Greg in 8

Greg Bordour comes to us from beautiful San Diego, California.  A contractor by trait, Greg never passed up an offer to go hunting… actually, he was the most likely one to make the offer!  Greg had drawn an archery bull hunt, and P.T. Carter and Bryant McGee were going along.

Greg got all he bargained for on his hunt!  He got to see his first javelina as a small herd worked around the hunters eventually winding them just a few yards away putting on a show as the hair stood on their backs, the “woofing” started along with the stiff legged jerky walk a wary javelina will show as he tries to figure out where the danger is.  At one point, a couple hunters to the north jumped two monster mule deer bucks that nearly ran Greg over as they came to a skidding halt when they noticed they had run smack dab in the middle of humans!  Greg learned what to look for to determine a lion track from a dog track as the crew examined the fresh tracks of a monster tom that had visited a small waterhole.  Turkeys were a regular guest as the crew chased elk through the forest, and Greg got a look at a great coues buck that was leaving a waterhole mid-day.  At one point, the crew wondered into an area that was infested with what seemed to Greg, rabid mosquitos!  Of the three, Greg was the only one that the mosquitos paid any attention to, and they paid a lot of attention to him!  Greg even chipped in to repair a busted drive line when the u-joints went kaput on P.T.’s truck.

Not to mention the large amounts of elk he got to chase!  Greg passed up on a handful of bulls before his guide threw a monkey wrench in his whole operation!

The three were driving down the road when they came upon a small group of elk with a decent bull!  As luck would have it, the cows went left as the bull turned and went right!  When all the elk were out of site, P.T. dropped Greg and Bryant by the road and drove off.  Greg and Bryant started off toward the direction of the bull, and after a short distance, Bryant got a glimpse of the bull as he was heading back toward his cows!  Greg set up and Bryant let out a couple low cow calls.  Immediately the bull turned and started in the direction of the hunters thinking that was where his cows were.  As the bull was passing through a small shooting lane 18 yards away, Bryant let out a low cow call to try and stop the bull for a shot.  The opposite of something good happened!  At the sound of the cow call, the bull startled, spinning on a dime and running a few steps.  The good news is, the bull was still just over 20 yards away!  The bad news was, he was stopped in a very thick group of pines looking directly at the hunters!  Greg tried to thread the needle, but his arrow clipped a small branch and flew just over the bulls back!  The rest of the day found Bryant down in the dumps for spooking the bull the way he had!

On the next afternoon, the bunch was watching another small group of elk as a bull chased cows around in a wide open flat.  The bull started to act like he was going to head to a dirt tank that was also in the wide open flat when Greg and Bryant decided to try and make the tank before the bull got too close.  At one point, the two were running almost on all fours to try to get low enough to hide behind the small dirt mound of the dirt dam, but they were able to get there and try to catch their breath as the bull topped the dam and headed toward the water!  Bryant popped up just high enough over the dirt bank to range the bull.  55 yards.  Greg set up on his knees, drew his bow, and started to stand up high enough to clear the dirt.  As the bow went off, the bull spun and made a beeline toward the trees! 

Greg was on his feet!  Jumping up and down while throwing punches at the air, the two slapped high fives and laughed as P.T. made his way toward them.  Not sure exactly where the bull was hit, the trio made the decision to head in for dinner and come out at first light.

When there was just enough light to see the next morning, the three were on the ground bloodtrailing the hit bull.  As it turned out, the bull had run a total distance of just under 200 yards before piling up next to a log.  Greg had his first Arizona bull, a great 6X6 and a handful of memories, pictures, and videos to take back home with him!

 

You can watch the video of this hunt on MuleyBull Outfitters "Just Hunting Volume 1"! found at:

Amazon.com

Bob's Lion

MuleyBull Outfitters hooked up with Rick Murphy, owner of Six Shooter Molly’s Guide Service to help Bob on his lion hunt.  P.T. Carter had caught a monster tom a couple days before Bob showed up, so it was decided to go back and try to find him again.

The first day was a wash.  P.T. Carter and Bryant McGee tried to find where the big tom may have gone while Rick went a little further north.  Rick cut the tracks of a big tom that was heading south, but after tracking him for several miles, the day finally ran out.

