Three Little Piggies

Well the first stalk of the day was a complete wash!  Just as Clay, Bryant, and Brady were almost within archery range of a group of javelina, the wind swirled sending the little solar powered rotor rooters on a dead sprint up a steep, brushy hillside and out of site forever!

Temperatures were a little more than seasonably warm for January, and as the three made their way back to the truck, jackets and sweat shirts started to seem like a bad idea.  This was the second day of a month long hunt, but it was the first day for the trio, seems like New Years Day was reserved for a little recuperation. 

After a quick snack and some water, the three loaded up in the truck and headed for a new spot, glassing some hillsides along the way.  It wasn’t long before another group of javelina were located, and this was a big herd!  The hike to the herd was a fairly easy one, and as the three worked their way into the feeding javelina, one spooked sending pigs in every direction.  Each guy headed after a different little group, and Bryant was the first to shoot.  His arrow hit home, and he watched as his pig ran over a small rise and disappeared.  Brady had disappeared into a drainage to the east and Clay had gone southwest.  Bryant began to track his javelina, and found him a short distance away piled up in the brush.

Brady hadn’t chased his bunch far when he found himself with a 20 yard shot.  Brady’s shot hit the pig perfect and he watched as his pig ran around a clump of brush and rolled to a stop.  As he drug his javelina out of the drainage toward the truck, he ran into Bryant as he also was heading to the truck with his pig.  The two arrived at the truck, loaded their javelina, and headed out in search of Clay.

Clay chased a couple javelina across the next canyon.  Just as he crossed the bottom, he found himself within range, however every time he drew his bow, the pigs would bolt and send him chasing them even further.  Finally one of the pigs stood still long enough for Clay’s arrow to hit him right behind the shoulder!  As luck would have it, the pig turned and ran back the direction Clay needed to go to get back to the truck!  The pig didn’t make it far, and he eventually ran into Brady and Bryant who helped him pack his gear back to the truck.  Three javelina for three tags in one morning!  The bunch even stopped and watched a third herd of javelina feed along a slope as they drove back to town!

 

Freak Bull!

Nine years of waiting and finally a tag!  There’s nothing quite like watching your husband and his friend draw a tag every other year and rub it in as they head out to chase elk with a bow!  Now it was finally Jennifer’s turn, except her husband also had a tag, and in a different unit to boot!  Now anyone that has any understanding of the laws of marriage knows that attention had better be paid toward Jennifer's long awaited archery bull hunt.  This was not a problem, Jennifer's husband was actually more excited to finally get his wife a chance at a bull than he was on going on his own hunt!

So here's how it starts.  Jennifer, her husband, her husbands buddy, and a few other friends were all lucky enough to draw archery bull tags throughout Northern Arizona.  So the bunch decided to make a friendly wager for a dozen arrows.  Not just A dozen arrows, but the hunter that ended up with the biggest bull would get a dozen arrows from each of the losers.  In the end, the winner would not have to worry about arrows for awhile!

A few days into the hunt, and Jennifer found herself set up next to a cedar tree passing up another pretty decent bull!  In fact, she had passed on a handful of bulls since the hunt began, with a few very nice bulls mixed in!  Forget about the contest for the arrows, Jennifer had made her mind up to hold out for the bull she wants.  Seeing how she had to wait nine years for this opportunity and who knows how far down the road the next elk tag would be, she wanted to make the most of it.

Bull after bull stepped within easy archery range for Jennifer, and the morning finally came when things seemed to come together.  Jennifer was at full draw with a bull just coming to a stop, offering a good shot!  Jennifer saw the bull as he was coming in and had already made up her mind that this was the bull she liked.  She settled her pin behind the front shoulder of the bull and squeezed the trigger!  Everything felt good as the bow went off and the bull spun and disappeared into the cedars!  I guess that’s the way it happens when you finally get that shot after long hours of practice at home and 3D shoots!  But, as it also goes, Jennifer was not a hundred percent sure where the arrow hit!

She retold her story to her husband as they walked over to check for blood.  There was just enough pink frothy blood on the ground for Stevie Wonder to follow, indicating a perfect shot!  As if she needed any more proof of her shot, the two tracked the bull for a full 80 yards before finding him piled up between a couple cedar trees!

Jennifer had taken a great freak bull!  This would also be her best bull to date!  With her nine year dry streak now at an official end, Jennifer’s patients paid off on a bull of a lifetime!  AND!  With all the hunts over, Jennifer is proud to say she wont have to buy arrows anytime soon!

 

Junior Muzzy Buck

Muzzleloader hunting was a new twist to deer hunting for Kylie McGee, but after some practice she found she could shoot her muzzleloader as good as she could shoot any other rifle.  This December hunt showed its own challenges with the weather and the fact that the distance had to be closed in order to get a good shot!

The days ticked by, several bucks were watched and passed, its fun to watch a young buck chase his does back and forth on a hillside, even if he isn’t quite what you’re looking for.  Early mornings were spent watching deer on hillsides and along ridge tops, then a quick lunch out of a can or cooked up with a Jetboil, then finishing the day looking at more deer with an occasional stalk to try and bring the muzzleloader to range of a decent buck.

Part way through the hunt, Kylie invited friend Baily Schriener to tag along and help out with the hunt.  A monster wasn’t necessarily what Kylie was after, but if a monster appeared he would be in serious trouble, what Kylie wanted was a decent buck and a good time.

Toward the tail end of the hunt is when it happened.  After returning to the truck from a short hike to get a better look at a group of deer, Kylie jumped out of the passenger seat to open a gate.  As she held the gate open for the truck, she glanced up on the hill and saw a group of deer watching her, and with the deer was a buck she liked!  She got everyone’s attention and grabbed her muzzleloader.  After she was set up, the deer settled down, and the buck returned to harassing his does!  Kylie settled in for the shot and waited for the buck to stop in an opening so she could take a shot.  The deer disappeared behind the trademark smokescreen of the muzzleloader as the shot rang out!  As the smoke cleared, Kylie could see that the buck was hit hard!  The buck began to wobble away as another load was crammed down the barrel of the gun.  Just as the gun was loaded for a second shot, the buck toppled over!  Kylie and Baily walked up to Kylies first muzzleloader buck! With big grins and a little giggling, the girls posed together for some great shots of Kylies buck.  Congrats!

 

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