This 455-Inch Pennsylvania Elk Might Be the New State Record

https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting...sZ9iWS4KdkYboREUq2WZgnMRwPLg1tPtrfOETR_4

Incredible!

Seems they have a lot of 400 class elk

Very nice.

I hate to say it but…. How long before they introduce wolves back there.?

holy Chit..... Bigger than the bulls that run loose on the former golf course I live off of....

we do, a big part of that reason is a very very limited season which results in high maturity rate. along alot of our elk country being farm land

very unlikely. our elk herd is the pride and Joy of the Pa Game Commission, and a large portion of the population..hunters and non hunters alike
the PGC is a stand alone agency, with very very little imput from the state legislature. the commission answers to sportsmen, and it is self funded with no tax money from the General assembly.


if they did we would just shoot them and pay no attention to any federal or state alw barring that activity

Easy winters no predators flat farm land

Damn!

its farm land, partialy, but it aint flat where the Elk are

Elkzilla!!
😳😳😳

WOW!

years of good solid work by Pa. game commission....

I have to wonder about the genetics of an elk like that. Where did it come from? That looks like the results of a high fence breeding operation. Did PA introduce all wild elk or did they get some from breeders?

I lived and hunted the hills in PA It’s flat compared to mountain states. I’m hunting elk this week at 7200 now in E Idaho. Seen 3 bears so far. one grizz and hearing wolves at night

Pluse zero hunting pressure. Basically farmed elk. Carry on

Holy Moly --- what a monster

Pa's elk re introduction started in the early 1900s from wild stock captured in Wyoming.

we have a very very limited hunting season. i think this year there were only like 75 tags total issued. they are not high fence or game farm elk at all. they live and eat in mountainous farm country with Corn, soybeans and alfalfa being major crops

https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/WildlifeSpecies/Elk/Pages/HistoryofElkinPA.aspx

Thanks. I was just curious. Quite possibly we never see bulls like that in the west because they get shot too soon. Game farms with controlled breeding can produce them, though.

That’s an incredible trophy, I would never get tired of looking at that, gonna make a great mount.

Dayom. Like my state record muley. Third biggest desert muley ever recorded killed by a cracker at the time.

Yeah, nice conversation piece for sure.

Massive elk

Big mo fo for sure. Spectacular rack!

Thats bigger than those tame farmed elkes they sell in Canada.

Yeah, the land ain't flat and I wouldn't exactly call the Winters easy.

ribka;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope you've got your long johns on this morning if you're at 7200'!

I was up looking to see what was where after our crazy fire season yesterday morning and it was just +2 C, which I was dressed for, but not mentally prepared enough to experience quite yet!

That's a buster bull for sure and I really love the crowns on top.

The Manitoba subspecies we had on the prairies would do that in some areas, it seemed like a bit of a regional thing out there. The Roosevelt subspecies on Vancouver Island will do that too, but again they're a different subset of genes being on the Island and all.

We do have some decent bulls taken in the Okanagan, but I don't ever recall seeing anything other than typical racks. Of course we're limited to minimum 6 point bulls and I did find a herd that seemingly produced outsize 5x4 mature bulls.... I'm lucky that way.

Thanks to the OP for posting the photo.

Good luck on your hunt ribka and do keep warm!

Dwayne

Looks like it has red deer genes up top. That bull is giant for sure.

https://youtu.be/5sQ_0oL1ubA


here is a realy good video presentation on the History of our Elk

Damn. What a MONSTER!

Joken2: Holey moley!
That IS a monster Bull!
Good for that eastern Hunter.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
P.S.: Indeed the fact that there are no large packs of Wolves in Pennsylvania is definitely a plus for growing (allowing to grow/age!) trophies like that.

Genetics well selected back when, good feed, limited hunting. Voila !!

Beautiful bull.

I believe there's a very small population of Red wolves in some of the eastern coastal states. Red wolves are larger than coyotes but smaller than grey wolves. They are listed as an endangered species so not anywhere near enough of them to be a concern as a threat to healthy mature deer or elk populations. I'd imagine, though, they could and likely would take down whitetail fawns and an occasional elk calve.

Back around the late '80s - early '90s KY's F&G was going to try to reestablish Red Wolves in the "Land Between The Lakes" preserve but were met with many objections from surrounding property owners who feared they would eventually stray off the preserve and become a threat to livestock, pets and possibly humans. F&G and game couldn't guarantee they could keep them contained on the preserve and finally just gave up and dropped the whole restock plan.

Flat. LMFAO

Haha! Yeah. That's a good one...

Oh man! 😁

He was hunting in the eastern end of elk range
But he's from Bellingham WA...

Awesome bull!

And the west had many decades to produce bucks and bulls without predation from wolves. By far, IME, the majority of really big western deer and elk always came from private or reservation land. Or at least from the mid 70s onward.

Too cool. Wish we had them here.

Easy winters? Flat? Guess you arent from here lol

Whoa! That’s a hell of an animal!

