CatfishKev Report post Posted December 17, 2024 Looking forward to the story! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lucafu1 Report post Posted December 17, 2024 Awesome!!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted December 18, 2024 First off, let me give a huge thanks to Chris(CrazyMonkey). We could not have pulled it off without him. He sacrificed so much to help make this happen for AJ. I don’t have time to tell the story yet. I will get to it in a couple days. I just got home to Arkansas and need to get caught up. Dan 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CatfishKev Report post Posted January 3 On 12/17/2024 at 6:57 PM, DBZona said: First off, let me give a huge thanks to Chris(CrazyMonkey). We could not have pulled it off without him. He sacrificed so much to help make this happen for AJ. I don’t have time to tell the story yet. I will get to it in a couple days. I just got home to Arkansas and need to get caught up. Dan Still waiting patiently 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 I first want to thank all those who offered help and support on this hunt. I am sorry I didn’t get to it sooner and I will probably post this in pieces as I type. This hunt, the way we were able to hunt, would not have been possible without Chris(CrazyMonkey). When we found out AJ had drawn the tag I immediately set him and his brother up for their hunter Ed course for spring break in March. And I immediately began to wonder how we would pull this off. I was concerned that he would not pass hunters Ed, since he is intellectually disabled and has cerebral palsy. And I have got to hand it to the game and fish officers and employees involved in Hunter ed in Arizona. Even though he had lots of trouble with different aspects of the course, they were more concerned with making sure he had fun while taking the course and assisted him every step of the way. So Thankyou AZGFD, you guys were amazing! We practiced shooting throughout the summer here in Arkansas, and it quickly became clear to me that he needed a lot of assistance with the rifle. After a conversation with the game and fish officer of his unit, he encouraged us to get his CHAMP permit and do what we could to help make the hunt successful, with one exception, AJ needed to be the one pulling the trigger. So I was able to find a camera that attached to the scope, and we started practicing with me helping him aim and telling him when to pull the trigger. He was getting pretty good, so I felt confident. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 Fast forward to November, we were able to drive the 16 hrs to Show Low the week of Thanksgiving. The plan was to help my dad’s buddy with a deer tag in 32 and then head up to meet Chris the weekend of November 30th. After an unsuccesful opening day of deer season, AJ and I made the miserable drive up 191. We met up with Chris, who had brought his amazing wife to meet us. The reason Chris was up there a week early, was to drop off his camper so that he could bring up his side by side later in the week( which ended up being an invaluable tool for our hunt. It still amazes me the kindness of this man, whom I had never met, who was willing to make the 5 hr drive twice, so that we would have everything we needed. The days leading up to the hunt we scouted quite a bit and found a few bulls and big herds of cows with spikes and raghorns. At one point we had run into a herd of bighorn, in which AJ didn’t seem to be impressed, but Chris and I enjoyed seeing them. I am a photographer, so got out and snapped some photos with my Nikon. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 The night before the hunt we thought we had a plan, but driving back to camp we ran into a herd of elk with a 5 pt and a 6pt in it, so we changed our plans. We would hit the fields these elk were headed to at first light. Before daybreak on opening morning, we started hiking towards the field where we thought these elk would be. When my Binos were able to finally gather enough light, I could start to make out elk in the field. There ended up being well over a hundred. But they were really far away. And the only bulls we saw were threes spikes. I asked AJ and he said he wanted to hold out for something bigger than a spike. So we decided to keep these elk in our back pocket for later. Later that morning we decided to split up to cover more ground and would meet up back at camp at 2. AJ and I ran into one 10 yr old and his family waiting out a bull that had bedded. Chris had much better luck. He had actually run into a guide who was watching three smaller bulls, one with a broken leg. His client was looking for something much bigger. They understood our situation with AJ and said they would help us out when they see something they didn’t want to shoot. He asked Chris if AJ would be willing to shoot one of the three they were looking at. Chris hurried back to camp and grabbed us to go take a look. Thanks goodness we had the side by side, because there is no way we would have gotten to most of the elk we did encounter on this hunt. On the way in, of course it started to snow, and visibility went to maybe 100 yds. And it stayed this way for the next 30 minutes or so. When the storm cleared I found two of the bulls in the bottom of the canyon. They were a little over 500 yds. But We had committed to shooting the injured one if we could find him. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 After a few minutes we finally found the injured bull, bedded 100 yds up the hill from the others. I ranged him at 620 yds. A long shot, but conditions were calm enough I thought we could pull it off. Getting AJ set up in the bog pod and getting aimed was a lot trickier than doing it at the range. Just about the time we finally got settled, a side by side pulled up to us and that bull and his two buddies got up and walked straight away from us. We never saw them again. this is the injured bull as we were getting ready to shoot him. