As I felt my phone vibrating mid-Tuesday morning, I knew the wait was finally over. My father had been waiting decades for his coveted Arizona antelope tag. The night before, Arizona Game and Fish sent out reminders to update credit card information before midnight. I told all my friends to only text me that morning as I was anxiously waiting for my father’s phone call as I knew he was a max bonus point holder for a top tier unit.
I answered the phone to my father ecstatic! He was yelling at me in excitement that he finally drew his antelope tag. I was happy for my father, but I was even more excited about having an opportunity to hunt antelope in Arizona with him for the second time in the last three years. I was fortunate enough to have drawn the same unit three years ago with only 5 bonus points. The reason why I remember I had 5 bonus points is because my father and I put in on different apps but on the same credit card, and when there was a $90 charge from Arizona Game and Fish, I jokingly said, “Looks like I drew my antelope tag.”
He chuckled and responded, “29 points versus 5, buddy. I doubt it.”
Low and behold, it was my antelope tag, and my father and I, along with several of my friends, spent upwards of a combined 25 days in the field that summer leading up to the hunt. That was one of my most memorable summers as we spent great time together looking over quality bucks. There was one specific buck that stood out to me because of his frame, width, and length that ended up getting the name “Big Iron” because the famous Marty Robbins song was playing in the background the first time we saw him.
Thanks to plenty of help, I was able to successfully harvest Big Iron opening day of the 2020 season. After an hour and 40-minute stalk, cutting the distance from 1,400 yards to 500 yards, and a whirlwind of emotions, Big Iron was down and the hunt was over. It was an amazing experience I will never forget, and I was very thankful to share it with my father and friends.
My father’s goal was to harvest a Boone and Crockett buck as he already harvested a Pope and Young buck nearly 30 years ago. Then, he would have harvested a Pope and Young and Boone and Crockett buck of the same species. After talking with my father who had waited 29 years and had a total of 31 bonus points, I asked him if he had ever thought of hiring an outfitter. At first, it was not necessarily on his radar, but being extremely busy owning and operating a gas station in Flagstaff, Arizona, along with understanding this could potentially be his last antelope hunt ever, he knew he wanted to make this one count.
The next day, my father reached out to Eli Grimmett with Pronghorn Guide Service and booked them for his antelope hunt. Over the summer and months leading up to the hunt, my father and I were able to scout a little and spend some time in the field looking over several different bucks. None were quite the caliber I knew my father was looking for. This made me happy knowing we had an amazing outfitter to assist us with accomplishing my father’s goal.
Leading up to the hunt, Eli would communicate, sending us pictures through social media and getting us excited for the upcoming hunt. Before we knew it, those long summer days were fading and hunting season was amongst us.
Eli was in the unit scouting the week leading up to the hunt, and it was agreed upon that my father would spend Thursday morning with Eli hoping to relocate our target buck. I had to work the night before and was headed up there Thursday with my buddy Jon, to meet Eli and my father for the evening. On my way up there, my father called and told me they had relocated the buck. I could tell in his voice he was excited, and when I asked if it was what he was looking for, he responded, “Oh yeah, he’s a great buck!”
Excited, I rushed up the mountain as quickly as I could and met Eli and my father at my parent’s place in Mormon Lake. After communicating back and forth through social media the last three years, it was nice to formally introduce myself and meet Eli in person. After getting to know Eli and learning that we both not only love antelope but have a shared passion for coaching wrestling, I thought it was appropriate to ask if I could see the buck we were after. Eli pulled out his phone and showed Jon and me several pictures of the buck that were taken throughout the summer. He was perfectly symmetrical with a beautiful frame and tons of mass.
Jon responded, “Well, the pictures are cool. Can we go see him right now?”
Eli responded, “We can try.”
The four of us loaded up into two separate trucks and went to the last place my father and Eli had seen the buck. Within several minutes, the buck was relocated and Jon and I were able to lay eyes on him in person. We all watched this buck push does and “rule his roost” until the sun went down and we could no longer see. Anticipation of what was to come in the morning set in, and with a lot of excitement, we tried to get some sleep.
The next morning came, and we headed out to where we had last seen that buck. Jon and I stayed back on the hill to glass, and Eli went with my father down the ridge to try and get closer to where we assumed the buck was bedded. As the sun began to rise, Jon picked up a buck on a dead sprint right towards my father and Eli. Unsure why, we knew if it was our target buck, he would not leave his does. We panned, trying to look for any more activity, and found a group of does. We stayed on the does, and that buck that was sprinting went right up to the herd of does and we knew it was him.
Sitting back in the glass about a mile or so away, I was able to finally see my father and Eli in my binocular frame. I could get them and the buck in the same frame. As I was talking with Jon, I watched the buck take off sprinting once again away from his does and saw two smaller bucks running away. The target buck never let up and was chasing those smaller bucks into the next county. The small bucks were running right toward my father and Eli, with the bigger buck right behind them. The bucks were on a dead sprint and came within 100 yards of Eli and my father. All this happening so quick, Jon and I were anticipating a shot. The bigger buck finally turned around and began trotting back to his does. Jon and I knew a shot was coming. The buck looked to have stopped about 450-500 yards away broadside when the first shot missed high. The buck trotted off towards his does, but he kept looking back at the smaller bucks, giving my dad another shot opportunity. The gun rang off, another miss. The buck just put his head down and started feeding to the does. Sitting a mile away from this and watching it all go down, I whispered under my breath, “Come on, Curtis, get it together.”
As soon as I finished that sentence under my breath the buck dropped in his tracks, and about four seconds later, the delayed sound of the gun firing met my ear. At that point, we knew it was over. The buck was down, and the most intense two minutes of my life had just taken place.
Following shortly after, my phone rang and my father told me the story from his perspective and it sounded even more intense. Those bucks were within 50 yards of him and Eli on a full sprint. My father was excited, and Jon and I loaded up the truck and drove down the main road to where we could park and hike in to the buck.
My father and Eli met us in front of the buck, and he was definitely the one we were looking for. We shared our different perspectives of that intense encounter and circled around the buck for some pictures. When I asked my father what he thought of the experience, he responded, “It was worth the wait!”
Special thank you to Eli Grimmett for helping my father accomplish his goal.
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