Junior hunters: Jacob Dufek, juniors’ cow elk success
By Paul Dufek, proud father, Flagstaff

This is just a quick update to a story you printed last summer about my son Jeremy. My oldest son Jacob collected his first elk during the juniors’ hunt last fall. Like Jeremy’s hunt, there is always a story involved, and Jacob’s first elk was no exception.

We hunted long and hard the first couple of days without any real opportunity for success. We tried both calling and still-hunting, but were unable to visibly locate any elk. Sunday morning turned both very cold and windy. Having moved into a new area, we heard countless shots in almost every direction from us seemingly regardless of where we went. We knew we had just missed seeing animals several times and this was starting to take its toll on Jacob’s spirits. That evening while driving back in, we bumped two cows that headed back in the direction of a vehicle we had passed several minutes before.

After hearing shots again a short while later, he became visibly discouraged. We talked about ethics, providence, and the real gift of even having the opportunity to take part in this hunt. I told him that perhaps we had helped provide an opportunity for another junior hunter that might not have otherwise had one and we should be glad for them. He agreed.

A mile down the road, we set up near what appeared to be an active watering hole and began calling. While we talked some more, he knew that things don’t always turn out like you might hope. A short while later and without warning, two cows seemed to appear from out of nowhere, seemingly answering our call. After calming him down some, Jacob proceeded to collect his first elk.

I’m sure he’ll remember the scouting, hard work, cold weather, hearing other shots being fired, and ultimately the animal he collected. The time we spent together hunting on this trip is also something I’ll also always treasure. In addition, this turned out to be the only animal our family harvested this year, and it is still providing for us.

This year we were blessed with tags again! Not only did Jacob draw another juniors’ hunt cow tag, but Jeremy (now 14 who collected his first cow two seasons ago) drew one of the coveted September rifle bull tags in 5BN, and ironically both my brother Don and I also drew September archery bull tags in 5BN to go along with the 5BN September archery cow tags that three of Don’s children (Candra, Jonathan, and Margo) drew. We feel as though we won the lottery, big time. We can hardly wait!

I might note that it’s been 15 years since Don has drawn a bull tag, so he’s very pleased. Personally, I’ve drawn two bull tags (both archery) in the past 14 years (including this year) and share his enthusiasm.

If you have a “Junior hunter’s” story you would like to share, please email a picture, story, name and city with subject title “Junior Hunters” to:
HuntingHighlights@azgfd.gov