Thanks very much guys.
Well I will try to keep the hunting story short. But probably I will fail.
The unit I hunted is in the Arizona White Mountains, unit 3B. Roughly about 500 square miles. It is a muzzle loader only unit for elk, pronghorn, and deer.
Though elk can be found in any part of the unit, there are places they seem to prefer. I tend to hunt an area that's about 70 square miles.
I scouted for three days before the hunt in areas I know they frequent. All the sign I found was over two to four days old.
We had about two and a half inches of rain on the Monday before the hunt started, that helped me date the tracks.
I climbed up on a mesa that they typically like to bed in on opening morning, Friday the thirteenth.
Still hunted for about four hours. Again old sign is all I found. Glassed a few other places the rest of the day.
Saturday I decided to glass behind a knoll where they can be found most of the time. Again I drew a blank.
Decided to go to an area which is about 500 feet lower in elevation. I hoped the road had dried enough from Mondays rain. Don't find being stuck to be much fun.
It wasn't long after about 1/2 a mile driving on this greasy road, I was seeing all sorts of elk tracks.
Like I always do I marked where I parked on my Garmin. I proceeded to start tracking. We had a full moon the night before and figured they had come in from feeding a were going to bed in the junipers.
It was a sunny day temperature was in the low forties. If it wasn't for the thirty five to forty mile an hour winds it would be beautiful day.
The wind was quite an advantage for me though. The elk were traveling straight into it as they always do when they aren't spooked.
As I came upon a dry lake bed which I had been to quite a few times before, I found them. They were starting to bed down on the opposite dry bank from where I was. I was hiding behind a small juniper. I knew they were too far. I ranged them any way. They were three hundred and fifty yards away.
I sat there contemplating what strategy I should employ to narrow the distance. The elk in all likely hood where going to bed down until after sunset. At which time they would go to a lake about a mile an a quarter from this dry lake.
I counted thirty that I could see. They were spread out for about seventy yards. The elk had a clear view to the south of about four hundred yards. to the north about 600 hundred yards.
I needed to go around them to the north so I could flank them from above. I had helped a friend on a bull hunt about seven years ago, and I didn't want to walk that Malapai moonscape if I didn't have to.
I decided that the easiest way to flank them, was to go back to the truck and drive around to the other side of were they were. I knew I could park about one and a half mile from the dry lake bed. It turned out to be a nine mile drive.
Once on the other side I got out my phone and brought up a topo map of the area. I had to make sure that I would take a vector that would keep me to the North of them.
When I came up on another dry pond, I knew I was only two to three hundred yards from the dry lake bed. I slowed my aproach and I spotted the lake bed. I figured from my location that the elk were about two hundred yards south of me. I slowly eased on down and trickled my way south. When I spotted an elks hind quarter, I got my range finder out. That elk was one hundred and sixty eight yards away.
I worked my way back up hill mind full to keep the junipers between the elk and me. I was about thirty feet higher than the dry lake bed. I walked about fifty yards south and again started to trickle down to the elk. I saw parts of an elk and slowly worked my way down where I may get a clear shot.
The elk were still bedded and unaware of my presence. I knew I was less than a hundred yards so wasn't going to fiddle with the range finder. There were three within my field of view through the junipers. I had to glass their heads to make sure none of those three was wearing an errant spike.
I had decided I would take the one in the middle, so I started to ease my rifle barrel through an opening in the juniper I was behind.
At that moment she caught sight of my movement and stood up. When she did the others stood up and I could see their heads from the corner of my eye. As she turned to flee into the wind, the elk on the left of her walked into my sights. I held on the front of her shoulder, fired and she dropped like a stone.
I knew she had been spined so I reloaded. As I walked towards her I could see she was still alive. I promptly put another ball in the skull.
Later as I was skinning then quartering her, I saw were the ball entered on the back of the scapula struck a rib and deflected upwards into the spine.
The rifle I built five years ago. It is my interpretation of a Bucks County rifle. I got the trigger guard from the late Reeves Goering. The rest of the mounts I made. It has a .54 Ed Rayl barrel and it comes in under seven pounds.
I use a .530 ball patched with .018 pocket drill, lubed with bear oil. All that sits on ninety five grains of Goex 2f.
Hope you all ain't asleep by now.