Day two started to look like a repeat of day one.  Bob sounded a little skeptical about his chances of actually seeing a lion.  Finally a decision was made to unload the dogs and work a rim in hopes of cutting a fresh track.  About a mile into the hike, the dogs struck on something!  The dogs started to get excited as they worked the track from the bottom of the canyon to the northern rim where they trailed to a cave entrance.  This is when they went ballistic.  In the back of the cave sat the same monster tom P.T. and his wife had caught a few days back!

It wasn’t long before the big tom decided he was in a bad spot, so he started to fight his way out of the cave.  The scramble of hunters trying to gather up dogs, dogs trying to get to the lion, and the lion trying to get out of the cave was a sight to see!  The big tom made his way to the cave entrance and made a break for it!  He only got about thirty yards downslope before the dogs forced him up a big pinion juniper.

Seeing the big cat up in the tree was an experience Bob never thought he would get.  Video cameras and still cameras came out and pictures of the whole fiasco were taken by everyone there.  Bob finally pulled out his pistol and set aim at the big cat.  One shot sent the Lion out of the tree and down to the bottom of the canyon.  Turns out Bob is a good shot with a pistol, and the big tom laid dead at the bottom of the canyon.

Bob kept repeating how he couldn’t understand how a couple guys and some dogs could turn up a lion the way they did.  What he may not know is most of the credit goes toward the dogs!

 

 

You can watch the video of this hunt on MuleyBull Outfitters "Just Hunting Volume 2" found at:

Amazon.com

Coming August 2014!

 

 

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.

 

A Lion Got to Him!

P.T. has never been a stranger to big bucks!  Nor has he ever been a stranger to archery hunting, as a matter of fact, for the majority of P.T.’s hunting career, he preferred archery equipment over a rifle when it came to deer hunting!

This buck first made his appearance two years before this particular story actually takes place.  P.T. was nearing the end of another day of archery deer hunting when he located a monster buck about 150 yards away at the treeline!  The buck already had P.T. pegged, and knowing there was no chance at making a move on the big buck, P.T. grabbed his video camera and got a few minutes of video before the 35” wide 4X4 turned and disappeared into the treeline!

Now, two years later, P.T. had the buck located once again!  The old man (the buck not P.T.), was busy chasing does around in some scattered cedar trees.  The buck looked to have lost a little width over the years, but was in a location that would allow P.T. to attempt a stalk.  The scattered cedars and heavy snowfall provided great cover for P.T. to work within archery distance of the deer as they darted back and forth chasing one another through the trees.  At 35 yards the buck came to a stop standing broadside as P.T. held his bow at full draw!  The old buck showed his reflexes were still sharp as a tack as P.T.’s bow went off.  Slightly jumping the string, it looked to P.T. like he may have hit the buck just a little far back, but he couldn’t be sure.  The day was beginning to run out, and P.T. made the decision to mark the location on his GPS and back out.

P.T. arrived back in town just after dark and picked up good friend Richard Cox and some flashlights.  The heavy snow had become a white out and P.T. was afraid that if he didn’t locate the buck soon, the new snowfall would make things extremely difficult by morning.  The two returned to the location of the shot, but the snow had turned any tracks into small dimples under fresh snow, completely covering any blood that they had hoped to find.  After a couple hours, P.T. realized they had gotten off on the wrong track, so the two returned to town for the night.

P.T. was back on location at first light and had sorted out which tracks belonged to the buck he had shot the evening before.  Luckily the snow had begun to subside as P.T. and Richard headed home the night before, so tracking might not be as difficult as P.T. had first thought.  He continued on the right track when he came across a set of large cat tracks that had jumped in on the tracking job, only it looked like he had a head start on P.T.!  P.T. came to a spot that looked like a struggle had taken place, and suddenly P.T.’s tracking job went from following the bucks footprints to following drag marks!

The lion had drug P.T.’s buck to the bottom of a drainage, ate a hind quarter and a front quarter and covered to buck before wandering away to sleep off his easy meal!  P.T. reclaimed his buck that sported a 3X4, 33 ½” frame!

On the upside, the mount on P.T.’s wall is one of a kind!  The buck has new scars on his face from his final encountered with the big tom!

 

High Country Coues Hunt

Bryant and P.T. had been scouting for their December coues hunt in Northern Arizona.  A handful of great bucks had been seen over the weeks, and the two found themselves set up on a rim above the country they planned to start out on tomorrow when their hunt finally started.  This is the night when Bryant found a buck he said he was going to hunt, and he would only leave with this buck or no buck at all!

