Dave Windauer (Schafer Bow's master bowyer) and his buddies came down from Montana to put a dent in our White Mountain's Elk population. Tradganger HWY5076(Oscar Aguero) most likely sneaked in their camp and drank their beer. Dave said he was using a 62" longbow. You can guess whom the bowyer was. Beth will have to fill in the hunting stories. Three big bulls by the Mountana boys. Here is Dave's. Good job guys!
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l182/highcountry_photos/schaferwtmtnbulls.jpg)
Nice bull! Bring on the story...........
Congrats. Nice bull!
Wow! Very happy for you, Dave (and Beth)! And congratulations to the other fellows, also!
Nice bull Dave
Congrats on a fine animal! :thumbsup: Now for the story :campfire: :coffee: :goldtooth:
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l182/highcountry_photos/huntingpictures007_2_6.jpg)
:clapper: Beau Snyder
Very nice Dave....I'm honored to be carrying one of your bows this fall. :clapper:
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l182/highcountry_photos/huntingpictures037_3_6.jpg)
:clapper: Matt Riley of Kalispell
Wow great animals. Well done guys.
Awesome bulls Guys, Arizona is a dream tag for sure. Dave/Beth are you guys offering that curved accent in the riser as Dave's longbow is now?
Very nice Bulls! Congrats to all!
Great elk pics. Be generous with the stories.
Very nice!!!
Dave is very modest, humble. Beth is going to have to drag him to the key board. Hope we get the stories soon. Just like the long wait on the tree stand.
Ok let's hear the details .. Tony can wait a few more days for his bow :jumper: Don't tell him I said it was OK!
Nice bulls everyone,congrats.now on with the story.
Couldn't you find any little ones? Great bulls fellows!
They're all magic bulls, for sure!
WOW :clapper:
What wolleybugger said.
Very impressive! :notworthy:
Great bulls!!!
Gentlemen awesome bulls
Congrats :thumbsup:
Nice Bulls! Dave, I didn't know you were a lefty.
Fine eating right there as you have that far away look in your eyes , congrats :bigsmyl:
It took more years than I can count to draw AZ and couldn't get it done.My hat is off to you gents,a very heartfelt congradulations. :clapper:
What's Dave doing elk hunting he's suppose to be building my bow!! NAAA! just kidding! great bulls guy's hope to be able to do that myself someday!! Jason
Might be why Dave hasn't been on here yet...lots of work to catch up on. Let me say, what a great bunch of guys and I finally got to see and shoot a Silvertip! All the praise I've heard on Dave's bows is very well deserved. And yup...this was some very fine eating, thanks to Daves Dad...but that's a whole 'nother story!!
Hey Oscar good to see ya on here. Sounds like a great time was had by everybody.
Wish I could say my AZ Elk hunt was such a great experience. A stolen Wall tent and Bull Elk was all I have to show for the effort.
Nice & Congrats. I'll be carrying my bow from you to Mcalester AAP here in a few weeks.
Hey Jim, sorry to hear about your hunt. Elk went missing too? You'll have to email me details. I kept making my presence at Daves' camp to prevent any such incident...plus he had good food and beer in camp!
wow..thats a beauty
:clapper: :clapper:
Nice bulls
No wonder my riser isn't done!
Just kidding (I can wait). Awesome hunting, there. Congrats to all.
:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
TTT for a great guy and one who builds the end all bow!
Hi Guys,
I will do my best to get Dave on today to give you the details. He's been home a few days now and I don't have the complete story myself. I guess between soccer games, football games, school open houses etc, we've not had a chance to catch up. I usually get my details listening to the many phone conversations and such that follow after a trip like this:)
I believe there was a question referring to the riser of Dave's bow. His bow has the flare option which is available in both the recurve and longbow risers. I think that was the only bow question at this time. Thanks for your comments and hope to get Dave's fingers moving soon:)
Beth
PS I know many of you are anxiously anticipating your new bow, riser, limbs etc and I assure you that Dave is working really hard to get those to you. Best of luck to all of you this fall!
I hope you know I was kidding, Beth!....lol
NO HURRY! I have one to shoot, til that one gets here!
Congrats, again, Dave!
Hey Dave,
Looks like you and the family had a fantastic time!
So what do you think buddy.....Sure is a lot easier walking around the mountains in that particular unit of Arizona versus what you're use to at home. :thumbsup:
Don't forget to apply again next year :pray: You do know Bill drew two years in a row, so it is possible! I can't wait for the day I can go back!
Enjoy the rest of your season at home!
Tim
Nice job guys. Can't wait to hear the full story. It's nice to see Matt Riley. I haven't seen him since he was traveling around with the "Ramblin' Rednecks". Didn't he run around (also) with some guy named Schafer?
WOW!! many memories made here!!! Congratulations guy's
Dave shooting a longbow!!!??? Hell has frozen over! Haha. Probably very few people on here have ever heard of Matt Riley, but the man is a killing machine with a recurve and has accomplished far more than most of us could ever dream of bowhunting wise. I'm glad Arizona treated you guys better than the South Fork did! Congratulations!
Story time?
Dave wrote.....
I have been putting in for AZ with my buddy Matt for about 10 years. My brother Mike and my brother in law Beau Snyder have also been putting in but for a year or two less. As luck would have it we all drew in the same year and in the same unit. What's even more ironic is that Matt and I drew our first choice unit and Beau and my brother drew their second choice. Needless to say we were all very excited to have drawn at all and to be able to all go down together was something we really looked forward to.
