It started for us on April 11th. Having just returned from harvesting razor clams on the Washington coast, I briefly perused the stack of mail that had accumulated in my absence. Among the pile, I found what I mistakenly believed to be my Arizona hunting license for the 2023 season. It didn’t even occur to me that it had been years since the AZGFD Department had actually sent out licenses. After opening the letter and “looking” at it, I threw it on my kitchen table to file later. Roughly an hour and a half later, my hunting partner called me. He was in such a state of excitement that I had trouble even understanding what it was that he was saying. Just after closing up his wrecking yard for the day, he had opened a letter from AZGFD. After also “looking” at it, he had unceremoniously thrown it in the trash. Several moments later, he thought the better of it and retrieved it from the waste basket to take a second look. Upon closer inspection, he saw that we had been drawn for the coveted “any bull” tags in unit 9! After several minutes of absolute euphoria, he called to tell me the news. It took some doing, but once he calmed down enough to understand him, I rushed back to my kitchen table to find my letter. Unbelievable! We had drawn two of the four random tags given out that year for the unit. Believing that we were still years away from drawing, neither of us had even looked at the online results. Our planning began immediately.
The news spread quickly, and the very next morning, I talked to a mutual friend who gave me the contact information for Jay Scott. I also got in touch with the staff at Huntin’ Fool. My partner, Harry, and I had a lot of catching up to do as we were a month behind those who had gotten the online results. Jay explained that he no longer guided in that area, but he graciously put me in touch with Pat McCarty at Shadow Valley Outfitters. Shortly after that, I began speaking with Kyle Wait at Huntin’ Fool. Kyle then put me in touch with Chad Rhoton at A3 Trophy Hunts. Being that this was the first time I had ever solicited the services of a guide, I had a lot of questions. I spent the next week talking to both outfitters and several of their references. It was a difficult decision, to say the least, but Harry and I finally settled on Pat McCarty at Shadow Valley. I must mention at this point that I truly appreciated Chad at A3 and the time he spent on the phone and texts with me. He even went so far as to have me keep his contact information and offered to help out if Harry or I ran into any difficulties. Truly a class act!
Harry and I both shoot older Mathews model Z7 extreme bows. Since neither of us had had our bows restrung in years, we decided to have it done. I, due to being a single parent with two kids, had been unable to hunt more than one day at a time for the previous 10 years. I began shooting immediately and noticed a marked improvement. Harry, however, began experiencing significant accuracy problems. Over the course of the next four months, we spent hours attempting to rectify his shooting issues. We ended up having multiple archery shops, some as far as 175 miles away, look at his bow. In the end, and after immense frustration, we wound up sending it back to Mathews Archery for repairs. This left Harry shooting his backup MQ 32. In desperation, he sent me back to Skookum Archery with whom we had shipped his old bow back to purchase a new Mathews Phase 4. We had approximately two and a half weeks left to get it dialed in before we were set to depart.
We arrived in Tusayan to wet weather. Some of the wettest they’d experienced in years, or so we were told. After meeting Pat and Tyler Krantz, who would be my guide, we were off to set up camp. The next few days were spent exploring the unit and watching some great bulls. Prior to the opener, we were introduced to Harry’s guide, Gilbert Sanchez, and had an old college buddy, Todd Marangon, join us in camp. Having Todd in camp turned out to be a huge benefit. Aside from his witty banter and positive outlook, his help around camp was absolutely indispensable. He took care of everything for us, including the setup of a satellite dish. What a gift!
Our days started hours before sunrise and lasted until long after sunset. Each day after returning to camp, we would swap stories, videos, and pictures of the day’s hunt. Unit 9 was the perfect transition for a guy who’d been “out of the game” for the last decade. It’s literally Disneyland (only better) for elk hunters. I shot almost three hours of video and took hundreds of pictures, mostly of elk, but occasionally other interesting flora and fauna. Tyler and Gilbert were very knowledgeable and great guys to hang with. Tyler’s knowledge of the unit and the bulls in it was incredible. It was very obvious that hunting elk in this unit is not only his passion but also something he takes very seriously. I was in good hands.
Over the next six days, Tyler and I were in many, many bulls. Being as we were in the famed unit 9 and the fact that I was having so much fun, I passed on literally dozens of good bulls, choosing instead to take photos or videos to share with the others each evening. On the evening of day six, Tyler dropped me at a watering hole and went to scout another area for the following morning.
He gave me instructions that he wanted me to shoot one of two specific bulls that were regularly using this watering hole. As it turned out, I did just that. I had practiced regularly out to 60 yards and am very confident in my ability to make that shot. This turned out to be slightly longer, but with calm conditions and a distracted elk, I was able to make a fatal shot. The best part is that I was able to film his herd come in, then him, range him, shoot him, then film him again. All the while surrounded by the bugles of competing bulls. What a thrill! I contacted Tyler immediately, but since there was only 20-30 minutes of light left, we were compelled to come back in the morning.
The next morning, Tyler, Todd, and I were able to get on the tracks. It took us considerably longer than I’d hoped to locate him, and when we did, he was still upright. We bumped him once and gave him a few more hours. We found him later that afternoon, and the celebrations began in earnest. Tyler’s tracking abilities were showcased, and I will say that without Tyler, we would have been hard pressed to find him. As we were coming out that evening, we got the news that Harry had just arrowed a nice bull as well. Harry ended up making a perfect 30-yard broadside, and his bull expired within 103 yards. Outstanding! We had both shot mature 6x7 bulls.
Many thanks to the guys at Shadow Valley Outfitters, especially Tyler, Gilbert, and Pat for a fantastic hunt. Thanks to Todd Marangon for all his help. And thanks to Harry, my hunting partner of 40 years. Here’s to many more successful adventures!
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