Spent the last few days in the Arizona high country backpack hunting for elk. It was a tough hunt with full moon and no bugles to be heard, but proved to be well worth the effort. Ended up solo as my brother broke his arm and clavicle the week before the hunt...

About 1 mile in:


Base camp at 9700'



Full moon from camp opening morning:


Typical bedding area, rifle in elk trail:


Success:




My freshly re-barrelled M70 in 6.5-06 dropped the bull in its tracks at sunrise on day 4, I then packed meat until 11PM that night, returning the next for some rib meat and the head.

Nice Bull!!! Congrats

Great job on the bull. Looks like Flagstaff area. What unit were you in? Nice pictures of the hunt.

Nice job,

White Mts? Flag area?

I sure miss that State.

Geno

Wow! Nicely done. Thanks for posting great pictures, too.

Nice bull!

how cool is that...congrats to you on a great trip.

Excellent! Congratulations

Great bull and pics! Congrats and thanks for the post. Nothing like doing it on your own.

Beautiful bull, congratulations!

Thanks guys. This was limited opportunity permit in a mostly wilderness designated area north of Flagstaff. AZGFD classifies it as limited opportunity due to the rugged terrain and lack of access. It pegged the satisfaction meter, but it was a lot of work as well.

Congratulations on a very nice bull! Hard-earned, no doubt, but would imagine that makes what you accomplished mean even more.

Great country! Great bull!! congrats!!!

Nice bull. Congratulations.

How far did you have to pack out the meat? Did you pack it on your back? Or did you use a horse?

KC

Well Done

By downhilling to a different trailhead I was able to get the pack out to less than two miles. It was on my back in my MR6500 pack which while heavy, carries well and is tough as nails. I'll definitely have something 4 legged lined up for the next time though.

Good job and great bull

you had to back pack into here? How did the chainsaw get in there? Nice bull though.

The elk range vertically about 1500' daily in this area from what I've seen. This bull was intercepted 1000 vertical feet below my camp at dawn leaving where they feed at night. Have a nice day.

Not sure what that means, you backpacked in and then pose a bull on a logged tree. It was a legit question. I hope it was easy to pack to the truck where you killed him.

I backpacked in and hunted both uphill and downhill from my base camp. With no bugling, by Sunday and Monday mornings I was working on intercepting them downhill from camp. It was not an easy pack to the truck by any means. Have you ever hunted the Peaks Hunt area?

Congratulations!

Beautiful bull and great story, I aspire to get out and hunt Elk like this next year. How long have you been backpack hunting elk and if you could give one piece of advice to someone doing it for the first time what would it be?

....be in top physical shape! Seem obvious but can't be underestimated when chasing those smelly critters up and down the topography they like to escape to when the pressure hits.

You should feel real good about taking a nice bull that way - private land, DIY, spike camp - there are just not a lot of guys capable of doing that.

Congratulations. Well deserved!

That's a really nice bull.

The reason for the cuts is that the FS wants Aspen to take over in there.

Congrats great bull!

Nice bull.....Congrats.

Congratulations,

Not since 1991. It was all unit big unit then. I killed my bull clear over by dog knob but chased a big bull all the way to 10,000 feet!

Great bull! My wife will be chasing cows up there tomorrow and next week a friend has an any elk tag in there. Can't wait for morning.

Good luck! That last weather front may have them bugling by now.

Dang, you folks are making me jealous. I didn't put in for any deer. elk, sheep etc this year as we had household size moves and new jobs etc to deal with.

And today I was just trying to find a way to show my brother, who's moving to Flag 1-Nov, with online maps where our spring javelina camp is as he may decide to hunt or maybe just come for a visit.

I sure miss AZ.

Good luck to all you AZ folks this fall. I'll be putting in for elk and deer next year, I've got a nice new to me 9.3 to take along for a walk in the woods.

Geno

Where did you live in AZ? what are you thinking for next year (elk)?

PM if necessary

Mike, what bullet did you use? powdr

Very nice bull you got there, well done.

Barnes 127 LRX w/ H4831 for 2980 FPS @ muzzle.

Great work and fine hunt!!! Thanks..

Awesome bull and from what I can tell nice rifle as well. Good shooting and congrats!

dennis, stump might be fairly old, or might be from cleanup of a fire. sometimes they get permission to use motors (chainsaws) in wilderness. lot of the land around the peaks is wilderness now, but hasn't always been.

Sycamore

Sorry J, I missed following up my post.

I'll send PM.

OH, White Mtns and over west on the "river". Two COMLETELY different climates!

Yes, elk maybe, spring HAM javelina for sure. Deer depending on if successful on elk. (hard to afford both)

Geno

Alamosa nailed it! Congrats on a great bull, done the hard way!