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 We saw bulls everyday of the hunt, except the second to last day. But they were all just in tricky spots to get AJ to. On that Sunday we went back up to where we had seen the injured bull, hoping he would come out. Instead we found the biggest bull we would see the whole hunt, a 320 class bull. AJ was so pumped when we showed him, he was willing to walk out an old road to get within 350 yds of where we had last seen him. There was one problem, the road was full of blow down and thorn bushes, but AJ was willing to try it. I decided to take everything we needed to get a shot off and went as fast as I could to see if it was even possible for him to make it and if not I would go back and stop them so AJ wouldn’t have to go any further. Chris helped him navigate over logs and through the thorn bushes as I went up ahead. AJ was a trooper and made it all the way to the point. But we never turned that bull up again. 3/4 mile in and 3/4 mile back. I couldn’t be prouder! Experiencing this hike with him, a kid with CP, was one of the highlights of this trip. We took a lot of breaks… but he did it! AJ getting ready to hike out 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 We got a tip from someone about a place there might be some bulls, so on Monday we went and checked it out. Walking in we bumped a large herd of elk with one spike in it. This spike stood and stared at us for 10 minutes or so at a little over 100yds. I asked AJ if he wanted to shoot the spike and he said no. It was day four and it was his hunt, so I wasn’t going to make him do anything he didn’t want to. Plus we had the other spikes from day 1 that would hopefully still be an option. We knew there were elk further down the road because we could hear them, it ended up being only 5 cows. At this point the main herd of elk with the spike have made their way 500 yds up the mountain. AJ asks me if the spike is still there. I said, “yes. Why? Do you want to shoot it? And he said yes! Chris and I just laughed we asked him why he changed his mind and AJ said he was hoping there was something bigger with the elk further down the road. But now since there wasn’t, he wanted to shoot the spike. Knowing the shot was too far at this point ( he didn’t know that) we told him “nope. Not a chance. If you wanted to shoot that spike, you had a chance when we was just below the road. There is no way we are going to let you shoot that same elk on top of the mountain, A lot further from the truck.” We all had a good laugh and finally told him it was too far anyway, but maybe we would come back in the morning and try again. We tried the same spot the next 3 mornings with no luck. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 On Tuesday afternoon we decided to try a new spot with no luck. However, driving out we had two bulls run across the road. But we never stood a chance. We knew that in order for this to work with AJ, we needed to see the elk well before they saw us because of the setup involved. On Wednesday, the second to last day of the hunt, we didn’t see an elk. However, we did see a really nice ram. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 Wednesday night, before the last day, we gave AJ the option to go to where we had been the last few mornings and hope for that spike, or go to where we saw the spikes on day one. He chose to go to where we were on day one. I will admit, at this point I had lost a little bit of hope of harvesting an animal. The hunt had already been a success to Chris, my dad, and I. But I knew we needed a miracle. We showed up just before daylight, but when we could see we knew there were no elk there. We decided to drive up the road where we had sent my dad to see if there were any further up the field and as we came around the corner the elk were just off the road. We went around the corner and the topography that we had allowed us to get set up without spooking any elk, but they were feeding away from us. We got AJ prone, which is very hard and difficult for him to do, but he did it. And let me tell you…. Trying to shoot one elk out of a heard of over 100 is not easy. I was helping him aim, and probably 8 times he almost fired but had to quickly back off because a cow got in the way. Finally, at a distance much further than I would like to shoot the spike cleared. This was the closest to shooting we had been all week. It’s The last day. We aim and I tell him to shoot. BOOM!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBZona Report post Posted January 5 Elk are running confused as they sometimes do when being shot at. I don’t see an elk on the ground where the spike was, so I quickly start looking for him. My hands are shaky, so I pull out the spotter and find him in amongst the cows. Unscathed. I do my due diligence and go check for blood, knowing he missed. But I always double check. My dad said he would go around to the other side and see if they cross the road over there. Chris and AJ followed him. I look and look and I knew exactly where he had crossed the fence, and I confirm there was no hit. Missing that spike was the beginning of our miracle. the spike in with the cows after the shot As I am walking out to meet Chris and AJ I decide to look up on the hill behind me and I can see elk through my Binos. It’s over a mile so I cannot make out what they are. I see AJ and Chris with my truck further up the field where the road crosses, so I hurry back to them to get the spotter and see if we can find a bull on this hill. sure enough. We can make out a bull. And not a raghorn you would see with a heard of cows like this. He’s a respectable bull. Not a giant, but not one you figure you would see with a heard of cows. We saw smaller bulls in bachelor groups. we meet up with my dad and come up with a game plan. AJ, Chris and I would drive as close to the base of the hill as we felt comfortable so as not to spook them. When looking at them through the Binos it looked like they were going to feed down into the timber, so we figured parking a half mile away could give us a chance to intercept them. we slowly walk up the road picking apart the forest in front of us hoping to see an elk coming through the timber. But they did not. Instead, we started spotting cows on the hill where they were previously. this is the bull up on the hill 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
