It was like hitting the lottery. I will never forget the day when the entire team from the Huntin’ Fool License Application Service gave me the news that my wife, Milena, had drawn an Arizona rifle elk tag with no points on her first year of applying. I walked into her office and gave her the amazing news. That’s when all the yelling and screaming started.
About six months later, we were heading to Arizona on her elk hunt with A3 Trophy Hunts. The guide told us that it was going to be a tough hunt because all the big bulls were broken up from fighting and their antlers were brittle due to Arizona’s drought this year.
It was day one of the hunt. As daylight approached, we started hearing a lot of elk bugling. The timing was perfect as we hit the rut full on. There is nothing more exciting than sitting in the dark waiting for daylight to break and hearing elk bugles all around in the clean, crisp air. We glassed a lot of elk but could not find the right size bull.
That afternoon, we went to another area that the outfitter had permission to hunt. It was a private ranch that virtually had no hunting pressure. We saw over 200 elk. They were all around us, bugling and chasing their cows. It seemed like elk were in every direction we looked. We got so close to the bulls that we could see their breath. There was a really good bull that we got on, but he had a few broken points. My wife wanted an elk so badly that she did not care if he was broken up or not. It was still day one, and when I told her that she should pass, it did not go over so well. This was her dream hunt, and she was not happy. As the sun started to set, we headed back to the truck. I will never forget the look on her face. She looked like a little kid who had just had her lollipop taken away. It was sad but funny!
The next morning, we headed back to the same place we had hunted the day before. There were elk chasing cows all around us. We noticed a really good bull that was perfect and not broken up with a group of cows. Milena decided that was the bull she wanted to go after. When we got to the area where the bull was last seen, he was nowhere to be found. The bull had separated from the cows and went to bed down. An hour or so later, we located the bull and walked within about 60 yards of it. We waited for the bull to stand, and when he did, my wife made a great shot. She was screaming and crying at the same time.
This was truly a hunt-of-a-lifetime, and to experience this with someone I love and cherish so much was a blessing!