August 17th started like many other Saturdays, playing in a golf tournament with my wife. Little did I know that the day would be one to remember. On the second hole on the back nine, I received a call from a Pennsylvania area code. The woman on the other end said that she was with the Keystone Elk Alliance and was calling to inform me that I had been drawn for a Pennsylvania bull elk tag in unit 11. She then asked if I wanted to accept the tag. My head spinning and knowing that I did not apply for unit 11, I questioned her authenticity, thinking it could easily be one of my “friends” trying to get one past me. She assured me that it was genuine and that I was to call an entirely different number to verify that I was willing to accept the tag. I finished the hole to get my composure before calling the number that was provided. It was indeed the Pennsylvania Game Commission. I had drawn a unit 11 bull elk tag! I accepted before he even finished his sentence. Needless to say, the last seven holes, I was a non-factor on the golf course.
Regressing a bit, back in 2007, I read about the elk and hunting opportunities in Pennsylvania. Never one to miss out on a hunting draw, I began applying in 2008. Throughout the years, many of my friends, including Pennsylvania residents, told me I was wasting my money as no one ever draws those. I figured for an annual fee of $10.70 I had little to lose. Fast forward to 2019 where I pulled one of the 27 rifle bull elk tags out of approximately 38,000 applicants. Not being selected for my chosen unit, I later found out that if your name is pulled and your unit is already taken, they assign you the next available unit with an open bull tag.
Unit 11 happens to be one of the few in the state that has a lot of private property (approximately 64%). That factor in addition to a short season and no time to scout had me leaning towards going with an outfitter to best utilize my basically once-in-a-lifetime tag. In less than a week, the two big outfitters were proactive in reaching out to me, no doubt due to the public drawing at the Keystone Elk Country Alliance Elk Expo held annually in August. It was an easy decision due in no small part to geography to go with Larry Guenot’s Trophy Rack Lodge.
Having no idea what it would be like hunting elk in Pennsylvania versus what I was accustomed to out west, I decided to get my longtime friend and Wyoming elk outfitter, TJ Clark, to go along. I flew him to Cleveland and picked him up for the short 225-mile drive to Larry’s place in Karthaus, Pennsylvania. The lodge was very nice and spacious for the numerous hunters who would be arriving as we got there two days early. We met my guide and unit 11 aficionado Dean Carper who resides in the unit and knows many landowners as well as the local road system. We discussed my expectations for my tag, and having taken many bulls, including a couple in the 350" range, we settled on looking for a 400" bull or nothing. Dean reiterated that he and Larry had prescouted more than a few bulls in unit 11 that would fit the bill. We scouted extensively on Sunday, the day before the season, not turning up any bulls over 330".
We spent the first day glassing the two State Gamelands Areas within unit 11 as well as a handful of private properties that we were preapproved to access. The numerous wooded areas are heavily forested and hence difficult to glass, forcing us to concentrate our efforts on the more open areas of both the private and public ground. We were seeing elk, just not the caliber that we were after. At the end of a long first day, it was nice to get back to the lodge to a warm home-cooked meal with the other 18+/- hunters in camp. There were a couple bulls in the shed already, one that would end up right around the 400” mark. A third bull rolled in after dinner stretching the tape into the mid 360s.
We rolled out for day two much like the day before, covering ground and glassing where possible. We hiked into a couple of public areas and high-line clear-cuts looking for elk sign. Overall, it was a slow day, but with no lack of sign being found, we were optimistically looking forward to day three. The weather was looking to turn from sunny and nice to overcast and rainy.
Day three was as expected – overcast/rainy. We continued our search for the right bull, and after lunch, we located a group of five bulls in the timber on private property. The largest of the group would no doubt be well into the 400" range. 430-440" was our best guess. Locating the property owner’s name and number was no problem, but only getting their voicemail left us to just watch them lay around, hunkered down out of the rain. We continued looking for a big bull the rest of the day but to no avail.
Sleep was hard to come by going into day four after what we had spotted the afternoon before, and Dean was confident that he knew where the elk would be heading in the morning. We made a beeline for the private property that he anticipated would hold these bulls. On our way there, we encountered a non-typical bull on the opposite side of the road that would no doubt go 400". Before we could turn around for another look, we spotted a herd of seven bulls on the very spot where Dean thought they would be. We hiked in the pre-dawn mist/ fog, utilizing the topography for cover as they were located in a treeless, grassy field. We settled in for Dean and TJ to evaluate the bulls while I dropped the bipod and readied for a sitting shot at 300 yards. No sooner had they called the last bull in than the .300 RUM popped and the bull hit the ground. Everyone was all smiles as I stayed on the bull just in case. He stood back up, only to be permanently anchored with a second shot.
With all the fist bumping and picture taking completed, Dean got down to field dressing the bull, which was not the bull from the day before but proved to be an 8x8 that would make close to the magical 400" mark. We commandeered the farmer who owned the ranch to give us a hand loading the bull whole on Trophy Rack’s trailer for the trip to the mandatory check station. The rain continued throughout the day as we made our way to the Benezette check station. There, they weigh them and remove a tooth and blood/tissue samples for aging and CWD testing. The problem was that the rain shorted out the load cell that weighs the elk and they had no way to hook up the backup to the crane. We got into my toolbox and rectified the situation with a crane clevis I had, which they shipped back to me at the end of the week, even though I told them they could keep it.
We headed back to the lodge, and rather than take the bull to the locker, TJ and I quickly got it broken down, boned out, caped, and into Trophy Rack’s walk-in cooler. Another home- cooked meal and a plane ticket change and we were on our way home the following morning.
Thanks to Larry, Dean, TJ, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission for the opportunity-of-a-lifetime for my biggest bull to date at 394 4/8". If having utilized Huntin’ Fool over the years has taught me one thing, apply, apply, apply if you are going to have a chance at the super limited tags, like Pennsylvania elk, that are available.
Login