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!

3 Big Bucks!

Here is a general hunt that takes place in a very tough unit in Northern Arizona.  Bryant McGee and Lee Payne have always had a passion for big muley bucks, and Cole Orosco is a guy that loves to hunt, but this would be his first hunt for a mule deer buck.

We’ll start off with Bryant…  Bryant had been watching a particular group of bucks for a couple years, but has been unable to connect during a hunting season.  Yet…  This group of bucks had two that he had his eye on, but they lived in an area that was very tough to hunt, so luck was going to have to be a huge factor.  These deer resided in an area that was flat and very thick making glassing them up impossible.  The only option was to get in and bust the brush and hope for the best, so it was no surprise when Bryant found himself in some more favorable country the first few days looking for a couple other bucks that he liked.  This more favorable country was full of hunters, and the two bruisers were eating at the back of his mind, so he decided to see if his luck would be on his side.

The day that his luck finally came in, Bryant was working an area that he knew the deer liked to feed.  Bryant always said “You have to put yourself in a position to get lucky”, and that’s just what he decided to do.  As he slowly worked his way through the feeding area, a buck began to bound off just yards ahead!  A second buck joined him, then a third!  Bryant threw his rifle up but the thick trees made the decision difficult, he didn’t want to end up shooting one of the smaller bucks.  Just as the deer started to disappear over a small rise, Bryant realized one of the bucks was one he was looking for, but it was too late.  Two more bucks began to bound of to his left and as he swung his rifle, he realized the back buck was another of the two monsters.  All the deer disappeared over the small rise, but hey appeared to be slowing to a walk.  Bryant regained himself and began to sneak toward them.  This time when he jumped the group, he knew one of the two biggest bucks was to the far left.  He raised his rifle, confirmed that it was one of the bigger bucks and pulled the trigger.  A split second later all the deer were gone in the thick brush.  Thinking he missed, Bryant walked over and began to follow the tracks of the buck he shot at.  Blood!  A short tracking job turned up his buck!  The buck had 4 points on his right side and 8 on his left!  Taping out at just over 204”, this was Bryant’s best buck to date!

Now its Cole’s turn…

Not wanting to go back to work, Bryant jumped in with Lee and Cole to help out.  A couple days later, a good 4X4 was glassed up bedded under a cedar tree at the top of a high ridge.  Paul Carter had shown up to do a little hunting of his own, and jumped in to help Cole get a shot.  Lee stayed on a knob to watch Cole, Paul, and Bryant work within rifle range.  The plan was, Bryant was going to film the hunt, Paul was going to help Cole sneak in, and Cole was going to come out with his first buck.  As the three popped over a ridge directly across from the bedded buck, Bryant made the decision to stay put and film from there while Cole and Paul tried to work their way up the backside of the ridge and pop up at a better angle for a shot.  Part of the way to their new location, Paul and Cole jumped up a small bunch of does and fawns which ran directly over the ridge and just under the bedded buck.  As Cole’s luck would have it, the buck watched the does go by, but never got up.  As Paul and Cole peaked over the ridge, they knew they were at a good angle, now it was time to set Cole up for a shot!  Anyone that has ever hunted deer probably remembers their first buck.  Cole’s symptoms were much the same as the rest of us as we were about to get our first shot.  The adrenaline was high, rapid breathing took over, a little shakiness moved in, and as Cole settled in behind his rifle, Paul gave him words of encouragement, reminding him to get solid and squeeze the trigger.  The first shot hit the deer in the back half of the front shoulder and the deer stood straight up out of his bed.  Now the first shot was probably going to be all that was needed, but Paul and Cole weren’t taking any chances.  The second shot hit the ribcage just behind the front shoulder sending the buck end over end!

Bryant could hear the two shouting from his location, and as he walked up on the two, a normally not very talkative Cole was smiling and jabbering a mile a minute.  Cole’s first buck was a solid 4X4 and taped out just over 170”!  Great first buck!