Matt opted to take an early scouting trip in June and then the four of us went back in August to learn the unit. A customer in Flagstaff (Victor) got us in touch with a couple key people that gave us a huge head start ( Oscar and Jay ). The season is open for archery for just two weeks and Beau, Matt and I planned to be there for as long as it took. My brother Mike cut his trip a little short on each end due to other hunting trips he had planned. We left Montana on the 9th, drove straight through to AZ, and hunted the opening on September 11th.
In addition to the four of us, my dad also came along and was a huge support. We had a 14 x 16 wall tent set up with sleeping tents outside of that which made for a really comfortable camp. My Dad mainly stayed at camp, cooking meals, washing and drying clothes and as it turned out helped pack a ton of meat out! He was not far from a small town where he could get in and socialize some with the locals. I should also add that he spent much of his day keeping the mouse population down. They were thick down there. He played such an important role, making it possible for all of us to spend more time hunting elk. Thanks Dad!
There were several different terrains we hunted in and it was amazing how quickly they changed in short proximities. Thick forests of spruce and fir made up the high elevation landscape. If you drove 5 miles to the south, losing about 2,000 ft of elevation, it was much drier with juniper and oaks. Five miles in the opposite direction you were in wide open ponderosa forests. The elk seemed to like all of them but there were pockets where there were definitely more elk. We were hunting at about 8-9,000 feet elevation. It took about a week to get used to that. Because their monsoon season was late we had some spectacular lightning and thunder storms almost every day. At 9,000 feet you are pretty much right in the storm so it made for some pretty wet afternoons. Temperatures got up to around 70 during the day but cooled to about 40 at night. The nights were the biggest starry nights I have ever seen. We saw all sorts of other wildlife, including Black Bear, Mule deer, Cous Whitetail Deer, Wolves (better draw the tag before there gets to be too many) Coyotes, Bobcat, Turkeys, Mountain Lion and lots of other small animals.
The elk were not in full rut while we were there but we still had exceptional hunting hearing bugling everyday and seeing great bulls almost every day. We chased bugles in the morning and sat tree stands or blinds in the evenings when the elk were quieter. We all had close calls on the ground but for some reason or another that didn't work out. We ended up killing each of the bulls in the evening from tree stands over waterholes. I enjoyed my time in the stand watching the elk. Watching an elk wallow is quite an experience. The bulls act like little kids in a pool splashing, rolling and kicking around in the mud and water. They really get into it. When they drink it sounds like a kid slurping up the last of a milkshake with a straw.
As I stated, my brother Mike hunted eight days and did not take an elk. He did have a great hunt with a lot of close calls. Matt shot his bull on the fourth day. It was a perfect quartering away shot through the top of the heart, 50 yard recovery. Beaus's and mine were almost mirror images of each other on the 11th day of the hunt, each sitting waterholes on opposite sides of a ridge. Beaus' bull came in following a cow and gave him a 25yard broadside shot placed right in the pocket, about a 50 yard recovery. My bull bugled his way in following three cows and turned broadside at about 15 yards in the middle of the water hole. Double lung hit, about 50 yd recovery.
The only down side to the trip was that I didn't have my wife Beth there. Trying to catch up on a few more points! Good luck to you all this season.
Dave
Congratulations Dave, it sounds like you guys had a great time. My best to Beth & your dad.
Good on ya, Dave!
nice :thumbsup:
Great read Dave, thanks for sharing :clapper:
Thanks Dave. Congrats.
Congrats Guys!!!...looks like ya'll were sho-nuff serious!
Dave Great Hunt... I hope to break in my new longbow in a couple of days. Thanks for the story. It was great meeting you folks at Denton Hill. Jeff Harper
Hey Beth or Dave,could you remark on Dave's and the other hunters bow setups if it's not a big deal to do so? Hope you are all doing well this fall in Montana. Thanks, Paul
Excellent!! Way to go, Dave, Matt, and Beau!! Thats gettin it done!! Howdy Beth and Bob! Better luck next year, Mike!
Wow! Thats fantastic!! :thumbsup: :notworthy: :notworthy: :D
That Dave is such a butt kisser :D
When I found out they finally drew AZ, I knew there was going to be lots of elk leaving the state. It is just not fair to send in 4 experienced Montana elk hunters down into AZ!
The season is earlier and shorter than when I went a few years ago, but I knew that would not really matter with that crew. Great job Dave!
How's your dad doing on that Schafer book?
Dave's set-up; 62" Silvertip TD Longbow, 64# @ 28", FF, Shooting off a rest, 2020 shafts, feathers, 4 blade zwickey
Beau's set-up; 60" Silvertip One-piece Recurve, 65# @ 28", FF, Shooting off a rest, Gold Tips,vanes, 4 blade zwickey
Matt's set-up; 60" Silvetip TD recurve, 70# @ 28", FF, Shooting off a rest, carbon (can't remember which, carbon express?) feathers, 4 blade zwickey
Mike's Set-up; 60" Silvertip TD recurve, 63# @ 28", dacron, shooting off a rest, 2018 shafts, feathers, Rocky mountain blades (again not for sure on that)
Here goes some more butt kissing Steve.....
Dave wanted me also to say that Steve Osminski helped get them all set up with some Sitka gear before their trip and all of them were very pleased with them and appreciated his efforts. Here are some things they all noticed mainly with the Ascent pants.
- Un-restictive and very comfortable for hiking
- When they were wet, they didn't feel cold
- Good on odor. Dave wore his for 10 days straight and finally on the 11th day thought it might be time to change. Very pleased with them.
Pictures of the bows?? :pray: Like Dave's longbow?
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: