When I heard that the Arizona elk drawing results were posted, I opened my Portal and was shocked that I was drawn. I only had 4 points. I immediately called a friend in Arizona to retain a guide as I knew nothing about the area. The first guide service was already filled up, so my friend told me to contact Jarod Graff with Adapt Adventures. When I called him, he said he had a slot and would be glad to guide me. He sent me some pictures of elk that his clients had harvested in the past. He periodically texted me to check to see if I had everything in order.
A couple of days before the season, Jarod called to make sure it was a go as he was leaving for Arizona to start scouting for elk. We touched base with him the night of arrival. He wanted to show me some pictures, but I didn’t want to see anything that I would get excited about. I have a premonition of how not to get adrenaline flowing in my mind.
As luck would have it, the night before season, a storm hit our area. We woke up to a white Christmas morning as we took off to the mountains. The fog was all over the mountaintops, and the morning hunt came to an end early. We went out that afternoon, but the fog was hanging everywhere on the tops, so we searched lower ground and only found some cows and cow elk.
On day two, Jeff and I were going to meet Jarod and Andrew (his brother) at 4 a.m. I was wondering where we were going so early as daylight wasn’t until around 6 something. We were winding around the mountains on snow-covered roads in a dense forest. I was hoping they were not lost because I was. As the daylight was starting to break, we reached our destination. I told Jeff this didn’t look good as the mountain I was staring at was nearly straight up. Low and behold, Andrew said we were going up there. He said he wanted to reach the top before daylight. He took off, and Jeff and I followed his footsteps in the snow. By the time we reached the top, he had found a very nervous 6-point bull on the other side of the canyon. He was probably 2,000 yards away from us, so we knew we were not spooking him.
Shortly after, we saw three bulls on another ridgetop. Suddenly, they too got spooked and went over the top. Then we saw two hunters with walking sticks and large packs on their backs walking only 100 feet from those elk. They never even saw the elk. We called Jarod as he was on the other side. Jarod watched the three bulls bed down. He called and told us that there was one large bull in the group and if I could shoot 600 yards, we could get him. We boiled off the mountain and got into our trucks. We were approaching our startup point as Jarod called and said those two hunters spooked the elk again and they were gone. That afternoon, we went to a different location and spotted a big bull just before dark. That is where we were going to start the next morning.
It seemed that 4 a.m. was the perfect time to take off. We traveled about an hour before reaching the forest. Then we drove up the steepest hill ever. We were waiting for the light to break, and just then, a pickup drove up that same steep hill. They were some other hunters. Jarod wanted Jeff and Andrew to spot from a specific viewpoint, so they jumped out in the dark to capture the lookout point. That didn’t matter to the other hunters, though. When daylight emerged, they got out and started glassing right alongside of them. Jarod and I left and went to another tall hill to look over the juniper and cedar tree-covered valley.
At 8:00 Jarod, spotted a big bull two and a half miles across the valley just grazing. He told me to come take a look through the spotting scope to see if he was what I wanted. I decided that was the bull I was going to shoot. Jeff and Andrew were going to watch the bull from their hill while we traveled to the other side of the valley. They pinned on their map exactly where the bull was. We zoomed down the hill to the pickup. It took us an hour to get around to where the bull was. In the meantime, Andrew said there was another bigger bull with him. Things were starting to get very intense, but I trained myself to stay calm. We got out of the truck, and Jarod set up his tripod and binoculars. In less than 30 seconds, he said, “I see him. Carl, come take a look.” I could see the tips of his antlers through the trees, and he was laying down. That pin drop was spot on.
That afternoon, we tried different angles of stalking the bull but with no luck. We set up the 7mm on the bipod and then tried to range the bull. All we could see were the tips of his antlers through a three-foot circle of trees. We got different ranges as our rangefinders were picking up branches or backgrounds. We were getting from 480 yards to 535 yards. We just set the turret at 500 yards and hoped for the best. It was 9:00 when we reached the bull’s location and now it was 1:20. We never took our eyes off of his antler tips. Sometimes he was still as could be sleeping or he would start licking himself and moving his head back and forth. We never knew when he was going to stand up.
I was getting very fed up with this bull as he should have gotten up to relieve himself by now. At 1:38, he started moving his head back and forth again, and I was ready. Jarod whispered, “Carl, he is getting up.” He stunningly got up very quickly and turned straight towards us. What a narrow shot at 500 yards, but in four seconds, the bullet was on camera. It hit just between the brisket and the shoulder at an inward angle. The bull ran straight towards us and then turned behind the trees. We didn’t know if the 7mm bullet hit the heart or not, but we knew he was hit.
We sneaked back up the 50 yards to see if we could hill to where the pickup was about find him. Andrew said we could see better from below, so down the hill we went. When we got there, Jarod said we could see better up the hill. All I was doing was carrying my gun, running out of breath, and following orders. Finally, up the hill, Jarod saw the bull standing still. By this time, we forgot to range the distance and I laid down. Gasping for air, I tried to get my eyes on him through the scope, level the gun, squeeze the trigger, and then the bullet was low. The bull walked behind a burnt tree and stood there as he thought he was hidden or he was hurt. Whichever it was, he was standing and that was the signal that I had to shoot again. We reassessed the distance. I followed the same drill as before and squeezed the trigger again. Luckily, the bullet managed to not hit a burnt limb and I buried it into his lungs. The whack echoed over the canyon. The bull immediately fell to the ground and only thrashed for a short time. He was a dream monster 6x6 for me.
Many thanks to Jarod, Andrew, and my son Jeff as this adventure would have never happened without them.
Login