Team Mossback Arizona's 2010 Elk Season...... Thus far

Well this is gonna be a tough blog to start and will undoubtedly undergo several edits. Once again, Team Mossback AZ had an outstanding year during the early AZ elk hunts. As good as this year has been, it still isn't over yet. We still have several late hunts to tackle before we close out the season. As usual, once the turkey and shed antler hunters left the woods in May, we began our annual ritual of locating and watching many great bulls. One thing we noticed this season was that this seemed to be the year of giant typicals. Last year, we watched several non-typical bulls that would've potentially scored over the 420" mark. This year some of these bulls grew typical racks or we were not able to relocate them. However, we did locate some giant typicals during our scouting. It seemed that the upper end bulls did not get the boost that many of the bulls in the 350"-380" got. Nevertheless, big bulls were still located.

We started the season with Stan Atwood's AZ commissioner tag. Stan was a pleasure to hunt and spend time with, he is a true hunter and we appreciate his tenacity as we hunted some rough country.  We'd located several giant bulls but as everyone knows, early September is a tough time to follow bulls as they are in the middle of their big moves and spend lots of time in the thick stuff raking trees. Stan patiently hunted a giant typical for several days before we turned this bull up across the state. This is a bull that we'd gotten trail cam photos of in July. We lost him for some time and during some preseason scouting, we were able to relocate this giant. After several days of watching and hunting this bull, Stan was able to bring him down with a well placed shot. This bull had moved 23.8 miles from the last place we got tc photos of him. This was a move across great country with tons of cow elk so he obviously had his mind set on this piece of real estate. Jay was able to get some awesome HD video of this bull while hunting with Stan. At nearly 49" wide, this was one of the widest bulls we seen this year. Congrats to Stan Atwood and Team Mossback on a beautiful typical bull.

That hunt was just the start of a crazy month of hunting. I could go on forever with stories behind all of these hunts but just to get everyone caught up, we'll just post some pics for now. Hopefully we can find time to get stories posted for each great bull that was taken.

Mossback AZ guide Marc Lopeman teamed up with Kayle McCleve in their unit to take these giant bulls.

Kayle McCleve's 2010 Archery Bull

Marc Lopeman's 2010 enormous non-typical bull!!! Gotta love those extras on the back end.

Mossback Az guide Jay Lopeman teamed up with the Curtis family, Darrel Neff, and Shane Church and took several giant bulls in their unit.

Trail Cam photo and field photo of Christi Curtis' typical 7x7 2010 Archery AZ bull

Trail cam photo(above) and field photo(below) of Shane Church and his huge 6x6 2010 Archery AZ bull

Chad Curtis' long beamed 2010 Archery AZ bull

Team Mossback AZ guide Joe Gonzales and his whopper 2010 Archery AZ bull

Darrel Neff with his battle-tested 2010 Archery AZ bull. Look at that left horn!! Even though he's busted on the right side, it doesn't take much of an imagination to realize this is a giant bull.

ARE YOU STARTING TO SEE WHY I SAID I COULD GO ON FOREVER!!! That was just the archery season!!!

Jay Lopeman and client Bob Brocchini's early rifle bull. The two had passed on this bull opening day of the hunt and after passing on many other giants, they were able to return and find his 2010 Rifle AZ bull. Although by this time he had broken several tines, he was still a stud of a bull.

In a different unit, opening morning found Clint Sorensen, the cousin of Chad and Brian hunting in a different unit . Brian and Clint passed several giant bulls and connected on this giant all within the first hour and a half of his hunt. Clint's 2010 Rifle AZ bull is a bull that we watched last year and always wondered just how big he really was. Now we know!! This bull has a 61.5" beam and a 27.5" royal!!

 Not to be outdone by the rest of the family, Terri Curtis filled her 2010 Rifle AZ tag with this very heavy 6x6 bull. What a gorgeous bull!!

With only a day and half to hunt in his mid-October rifle hunt, Jason Arnett hunted with Mossback AZ guide Arthur Gonzales to down this beautiful bull. Jason passed on several other trophy bulls that sported busted beams and tines. In the hopes of finding a bull still intact, Jason passed on 26 bulls opening day and put the hammer down on this fine 2010 AZ Rifle bull early on the second morning.