My 25 min drive home from work is over 1500 ft elevation climb and in the winter, absolutely sucks azz. Often enough during the winter its hard for me to find a mountain road open to get home. Pretty sure you have not explored much of this area

It’s got to be kinda surreal to spend a week deciding which 400+ inch bull to kill, after looking at them in a outfitters photo album.

PA grows ‘em big, no doubt.

Honestly, the dude was an out of stater which kind of pisses me off. The tags are so limited here, the game commission should not be allowing anyone who isnt a pa resident to hunt these monsters

Don’t blame you. Was just looking and it seems only 36ish bull tags available? At least one is raffled off, as the fella in the OP won.

6 raffle tickets for $100. I wonder how many they sold, how much money they raised?

The PA Game Commission already introduced wolves from out west into the state. They even traded PA wild turkeys for them.

They won’t admit it, but it happened.

that hunter won that tag from the KECA raffle, it was one of the Governor's tags. the other one will get Raffled off at RMEF..i do how ever agree with you that general draw tickets SHOULD NOT go to Non residents. I am sitting on 18 points

having been born and reared in PA, and knowing the state well, it did cause a chuckle when reading the comments about flat land and easy winters. A bull with a rack like that is the result of some factors - and I always have felt that limestone in the soil is additive to impressive racks on deer and elk in some parts of PA. I can't gauge the body very well in that photo, but it does not look especially large in comparison to our big bulls in NM high country. However, that rack - very impressive. Love it.

That was my first impression also.

There are "hills" in that country that will test one that is in shape....Nor are the winters usually easy in Cameron, Clinton and Potter...

The dirty secret is that Pa Elk are a public attraction...that Elk most likely had frequent human contact....

Really...now where did you hear that?

Is his headgear too big to get up? Dont see any blood, Is it archery season?

I hear they're using them to spread Covid

Hell of an Elk. We were up in Ridgeway last month to shoot the silhouette smalbore nationals and promised ourselves we stay a couple days extra next year and fish and go see if we can find some elk. Pretty country.

Some of the "Flatlander" Pa Elk country.....


https://pabucketlist.com/the-20-best-scenic-overlooks-in-pa-elk-country/


Easy Winters...

https://www.lockhaven.com/news/loca...ssive-amounts-of-snow-on-clinton-centre/

And another non Elk secret of the area.....

https://cherryspringsstatepark.com/stargazing/

Go to Benezette and you will find Elk....

I don't have a pic, but there was a monster bull taken this month in the archery season.

Crazy bull.

Very close to where I was born and raised.

Absolutely correct on all points there are some really nice bulls thanks to the easy living. As to the wolf thing you are spot on.

Oh got yam didnt see that

wow!Is th hunter named Attila?

(guess you ran out of title characters...)

I've been buying points for years too, but at the non-resident rate.

you can see bulls about that size in peoples backyards in bennezette. i should start applying for a permit. never did. thats one thing i wouldn't mind hunting. and eating. elk is my favorite wild game.

If the bull in pictured with this topic were taken in such conditions, it would not seem like much of a hunt at all - more a matter of big rack, tiny hunt. Are the actual conditions known?

Bull near camp. Credit Chris Calhoun

.

I acquired 10 points then moved out of state, I’m kind of glad I can keep building points. Do I think I’ll ever get drawn either way? Nope.

give me a shout next time.im not all that far away

ya, but you have a beave that lets you take him...while Elk hunting

Yeah he's never laid eyes on Clinton, Cameron, and Elk Counties. Thats for sure

I’m born and raised hunting the hills in Pa, as much as I love it and do consider those hills challenging, Idaho it ain’t.

🤣 LMFAO!

Definitely. Some rough areas for sure.

Please tell me more. I've hunted north of I-80 in PA my entire life and never yet saw a Wolf or Wolf track

No wolves in PA. Period. Where do people get this schit?!?!?

WOW! Nice Bull!

For sure not comparing. My brother lives in montana amd ive spent time in the rockies with him. Much bigger. They still suck here lol

Whoa, calcium gone wild.

😝🦫

I don't know what this means.

Nice bull. Anyway you look at it and anywhere it was taken given fair chase. Not sure I've even seen anything near that in Unit 10 AZ. Or the White Mountains on the Rez. 400's yeah, but not like that one.

"Flat", I do believe, is a relative term. First time I lived in PA in '79, I ran with some other young folks, one of whom had a cabin "in the mountains". We left town, drove for a little while, then topped out on a ridge. First thing I asked when getting out of the car to drink some of the keg was "Where's the mountains?" I had hills that tall in our neighborhood in SoCal.

Then two years in NW PA in '99 and '00 and I found out there are some steep places, but no real mountains. So, yep, not flat perhaps, but flatter than a whole lot of places. All relative as I mentioned.

Someone mentioned a 1500' rise in their 25 mile drive home. By the crow flying, about 5 miles from where I sit typing, there's a "butte" (not even called a mountain here) that's +/- 2000 feet in elevation higher than where our property is. It would take me about 10 miles driving, going around the ridge behind our place, to get there, so much less flat than a 1500' rise in 25 miles. If I went the other direction, 25 miles straight over the hills and valleys, I could get to a mountain 5500' higher than our property. To get to the top I'd have to walk as it's in a wilderness though.

