2024 AZ elk chronicles

I was seriously thinking of moving to AZ for 6 months so i could draw this tag as I had 12 points and it took about 21 to guarantee drawing this year. Then I unbelievably drew a random tag. My wife drew it 3 years ago so we weren't going into the unit blind like usual. Bad new is that my youngest son drew the UT youth general elk tag which was right in the middle of my season. My wife insisted that i hunt the whole season in AZ as I told her that was my only regret on her hunt, that we only hunted 10 days. She stayed behind to be his guide and my 2nd to youngest son went with me to AZ for the first 2.5 days of the hunt.

I'm going to chronicle my time in Arizona, a day or 2 at a time, depending on how eventful the day was. Most of these will include text updates sent to my wife so don't expect proper english.
9-13. Friday the 13th. There were gremlins in my truck. We decided we needed to be extra careful on this day. lol.
Tried going to pond. Wind was wrong so we went around the road we took the first time we went there. At the turnoff there were 5 or 6 bugling south. Got 100 yards from a herd. Too many eyes. Chased the others a mile up the hill and gave up. Found 2 bulls bugling this afternoon. Got one to 100 yards and wouldn't come closer. Went to red rock hill. Pond is dry. Nothing down there.
First thing we were walking towards that herd, bugles every direction non-stop and turkeys yapping. Kael stopped and said "this is so cool!" lol. Saw more turkeys and 5 coyotes. I could have shot one at 10 yards but that's when that bull was at 100 yards. Saw 4 bucks, Kael said 3 were 4 points. Small.
While we were calling in that bull, my watch told me this, never seen that before:

I'm here for it - keep 'em coming!

Love it! Keep the updates rollin!

Definitely. Looking forward to the updates.

9/14
Started today before light at parking spot for big pond. Nothing there. Drove around to where we found them yesterday. There were bugles way up the mountain already. Drove up there and started after one. Heard a bugle that sounded suspicously human. The elk all moved back down the mountain. Found a couple guys who had hiked in directly upwind of the elk. It all makes sense now. Headed back to truck. Down the hill we went to find the elk again. Started after some again. Spotted a bull a couple hundred yards away. Kael set up and started calling and I moved to a forward position. The bull was screaming! He started to move downwind and towards me. Had him broadside at 70 for several minutes but he was only a 5 on the one side. Pretty wide though. Then he stuck his nose in the air and he was gone. Got after another one but no luck there. By then all bugling had stopped. Jumped a 5 point and a spike late morning. Seems like they're active for about 3 hours in the mornings and 3 hours in the evenings. Time for a nap.
Tonight Kael stayed behind to work on school and I hiked to a guzzler I found by the slash piles. 0.6 miles in. I bugled halfway. Nothing. About 100 yards further up the hill, I jumped 2 cows and a bull. IDK how big he was. Sat on guzzler for an hour. Nothing. Went to slash pile pond. It's dry. Went to another pond. Dry. Drove down the road bugling. Nothing. Decided I needed to be higher elevation. Drove to the closed road at the bottom of the mountain and hiked in. Pretty steep getting in there. 1 mile hike. Right at the top of the trail I heard a bugle that sounded like it was over the next ridge. Started over there just to find out they were on the top on the ridge next to me. Cows busted me and they started to take off. The bull didn't know what was going on so he would run in front of the cows and put his antlers down to stop them. Eventually the cows got around him and took off and he followed. I'd say he was about a 310 bull. I followed them. It was pretty open ponderosa forest. Could see 200 yards pretty easily. I got to the edge of the next draw and stood behind a tree. They were in the bottom and he was screaming his guts out. The cows had me pinned down so I called back and forth with him. After a few minutes I heard a bark behind me. A 5 point had sneaked in behind me. He just kept barking at me till he finally wandered over the hill. The 310 bull wouldn't leave the cows. I had 30 minutes of good light so I decided to try to get closer. Cows busted me right off. They ran up the hill and he was still screaming like crazy while I hiked down the mountain.

Nice good luck love the updates

Sounds like there's plenty of elk around..good luck and keep us updated...

Obviously you didn't do it, but I'd be very careful for anyone considering temporarily moving to a western state to take advantage of the lower point requirement to obtain a prime tag. A well-known hunter moved to Utah a couple years ago, got drawn then moved back. Utah prosecuted him for fraud and he was convicted. A conviction normally comes with fines and the loss of hunting privileges in every state in the country.

9/15. Day 3. This was the craziest morning of elk hunting ever. We stopped on the way in and bugled towards the big pond before light. Nothing. Bugled a couple times on the road going to where we found them yesterday. Nothing. Decided to drive down to the private gate. On the way in, Kael spotted a bull on the side of the road in the dark. 8 minutes till shooting time. We drove to the gate and parked. Got out and there's bulls bugling in every direction. We decided to walk the fence line to the west as the wind was blowing towards the north. Chased several herds all morning. We got right in with them. I'm surpised we didn't get busted. We came upon 2 guys who threw a fit when they saw us. Explotives flying, saying we ruined it. lol. Kael asked what we ruined because the elk were still right there and had no clue we were there. IDK. They packed up their stuff and started walking out. A small 6 point jumped the fence in front of us and headed towards the herd. Kael saw 2 fighting at about 100 yards. He said one of them was a monster. (he had binocs) I said let's run in on them while they're distracted. He said there are too many cows, we'll get busted. So we waited. While shadowing the herd, I glanced back and saw a bull walking parallel to us towards the herd. One glance and I knew he was a shooter. All his tines were super long. I gave Kael the thumbs up and estimated him to be 70 yards. Well, he must have been massive because the range finder said 110 as he walked past us. He was broadside in the complete open and didn't care at all that we were there. I figured we had nothing to lose so I gave a cow call. He stopped for 2 seconds, glanced our way, then continued, never to be seen again. We lost the big herd when we started chasing another satelite bull that turned out to be too small. Got in on small herd, again, too small. I could tell Kael really wanted an arrow to fly before he left. Bugling was done after about 3 hours of light, again. For those 3 hours, I don't think there was a 10 second period without a bugle. Some of the bulls were dripping wet from rolling in water. I'll have to find it. Got about 6 miles of hiking in by 9am. Kael was pushing me hard. lol. Broke my phone screen. Had to drive 40 miles to get it replaced. Drove to Phoenix for Kael to fly home for school. Flight was delayed so I didn't get back to room and in bed till midnight. That was a sad drive. Going to be solo for a week. I already felt sleep deprived and I could tell that if I got up at the usual 4am, I would be worthless chasing elk up the mountain so I decided to sleep in.
After thinking about what happened that morning, I believe there was a large herd, or several herds, of cows and a whole bunch of bulls trying to get as many cows as they could. It was complete chaos. I doubt I'll ever have a morning like that again.

Enjoying! Look forward to reading and seeing pictures of the whole hunt. Someday Arizona will give me a chance!