Josh Hancock's Unit 1 AZ Bull

It's not too often that two of your family members get drawn for elk in the same year and the same unit.  This year we had that privilege. With Dane already tagging a great bull during the archery hunt it was now Josh's turn.
With Josh taking a break from college and flying home the day prior to the hunt it did not leave a lot of preparation time for him before his hunt. We began scouting in July and first located this bull on July 6th while camping with the family. We also had a couple of good encounters with him during the archery season with one being under 40 yards but could just not seal the deal. On the second day of the early rifle season with his brother Dane on point and his Brother in-law Colby Hale helping Josh killed this great Az bull.
It was great to get the entire family involved in the hunt and with Granddad's cooking and Mom (Melissa) in camp for both kills made for great memories for our family. Stay tuned to see the hunt in its entirety with multiple encounters with this bull through out the season in the near future on our blog. Good Job Boys!!!


Josh's bull had 23" Royals



The "Gang" Josh, Dane, Colby, Mom (Melissa)and Myself
 sure made for an easy pack out.

 

"Sibling Rivalry"  with Two great Az Bulls

Dave McNeill's 3A-3C AZ Archery Bull & Cabela's Out West Video 2013

This year I had the privilege of hunting with Dave McNeill of Clarksville, TN.  Dave drew a 3A-3C archery bull tag after 11 years of applying.  We had some awesome encounters that neither one of us will ever forget.  The first occurred on opening morning with a big, 6x6 at 12 yards.  Later that evening, we had another great bull moaning and screaming at only 18 yards.

On the evening of day 8, Dave was able to get an arrow in his Arizona trophy.  Click on the link at the bottom of this post to watch Dave's hunt that was featured on Cabela's Out West.

 

 

Cabela's Out West 2013 Dave McNeill AZ Elk Hunt

Dane Hancock's 383" monster from Unit 1

This year my little brother Dane was fortunate enough to draw a coveted unit 1 archery bull tag.  With my dad having a client, I was the one to get to hunt with Dane.  We began our scouting trips over the July 4th weekend and made many more leading up to hunt.  The horn growth was looking good as we had seen many good bulls.  The weeks of summer flew by and before we knew it it was the night before the opener.  Opening morning was relatively slow as we had pressure from other hunters and the bulls had all but shut down in the area we were hunting.  We finally caught a break on Sunday morning and evening as we had two of the bulls on our hit list almost within shooting distance.  Monday morning found us moving to the west looking for where the bulls had been pressured to.  We bedded some bulls and decided to be back in that evening.  As we were sneaking into the green trees a bull let out a bugle.  We hustled to get the wind a little more in our favor and get set up.  I cow called once as the bull let out a scream and was already on top of us at 50 yards.  Dane elected to pass on this 340 type bull.  We continued through the green trees listening for bugles and glassing.  As we got to a good looking bottom another bull bugled down the ridge.  We crossed the canyon and were waiting for the bull to bugle again.  As we were waiting we see a spike headed our way.  With the night being so slow we decided to see how close we could cow call him into.  The spike came by looking for us at around 20 yards and got behind us.  We stood up and began working in the direction of the last bugle when the spike came running by us headed back to where he came from.  We worked forward and now could see him with another spike.  I caught some movement off towards the bottom as a bull stood up out of his bed to readjust.  I could tell that he was a shooter bull and we began to get a plan of attack together.  The bull was bedded in a set of young aspen trees and was alone.  We began to stalk in on the bull and before we knew it it was raining and we were now at 38 yards.  Dane drew as I was going to cow call to get the bull to stand up and fully expose his vitals.  I had never seen a bull do what he did, as I cow called he laid his head sideways all the way on the ground as if he was hiding.  Dane let off and we just looked at each other.  About a minute later the bull picked his head up and began to stand up.  Dane drew back and released just as the bull took a step hitting him a little back.  The bull began to try to take off as i began to cow call to stop him.  The bull stopped as I ranged him at 42 yards and Dane made the second shot count, putting it through both lungs.  The bull ran 40 yards and piled up.  We began to celebrate as we knew the bull was better than we initially thought.  We started wading our way through the 7-8 foot tall aspens to the bull.  The bull continued to grow as we got closer.  The bull had a big inline and mass to spare.  It took until 130 AM to get the bull back to camp, we were all anxious to see what the bull would score.  We gross scored Dane's bull at 383 and change.  Not too bad for his first archery bull.  Congrats again Dane, I enjoyed our time spent together as brothers.

Dane's awesome AZ Giant

Dane and  Dad (Mike)

Dane and myself 

Cabelas Out West - Southern Utah Mule Deer Hunt

We have the privilege of being apart of the Cabela's Out West video series again this year.  Here are the video highlights of our recent mule deer hunt in Utah.  Also included on this segment is Parker Colburn's 1st archery mule deer hunt in Arizona.


CABELA'S OUT WEST 2013 VIDEO SERIES

Southern Utah Archery Deer Hunt

Craig Blackburn and I recently returned from a week long hunt in Craig's old stomping grounds in Southern Utah.  Its always a good time chasing mule deer around with a bow, and enjoying the local fair, parade, and rodeo.  But the icing on the cake is Craig's moms cooking and hospitality.

Here are just a few pictures from our trip.  Video coming soon.  Enjoy.

Can you see the arrow?

 

How about in this photo?  Arrow?



 

I almost forgot.  Craig and his brother-in-law, Tyler, won the "Wild Cow Milking" contest at the rodeo the night before our hunt started.  My brother-in-law, Andrew, also came along to film our hunts.

Pre-season Scouting

Check out some Pre-season scouting video for elk/antelope from this summer's trips to the woods. With some great summer rains, this fall is really shaping up to be a good one. Come on September.......

Bill Davis 3A-3C Mule Deer Hunt Video

The AZ draw results for deer and sheep are out! Congratulations to all the lucky hunters that drew tags. 

Here is the video of Bill Davis hunt from last year.