Now realize, we live at 1200' feet higher than the highest point in all of PA, so flat looks different to us.

It's all relative. Folks in SE AK, and parts of the Rockies think the county where I live is "flat". Compared to there, it is.

And you won the Smartest Man on the Campfire last year?


Beaver, something smells rotten around here, and the wind isn't blowing from Denmark.

PA elk is about as close as you get to a Texas style pet herd without high fences and broadcast feeders.

Technically they are wild animals and not livestock. But in the same vein as Yellowstone bison herds.

Here we go...

Beans.

No Beans.

I guess I never thought of Pennsylvania as being steep.. isn't the highest point in the state about 3,000 ft? Shoot, we have volcanoes here that are over 11,000.. and a river gorge that is 2500 ft deep.
But that IS a hell of an animal.
And I like beans.

3213' Mt Davis

As for steep (not flat) there are actually some very nice canyons there. And climbing up to the Allegheny Plateau from the river bottom can be a bit of a workout .

But, as a couple of folks familiar with the place mentioned already. It ain't ID, MT, or CA, or OR, etc.

I've never been to PA so I won't comment on the "flatness" of its elk country, but this 1500 vertical foot statement is a bit surprising to me.....that's just a Monday morning mule deer hunt. I had friends who dropped about that much elevation on the 5 mile drive to high school each morning.

OK, maybe it was more like 7-8 miles but most of the descent was on a fairly short part of the drive, then on the flat valley bottom into town. They didn't even live in the good elk country. Had to go higher yet.

Incredible size of the bull in the OP, regardless of the circumstances.

...when I was a kid, I had to walk to school. It was up hill both ways...

No doubt there are actual wild elk in Pennsylvania that can be difficult to hunt.

But these big massive bulls are not likely any of those.

These are private land pets.

This particular outfitter has a history of violations which include using a motor vehicle to locate elk, shooting on or across highways, shooting at the elk after alighting from a vehicle while being within 25 yards of the traveled portion of the roadway and so on.

They are closely scrutinized by local authorities due to their tactics and as a result, complaints.

Near-by land owners claim to hand feed apples to theses big bulls.

This outfitter has gained the rights to "hunt" on some local private land, enough cash and you can get anything.

The 2019 Keystone Elk Country Alliance raffle ticket hunt went something like this.

Elk County Outfitters would call Prentiss (the 2019 raffle tag winner) when a large bull had been scouted.

The call came on Sept. 11 — a massive bull had been located. Prentiss made the 90-minute drive from his home in Lycoming County into the elk range.

Big elk hunt coming, they got me a trophy bull standing in someone's apple orchard.

He hunted with guides and a videographer from TomBob Outdoors that evening and the following day. Then, on the morning of Sept. 13, they relocated the trophy bull on private property.

The luck continued. According to Elk County Outfitters, Prentiss made a 136-yard shot with his 6.5 Creedmoor and hit the elk a second time at 175 yards. The bull was down at 7:20. Its large antlers were gross green scored at 458 inches. Prentiss had a big supply of meat and the trophy of a lifetime, or so he thought.

Video confiscated, multiple violations discovered.

Elk hunter and guides found guilty on most charges in Clearfield County

It should be noted that, in 2015, a different Elk County Outfitters guide and hunter were charged with similar offenses.

I doubt they'd raffle off a tag like this if there wasn't some public lands to hunt within the region, but to bust a world class bull like one of these I suppose a guy has to do what he has to do.

Some need to hike up some of that country…..they would get a better appreciation of “hills”. How high and how steep a place may be….can be two different things. Mountain Laurel can add another interesting twist.

Most soon learn the wise move is to kill your Deer above camp.

Bringing a Deer out thru Mountain Laurel on flat ground is something most don’t want to do twice.

Even better may be parts of West Virginia.😂

Been on two Mountain Goat hunts and wondered around the Bob three times….New Mexico a couple times….and have a comparative appreciation for country that is difficult to get around in.

One could make a Pa Elk hunt as hard or difficult as they want and your abilities to do so...No restrictions on having to have a local guide....and nothing to stop one from going back in on their own, killing one and bringing it out in pieces. Years ago, I ran into some back in and they were on alert and spooky.

Also been on a New Mexico ranch were they acted little different than some you may cross paths with here.

Friend drew a Maine Moose tag and daily received mail from local outfitters. He wanted to go on his own. Him, his Girlfriend, Dad and I went to Maine. A stop at LL Bean was advantageous, because they went and introduced us to a sales guy who knew his draw area and gave him some spots to checkout on the map.

His Dad and I hunted Grouse while he and the GF scouted for a week. First morning we all went Moose hunting...He called one in and we brought it out. The locals thought it odd.

If a person has fair-chase hunted, bagged and hauled out big elk bulls deep into public land in the West, the comparison with this PA event is striking. On occasion, we bag some really big racks out this way, but that one is really impressive.

Or even Tule.

Love those crowns for sure.