 

You can watch Cole's hunt on MuleyBull Outfitters "Just Hunting "Volume 1" found at:

Amazon.com

 

Now its Lee’s turn…

Bryant and Cole still didn’t feel like heading back to work so they stayed to help Lee on his hunt.  The three had headed up a ridge to help a friend look for a buck that he had shot a few days before.  Things weren’t looking good on recovering the buck so they split up to glass some of the canyons and drainages.  Late in the morning, a buck was located across a canyon bedded under a thick clump of cedars, now the hunt for Lee had begun.  When Lee was located watching a small group of does in the bottom of another canyon, the three headed back to where the bedded buck was located.  The buck was positioned just right.  Everyone could tell it was a buck, but they just couldn’t tell how good a buck he was.  Lee decided to work around the finger ridge to a location just above the buck to try and get a better look.  The wind had begun to pick up as Cole and Bryant watched Lee sneak into position.  As they watch Lee set up for a shot they though, “must be good enough”!  The buck came rolling out of his bed at the sound of Lee’s shot, and for the first time Cole and Bryant could see what kind of buck he was.  Lee had just shot a great 4X4 that taped out at just over 175”!  Congrats on three great bucks in just a few days!

 

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

Amazon.com

Coming August 2014!

Terry's Bull

The bull finally made it to the edge of the alley cut for the barbed wire fence that ran through the thick cedars.  Less than an hour ago, Terry watched the bull with P.T. Carter and Bryant McGee as he walked into a thick clump of cedars to lay down for the day.  Guessing the bull to be in the mid 370 range, it was just what Terry was looking for.  A plan was devised!  Terry was to go around the bull and get into position above him to set up in what was just about the only clear shooting lane in the country.  Guessing the bull would leave uphill, P.T. was going to wait for Terry to get into position, then slowly work toward the bull hoping to push him out of his bed.  If the bull did go uphill, then Terry would have a shot as he entered the clear-cut fence line. 

So here we are, the bull stopped at the edge of the alley and slowly took a look around.  Clearly he was in no hurry, P.T. held up to his end of the plan perfectly, not pushing the bull into a dead run, but got close enough to make him uncomfortable.  The bull got up and trotted a few yards then continued toward Terry and the fence line at a moderate walk.

Terry clicked the safety on his rifle to the off position as the bull took the few short strides that would carry him the rest of the way to the barbed wire fence.  The bull stopped once more and casually looked around trying to decide whether or not he really wanted to hop the fence.  At 80 yards, Terry settled behind his rifle.  Having a bull of this caliber this close, and in the crosshairs forced a little buck fever to set in on Terry.  The rifle boomed!  The bull stood where he was looking toward Terry!

“Shoot again!” were about the only words that could come to Bryant’s mind.

The bull stood and watched Terry and Bryant as Terry fought with his rifle.  Something was wrong!  Not only was the bull completely fine after Terry’s shot, but Terry couldn’t eject the empty cartridge from his rifle!  Finally, bored with what he was seeing, the bull hopped the fence with no effort and walked into the thick cedars on the other side!

It took some time to get Terry’s rifle unjammed, but the moment had passed.  Buck fever claimed yet another victim.  The good news is, the elk hunting isn’t over yet.  When buck fever gets the best of a guy, nobody is harder on him than himself.  With words of encouragement, because this isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last that buck fever makes an appearance, the elk hunting continued.

The next evening put Terry within about 50 yards of a nice 6X6, but with one more day left, Terry opted to keep looking.  The next morning, with Terry’s son Gary along, the group found themselves heading off a bull as he worked up a ridge above a deep canyon.  After looking the bull over, Terry decided to take a chance at redemption!  The bull fed through the cedars when finally he moved into a small opening offering a shot.

This time Terry’s shot would be around the 250 yard mark!  Terry settled in behind his rifle and laid the crosshairs behind the bulls shoulder as he squeezed the trigger.  This time when the rifle went off, the unmistakable “whomp” echoed through the canyon!  The bull took a few short limps in the opposite direction before spilling over!  Redemption!  Terry ended up with a nice 6X7 and a load of new stories to share at the campfire!