ARCHERY ELK HUNTING, AZ 2009, ELK VIDEO
August 11, 2009
Mike Whelan, 7-2009
Even though we have begun to get a little rain, it is still hotter than hell as I sit here at home in Arizona. Yesterday it was 105 degrees at three in the afternoon. It helps a little bit to look at some of the elk video we took almost three weeks ago on our first scouting trips for archery elk. It was a bit cooler and we got some spotty rain while we were scouting at a higher elevation in elk country. A good friend of mine Mike Miller and his brother Chris somehow managed to draw archery elk tags in one of the best elk units in Arizona. So we have started our scouting, hoping to find a good bull or two. This time of the year, along with glassing, you have to check waters. Traditionally we have looked for tracks around these waters, many of which are trick tanks. For those of you who are not familiar with trick tanks they are constructed water catchments, built by the Game and Fish Department to supply water to game and non-game animals when water is scarce or far from feed sources. Now days more and more hunters are using trail cameras to scout these waters. This year, I don’t think we went to one trick tank that did not have one or more cameras on it. We also use cameras and they do work remarkably well but I personally still like to look for tracks, sit the waters and glass the areas, to actually see what bulls are there. So far we have seen a couple hundred elk, filmed about forty bulls, saw one really good bull ( no footage) and found tracks of three other bulls that we would really like to see. For us that is a pretty good start for our 2009 archery elk hunts.