Elk hunt in PA w/ pictures
 

Tired and 8 lbs lighter, not that that is a bad thing. Monday and Tuesday were horrible, rain most of the day Monday and rain and high wind most of the day Tuesday. Hunted dark to dark, put a hurting on the boot leather. Wednesday morning I was set up in a place called the turnip field on SGL 311 just before it was light enough to see. We were up high looking over the big Brassica field. There was an early shooter who killed a cow and we figured it was all over because all the elk with that cow took off to parts unknown. My guide went to talk with the early shooter and then decided to report the incident to the folks at the check in station before the elk got there so he turned me over to another guide who worked with his outfitter and was assisting another guide in the area where we were hunting. The other guide no sooner got to me when there was a whole lot of shooting at a place they call chocolate drop hill, due to all the elk crap all over it. This hill can be seen from a long distance. The new guide came running over and said there were about 40 elk heading in out direction and it would take them about 15 minutes to get to the field we were watching. He decided we would move down lower than where I was and we set up about 15 yards from the field behind a big white pine. The next thing you know one of the elk that had been run out of the field returned and was coming from the opposite direction as the other elk. I turned my rifle in the sticks and got on it. I was looking at the head to make sure it was not a spike bull, it just kept coming closer and I couldn't see anything on the head. Next thing you know it was directly in front of me at about 50 yards and I saw chocolate brown spikes about 8 inches long, they were the same color as the top of the head. It that boy makes it though the season he will be lucky. About a minute later the guide said he thought he heard a cow squeaking so he made a little cow call, about a minute later a 5x5 came up into the field from the direction the guide thought the herd would come from. He started to feed on the turnips then turned around and stuck his nose in the air, I told the guide I think is is smelling the other elk. About that time tow cows came up over the bank into the field at about 160 yards, they slowly walked into the field, I would have had a brisket shot but I was waiting for an better angle. At about 140 yards the one cow turned a little offering me a shoulder and I took the shot. I heard that solid whack of the bullet on a good shot and she staggered around a little and went down. There was some high 5ing and hand shaking and then some hunters on the opposite side of the field took a shot and hit the 2nd cow. She didn't go down but she was sick and stood there while they missed 3 time and finally hit her and she went down. Those were 300 yard shots according to the range finder. My guide and I went to my animal, I thanked her for her sacrifice and took some pictures and then we field dressed her. We took all the samples that are required, uterus, blood, feces, and the entire set of lungs. The guide called the guy the outfitter had contracted with to bring his horse to pull he elk back to out truck. The horse is a black Percheron, and a great horse. The owner does low impact logging and has 3 Percherons to haul logs. My guide went to meet the guy to show him where to access the field while I sat down and took in the moment. In abut a half hour I saw the horse coming across the field hauling a sled made from blue plastic barrels put together and retrofitted to haul elk. We got her in the sled and hauled the cow to our truck where the guy with the horse had the sled towed to the top of a stone pile and unhitched it from the horse. We backed the truck up to the stone pile and pushed and pulled the sled into the bed of the truck, dumped out the elk and were on out way to the check station, 400 lbs live weight according to their formula. After that process we took the elk to Hicks Run Outfitters to be skinned, cut down the back bone and hung. My outfitter was Quehanna outfitters, the owner and the owner of Hcks Run work together on the skinning and quartering. At that point I opened a bottle of Michter's Bourbon, where we toasted a successful hunt and generally just had fun after two days of real bad conditions to hunt in. The cabin in the pictures is where I stayed with one of my outfitter's other clients. This morning I loaded up my truck, went to Hicks Run outfitters, quartered my elk, put the pieces in game bags and headed to my butcher where it will hang for 6 more days and then be butchered. The cabin is where I stayed with another client of my outfitter.

Good for you! Elk meat from a cow or young bull is my favorite meat, bar none. Was this your first elk?

Yes it was. It took me 17 years to draw a tag.

Cool. All my elk hunting has been done in CO, WY and UT. I'm sure that hunting elk in the east would be a different ball game.

well congrats to you, and good write up here too
glad all went as well as it did
the rain sucked I am sure, but in the end, I am sure the overall memories will have washed all that rain right away LOL

Oh yeah, I already forgot the pain.:D

Congrats OT, very glad to see that you got one. I was in the area on Tuesday and the weather definitely sucked.
Great job!

-Jake

Will you continue to apply in future years or was this a one and done for you?

-Jake

Congratulations Oldtimr on drawing a tag and connecting both. Thanks for sharing the story with such a good write up.

You'll be eating good this winter that's for sure.


That's a heck of a Horse.

Boca, I think I just may try again. I don't know if you noticed but, the horse pictures had a date stamp of 11/6 and the rest have 11/7 witch is the correct date, I have no idea how that happened since they were all taken on the 7th.