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His elk one for record book
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By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff writer
Concealed by a tree trunk in a forest near Hazard, Craig Wheeler watched as the massive elk — drawn by bugle calls and thinking another bull had invaded his home grounds — moved closer and closer.
It stopped just 10 yards away.
The Burlington man had killed elk before, but this trip was different.
He was armed with a bow and arrow, not a rifle, and instead of being out West, he was in his home state. As the elk searched the woods, Wheeler waited, knowing that to step out and draw his bow was to give himself away.
Finally, as the elk turned to leave, Wheeler drew — blew a mouth-held elk cow call to freeze the bull — and released an arrow.
The result was a trophy — a 785-pound animal with a 288-point, 6-by-7 rack that will make the national Pope and Young Club's record books. But even more so, it was a major step in one of the most successful game reintroduction programs in the nation.
Just five years ago, Kentucky began moving elk to its forests, and because the program is ahead of schedule, the state now has the largest herd of elk in the eastern United States. Large enough that in 2001, the Kentucky Department for Fish and Wildlife Resources allowed the first bull elk hunt in modern times.
This year, six hunters won the right to try to kill an elk in last weekend's hunt in southeastern Kentucky, and Wheeler was one of them.
At 288 points, the antlers of the elk he killed was just shy of the state record of 294 set last year.
Wheeler's was the first bull killed this year, the only one taken with a bow and arrow.
Wheeler had killed three others with a rifle on trips to the West, where he met Jackson Hole, Wyo., resident Don Wackerman. Wackerman accompanied him on last weekend's hunt, as did Frank Allen of Florence.
From the top of a ridge in the Addington Wildlife Management Area near Hazard, they heard three bulls bugling in the valleys below. About 30 yards behind Wheeler, Wackerman blew a horn to imitate a bull's call, hoping to fool a bull into thinking another male was invading his turf.
As Wheeler hid behind a tree, a bull sidled up to just 10 yards from him — so close he couldn't draw his bow for fear of scaring it.
The bull turned to leave, and Wheeler blew on a female elk call he had in his mouth, stopping the bull. As Wackerman bugled again, Wheeler drew his bow. The elk stepped forward, giving Wheeler a clear shot.
"I felt pretty good after I hit him. I knew it was a good hit," he said.
Shot through the heart and both lungs, the elk moved forward about 40 yards and dropped dead.
Five hunters took bulls Saturday, and the sixth got one on Sunday. Four of the hunters won their permits to hunt in a lottery, which more than 4,000 hunters paid $10 apiece to participate in.
Six more hunters will hunt female elk in December.
"I don't know why more hunters don't put in for the elk draw," Wheeler said. "It's amazing, all the hard work and stuff they've done to bring this herd back."
Elk originally inhabited all the lower 48 states except for Florida, but were driven out of Kentucky by the mid-1800s through over-hunting.
In 1996, the state began to look at bringing free-roaming wild elk back. The fish and wildlife department found about 2.6 million acres of suitable habitat in a 14-county area of southeastern Kentucky.
The first seven elk, imports from Kansas, were released in Kentucky in December 1997. The state originally planned to release 200 elk a year for nine years, but natural reproduction has grown the herd so well that this year, the department decided it didn't need any more, Kentucky Forest Systems Program Coordinator Jonathan Day said.
"We put ourselves way ahead of our goal," Day said.
The goal is to have a herd of 7,400, Day said, and with the present herd at 2,300, he thinks that goal will be reached within 10 years.
The program has cost the state very little, Day said, because private groups such as the Shikar-Safari Club have paid for the elk importations. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation alone has contributed $1.1 million to the project, he said.
Allen and his wife, Anita, have started a Northern Kentucky chapter of the foundation called the Land Between the States chapter, and have set up an Internet site at www.rmefnky.org.
When the elk program began, the department estimated that by the time the herd was established, elk hunters would have contributed about $12 million annually to the eastern Kentucky economy, with tourists drawn by the animals contributing another $12 million annually.
That's based on studies in Pennsylvania, which also successfully re-introduced elk within its borders. Day said Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan have also re-introduced the animal.
Next hunting season, Kentucky plans to allow licensed deer hunters to take elk that range beyond a 10-county buffer zone that surrounds their 14-county range.
"We don't want them out of that area," Day said. "If they — get into an agricultural area, it could be a disaster. The farmers and those folks, they can't handle it."
The department has had some problems already with elk wandering onto golf courses or into vegetable gardens, Day said. Some have had to be driven off with noisemakers.
