Arizona Late Rifle Elk Hunt

[GARY]

Guide may have meant to drive and glass until you find an elk, then put on a stalk. We do this frequently succesfully in Alberta in public areas.

[unclefish]

Good luck! Yeah that guide was yanking your chain trying to get you out of the more remote areas.

[solocam_aggie]

Things are still rough here. 3 cows in the pitch black driving, so I guess you can say we’ve saw elk now. All day it’s been the same thing. Either we get to a ridge and it’s so overgrown and we can’t glass, or it’s too open and steep. We’re packing up camp and heading NW tomorrow in hopes of finding better country. Everything I read said to hunt this area but I’m not seeing it. No matter how far we go there are still footprints there. Just an absurd number of hunters.

[solocam_aggie]

This is hands down the most challenging hunt I’ve ever done, and I’ve been on some tough ones before. This whole afternoon has been wasted climbing hills only to determine what your glassing is too thick, or the timber in front of you is just tall enough to where you can’t glass. This morning we woke up extra early, hiked in to what looked like a great spot, only to find someone already there. My hopes of a freezer full of elk meat is looking bleak.

[Tom]

man the thick stuff is a challenge. Pray for snow as it will help spot them

[Flyway12]

Sounds like a hunt. Try to stay positive. More defeated you become the worse the experience will be. Sounds like public land too in a state that is predominantly desert, not surprised the hunters are congregated. All you can do is try. Could always reach out to a guide for whatever time you have left if you want someone that lives there, has scouted with boots on the ground and not the internet and knows what works in that area.

[solocam_aggie]

Late updating here, but unfortunately I came home empty handed. Never did even see a bull which eats me up. I wish I didn't spend half of the trip in the southern part of the unit where everyone I spoke to agreed the bulls were just not there. You're at a big disadvantage as a non-resident who doesn't have the time to scout areas beforehand, as seen in my lack of ability to find good glassing spots in that back half of the hunt in the northern area of the unit. My first rifle hunt was certainly a learning trip, and makes me appreciate how much I enjoy/prefer archery over rifle hunting. Going to lick my wounds and get prepared for my next two hunts- Nilgai at LANWR Bahia Grande and the once in a lifetime oryx in New Mexico at the White Sands Missile Range