Travis's 7 East Bull

Travis Vincent left Sierra Vista on Thanksgiving Day and headed to Flagstaff to meet up with Bryant McGee and Clay Stephens for his unit 7 East late bull hunt.  Along for the ride and to watch the hunt was Travis's dad Boone, which had come down from Montana to celebrate an early Thanksgiving and go along on Travis’s elk hunt.

For Travis his hunt began when he heard his draw results over the phone.  He had finally drawn a rifle bull tag in Arizona!  Travis is employed with the U.S. Border Patrol, a job that takes up a large amount of his time.  He was still able to get in plenty of practice time with his rifle, and was ready when the time came to head north.

For Bryant and Clay, the hunt began weeks before the opening day.  At first things looked like it was going to be the usual tough unit 7 east hunt.  That is until Clay finally stumbled into an area that seemed to be overflowing with elk.  Bryant and Clay concentrated their efforts in this area with some days finding more than 200 elk.  There were days when they would see 29 bulls, the trick was finding the bull Travis had in mind.  Lots of average bulls with even more small bulls, and the occasional big bull. 

Right off the bat on the first day of the hunt Bryant glassed up a group of bulls that they had been trying to keep track of.  One small bull, two bulls that were borderline shooters for Travis, and one that was a no brainer.  From the get go, the bulls weren’t acting right, and as the four watched the bulls and brainstormed a plan of attack, two hunters appeared about 50 yards below the group.  The hunters had no idea the bulls were in the area as they hunted along the hillside, but it didn’t take long before the bulls blew out and were never found the rest of the hunt.

A short time later, another lone bull was glassed up.  This bull was in the thick cedars, but he was big enough to go after.  The stalk was a wash, but the hunters had a large group of cows and small bulls pass by single file within archery distance.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a bull in the bunch that Travis wanted to wrap his tag on.

The next day found the hunters in the same area.  Like yesterday, a couple bulls were glassed up right off the bat but fed over a ridge before a decision was made whether or not one was a shooter.  Clay finally glassed up another small bunch of bulls that had a shooter in it.  These bulls finally fed over a ridge and a plan was made.  It took a long time for the group to make their way to where the bulls were last seen.  The small amount of snow on the ground showed the bulls were heading into some small canyons.  After around a couple of hours of tracking, the bulls stood up out of their beds looking at the hunters at 50 yards!  The largest of the three bulls was standing directly behind a cedar tree and left without ever giving Travis a shot!

Day three ended terrible.  The weather did not cooperate all day making glassing nearly impossible.  At one point the snow came down so bad the bunch decided to retreat into town for a warm meal.  Only a handful of elk were found this day, with a few small bulls, but no decent bulls were found.

Day 4 only had a little better weather. More elk were glassed up than yesterday, but they never saw a bull that got Travis excited.  Now moving to day 5, the last day Travis was going to be able to hunt.  First thing that morning a big bull was finally glassed up, but as Travis’s luck had proved so far, the bull was feeding into flat thick country.  The crew hiked in and began to track the big bull figuring they had to give it a try.  Eventually they kicked the bull out of his bed, but he was up and gone so quick that Travis never had a chance for a shot.  Frustration was trying to kick in when the bunch moved into an area that elk had bedding in the previous days.  A decision was made to have Travis and Bryant walk in and try to find a bull while Boone and Clay stayed back and glassed. 

About an hour into the walk, Bryant located a bull up feeding in a group of cedars.  The bull was a 5X5, and Travis decided he was going to take a shot.  The bull was feeding just over 100 yards away with no idea of the hunters presence when Travis readied for the shot.  There was no reaction from the bull when Travis’s rifle went off, but the dull “whomp” was enough evidence the bull was hit.  The bull began to walk forward.  Travis sent shot number two just as the bull began to tip over!  Things finally worked out, even though this wasn’t the monster Travis was hoping for, it was a great trophy that came at the end of a long hunt.