Garth's 383 Arizona Bull

By Garth Carter

We all dream of hunting elk in Arizona. My dream started about 20 years ago with my first non-resident elk application in Arizona. A few years later they started their bonus point system, luckily, I was on the ground floor of this new system. A few years later the Arizona Game and Fish gave hunters an additional bonus point if they completed the Arizona Hunter Education Program, so I drove to Arizona on weekends and completed their program. A few years after that the Wildlife Commission decided that 10% of all the draw tags would be set aside for applicants like myself who had the maximum number of bonus points.
After about 20 years of applying, with 16 bonus points in hand I was sure I would draw. The hardest part now was to decide which unit. I had narrowed it down to the early rifle elk hunt in unit 10 with Marvin James as my outfitter or the early rifle hunt in unit 23 south with Ty Goodman as my outfitter. Both were constantly putting clients onto 400 class bulls.
Because unit 23 did not have an archery elk hunt prior to the rifle hunt, I selected unit 23 north with Ty Goodman.
Three days before the hunt, I rolled into unit 23 with my camp trailer in tow. Ty and I had agreed to hunt the entire season plus prescout for a couple days, so bringing an extra camp trailer gave everyone a little more room to stretch out.
The first day of scouting proved my theory correct. Without an archery hunt prior to the rifle hunt the bulls were still bugling strong and finding a big bull would be easier.
On our first day of scouting Ty and I were on a high knob above a water hole at daylight watching the bulls filter into the trees. It was obvious the hardest part of this hunt was going to be choosing which bull to pursue.
About 10:00 am we decided to start checking waterholes, to see which ones were being hit the hardest. While checking out our second waterhole, we heard several bulls bugling as they were still traveling to their beds.
We decided to hurry and try to get a look at them before the heat of the day shut them up. Within minutes we had seen several 330 to 360 bulls and were within archery distance of a 6x6 bull we guessed to be close to 400 gross, a great bull to hunt, unless we found a better one.
That night and the next morning we scouted different areas and located a half dozen bulls in the 380 range. Then, mid morning, we returned to the home of the 400 plus, 6x6. Again the bulls were going crazy. Worried that our bull might have broken his horns (not really we just wanted another look at him), we decided to try another sneak on him to check him out. Again we got within 30 yards of this giant as he was constantly defending his cows from a multitude of 350+ bulls.
The next day was the hunt opener so Ty and I strategized all day on how to hunt this bull. Hopefully the hunt would only last a few minutes and we would tag a bull of a lifetime.
We decided to drive into the area after dark and sleep in the bed of Ty’s truck. That way the elk would not hear us arrive in the morning and we could be on the bull at daylight.
All night the bulls kept us up as they bugled, screamed, and fought. Everytime we would hear their horns clashing, we would pray the bull wouldn’t break any points.
Finally daylight came, we were on the bulls immediately, but as we went from bull to bull, the big bull was no where to be found.
This continued for 4 days. Every day, morning, and evening, we searched for the big six. From every high point, to different vantage points, to the point we even called my son, Jason, in Utah, to come and help glass the bull up.
After scouting the area and all the possibilities we could think of for 4 consecutive days of this 6 day season, we gave up.
The backup plan was to hunt one of the 380 class bulls that we found while prescouting.
On the fifth morning, we got in the middle of several giant bulls but failed to pull the trigger. A lot of the bulls had broken points from fighting and it was taking longer to check them out because of this.
With one particular non-typical bull in mind, we hiked into his area early afternoon and patiently waited for the bugling to start.
Right on time, a couple of hours before dark, the mountain came alive with bulls bugling from every direction.
We decided to go from bull to bull looking for our non-typical. We had our first bull within 100 yards in the middle of some thick, nasty brush and trees but couldn’t get a look at him.
As we closed the distance it was obvious the crunchy noise of dry pine needles would scare the bull before we got a look. Luckily we both had “Bears Feet” in our packs. After placing the “Bears Feet” over our shoes, quietly sneaking on this bull became a reality.
At about 60 yards we started getting glimpses of the lone bull’s body parts. Then all of a sudden, I glassed a non-typical side of the bull, it appeared that all the points were intact. I waited for a heart lung shot opening and downed the big bull with one shot. Later Ty rough scored the 6x8 at 383 B&C, a great bull and well worth waiting for.
A couple of months after the season, Ty got a call from a buddy who had found a huge dead 6x6 bull in the area where we had hunted the first 4 days. Apparently the bull had died from being gouged while fighting. Ty got a chance to look at the bull and sure enough it was the giant we had been hunting.
We guessed that sometime the night before the season opener, as we listened to the bulls fight, one of the challenging bulls slipped a horn into our bull’s ribs and the bull died that night, the big 6x6 bull scored 395. I’m hoping I don’t have to wait another 20 years to hunt Arizona again! It was an awesome experience!