Arizona late archery Elk

[dirtclod Az.]

That looks downright NASTY!

 

[robby denning]

You hunting through Thanksgiving Jordan?

 

[les welch]

Yeah! C’mon stud, you got this!! I’ll be watching my phone for the pic!!


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[Brock A]

Awesome hunt so far, Jordan. Keep at it.

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[Jordan Budd]

You hunting through Thanksgiving Jordan?

I don’t think so Robby, I’m going to head over to some family a couple hours away for tomorrow. I would hunt, but these guys helping are all having time with their families. I think we’ll run up here with the ranger and make sure he’s still there and then take the day off. Then Friday we’ll be ready to either get it done or say we gave it the best we had!


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[Travis Bertrand]

Good luck Jordan, I hope your hard work pays off.

 

[sabotloader]

Tonight’s update:

Tomorrow may get interesting! This morning we glassed for the big 5x6 at first light but didn’t find him. With no other elk around that area we took off to glass some other country. Saw probably 6 bulls, one awesome awesome 6 that was broke off after his third unfortunately. Then we found another bull about 2 miles out that with the sun in our face, just couldn’t get a good look at him until about 1 or so. After he stood up and we saw he was a descent 6x6 and shooter, just too far to do anything today and he wasn’t going anywhere, we headed over to where the big 5x6 was last seen. After maybe an hour my buddy goes “oh there’s a bull.... oh hellllll yeah!” I found the bull and there was the big 5x6. Good beams and an awesome frame with wow factor. We put him to bed this evening and now repacking things to go back in tomorrow. Plan is to hit the glassing knob and spot him, bed him up then I’ll take off through a nasty creek drainage and pick my way through some broken cliffs to work my way to him, while my buddy stays on the glassing knob watching him and hopefully flags me in. Could be awesome, could be not awesome but we’re finding bulls!

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Shoot Jordan - that is/was a nice looking bull - really do wish you could have stuck him....

OK now I need to go finish your thread...

 

[sabotloader]

Alrighty guys. Sorry I didn’t update last night. Getting back down across and up the canyon last night was not good! So that bull was in the thick cover below me and needed to work south or north for any kind of an opportunity. Sun at my back and wind in my face everything was good. He started moving back to the north and we thought he may cross back in my shooting lane from earlier. I had changed from my Crispi Briksdal to my Solomon speedcross shoes for sound and was going from rock to rock as best as I could but the wind was just really dying off. I made it on top of the ledge I had been on before and looked into the lane. No bull, and just then I saw antler tips above the brush with one issue, he was either looking my direction or the other way. Was banking on the other way! I already had my rangefinder in my hand and was trying to get a range but also trying to figure out if that was actually the bull or not, when I looked with some power the antlers looked like sticks and I could see zero body. But still fairly sure it was him I stayed frozen half behind a tree myself and 60 yards of brush between us. After probably 45 seconds he turned his head then he turned to the south and I heard rocks rolling.... started paralleling him to hope that he’d stop in the larger openings I saw him shoot through them and top over the ridge. I ran up to the ridge to some big rocks and started glassing below and saw a bull climbing the north face of the next canyon, honestly thinking it was a different bull I glassed over to him and nope. It was my bull running up the ridge and looking back. So that begun the walk of shame. I know he couldn’t of seen me, he sure as heck couldn’t have smelled me unless there was a weird swirl, the wind was always in my face. We’re thinking he heard something and probably thought it was a lion and bounced. But back to the walk of shame it’s now 4:05 and I’m walking back to my pack. Drank the rest of my water, slammed a couple of bars and headed back down. Waylon directed me down a “better” spot although it was all pretty bad. Gravel type loose rock with larger loose rock and steepness made the sliding regularly occur. I hit the bottom and filled my nalgene with water which I was happy to see. Started up the creek bottom right as it got dark and broke the headlamp out. I knew I probably didn’t want to go back up exactly the way I had come down so I found a slightly better spot and started up. The super loose sand and gravel made it one step up and 3 steps back for a while through some bad brush a lot of it on my hands and knees pulling myself up. Once I got to some larger rock piles I thought I was golden until I hit a big patch of brush that was about 7 feet tall and just super tough to get through. I picked my way as best I could and kept referring to my BaseMap app to maps I’d saved and it appeared like I would come out on a ridge if I kept going. The brush kept getting worse and my patience also when I started lighting up cliffs with my light. I started thinking that this was way worse than the satellite imagery looked and I was going to get cliffed in and have to somehow go back and around. I started making my way around the bottom of the cliff face in front of me and the brush started to clear as I hit the south slope. To my relief I also saw Waylon’s head lamp on the ridge and he yelled to me I was on a good path he thought. He met me just below the rim and we walked the rest of the way to the ranger and drove out. It was 1,047 yards from the glassing point to the bull and while I haven’t totaled the elevation gain and loss yet it took me 3 1/2 hours to get over there and almost 4 hours to get back. I’ve been on some gnarly stuff but that was by far the worst in terms of how long it was bad for. I told Waylon “not to be dramatic but I will not be going back across that”. We’ll find a better way hopefully if the bull comes back.

So today is somewhat of a rest and scout day. I need to shoot my bow after banging it on rocks and dragging it through brush, which it seems to have held up too. Then go glass some new country this evening.

the “lane” I had. I could only see the bulls body and not his legs.

from the bottom looking up to where I had gone down and later back up.


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Gol Darn - you are persistent!!! And those are really pretty pictures - I like them

 

[sabotloader]

This was a really great thread to read through!!! Keep up the hard work and let's hope your persistence will pay!

 

[Ross]

Good stuff Jordan success can be so sweet on hunts with added difficulty keep grinding

 

[Tanya Avery]

Good luck Jordan, you got this!

 

[luke moffat]

Def gonna be following this hunt!!! Go Jordan!!

 

[Jordan Budd]

Hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving tomorrow! I'm headed a couple hours down the road to meet up with some family then diving in head first on Friday to get this deal sealed. He bedded in the trees this morning at probably 8:30 ish and never came out until 2:30. I'm confident he'll still be there. Thanks for following along everyone, hoping to have positive results in a couple days for you all. Either way I've been filming the journey and will have a video to be released next year

 

[iriebra]

Sub'd!!!

 

[Matt Cashell]

Awesome adventure Jordan. Fuel up tomorrow and give it hell on Friday!

 

[bojangles808]

great thread good luck!

 

[robby denning]

hoping to have positive results in a couple days for you all. Either way I've been filming the journey and will have a video to be released next year

Never a wasted day!

 

[danarnold]

Good luck!!

 

[sabotloader]

Hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving tomorrow! I'm headed a couple hours down the road to meet up with some family then diving in head first on Friday to get this deal sealed. He bedded in the trees this morning at probably 8:30 ish and never came out until 2:30. I'm confident he'll still be there. Thanks for following along everyone, hoping to have positive results in a couple days for you all. Either way I've been filming the journey and will have a video to be released next year

Just got in from a morning hunt with one of the hunting partners grand kids... It was cool and raining wet but the kid stuck in there even got a shot a few minutes after this pic...

You can see our hunting country is a walk in the park as compared to yours!!!

But.... the first thing I did when got out of the wet clothes was to come here to check out your most recent results!!!

You got me hooked on your adventure!

Jordon - go get that animal you have the bead on!

 

[Jordan Budd]

6 hour approach complete with box canyons and cliffing out. Current 50 yards above where he was last seen in the brush. I talked myself out of it 6 times coming up... just never give up. Fingers crossed


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