# My AZ 2020 Bull Hunt



## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

I am a little late posting this but I had a great AZ hunt. This was the late rifle bull tag in an area I have been fortunate enough to take 3 others in since growing up there. This year was pretty special as my lifelong hunting partner came up to help me out. It started out pretty scary as AZ did not get any monsoon weather last summer. I have been on this hunt several times before when its dry and that makes it extremely impossible. The week prior to my hunt the temps were reaching 60 degrees and didn't look good at all. But like AZ weather right when I got there a couple days prior to the hunt the temps dropped to about 10 degrees at night and low 40s in the day. With it being dry it was like most other years and just not seeing a lot in the areas I wanted to hunt. Then I think the man above looked down as the weather called for a small snow storm for the night before opening day. I was laughing when I heard this as each time I have taken a bull out of here its been on opening morning and while it was snowing. My only problem was deciding where to go. I didn't sleep much that night.

The morning came and me and my buddy decided okay lets hit our usual area which is a big rim. Its some nasty country though and pictures do not give it justice however if you want a bull its gonna hurt either way. We zipped over to our area in his samurai, my favorite hunting rig. Hiked about 2 miles in off a finger and snow was falling hard. I forgot my gun sock so took my glove off and tossed it over the barrel to punish myself. On these fingers you never hunt the sides as you cannot see but you hunt the adjacent fingers. We glassed one finger and nothing. Then heard a big crash behind us and figured we just jumped up a bunch. We walked to the other side and on that adjacent finger stood the golden glow of 5 bulls 300 yards away. I studied each of them but this guy was by far the biggest even broken. The others were nice probably 320 bulls but this guy is what I wanted. We immediately knew this was going to be a heck of a packout as they were on a steep finger and he was going to slide down some nasty stuff. I was able to take my time prone out over my bag and deliver a good shot, however this was the first bull I put two into as after my first shot he started to battle a bit down the finger and I didn't want him at the bottom of that. After my second shot he went down and then slid about 80 feet in the snow until thankfully a small tree stopped him. On our way hiking back up our finger and over to that finger we came across a huge bull track. As we made our way towards my bull we approached three awesome guys walking the other direction. They laughed and said we beat them to their spot. They then asked what bull we shot and when we told them they said it was a nice bull but asked if we saw the 6x7 they estimated to be about 390. I immediately thought **** that must have been the bull we jumped from that track. Oh well I was still happy and happy that they could still hunt for what they wanted as well. 

It took us 2 and a half days to quarter out and pack out my bull. It was steep, icy and then muddy but worth every minute. He was wedged in that tree pretty hard and we had to use rope and other things just to keep him from sliding further down. I can't count how many times we laughed saying why do we do this when we know we would do it everyday if we could. In the pics you can see the finger where I shot him from and then the slide marks where he finally was stopped. I attached these just to show some good AZ country. 

And for his broken side I actually found an old shed that matches it almost exactly. I have never fixed an animal before but this one I will. Thanks everyone!


----------



## 300MAG (Nov 3, 2009)

That’s a great looking bull. Congrats!


----------



## BigT (Mar 11, 2011)

Pretty bull. Congrats!

On a side note, if you need help fixing the antler, I have a close friend that could do that. I don't know what he charges, if he'd even charge you.

PM me if you would like to know. He lives up in Mountain Green.


----------



## weaversamuel76 (Feb 16, 2017)

Awesome congratulations on a great bull

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk


----------



## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Congrats on a great bull - thanks for sharing!


----------



## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

BigT said:


> Pretty bull. Congrats!
> 
> On a side note, if you need help fixing the antler, I have a close friend that could do that. I don't know what he charges, if he'd even charge you.
> 
> PM me if you would like to know. He lives up in Mountain Green.


Thanks I will PM you.


----------



## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Nice bull!


----------



## silentstalker (Feb 19, 2008)

Very cool bull! Love that top end!


----------



## BGD (Mar 23, 2018)

Great bull AZ. Congrats on the success!


----------



## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

300MAG said:


> That's a great looking bull. Congrats!


Thank you


----------



## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

Thanks everyone I appreciate it!


----------



## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

middlefork said:


> Nice bull!


Thank you


----------



## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

BGD said:


> Great bull AZ. Congrats on the success!


Thank you!


----------



## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

great bull !!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

Nice Bull congrats!


----------

