99 Bull Elk

After all the jitters were out from opening weekend, I was headed back up for the last week of the 1999 Arizona archery bull elk hunt. We had located some nice bulls (370 type) opening weekend but due to lots of hunting pressure they weren’t bugling much and I didn’t score. Prior to going back for the final finale, I decided to call my Uncle John McClendon to see if he had any suggestions, he said he knew of a place that typically had little hunting pressure and had some dandy bulls. After our conversation I decided to invest my time in this new area. Dan Kasprzyk, who had joined me for the hunt wasn’t to arrive in camp until Saturday night. That evening as I hunted the new area, I found a few hunters in the area. One of which was Dallas Scott. He offered some information on this area and gave me a gallon of gas to make sure the ATV got me back to camp since the round trip was over 60 miles. That night I had gotten into about 6 bulls that I choose not to shoot. They were bugling everywhere and I felt pretty good about the number of bulls in this area. Once I arrived back in camp, Dan was starting to come look for me since it was 9:15 PM and I was to be back in camp shortly after dark. He would have given me until 10:00 PM. We discussed the strategy for the morning hunt and would decide whether to move camp after we invest a day’s hunt in the area.

The next morning found us among the bulls screaming. We were going from bull to bull trying to find the one I wanted to try and harvest. Needless to say, Dan got allot of great bulls on film. We decided to back off the elk since we were close to their bedding area. We happened to notice a remote road, which we locked in on the GPS so we would be able to find it for the afternoon hunt. After lunch and a quick nap we were eager to get back in the bulls. After driving around in the area, we finally found the remote road we were looking for. As soon as we stepped out of the truck we heard a deep bugle. We looked at each other grinning and realized this could be it, we might not need to move camp. As we moved in slowly another bull started getting into the action and was also working his way towards us. I was unsure as to which bull we should go after. Once we got within about 100 yards of each of them, Dan wanted to try and cow call to see if he could entice one of the big boys in. Sure enough, one came in and he sure looked big. I whispered to Dan, "I think he is a contender". With Dan calling he had barely fired up the camera before the bull was in our face bugling. As the bull started circling us, I decided to shoot if the bull presented a good broadside shot. I just couldn’t hold out any longer. At thirty yards he stepped behind a tree and I pulled the PSE Mach 6 back. Once he stepped into an opening I cow called to stop him. I wasn’t too sure how far he was but all of my yardage pins could fit on his body and let-er rip for 30 yards. I could see the STEEL FORCE tipped arrow penetrate completely through the bull and embed itself deep into a tree. It was a perfect hit. After forcing ourselves to wait an hour we began trailing the bull. With only finding minimal blood sign and the sun setting quickly we found ourselves fortunate to have found him piled up only 200 yards away. We thought what a magnificent animal. Dan and I gave some high fives and handshakes, and to think Dan got it all on tape. It was only the beginning of the rest of the story.

After we field dressed the bull we headed back to the truck. Upon arrival, I noticed that once I opened my door the interior light didn’t come on. I immediately knew what had happened. I had remembered once I jumped out of the truck, my release had gotten snagged on something. I then knew that it must have hit my KC off-road light switch, which drained the truck battery. Since we choose an area that did not have many hunters we knew we were in trouble. Especially since I had a bull on the ground. It was 7:30 PM at night and knew that the only camp that was even close was Dallas’s, which was 8 miles away. I told Dan rather than walking to Dallas’s camp, we had only one other chance of getting out of there tonight and that would be to walk to a Forest Service road intersection and maybe we could catch someone coming out of the area we were in. We got up to the intersection and built a small fire. We sat there and discussed that we were probably going to have to stay the night in the truck and then come back up to the intersection in the morning to try and catch someone on their way in at 4:00 AM. We also said a few prayers looking for some additional help. As we sat there at about 9:00 PM I said, "I think I hear a Quad coming". Dan and I jumped up and ran to the road. Sure enough here came Dallas with his wife. Talk about an answer to a prayer. Dallas then headed for his camp and returned with his wife, son and truck to give us a jump-start. It was 10:15 PM and we were back in business. We then fired up the GPS and headed for the bull. Dallas and his family wanted to go with us to retrieve the bull and it was a good thing since it took all of us to pack and load the magnificent animal into the truck. Dan called me the luckiest person he knows I just called it blessed.

Kent McClendon