Congrats to Corey Knowlton on harvesting a truly GIANT Az bull. Corey carried this special AZ commissioner tag in his pocket for nearly a full year before dropping the hammer on a bull of lifetime. This amazing bull grosses an incredible 440"!!
This was not a "one and done" hunt for Corey. Corey chased some incredible bulls throughout his year long hunt, including passing on a 420+" bull that was later harvested during one of AZ early season hunts. Can you imagine passing on a bull of that caliber?!! As Corey stated yesterday after harvesting his bull, " You can't kill a bull of this size if you don't pass on giant bulls". As I mentioned earlier, Corey chased some of AZ's biggest bulls including several typicals that are nothing short of world class. In fact, Corey hunted a particular bull with us over the last couple weeks with his bow. If killed with a bow, we are pretty sure this bull will surpass the current archery world record. Unfortunately, the weather has not cooperated over the last couple weeks and heavy rains have kept the bulls locked up pretty tight. With time dwindling on this year long hunt, Corey was torn between hunting the giant typicals that were not very consistent or hunt a giant non-typical that Doug Starr of Starr Guide Service and his guides had found a couple weeks earlier. Since that bull had not been seen in a couple weeks, guides from Starr Guide Service and our guides at Mossback AZ teamed up to try and turn this bull up. After a couple days of looking and having some other giants glassed up and bedded by our guides, Jay was able to find this non-typicl bull tucked away in a small opening amongst the tangled juniper jungle that AZ is famous for. After getting over 30 minutes of video, Jay was able to let Corey, Doug, and Chad come up with a game plan to move in for a shot. As is typical when hunting these big bulls, the final stalk was gonna be tough as the giant bull had not moved more than 30 yards in over 3 hours but his younger buddy stood feeding in the wide open. As the group closed in, the younger bull picked up movement and took this big boy up the hill into thicker cover to try and hide. Fortunately, the bigger bull had no idea what was going on so he kept looking back to try and figure out what was going on. Meanwhile, Corey got set up on the only place on the entire hill that he could possibly have a chance of getting a shot. Once again, Lady Luck smiled on this hunter and the bull moved through the only lane on the entire hill and Corey took advantage and touched off an extremely difficult shot at 420 yards. Knowing the bull was hit, the group backed out and returned the next morning. Doug and Corey picked up the track in the morning and found the bull bedded the several hundred yards away from where they left him the previous evening. Corey was able to get a couple more shots off as the bull darted through the jungle bringing this incredible hunt to an end. Congrats again to Corey for his well deserved, hard-earned, and once in a lifetime 2012 AZ giant. His trophy can be attributed to the persistent and very skilled guides from Starr Guide Service and Mossback AZ.
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