As we put this blog together, it is still jaw-dropping to realize the true quality of the bulls taken with Mossback AZ thus far. I'm sure we'll add several more giants before the season wraps up. A congratulations to all of Team Mossback AZ's guides and clients for such a successful early season. All of these bulls are public land Arizona giants that anyone with a tag had a chance to hunt. We pride ourselves in the amount of time and effort we put into each year's scouting and it continues to produce great results. We rarely run into any other guide/outfitters in May through August. By the time most others start their scouting, we are honed into the best bulls in the units.

Stay tuned for more as we enter the 2010 deer season and finish the 2010 late elk hunts. Take care and enjoy!!! 

2010 Arizona Archery Antelope

Well it had been a few years coming but we were able to draw a couple archery antelope tags this year. It seemed as though the antelope felt the effects of a delayed spring green-up as we had a tough time locating the giants that the unit we had was known for producing. We did find and watch a buck that was in the low to mid 90s. He was a very habitual buck never seeming to stray from his daily routine. That was until the late July rains hit. With all that rain, who didn't change their daily habit when those storms hit. Matter of fact, I couldn't even make it out this buck's stomping grounds for several weeks because the roads were impassible. Believe me, I'm not one to be run off by a little mud or running water but after having running water roll over my hood, I tucked my tail between my legs and was forced to scout closer to pavement. Once we were able to return, this buck was not to be found. The hunt itself seem to only have minimal rutting activity. We were able to chase many bucks each day while continuing to look for giant bulls. Of all years, this was the only year I'd been waiting for a chance to sit a waterhole so that my kids could be with me. However, with all the water out there this year, we never honed in on a very active tank so we continued our spot and stalk tactics. Our persistence finally paid off when Joe was able to decoy a buck into me and a 63 yard shot brought down my second archery goat. Not my biggest buck but the one thing I like about archery antelope is any legal buck is a trophy to me!! (He's not picking his nose)

A few days and a few missing arrows later, Joe was able to put his tag on another great goat. Jay and his dad Dick watched this buck chasing does around and they were able to get a hold of us. About 45 minutes later, we arrived and relocated this herd. Fortunately this buck was in lala land with his does and Joe was able to close the gap quick. His 73 yard heart shot brought his goat down after a 30 yard dash.

We were sure grateful to be able to hunt goats together and with several great friends and best of all, we were able to replenish the meat supply in the freezer. Antelope meat does not last long around our house. Now we begin the wait for our next tag, who knows, maybe we'll be back out there next year!!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that during this hunt and while scouting, my boys learned to open the gates on their own. This is a nice treat for mom and dad but it does come with  a considerable time delay. Oh well, no arguments here!!

2010 Shed Antler Season

Well we have been long overdue for a new post. We've all been out pounding the hills and now we have a slight pause between the early deer hunts and the late elk and late deer season so now is a good time to catch up.

Soooooo........, if we're not hunting or scouting, we're probably looking for sheds. This is always a favorite time of the season for us. I remember when I used to be off work for the winter season and my brother and I would literally walk from sun up to sun down for days on end picking up sheds. Now, I'm a weekend warrior but I managed to do alright this year anyways. My boys like hiking the woods with us and always bring good luck, along with a lot of snacks, and they are now hooked and like to pick up any bones they find in the woods, be it hip bones, rib cages, or sheds. I've always said I like counting by two when looking for horns and this year was no exception as we picked up 14 sets along with some dynamite singles. We were able to relocate some bulls that we found sheds off of during the early season scouting this year. Its quite interesting to see what bulls made it through the hunts and how they compare to years past, very educational and really helps to understand the bull's year round habits. Although we continued to pick sheds up through the past several hunts, I have not consolidated all of those pics yet but here are a few favorite photos from this shed season.

We hoped the bull that dropped this shed last year would put some length on his beam but that was not to be. Still an awesome bull. His third was 23" last year but looked to be about 20" this year.

Here another bull that we watched this year and his sheds we found.

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does anyone want to take a guess at what we'll be doing next Spring???

