Pennsylvania ELK...

Frank in the Laurels

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Jul 15, 2007
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Our limited opportunity season is about to begin, these elk are all in the non hunting area and are safe... the 1 governors tag was filled last with a 412 incher... I know most of you are this site are westerners and may not be aware of the quality of the bull's that are running around in this state but they are here and in good numbers... not sure what this first one would score but I saw two in the hunting area that dwarfed all of these ones.. too bad the tags are so difficult to get...been applying for 13 years I think and not a sniff.. enjoy these pics...
elkdeer2012015.jpg

elkdeer2012011.jpg
elkdeer2012010.jpg
 
Just like Michigan. We have a nice elk herd here, in the lower upper thumb area but same deal. You can buy a lotto chance for years and not a whiff. In fact, I know of no one who has ever gotten a tag.

No issue with deer tags, Elk, no way....
 
Have applied several times also and NO TAG, if and when you are one of the LUCKY one's to get a tag you have to go to ELK SCHOOL the week before the season begins.
Also most have to have a GUIDE with them to show them the ropes
 
I think it's a government conspiracy in Michigan. Only the Governor and the seated Lansing politicians get tags. Everyone else pays for their chance but gets nothing.

Reminds me of the Ravenna Aresenal in Ravenna, Ohio. I used to live (many years ago) out that way and the Aresenal was full of fantastic deer that only Ohio politicians could hunt. No citizens allowed.

It's all BS.
 
SIDECAR....that makes me laugh because I finally drew a Ravenna Arsenal tag last season after applying for a dozen of more years... I was so excited that I darn near crappolaed my pants... about two weeks before the hunt I was notified that the first hunt of the season would be for antlerless deer!!!!!!!!!! I was so peoded that I didn't even go..imagine after twelve years telling me I had to shoot a doe!!!
 
Must be that the newest crop of politicians are anti-hunting because back when I lived out there, there was no way any tags ever got issued, or maybe there are still enough politician/hunters that the bucks ar all spoken for ahead of time but to 'keep the peace', citizens can pull an anterless tag ocassionally.

Myself, I'd rather have a doe because it winds up in the freezer anyway and does are more palitable (not as gamey), the meat texture is finer and my wife won't allow me to put mounts on the wall.......

They (big bucks) used to stand at the fence and look out, I mean monsters....

I bet the same thing goes on over at Harrisburg at the government installation north of TMI off the pike.

I would have used the doe tag anyway..... just me.
 
My family has a camp just outside the Quehanna Wild Area in Elk County. I used to go up and watch the elk when I lived in State College. You are right there are some real toads up there! I loved seeing them.
The thing is, most of them are pretty much tame pets that can be approached without them spooking too bad. If PGC were to issue so many tags that it wasn't hard to draw one, the elk populations would drop to critical levels because it would be like a repeat of the buffalo shoots on the great plains.

By the way, great pictures OP!
 
They've gotten a lot more spread out over the last 12 years of hunting and are pretty wild since the bullets started flying!! The ones around the visitor center are still tame to some extent but thats a no hunting area...yes, any easterner would have to travel some distance to listen to them..I usually go up three or four times a year to spend the day with them..
 
My family has a camp just outside the Quehanna Wild Area in Elk County. I used to go up and watch the elk when I lived in State College. You are right there are some real toads up there! I loved seeing them.
The thing is, most of them are pretty much tame pets that can be approached without them spooking too bad. If PGC were to issue so many tags that it wasn't hard to draw one, the elk populations would drop to critical levels because it would be like a repeat of the buffalo shoots on the great plains.

By the way, great pictures OP!

you might be surprised to know many of us in that area think that would be a
good idea. who invited them anyway? were any hunters asked wether drasticly reducing the deer herd while drasticly increasing the elk herd to promote a tourist industry was ok with them? 25 years ago we were told that area could no longer sustain a large deer herd. but what we werent told was
about the plan they had for the elk.
 
They've gotten a lot more spread out over the last 12 years of hunting and are pretty wild since the bullets started flying!! The ones around the visitor center are still tame to some extent but thats a no hunting area...yes, any easterner would have to travel some distance to listen to them..I usually go up three or four times a year to spend the day with them..

frank you are correct in that they are more spread out. but you are wrong about them being wild. 20 years ago it would have been rare to see one in
the driftwood area. today a herd of 30 or more in a yard eating grass is a common occurance. very few bullets fly at them believe me on that. next time
your up that way stop at a few deer camps and get their take on the situation.
 
Yoooo, you are correct, the ones that feed in the various towns are tame, they seem to like the freshly cut grass in peoples yards. I saw three bull's in medix run last week feeding like cows and all of them were over 350 inches. HOWEVER, getting back off the roads in the hunting areas year round is a different story. Any little puff of scent and they are gone..I've tried to get photos off the road and out of town and haven't had much luck over the last few years.. in my opinion they are getting a lot more weary of humans, problem is visitors see only the ones in the towns and near visitor areas and they are darn near tame. I'd like to see them transfer a lot of them to the new game lands in southern clearfield co. it's about 15'000 acres and a lot of grasses over reclaimed strip lands.. maybe the townies could be trapped and transferred into this area but of course that would require the pgc to do something other than write fines.. Anyway, I always enjoy watching them and mainly listening to them, to my surprise they are still bugling.. Here's a link to a video I shot last week in a visitor area.. seems like the pgc planted something they like in this field.
http://http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v209/Frank_Litavish/?action=view&current=elkdeer2012019.mp4
 
well frank you may be aware that area is also extremly popular with long range hunters. all of that is done there using large tripod mounted binnoculars.
trust me when i say there are no remote areas that arent hunted in that manner. if you want to see elk go back to town.
its true they are attempting to get the elk into those areas.
they are creating large food plots which is something they never thought about for the deer. the vast majority of back dirt roads and all of the many pipelines in the area have been gated. got to keep at least most hunters out so as not to disturb the elk. quehanna is 50 000 plus acres. thats a helluva lot more than the 15 000 acre ex strip mines your referring to. did you know the area of the visitor center had been strip mines also?
in the early 50s the corrupt pa. polititions thought it would be ok to chase over 300 camps off the area now known as quehanna. our camp was included in that. then they turned it over to a private corporation for the purpose of developing jet enjines. curtis wright aircraft. the whole area including over 75
miles of pristine trout streams was completly fenced off and all access blocked to the taxpayers. who by the way still owned the land. they did alot more than test jet enjines there as it turned out. after about 5 years guess what, the whole thing went capoot. another good government idea gone sour.
so thats how quehanna came to be. the quehanna highway from karthaus to medix run had been a dirt road up till that point. same as the caldonia pike from frenchville to caldonia still is. some of the old camps are still along that road as you get nearer to medix run and beyond what had been stolen.
now theyve come up with another good idea.
shoot off most of the deer, gate the area off (again) and promote it as a tourist area for guys like frank to go see some elk.
sorry frank i can feel your excitment over seeing and hearing those elk.
the first elk i ever saw was in yellowstone in the early 70s.
now i have to be carefull where i step in my own yard.
the price for that is too high in the minds of many of us.
 
My good friend leaves tomorrow to get to camp. He pulled a bull tag and will be hunting next week. I hope he brings down one of those crazy monsters that we have seen!
 
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