Pa. producing some monster elkTo state it simply and accurately, Pennsylvania has some really large bull elk roaming among the mountains of Elk and Cameron counties.
There are elk present in lower numbers in surrounding areas, but those two are the center of the elk range.
In areas such as Benezette and Winslow Hill attract visitors that come from many miles away to see these majestic animals. This past bear season, John Dino and I saw quite a few big bulls along Route 555 between Weedville and Driftwood.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is proud of its Elk Program and should be. The legalization of a limited hunting season has added elk into the records of big game in the state.
Just a coupe of years ago, I scored a huge non-typical bull elk for Reed Bamberger of Graysville. That bull ended up being the second-largest non-typical elk ever taken in Pennsylvania, scoring 4236/8.
This year, I received a call from Flick's Taxidermy in Somerset asking me to measure a huge bull downed by Jesse Heiple of Somerset. It had a 14 points on the main beam and a small sticker coming off one of the points. The fourth and fifth points on both antlers had webbing between them, which raised some concerns. When I looked at them, however, they were obviously the common base.
This meant they would be measured as normal points.
The 60-day drying period was up, so the final total I got would be the official score.
It wound up being a new state record for a typical, scoring over 400.
Unless I made a mistake in the math - and that does happen - I have now measured the No. 1 typical elk and No. 2 non-typical elk in Pennsylvania history.
http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/block11/01-15-2012-Block
