Drew one of the rare Oklahoma Elk Tags...Help..

[RioHondoHank]

Congrats to both of you. My buddy that had a cow only tag came up empty. He was hunting area H in the far NW corner of the refuge. I hunted area B last year and had my cow by 8:00 am the first day.

 

[DanMan]

Great going on the bull! I am sure that the biologist were very excited to see a harvest on a 18 year old bull. What kind of shape were the ivories in?

 

[Flintlock]

RioHondoHank, Thanks, it seemed to be the same this year in the units that were farther to the NW. The guys and gals that were in units I & F were having trouble finding cows or bulls. Some of them got moved that had bull tags to unit E & G the last day. A few filled their tags and some missed shots. Unit B had a good percentage taken of the tags in that unit.
I liked the unit C were I was taken. I chose the Western part of the unit on the scouting trip in Wild Horse Canyon. I hunted hard all day and saw maybe 10-12 cows and most were in shooting range. I never saw a bull. I glassed for hours from higher points. The driver asked me after pickup the first day what I saw and I told him cows only. He asked if I would like to trade spots with a gentleman that had been hunting the NE part of C and had only seen bulls. I traded spots and took my bull and he shot a cow within 10 min. after shooting light, right from the rock I told him to set against. His cow slide down to the flat area and they backed a truck right up to the cow and winched it into the back of the truck.


DanMan, the ivories were pretty worn. I can get a photos. They are much flatter than normal and have truned brown which can probably be cleaned off.
This bull had just about used up all of its jaw teeth. They were worn so bad the bottom front teeth had started to wear a grove in the roof of his mouth and the nose is a little deformed from this the guys at the check station told me. I may have to tenderize the hamburger one guy joked.
I'm still stiff in my joints a little but it is a good soreness. I found a person to do a European mount for a decent amount just to say he has done a Elk for the first time. He has the beetles for the cleaning.

Mike

 

[Flintlock]

Well, one more of my buddies, KC Kreger, drew a cow tag in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma Elk Hunt. Again, this is a once in a lifetime hunt. I visited with him a couple of weeks back on a bow hunt in southern Oklahoma. I told him that if he shot a elk I would drive down to the hunting area and help him pack it to the road. I live about 2.5 hours from the hunting area. He called me on Wednesday night. He has shot one and was needing some help bad. He told me where he was when he shot. I have a map of all of the hunting areas and found the area. He said the shot was about 300-305 according to the range finder with a 7mm Unltra Mag.
He has a bad shoulder that he was supposed to have cut on a month back but wanted to wait until the hunt. He also has a bad back. I told him I would take off work, meet him and another helper for some breakfast and then meet him at the place where we had to ride into the hunting area. This is all Federal land, and you at shuttled to and from your hunting spot.
We walked in about 1/2 mile, took off our heavy cold weather gear and started climbing rocks the size of Volkswagens. After an hour we found the elk, almost frozen but not touched by varmints. I told my buddy that the elk was so hard to get to she might have been born on that flat spot and lived its whole life there.
Got some photos and quartered the cow, boned out all the meat we could, loaded the packs and made the trip down and to the road in about 2 hours.
This was his first elk hunt. He had a great time.