Leftover Cow Tag

If you’ve ever applied for any Bull Elk tag in Arizona, then you know how difficult it can be to get drawn.  Celeste Stephens, like so many of us, found out by phone that she was unsuccessful on her draw.  There were, however, some leftover cow tags in a nearby unit!  And she wanted to fill the freezer!

She applied for and was successful on the draw process for the leftover Cow Elk permit!  So on opening weekend, Celeste Stephens and her husband Clay Stephens woke up the Stephens clan.  With Celeste, Clay, Craig, Karlee, and Karson loaded up in the truck, the group headed out to start Celeste’s hunt!  Now special consideration had to be made on this hunt.  Obviously, your not going to hike three young kids miles at a time, or get them to sit still for any amount of time… and the quiet thing is completely out the window!  Clay had a high spot that he could drive his truck to in order to do a little glassing.  The plan was, if they located some elk, he would stay with the kids and Celeste would put on the moves!

Clay parked his truck at the end of the road on his high spot and had to hike to a point with Celeste about 80 yards away.  Clay put his oldest, Karson, in charge.  The emergency code was to honk the horn on the truck.

Clay and Celeste set up and started glassing while taking turns returning to the truck every few minutes to make sure the kids weren’t torturing each other.  Clay had himself set up behind his high powered binoculars set on top of a tripod, while Celeste had a little cheaper pair of binos she was trying to steady by hand!  It wasn’t long before Celeste glassed up a small group of elk heading to a dirt tank below the glassing spot!  As planned, Clay stayed put and Celeste started her decent to try and reach the dirt tank ahead of the elk.

The elk reached the tank ahead of Celeste and were just finishing up when she got into position!  She settled her rifle behind the shoulder of one of the cows and squeezed the trigger.  The elk exploded!  Cows began jumping the fence surrounding the dirt tank, but one cow stopped short, obviously hurt!  Celeste set her crosshairs behind the cow’s shoulder once again and squeezed another one off!  The second shot spun the elk!  The elk stumbled a few steps and went down!  An excited Clay called his wife on the radio and asked “did you see them?!”, and over the radio came a cool, calm reply “of course I saw them, how on earth do you think I shot one?”

 

The freezer will now be full!

 

Daughter First, Mom Second!

Natalie Eagar’s husband set her up with a lion hunt in Northern Arizona with MuleyBull Outfitters, and at about 3 a.m. one morning her phone rang with news that a good tom track with a female was located crossing a road.  The Eagar’s loaded up and headed to the location with their two daughters in tow.  When the family met up with the MuleyBull bunch, the hounds were turned out and the job of trailing the lions began.

The morning turned hot, and the new snow was beginning to melt and run off the hillsides.  After a long tracking job, the dogs finally lost the scent.  Chalk it up to another day of lion hunting…

Natalie’s ten year old daughter Reagan stayed with the hounds step for step, not wanting to miss a minute of the action.  The days went by and another lion track was located.  The offer was made by the MuleyBull guys to trail the lion and let Reagan have a chance to shoot it if the dogs treed it.  Once again, Reagan was in the front of the action, only this time the dogs caught up with the big cat and forced him up a big yellowpine.

An excited Reagan got her chance and made good with it as she harvested the big cat.  One shot from her rifle, and the big cat fell straight out of the tree like a sack of potatoes.

 

You can watch Reagan's hunt on MuleyBull Outfitters "Just Hunting Volume 2" found at:

Amazon.com

coming August 2014! 

Just days later, another big tom track was located and another early morning call woke up the Eagar’s sending them back into the cold wilderness to catch up, once again, with the MuleyBull Lion hunter.  This lion sent the dogs on another long tracking job, and at times it looked like the big cat might give the hunters the slip when finally the dogs exploded leaving the hunters in their dust!  As the hunters caught up with the dogs baying at a lion up another big yellowpine the cameras came out and the ritual of picture taking began.

Cameras were stuffed back into packs, and Natalie readied her rifle for the shot as Reagan watched.  At the shot, the lion jumped from the tree and hit the ground rolling down the hill!  Natalie’s lion hunt was done, and the cameras came back out and pictures were taken with a thrilled Natalie and her first lion.