Back in 1999, I was bouncing along over a rough gravel road in a pickup with then- Pennsylvania Game Commission elk biologist Rawley Cogan. Cogan was giving several writers and me a tour of a new addition to the Keystone State’s elk range in the northcentral part of the state. That is when Cogan popped the question.
“Mark, what would you think of a Pennsylvania elk hunting season?” Cogan asked. “Do you think that hunters would be excited about it?”
I was excited, and I assured him that other hunters would be, too. He told me that the elk herd had grown enough for a limited season to be held, that a hunt was in the planning stages.
The first elk season was held in 2001, with 30 permits offered. Cogan moved on to found the Keystone Elk Country Alliance, a conservation group that supports education, habitat and elk research here in Pennsylvania. His group also runs the Elk Country Visitor Center near Benezette. The elk hunt continues, with more than 30,000 hunters applying for their chance at an elk tag in the drawing held each year during late summer. This year’s hunt, the 16th, offered 124 tags — 99 for antlerless elk and 25 bull tags.
I have covered the elk hunt for several newspapers since the beginning. Along the way, I have interviewed successful hunters at the check station, visited a kill site with the Game Commission and once helped Elk County Outfitters drag a bull elk out of the woods.
A unique opportunity came knocking four-and-a-half years ago when Trophy Rack Lodge co-owner Larry Guenot asked if I would be interested in accompanying one of his bull elk permit holders during the hunt. Trophy Rack is the only elk guiding service located in Centre County.
Without hesitation, my answer was a big “yes.” This fall marked my fourth year of experiencing the elk hunt in a way that very few people get to — side-by-side with the hunter and guide.
Guides have self-imposed pressure to provide a successful hunt. The tag holder wants to enjoy the hunt, but also does not want to blow his or her once-in-a-lifetime chance to harvest a Pennsylvania elk. Me — well, I have the best deal of all — no pressure and only fun.
Thanks to Guenot and his guides, and with the gracious permission of his hunters, I have seen elk antlers silhouetted against an early-morning lavender sky, watched bulls spar, hiked in to remote locations, and shared the excitement with a hunter as he attempted to harvest a bull elk with a handgun. Each of the first three years has been different — offering new and interesting experiences. I have learned a lot about elk and elk country, too.
This season was no exception. I accompanied Guenot, hunter Steve Winter and his cousin Dave Shupe — who was to record video of the hunt.
Winter had a permit for Elk Hunt Zone 12 — just across the Centre County line — in Clearfield, Clinton and Cameron counties. He hoped for a chance to score with a bow and arrow — his preferred hunting method. Winter, a former competition archer, has been so successful with his compound bow that he has not taken a whitetail with a rifle for over 20 years. However, he assured his guide that if a trophy bull was out of archery range, he would use his rifle.
We checked out a food plot just before legal shooting hours, then drove through what the locals refer to as “the Refuge” near Karthaus — an area that is off-limits to hunting. There, we saw several small bulls, a few cows and calves. The legal shooting time of 7:17 arrived, and we spotted a large solitary bull in a field along Rolling Stone Road. Guenot recommended that his client hold out for a bigger bull.
“We’ll try for this one later in the week if we don’t have success at finding a bigger bull,” Guenot said.
At about 7:40, we spotted three bulls feeding on a natural gas pipeline off of the Caledonia Pike. They all looked big to me, but one was nice — real nice. Guenot parked his pickup about 500 yards away and out of sight from the elk. Winter grabbed both his bow and his Remington Model 700, and we began the stalk.
Winter, Guenot and Shupe attempted to close in on the bulls’ position. I hung back a little, not wanting to negatively impact the hunt. The bulls were spotted and quickly spotted us. Immediately, very wary, they started to increase their distance from the hunters. Winter abandoned his bow when it became obvious that a bow shot was going to be out of the question.
The huge bull was way out there when Winter placed his Model 700 on the bipod and pointed it toward the elk. His guide whispered, “Shoot. That is a 400-class bull.”
Seconds ticked by, but no shot followed — Winter’s glasses had fogged up, hampering his ability to see. The big bull was nervous and moved farther away down the pipeline.
Glasses cleared — the bull was broadside — and Winter’s 7mm cracked. The 8×9 elk circled and appeared to drop into the frost-covered grass and clover at about 7:55. Then, we saw a bull walk into the woods. Not knowing for sure what had happened, we waited. Shupe replayed the video and all agreed that it looked like a good hit.
Fifteen minutes later, we walked to where we thought that the elk had been standing — no blood, no hair, no elk — and just a little disappointment. As we moved farther along the pipeline, Winter spotted an antler sticking up from a depression. The bull was dead.
Winter’s hit was perfect, and Guenot’s range finder later determined the shot to be 346 yards.
“That was just an incredible shot,” remarked Shupe. “I knew that Steve was excellent with a bow, but I didn’t know that he was so skilled with a rifle.”
At the check station, Winter’s bull green-scored 406-6/8 and weighed 824 pounds — the heaviest elk weighed this year. At the time, Winter’s bull was also the highest-scoring bull, but it was later topped by two other bulls. Josh Fuqua’s 8×9 bull green-scored 418-6/8. Fuqua, from Clymer, Indiana County, killed his bull on the third day of the hunt. The second-highest-scoring bull was taken on Oct. 31, by Donald Newman, of Andreas. It weighed 776 pounds and had an 8-by-9 rack that green-scored 407-2/8 inches — only a half-inch bigger than Winter’s bull.
Although the excitement is over for this year, my memories will be there forever. I, along with over 30,000 others, eagerly look forward to next fall’s hunt and more thrilling experiences in Pennsylvania’s elk country.
