July 20, 2022, I was in my home office when my wife, Kelly, poked her head in the door and said, “Mike W. is on the phone and says you just won something.” She handed me the phone, and before I could say hello, Mike said “I’m watching the Arizona Big Game Super Raffle and you just got drawn! You need to answer their call.” I immediately hung up the phone to check my messages. The message was, “This is John Colozar with the Arizona Big Game Super Raffle, and you might want to call me back.” I dialed the number and John picked up, “You won the Arizona statewide raffle tag, and you get to hunt elk for an entire year in the state of Arizona.” I just about fell out of my chair. This was the holy grail of elk tags.
I immediately went to work on finding an outfitter to help maximize this opportunity. I decided to go with A3 Trophy Hunts. My initial conversations with Chad Rhoton just felt like a good fit, and from the very beginning, Chad told me I was going to kill a giant.
After several weeks of conversations with Chad, I made my first trip down, and my brother, Joe, and friend Matt came along. We met Jay Lopeman for dinner that first night where he introduced us to Jed Larson. As we talked over dinner, I knew I had made the right choice of outfitter. We all hit it off perfectly, and I could tell right away these guys were real pros.
The next morning, we got an early start. After driving for an hour or so, we parked the truck and took off hiking up the hill. As we reached the top, we started spotting elk. Joe, Matt, and I looked through our binos and we were like kids in a candy shop. These were not just any bulls, but big bulls. Good thing we had Jed or we would have probably been tagged out right then. We ended up hunting several areas on that first trip and looked at numerous bulls but never found anything worthy of the tag.
Over the next few months, we continued to look at bulls but never found anything we wanted, so I was going to have to wait until July or August of 2023 to fill my tag. Given the wet year and great supply of feed in 2022, we expected phenomenal antler growth in the following year and the chance of a real giant.
Fast forward to July 9, 2023 when I got a call from Jed, saying, “I think we might have found something special.” As the week went on, Jed stayed in touch, and by the third call, I could tell things were intensifying. Up to this point, he had been pretty calm and not shown much excitement about the bulls we had looked at, but I could sense a change in his tone on this one. Jed went on to say, “I can’t say how big, but you need to trust me and get down here.” My 22-year-old son, Sam, and my brother, Joe, were sitting in my office. I said, “What do you guys think?” They replied, “You better find a way to go now.” I asked Sam if he could get away, and his response was, “Heck yeah, Dad! I wouldn’t miss this for the world!” Joe was also ready to go, and our friend, Matt decided to come along as well.
We headed out early Saturday, and our plan was to stay the night somewhere along the way and arrive in camp on Sunday. It was a long drive, but Sam and I had some great conversations along the way. He had just completed his education to become a professional crop advisor, and we were excited about him coming back to the family farming operation someday soon.
We got to our hotel, and as we were checking in, I got a call from Jed. “We found the bull tonight, and he’s in a good spot. Can you be in camp by 2 a.m.?”
I looked at my watch and said, “It’s 10:30 p.m. now and you’re two hours away. Are you serious?”
He said, “Yes, this bull is a giant and we need to try and get him now.” Sam and I looked at each other and said, “How big is this bull?” Jed said he was running with a 400" bull and he towered him. Sam and I quickly looked at each other and said, “We’re on our way!”
When we finally arrived at camp at around 2:30 a.m., the A3 team had 12 guides gathering gear, packing packs, loading trucks, and making a plan of attack. The plan was for several of the team to split up and spot from various locations while we moved in to where the bull had last been seen the night before. Iseha Conklin and Tyler Mott would be going with Jed, Sam, Joe, Matt, and me. We started hiking at around 3:30 a.m., got to our position at around 5:30, and then stopped to wait for it to get light.
As the sun rose, we made our way up the ridge and started glassing. No bull! We all scanned the ridge intensely, but he was not there. We knew he had to be close, so we decided to move in closer to the next ridge. When we got there, we sat tight. There was fresh sign everywhere, so we knew we were close, but it was brushy with limited sight distance. We decided to split up and see what we could find. Within minutes, Iseha came back with eyes as big as saucers. “I found him. We are only a few hundred yards away.”
At that moment, everyone got really serious. I got my gear together, Jed was ready, and the wind was perfect. We started sneaking through the brush, and after 150 yards or so, we spotted them on the next ridge. We got set up and ranged them at 550 yards. There were six bulls, and they were making their way up the next ridge, meandering through the brush, so the view was not clear. Jed had explained earlier that there were two larger bulls, one named “Bonfire” that had a bladed antler and his buddy “Sticks” who was much larger. That was our bull. Just as I was getting settled, the bulls stepped into a small clearing and the choice was obvious. I found Bonfire first and right behind him was Sticks. He was a giant compared to the other bulls with split daggers, giant fifths, and huge mass. I waited for what seemed like eternity as Bonfire was blocking the shot. Finally, I had a clear shot at Sticks. I squeezed the trigger on my Gunwerks .300 PRC and watched the bull drop in my scope. I had hit him a little high, but he was down. A year in the making was done. I got up, high fived the group, and gave Sam a hug. He looked at me and said, “Way to go, Dad! You just killed a giant.”
We made our way to the bull, and as we approached him, he just kept getting bigger. It wasn’t long before Jed, Iseha, and Tyler broke out the tape to get a feel for what we had, and it did not disappoint. The field score was 448" and change, a true giant! As Sam told my wife, Kelly, when we got home, “I think we all had a little tear in our eye for a moment there.”
The ride home was great. We just couldn’t stop reflecting back on the crazy last few days and how wonderful it all turned out. I kept thinking to myself how fortunate I was to get such an opportunity and to be able to enjoy it with my son, Sam, my brother, Joe, and friend Matt all by my side. The trip really gave me the opportunity to appreciate how much my son Sam had matured and what a wonderful young man he had become. He had a wonderful time interacting with the guides and they all just loved him.
Thank you to Arizona Big Game Super Raffle for making this opportunity available to hunters. I can’t thank the team at A3 Trophy Hunts enough for their hard work in helping me take the bull-of-a-lifetime. Chad, Jay, and Matt – you have a top-notch organization. Jed, you are the elk master! I can’t thank you enough for all of your hard work and guidance over the last year. Tyler and Iseha were both awesome. Marc, Jeremiah, Dan, Rob, Scott, Brett, and anyone else I am leaving out, you are all real professionals.
Unfortunately, this story doesn’t end there. On September 5, 2023, my son, Sam, was tragically killed in an ATV-related accident on our family farm. He was just 22 years old. I went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a matter of weeks. It has been a devastating loss to our family. Sam was my son, my co-worker, my hunting partner, and my best friend. He was a hard worker who loved the outdoors and an old soul, which seems hard to find these days. He was an incredibly special young man who brought us all joy and happiness. He loved everyone, and everyone who ever met Sam loved him. He was always the shining light in the room, and he made a giant impact on many people in his short life.
I want to thank Huntin’ Fool for allowing me to include my son in this way and continuing to help hunters achieve their dreams. I also want to thank all of you who have taken the time to read this article and learn about our son, Sam. If anyone is interested in making a tax-deductible contribution to Sam’s Memorial Fund, the information is below. The funds will be used to help kids like Sam who might not be the right fit for a four-year college but are good, hard-working kids needing some financial assistance to help them succeed in life.
SAM’S MEMORIAL FUND: Sutter Yuba Community Foundation, PO Box 3165 Yuba City, CA 95992. Note in the memo on the check: Samuel J Danna Memorial Fund.
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