"A lot of it is prevention," Day said. "A big part of it is creating a suitable habitat."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff writer
Concealed by a tree trunk in a forest near Hazard, Craig Wheeler watched as the massive elk — drawn by bugle calls and thinking another bull had invaded his home grounds — moved closer and closer.
It stopped just 10 yards away.
The Burlington man had killed elk before, but this trip was different.
He was armed with a bow and arrow, not a rifle, and instead of being out West, he was in his home state. As the elk searched the woods, Wheeler waited, knowing that to step out and draw his bow was to give himself away.
Finally, as the elk turned to leave, Wheeler drew — blew a mouth-held elk cow call to freeze the bull — and released an arrow.
The result was a trophy — a 785-pound animal with a 288-point, 6-by-7 rack that will make the national Pope and Young Club's record books. But even more so, it was a major step in one of the most successful game reintroduction programs in the nation.
Just five years ago, Kentucky began moving elk to its forests, and because the program is ahead of schedule, the state now has the largest herd of elk in the eastern United States. Large enough that in 2001, the Kentucky Department for Fish and Wildlife Resources allowed the first bull elk hunt in modern times.
This year, six hunters won the right to try to kill an elk in last weekend's hunt in southeastern Kentucky, and Wheeler was one of them.
At 288 points, the antlers of the elk he killed was just shy of the state record of 294 set last year.
Wheeler's was the first bull killed this year, the only one taken with a bow and arrow.
Wheeler had killed three others with a rifle on trips to the West, where he met Jackson Hole, Wyo., resident Don Wackerman. Wackerman accompanied him on last weekend's hunt, as did Frank Allen of Florence.
From the top of a ridge in the Addington Wildlife Management Area near Hazard, they heard three bulls bugling in the valleys below. About 30 yards behind Wheeler, Wackerman blew a horn to imitate a bull's call, hoping to fool a bull into thinking another male was invading his turf.
As Wheeler hid behind a tree, a bull sidled up to just 10 yards from him — so close he couldn't draw his bow for fear of scaring it.
The bull turned to leave, and Wheeler blew on a female elk call he had in his mouth, stopping the bull. As Wackerman bugled again, Wheeler drew his bow. The elk stepped forward, giving Wheeler a clear shot.
"I felt pretty good after I hit him. I knew it was a good hit," he said.
Shot through the heart and both lungs, the elk moved forward about 40 yards and dropped dead.
Five hunters took bulls Saturday, and the sixth got one on Sunday. Four of the hunters won their permits to hunt in a lottery, which more than 4,000 hunters paid $10 apiece to participate in.
Six more hunters will hunt female elk in December.
"I don't know why more hunters don't put in for the elk draw," Wheeler said. "It's amazing, all the hard work and stuff they've done to bring this herd back."
Elk originally inhabited all the lower 48 states except for Florida, but were driven out of Kentucky by the mid-1800s through over-hunting.
In 1996, the state began to look at bringing free-roaming wild elk back. The fish and wildlife department found about 2.6 million acres of suitable habitat in a 14-county area of southeastern Kentucky.
The first seven elk, imports from Kansas, were released in Kentucky in December 1997. The state originally planned to release 200 elk a year for nine years, but natural reproduction has grown the herd so well that this year, the department decided it didn't need any more, Kentucky Forest Systems Program Coordinator Jonathan Day said.
"We put ourselves way ahead of our goal," Day said.
The goal is to have a herd of 7,400, Day said, and with the present herd at 2,300, he thinks that goal will be reached within 10 years.
The program has cost the state very little, Day said, because private groups such as the Shikar-Safari Club have paid for the elk importations. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation alone has contributed $1.1 million to the project, he said.
Allen and his wife, Anita, have started a Northern Kentucky chapter of the foundation called the Land Between the States chapter, and have set up an Internet site at www.rmefnky.org.
When the elk program began, the department estimated that by the time the herd was established, elk hunters would have contributed about $12 million annually to the eastern Kentucky economy, with tourists drawn by the animals contributing another $12 million annually.
That's based on studies in Pennsylvania, which also successfully re-introduced elk within its borders. Day said Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan have also re-introduced the animal.
Next hunting season, Kentucky plans to allow licensed deer hunters to take elk that range beyond a 10-county buffer zone that surrounds their 14-county range.
"We don't want them out of that area," Day said. "If they — get into an agricultural area, it could be a disaster. The farmers and those folks, they can't handle it."
The department has had some problems already with elk wandering onto golf courses or into vegetable gardens, Day said. Some have had to be driven off with noisemakers.
"A lot of it is prevention," Day said. "A big part of it is creating a suitable habitat."