Spring Turkey 2010...... Finally!!

Well, after Chad has threatened me multiple times, I'm starting to play catch up. We've got a lot to share with you all and since my job had me out of town for quite some time, here it is now, better late than never. Here's the first post of a few to follow. This was our AZ spring turkey hunt. Our tags were a long time coming and we were sure pumped to get back after the birds. Unfortunatley, things started out tough as the winter really put a hurtin on the birds this year, as well as the drinkers. I don't know for sure if its the actual snow load that hurts them more, or the predators having easier picking, but one things for sure, they took a beating. Once we honed in on the activity things really picked up. We had many exciting encounters and the birds got fired up for a bit. On the stand in which Joe took his bird, we called in an entire flock with 5 screaming hot gobblers with 7 very talkative hens. Things got wild as they started charging the decoys. That stand was followed by another in which we had 2 gobblers tripping over each other trying to be the first bird in. Although we had lots of fun, the highlight for me was being able to call in a very, very vocal tom to within 15 yards of my dad. While his grandson and I got to watch the whole thing unfold, I wasn't sure who's eyes were wider; my nephew's while we listened to the gobbler then watch him meet his maker, my dad's as the gobbler came strutting in, or the gobbler's as he finally realized that he'd been had. Once again I had my entire family out and we got to enjoy the beautiful weather. It's been very important to us to keep our kids and our nephews involved in the outdoors. Chad worked his magic as well by toppling over a thunder chicken. I've put toget a quick video to share some of our photos. Enjoy and there is more to come as I catch up.  

2010 AZ Fall Draw Results Available!!

Click here to check to see if you were drawn  AZ Draw Results

Good luck.  Things are shaping up to be a great year in AZ, we drew our fair share of deer tags and have some great hunts coming up this fall. 

2009 Jr Hunt Coues Buck

Well things have been beyond busy around home and the woods, so its been a while!!  Here is good friend Wyatt Reynolds with his great buck he harvested a couple hours into his Jr hunt in AZ last year.  Wyatt and his dad make for some great fun when out in the woods.  We were able to help out Wyatt and watch him take this great buck.  In 2008, he took a great desert muley with the help of guide Jay Lopeman, and decided he would like to get a coues.  A few hours into the hunt Wyatt was standing over his first coues which scored over 101".  Congrats Wyatt.... Good Luck in the Draw!!!

My son Tate and Wyatt.

Some still shots of Wyatts buck taken off video moments before he takes his shot.

Check out the bullet just before impact.

Shepherd Family Trophies 2009

Good friends Wendy & Colby Shepherd sure did have a great year in 2009. Wendy drew a unit 9 antelope tag and made the best of it with this amazing buck. Guide Jay Lopeman assisted them and was able to show them a buck we have seen several times since 2006. She made an amazing 1 shot kill at 525 yards, and downed this heavy old buck. It was officially scored at 87 5/8". It is a beautiful buck and looks great on their wall.

Not to be outdone by his wife, Colby headed north to Utah and shot an amazing 200" mule deer. Colby always said he wanted a buck with "trash". I think his wish came true!! Congrats to both of you on some awesome animals.

Updated Scouting Report

Well things have been really really busy out in the woods.  There are some great elk this year, and they are putting on some awesome growth.  Here is a picture of the same bull that I have posted below, look at the dates on the camera and then look at the growth that he has put on.  This is a testament to good range conditions.  The bodies on the elk look great.  They are extremely "fat" this year.  I will add more pictures in the coming days.

Here is another neat picture.

Weekend Scouting

Well it was a productive weekend out in the woods.  One really big bull was spotted last week, that I am sure we will see again.  The bulls look very healthy and the feed is exceptional.  It is at this time, that the large bulls really start putting on some serious growth.  The rate at which they grow is truly amazing, and by mid June, one will know if a bull will be at or near the magic mark of 400".  Here are a couple pictures of a bull, check out how much he grew in a matter of days.  Although this bull will not be anywhere near the magic mark, he will still be a very solid bull.   I will make sure to add pictures of him later on.  We have pictures of this bull last year as well.  Check them out.

Here he is last year in July.