A Little on 2013!

2013 was, as expected, a great year for hunting.  We logged in countless hours scouting, preparing, and hunting, and met a lot of great new folks while hanging out with family and old friends.

We saw a pretty good year of lion hunting, considering we had a ton of other hunts that took up a large majority of our time!

Chris Reinesch made due with what was probably the largest tom killed during our 2013 lion hunting adventures.  His patience paid off on a monster Tom!

 

 

 

While Chris’s lion may have been the largest we killed in ’13, he wasn’t the largest one we caught.  During a “catch and release” day, we were able to get awesome pictures and video of a truly monster Tom!

Terry Gray made due with a great Tom with his son Gary along to watch it all go down.

 

Another lion worth mentioning is a small “catch and release” lion that ended with a great pic of Craig and Carson Stephens with the small female glaring down on them!

 

Elk season was a blast as it usually is.  Bryant McGee Sr. was able to make due with a 360 class bull on the opening morning of the archery hunt.  This was the seventh bull called in that morning.

 

Brady Shultz had a frustrating time with bulls that were in range or nearly in range before he finally connected good on a 6X6 at 42 yards!

A late season hunt produced a 350 class bull...

…and Mac turned old enough to hunt and took her first big game animal ever!

Jamie and Mike Goad were able to take two great bucks at the same time during the general rifle hunt as both bucks tried to leave a canyon across from everyone.

Bryant McGee Jr. let the air out of a 4X4 at 654 yards!

Then it was time to focus on P.T. Carters sheep hunt!  What a great year to be a sheep hunter, and P.T. made good with a huge 168 3/8” Ram!

Shortly after P.T. connected on his sheep, we finished the year off with a quick archery Mule Deer hunt with Brandon…

Better stories on these hunts will show up in the future, and some of these hunts will be featured in one of our upcoming DVD’s (Just Hunting)!  So stand by, and good luck in 2014!

Can't Pass That One Up!

Cold and windy, now its starting to spit rain!  Perfect conditions….. well maybe minus the wind!  P.T. Carter and Jamie Mace have a good bull that just laid down under a cedar tree to try and get a break from the wind.  Nice 6X6, with no broken points, which by the way is very hard to find this year.  They figured he was about a 330” bull and the two shivered while they mulled over whether or not this was the bull they wanted on the first day of the hunt.

The elk were just out of the rut, and almost any bull in the woods was busted to pieces!  From where the bull laid down, this would be an easy stalk ending in what should be a easy shot, but Jamie decided this just wasn’t the bull he wanted on day one of the rifle hunt!  Nothing like being picky on a hunt that was designed to be a harvest hunt, not a trophy hunt!

No problem, respectable bull, but not quite what he wanted, still lots of time left in the hunt.  This was, after all, the afternoon of the very first day.  P.T. and Jamie glassed this bull up right off the bat so there was no need to pack up and move just yet, theres still lots of country to see from here, and almost as quickly as they found this bull another group of bulls were glassed up!  The wind and rain continued to pick up making it a little difficult to see exactly what these four new bulls were, but from this distance and in these conditions, one looked promising!

The two packed up and began to move in for a closer look.  The trees and low lying ridges made it difficult to set up and get a good look, so they ended up moving within rifle distance before they were able to get a good look, and that’s all it took.  One of the four bulls was very heavy horned, and even though he had broke his fifth point, Jamie wanted to set up and shoot! 

The four bulls fed in and out of the trees when the one Jamie liked finally moved out into the open.  With video camera rolling, Jamie eased in behind his rifle and let one rip!  The bull immediately went down as the other four packed the mail for quieter territory!  The rain was really starting to move in, and the sun was moving out, so P.T and Jamie packed up once again and made their way to Jamie’s bull.

Upon inspection of his bull, a happy Jamie Mace kept saying “you don’t pass bulls like this on this hunt!”, and he was absolutely right.  His bull taped out at 350” with the missing 5^th!  Great bull on a late hunt!

 

You can watch the video of this hunt on MuleyBull Oufitters "Just Hunting, Volume 1" found at Amazon.com

 

A Coues a Day!

MuleyBull guides Bryant McGee and P.T. Carter had three days to kill two coues deer in unfamiliar country!  The two had decided to put in for this unit for a little change of pace, and a reason to learn a new unit.  The two had just come off a couple elk hunts, followed by a couple deer hunts, cutting their plans of scouting for a week down to a day and a half.  During their day and a half of scouting, they found some country they decided to hunt and located a couple bucks they liked.

On the first day of the hunt, P.T. glassed up a buck a couple miles off as he fed along a fairly open hillside.  He packed up his gear and headed out to try and get a shot while Bryant stayed behind to watch through his binoculars.  The hike took P.T. over some rough country and took a little longer than planned.  Bryant caught site of P.T. as he was going over a ridge that looked like it should put him close to the buck.  Bryant watched with anticipation as the buck fed down the hillside and eventually disappeared behind a ridge between him and the deer.

P.T. located the buck and quickly set up on a half dead cedar tree that would serve as a good rest.  His first shot sent the buck rolling down the hill!  The buck ended up being a very nice 3X3, and due to the unfamiliarity of the new country, it took Bryant quite a while to figure out how to drive to a location to shorten up the pack out!

That afternoon and the next morning didn’t show much.  A few small bucks that Bryant wasn’t interested in, and a handful of does and fawns.  Finally, with only about 40 minutes of day left, Bryant glassed up a group of 3 bucks in the canyon below.  The scramble was on!  Trying to make time, and do so quietly, he finally moved to within about 350 yards of the bucks.  The hillside was steep, and trying to get set up for a shot was tough, but Bryant finally used a small juniper tree for a rest and settled in on the buck he wanted as he fed out of a clump of brush.  At the crack of the rifle, the buck jumped and started to run.  The two bucks that were with him threw up their tails and began to head out making it tough for Bryant to figure out which buck he had shot at, but one buck gave out and rolled down the hill.  This didn’t look like it was going to be any easier a pack out than P.T.’s buck, but at least P.T was able to do so in the daylight, it was well after dark by the time they got the deer packed out to the road.  Bryant’s buck had 3, almost 4 points on one side with 5 on the other!

 

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.