Took a chance this year and applied for a limited opportunity hunt in the great state of Arizona. Somehow I got lucky and drew my first choice. Arrived in the unit 2 days before the opener. Scouted the spots I had previously determined and found a few others with potential. Opening day found us glassing an area that had good cover and was a good distance away from the nearest road. Glassed up three small bulls that morning and sat on them most of the day waiting to see what their plan was. By late afternoon they were up and feeding getting closer to our location. Unfortunately, wind direction changed and they picked up our scent.
Day two turned out to be more of an all day scouting expedition. There were no animals spotted that day but we did receive some valuable information from fellow hunters in the area.
On day three we woke up a bit earlier and headed up to a new area. Right when we got set up to start glassing we heard a bugle down in the valley below us. After a few minutes we located some cows and a mature bull in that area. We cut the distance from over 800 yds to just a little over 300. We relocated the bull who was now bedded and waited him out. At approximately 9AM the bull stood up and my Win Model 70 rang out. The bull was hit and he went down in the same spot he was standing.
We made it up to where the bull was and found him... the bull was alot bigger than expected! The work began and approximately 6 hours later we were paking out the last load of meat.
A big thanks to everyone that contributed information and an even bigger thanks to my hunting partner who took a whole week off from work to help me glass and pack.
Arizona never disappoints... This was truly a hunt of a lifetime for me.
Day two turned out to be more of an all day scouting expedition. There were no animals spotted that day but we did receive some valuable information from fellow hunters in the area.
On day three we woke up a bit earlier and headed up to a new area. Right when we got set up to start glassing we heard a bugle down in the valley below us. After a few minutes we located some cows and a mature bull in that area. We cut the distance from over 800 yds to just a little over 300. We relocated the bull who was now bedded and waited him out. At approximately 9AM the bull stood up and my Win Model 70 rang out. The bull was hit and he went down in the same spot he was standing.
We made it up to where the bull was and found him... the bull was alot bigger than expected! The work began and approximately 6 hours later we were paking out the last load of meat.
A big thanks to everyone that contributed information and an even bigger thanks to my hunting partner who took a whole week off from work to help me glass and pack.
Arizona never disappoints... This was truly a hunt of a lifetime for me.
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