AZ ELK HUNT, EARLY BULL HUNT
November 10, 2009
Robert Barnes and John Mcclendon.
I wanted to do a short recap of my Arizona elk hunt with John McClendon. I was fortunate enough to draw an early rifle elk hunt for the northern part of Arizona. This area is known for producing giant bull elk and I was very excited. The trick in this unit was to find one with all his antlers intact. The weather was unusually warm for the first few days of the hunt. This probably had some affect on the rutting activity in the area. The rut was much slower than usual for this time of year. John has hunted the unit for many years and said it was definitely a strange year, as far as rut activity went. What bulls did bugle, quickly quieted up after sunrise. Without John’s experience and calling ability it could have been an extremely tough hunt. I have killed a number of mature bulls in the past and have done some calling on my own but I was amazed at John’s ability to call and mimic elk sounds. Several days into the hunt John was able to call this nice bull out of some thick cover, 
with all his antlers intact. I was able to put a 200 grain Nosler Accubond from my 8 MM Remington Mag. in the right place. I just wanted to thank John and McClendon’s guide service one more time for the excellent bull and the great hunt that I had in Arizona.
Bob Barnes