The 140 hunters who won a Pennsylvania elk hunting license Saturday are now planning their possibly once-in-a-lifetime hunts.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission awarded licenses for 65 antlered and 75 antlerless elk for this year’s three hunting seasons during the Elk Expo in Benezette.
The winners were drawn from a pool of 109,780 applications submitted by 55,778 hunters. Jeremy Banfield, the agency’s elk biologist, provided statistics that show the number is slightly less than last year’s record year total of 111,597 applications from 57,154 hunters. Applications, that cost $11.97, were received from all 50 states for the chance to hunt in northcentral Pennsylvania where more than 1,400 wild elk roam. The oldest person to win a tag this year is 93 and the youngest is 16.
A York County hunter won an elk tag after trying for the past 23 years.
Rex Ruths, 57, of Newberrytown, received a bull elk tag for the general season which runs Nov. 4-9.
“I’ve been putting in for the elk drawing since the start,” he said. Modern elk hunting first started in Pennsylvania in 2001.
“I have never gone to see the elk,” he said about the wild population in northcenral Pennsylvania. “The only elk I have ever seen in Pennsylvania is at the Hershey Zoo.”
However, Ruths is familiar with the large deer. In years past, he had a successful elk hunt in Idaho.
On Saturday, he was at his hunting camp in Potter County when his phone rang and he saw theGame Commission was calling. “I was actually working on turkey calls. I make custom turkey calls,” he said about his business T-Rex Custom Calls.
“I was curious as to why the Game Commission was calling me; I was wondering what I did,” he said. “I totally forgot about the drawing.
“It was unreal when they called and said I finally drew a tag."
Now that he has an elk license, he’s planning to make and use his own elk call.
“I have made elk calls and sent them out west," he said. "I will have to make another elk call to take along. I never really needed one for here, so I never really made one for myself.”
With the challenges of finding a place to hunt and possibly having to process a large bull, Ruths is considering getting a guide to help him.
“If I shot one, how would I get it out of the woods because it’s not like getting a deer out of the woods,” he said.
A mature bull can weigh as much as four large white-tailed bucks.
“I have never been over to see the elk so I don’t even know the areas over there, so I’m kind of leaning towards a guide," he said. "I have to do a lot of research and reading and talking to them and figure some things out. I’m definitely leaning towards a guide.
"For me, this is probably going to be, basically a once in a lifetime thing to hunt a Pennsylvania elk because it will be five years until I actually apply for another tag and it took me 23 years to get the first tag.”
Donnie Matter, 39, of Muir, Schuylkill County, also received a tag for the general bull season.
“The good Lord surprised me,” he said about getting the call and not remembering this was the weekend for the drawing.
“We were at (Lake Tobias Wildlife Park) and my phone kept ringing. It’s weird because I’m not on call this weekend and I’m looking and it’s a random number and then I saw it again and it said PA Game Commission,” Matter said. He still didn’t know if it was a spam call, but the caller left a voicemail and explained the news. “I said to my wife ‘Holy sh**, I just got drawn for an elk tag,’” he said.
Matter then called the Game Commission back and got more details.
“I’m still in disbelief,” he said.
Elk hunting is something Matter has wanted to do for years.
“I started applying when it started and there were some years I did and some years I didn’t. But it’s been pretty consistent the last five or six years that I’ve applied every year,” he said.
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He normally applies for the archery and general season and he's planning on taking his archery gear for the hunt along with his rifle. With the general season overlapping with Pennsylvania’s archery deer season, he may hunt deer if he’s fortunate enough to get an elk early in the week-long season.
“Obviously, the focus is on getting an elk,” he said.
The avid hunter is looking forward to getting back to the commonwealth’s elk range as he estimates it’s been about two decades since he has viewed the wild elk. He’s planning on taking his wife and kids there to check it out and visit a few additional times before hunting season.
He’s discussing his options with various outfitters and his father, who is planning to go along to make sure he makes the most of the rare opportunity.
“I want it to be right. I don’t want there to be any questions," he said. "It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I want it to go well and everyone have a good time."
Elk lottery results
While people have applied from every state, the vast majority of the licenses were won by Pennsylvania residents.
In the drawing for archery season, Sept. 14-28, 14 of the 16 bull tags were won by residents. Hunters from Ohio and New York won the two remaining tags.
For the archery cow drawing, residents won 8 of the 11 tags.Hunters from New Hampshire, Virginia and Florida received the other three.
In the general season, Nov. 4-9, for bulls, 26 of 30 tags went to Pennsylvania residents. Hunters from Michigan, New York and two from Maryland won the other allotted four.
In the general season for cow elk, Pennsylvania hunters received 36 of 38 licenses. One hunter from Ohio and another from Georgia each won one of the remaining tags.
In the late season, Dec. 28-Jan. 4, for bulls, 17 of 19 licenses went to residents. A New Hampshire hunter and one from Florida each got a tag.
For the late season, for antlerless elk, 22 of 26 licenses went to Pennsylvania hunters.Residents from New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maryland got the other tags.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him with questions about the outdoors or story ideas atbwhipkey@gannett.com or 814-444-5928. Follow him on Facebook@whipkeyoutdoors.