A monster coues buck was feeding about a mile away as Bryant called P.T. up and told him to “get over here quick!”  Bryant watched the buck as he slowly fed in the fading light.  As far as he could tell, the buck would definitely score over 100”.  He had extremely heavy antlers, but it looked like something was going on with his right side.  When an out of breath P.T. finally sat next to Bryant, the buck reached the treeline and disappeared!

The next day (opening morning), Bryant was sitting in the exact spot he was the evening before!  After a long morning of small bucks, does, and elk, P.T. called Bryant and told him to head over and help him look at a buck he had just found.

Bryant set up next to P.T. and a decision was finally made to let the buck walk.  A decent 3X3, but not quite what they were looking for on the first day.  The two started working along the rim, setting up every so often to sit and glass the country that lay out in front of them.  Finally, P.T. claimed “I got a buck, a good buck!”  Bryant located the buck and watched him as P.T. packed up his gear and headed out to try and get a shot. 

P.T. chose a location that should put him across a narrow, thick canyon the buck was heading to.  The thick trees made it difficult to identify anything across from him, so  P.T. would move a little, glass, and repeat.  Finally, P.T. spotted the buck about 120 yards below looking straight at him!  P.T. set up on a dead pinion tree he was next to and settled down for a shot.  The buck disappeared at the sound of the rifle!  Not long after, P.T. caught a quick glimpse of a coues deer flag as it was heading away from him through the thick timber!  With thoughts of how he let the buck get away running through his head, P.T. started toward the last place he knew the buck had been.  At the same time, Bryant packed up his gear and headed toward P.T. 

As P.T. arrived to the location, he immediately saw the rump of a deer laying just yards away!  He walked around a clump of oaks and got his first close up look at his great 97” 3X3!

 

The days ticked by, at one point, P.T. watched the big coues Bryant had found the day before the hunt, but Bryant was quite a distance away glassing a separate canyon. 

The second to last day of the hunt was a rough one.  Bryant was battling the flu, and with his wife Cindy McGee and P.T. along, the three sat in battering winds in single digit temperatures.  The same 3X3 P.T. passed up on opening day was below Bryant feeding on some scrub oak.  At one point, Bryant was within inches of talking himself into shooting the buck so he could leave with a buck and put an end to the freezing hunt! Eventually Bryant talked some sense into himself and packed up his gear.  Bryant and his wife were working the rim and glassing when Bryant saw a lone doe with a buck about a mile and a half away.  Immediately Bryant recognized the buck and the mad dash was on to get within shooting distance before the deer disappeared!

20 minutes later, Bryant and Cindy popped up on a rock ledge that should put him directly across from the buck, and it didn’t take long for Bryant to locate him as the buck chased a doe through the thick oak!

Bryant set up and ranged the buck at 350 yards.  Bryant was convince he was never going to get a good shot at the buck when he suddenly chased his doe through the thick oaks and stopped in a small opening.  A slow breath out and the gun went off!  The dull “whomp” was a good sign that the deer was hit, although all he saw was a coues deer flag just as it topped the ridge and out of sight!

Bryant and Cindy waited until P.T. reached their location before they headed into the bowl to search for the buck.  When the bunch reached the location, there were several moments when they though Bryant had surely missed when Bryant spotted the buck lodged in some oak trees.  Bryant pulled his buck out of the trees with a sign of relief!  His buck had 3 points on his left side, and a total of 5 on his left and taped out at just over 114”!

 

 

 

Archery Javelina

Clay Stephens had never actually hunted Javelina for himself.  He had taken folks on their hunts and gone along with friends, but this would be the first year he decided to put in for the archery draw.

The first day out, Clay had planned to hunt both Deer and Javelina, but shortly into the morning, Javelina took priority as he watched a small herd feed just above a drainage below.  The pigs were feeding in some thick brush, so Clay had to take his time to try to sneak within archery distance quietly.  Suddenly, three pigs busted out of the brush almost at Clays feet!  The pigs ran a short distance and stopped in a small clearing 35 yards away!  The pigs had no longer stopped when Clays bow went off!  The arrow hit the pig perfect, and the pig barely made it five steps before giving out.

 

Even though Clay had been on several successful Javelina hunts, this would be the first time he took one for himself.  On his way out, he was able to glass up a nice Muley buck, but as luck would have it a doe busted him during the stalk sending the deer on a mad dash for a better location.  Shortly after, Clay took a bobcat that he called in.

 

A good day of hunting in anyone’s book!