.But after the first few days I was feeling alot less confident. Turned out fire was 10 years ago and the area is pretty well grown over now with Junipers, manzanita, and other brush. Throw in t-shirt weather and a full moon and conditions weren't too good. We were seeing lots of sign so I knew the elk were there but as soon as sun was out they were holed up in the thick stuff and we couldn't really find any big open areas to watch at sunup/sundown.
We only had 4 days and by start of day 3 I was pretty worried. But that morning we spotted some elk in pretty thick brush on a hillside. They moved up and over the hill and we tried to follow but their tracks disappeared into a huge manzanita thicket. As much as I was tempted to go in after them I decided the best move was to wait for them to come back out at dusk. We backtracked from the hillside where we first saw them and found an area below the hill and across a dry creekbed that looked real good. It was a more open area with lots of grass in under the trees and there was elk crap every 5 feet. I figured it was maybe where the elk had come from and maybe they'd come back at dusk. I figured that was where we'd wait for them that evening.
We got back there about 4:30pm and I set my son up sitting against a tree with his rifle on a tripod. I was next to him and grampa was about 25ft behind us and to our left sitting against a fallen log. We could see about 25yds to our front and to our left to where it dropped off into the creekbed and if we looked up thru the trees, we could see some of the hillside where we'd seen the elk that morning. It was still only about 4:50, the sun hadn't quite gone below the horizon, and I'm half asleep leaning against a tree, not expecting anything to happen till after sundown, when we suddenly hear banging, crashing, and hoof beats. Noise goes on for about 30 seconds, then three cow elk come up out of the creekbed at a gallop directly to my left. They turn and cross behind us, going directly behind the log my dad is sitting against. if he was younger and faster, he probably could have lept up, reached across the log, and slapped them on the butt as they passed.
It happened so fast, my son and I had no chance to reset his rifle and the tripod to give him any kind of shot. The elk passed behind us and went out of sight to our right. We could hear them making noise off to our right but could't see them. We stood up, moved away from the tree, and I adjusted the tripod to standing height so my son could now swivel 360 degrees if necessary. I dug out my cow elk call and started calling like crazy to see if I could get them to come back.
This went on about 10 minutes, with me calling, the elk continuing to make noise, but staying out of sight. Then my son says, "dad, there's an elk on the hill". He'd seen out of the corner of his eye an elk up on the hillside we were originally watching. As we looked, it was actually two elk. A big cow, and then a ways behind it, a raghorn bull, slowly walking down thru the brush on the hillside. My son swiveled his rifle that way to see if he could get a shot on the cow but the elk would only appear for a few seconds at a time between all the brush. Finally, it disappeared into the creekbed at the bottom of the hill. My son immediately wanted to rush forward toward where it disappeared but I stopped him. I told him to stay put and maybe it would keep coming to us just like the first three elk. We waited for what seemed like forever. It was now about 5:25 and almost dark, and I was started to regret not going forward like he wanted to, when the cow finally stepped up out of the creekbed to our left exactly where the first three elk had appeared. My son swiveled on his tripod, let it take a few more steps, and fired with the elk about 25 yrs away. The cow ran out of sight behind some trees and I heard a loud thud.
We ran over and found dead from from a perfect heart/lung shot.
It was an awesome experience and I got to do it with my son and my dad.
View attachment 83820
Never been to the area so I tried to do as much research as I could and I got some good tips from chap dog48 and few others here on Jesses.
Heading out, I was pretty confident of success cause my research led me to believe the area was recently burned over and very open. I thought that even with a twelve year old and my 79 year old dad with a bum knee, we wouldn't have too much trouble.But after the first few days I was feeling alot less confident. Turned out fire was 10 years ago and the area is pretty well grown over now with Junipers, manzanita, and other brush. Throw in t-shirt weather and a full moon and conditions weren't too good. We were seeing lots of sign so I knew the elk were there but as soon as sun was out they were holed up in the thick stuff and we couldn't really find any big open areas to watch at sunup/sundown.
We only had 4 days and by start of day 3 I was pretty worried. But that morning we spotted some elk in pretty thick brush on a hillside. They moved up and over the hill and we tried to follow but their tracks disappeared into a huge manzanita thicket. As much as I was tempted to go in after them I decided the best move was to wait for them to come back out at dusk. We backtracked from the hillside where we first saw them and found an area below the hill and across a dry creekbed that looked real good. It was a more open area with lots of grass in under the trees and there was elk crap every 5 feet. I figured it was maybe where the elk had come from and maybe they'd come back at dusk. I figured that was where we'd wait for them that evening.
We got back there about 4:30pm and I set my son up sitting against a tree with his rifle on a tripod. I was next to him and grampa was about 25ft behind us and to our left sitting against a fallen log. We could see about 25yds to our front and to our left to where it dropped off into the creekbed and if we looked up thru the trees, we could see some of the hillside where we'd seen the elk that morning. It was still only about 4:50, the sun hadn't quite gone below the horizon, and I'm half asleep leaning against a tree, not expecting anything to happen till after sundown, when we suddenly hear banging, crashing, and hoof beats. Noise goes on for about 30 seconds, then three cow elk come up out of the creekbed at a gallop directly to my left. They turn and cross behind us, going directly behind the log my dad is sitting against. if he was younger and faster, he probably could have lept up, reached across the log, and slapped them on the butt as they passed.
It happened so fast, my son and I had no chance to reset his rifle and the tripod to give him any kind of shot. The elk passed behind us and went out of sight to our right. We could hear them making noise off to our right but could't see them. We stood up, moved away from the tree, and I adjusted the tripod to standing height so my son could now swivel 360 degrees if necessary. I dug out my cow elk call and started calling like crazy to see if I could get them to come back.
This went on about 10 minutes, with me calling, the elk continuing to make noise, but staying out of sight. Then my son says, "dad, there's an elk on the hill". He'd seen out of the corner of his eye an elk up on the hillside we were originally watching. As we looked, it was actually two elk. A big cow, and then a ways behind it, a raghorn bull, slowly walking down thru the brush on the hillside. My son swiveled his rifle that way to see if he could get a shot on the cow but the elk would only appear for a few seconds at a time between all the brush. Finally, it disappeared into the creekbed at the bottom of the hill. My son immediately wanted to rush forward toward where it disappeared but I stopped him. I told him to stay put and maybe it would keep coming to us just like the first three elk. We waited for what seemed like forever. It was now about 5:25 and almost dark, and I was started to regret not going forward like he wanted to, when the cow finally stepped up out of the creekbed to our left exactly where the first three elk had appeared. My son swiveled on his tripod, let it take a few more steps, and fired with the elk about 25 yrs away. The cow ran out of sight behind some trees and I heard a loud thud.
We ran over and found dead from from a perfect heart/lung shot.
It was an awesome experience and I got to do it with my son and my dad.
View attachment 83820
