Seems Matthew has great luck drawing Arizona elk tags, last year he got drawn for a super tough cow hunt in a different unit and all we saw were bulls.
This year he draws a Champ hunt in a great unit that allows any elk to be taken, for that he was stoked.
The very first day sitting a water tank he passes 3 spikes and 2 cows and just before dark I catch movement about 100 yds out and a huge 370"+/- bull is skirting us, I try to get him set up on it but was not fast enough and we never saw him again.
Well from there on Matthew only wanted that bull (who could blame him) and we tried for many days to catch him again while passing shots on many others then all at once everything died....no action!
With only two days left and not seeing anything for a few days matthew said he will shoot anything at this point, so one day I found another tank way off the beaten path and it was loaded with fresh elk sign and to make it even better while setting up for the evening hunt we heard a bugle.
So close to last light we hear another bugle and he sounds close then after a few minutes I catch movement and see a elk headed to the tank, there is one pretty decent sized opening and get Matthew set up on the shooting sticks and we watch the young bull hop the barbed wire fence into the water tank area.
I whisper to Matthew to shoot the bull as he comes from behind this giant pine tree that was in between us and the bull, when the bull hits the opening Matthew let's a 100 grain Nosler partition fly from his .243 (134yd shot) and instantly I can see the bullet impact right on the crease of the shoulder, the bull jumped and went about 15 feet and stops, Matthew tries jacking another shell in the chamber but it jams on him (I found out he pulled back on the bolt twice)
Anyway another shell was not needed as the bull got wobbly and tipped over, Matthew was ecstatic and was giving my FIL and I hugs and couldn't wait to go see his trophy.
Anyway here's the happy hunter with his 2x2 bull.
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