Elk Hunt in Texas

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by DonDuck

I saw a pickup driving south on I-35 from Oklahoma to Texas yesterday with a huge rack in the back. The tines extending out over both sides of the bed. He was probably returning from Colorado or Wyoming.

He also could have been military. There are some really amazing elk on Fort Sill and this is probably archery season.
I think their’s migrated from the Wichita Mountain Refuge, where they were put in the 1920s and are Rocky Mountain elk.

[DonDuck]

I spent a lot of time in Oklahoma including on and around Fort Sill. I've never seen the Elk there.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by DonDuck

I spent a lot of time in Oklahoma including on and around Fort Sill. I've never seen the Elk there.

They transplanted some to South Eastern Oklahoma where I lived and we had them on our place.
I have no idea what became of them maybe poachers.

[JRinPA]

Elk are pretty defenseless from man without mountains to hide in. They were extirpated from PA long, long ago by clearing for farmland and raising fences...they're too big to hide and they park up over winter. Not very adaptable like whitetails are.

There is a reseeded herd that is highly controlled up in the big woods, Elk County, PA. The herd is around a 1000 by now. They started hunter culling them maybe 20 years back, so each year residents can apply for a lottery draw. Maybe non-residents too, I don't know. The success rate for the hunt is near 100%, easiest elk hunt in the country I would imagine. I have no idea the size they get to be...it never really interested me, and it is likely a six-hour drive. Gas here has not been down close to two dollars but one time in the last ten years that I recall. I can't afford to be anything but a local hunter.

[DonDuck]

I'm no longer a hunter, but like Worth; I was a cull hunter. I've never had any interest in trophy's. Spike deer and trophy deer taste the same and cull hunting improves the herd. Trophy hunting removes the best genetics from the genetic pool.


I was always so happy to see moose and large brown bears in Colorado. I still haven't seen a wild gray wolf, but I continue to hope. The various wildlife departments are doing a good job with reintroduction's.

[JRinPA]

@rnewste, did your son have that elk scored? What did he kill it with? Did you he ship you any meat? I've never eaten elk. I've read, depending on the author, that pronghorn is either the worst/toughest meat, or the best, but I've never had that either. I talked to a guy last year with mule deer. Four of them came back with I think 3 mulies. He said it was terrible compared to whitetail. They were having sausage made.

@Don, I didn't mean cull in that way, just herd reduction. Looks like there 142 tags spread across 14 zones this year. Talk about tightly regulated. You can pay into the lottery each year and build pref points...if you are picked you get the opportunity to pay more for a tag. If you draw one of the 32 antlered tags then you can't apply again for 5 years. That kind of spreads it around which is nice, but I honestly think it should be 10 years antlered and 5 years for antlerless as well, if I understand those numbers. 142 tags a year for a million licensed hunters? They have a real racket going at $11.90 per lottery ticket. On second thought, yeah, that sounds just right for PA!

But yeah, I am a meat hunter. Antlers are nice but you can't eat them. Some of my best memories are the smaller racks or does. Mostly though, I hunt birds, me and the dogs.

I do think the best thing to do for genetics is protect the trophy bucks, but it would never, ever work here. In fact for nearly 20 years, we do just the opposite in PA - our game commission protects the spikes and forkhorns that DON'T develop a nice rack at 1-1/2 yo. A legal buck must have a minimum 3 or 4 points a side (by region). So, the good genetic 6 and 8 point 1-1/2 yo deer are perfectly legal to kill while they are young and dumb. I have seen many young 7pt basket racks killed. Meanwhile, some of those scrub bucks may never be legal, but are protected to breed each year they fail to achieve big enough antlers, no matter the body size or age.

The first year with antler restrictions I passed on a possible 6 pt in archery I wasn't sure about...I couldn't tell at 12 yards so I never even bent my recurve. I passed on multiple spikes and forkhorns that were clearly protected. Ended up killing a nice 8pt in rifle season. He was 20 yards in trail of a hot doe and oblivious to me with a rifle 50 yards away. A few days later I was back in that same area on stillhunting on fresh snow and killed a doe, very possibly the same one, bedded alone with a buck under a pine. That buck she had sequestered? A 6" spike. Probably had been scoped out and passed on fifteen times that year, but allowed to live to breed due to the antler restrictions.

[ddsack]

I talked to a guy last year with mule deer. Four of them came back with I think 3 mulies. He said it was terrible compared to whitetail. They were having sausage made.

I think you are what you eat! My husband came back from Montana with a mule deer once, and the sage taste in the meat was extremely strong. I can see why you would make it into sausage. I could partially disguise the ground meat in spicy tomato and spaghetti sauce type of dishes, but the larger roasts and chops tasted really strong and he has no desire to bag another one. The whitetail deer we get around here have access to corn and alfalfa fields between woodlands. They taste great. We actually prefer venison to beef, which tastes too fatty to us now.

[rnewste]

JR,


My son hunts for the meat - not for any trophy. He said it was a single clean shot through the lungs. Regarding his rifle, I am not sure of the caliber. I think it may have been the same rifle in this hunt a few years ago:




Perhaps you may recognize it.


Regarding the meat, he eats EVERYTHING, and is really looking forward to Elk Liver. After a diet of Bison or Elk, he really has a hard digestive time eating store bought beef afterwards.

Raybo

[JRinPA]

I agree about beef, and I think you may be right about the sage. Although truthfully, he didn't say terrible. He said "ahheehh", scrunched his face up and shook his head. Terrible was my translation, and maybe too strong of one. That guy also said pronghorn was okay, better than mule deer, which I was surprised to hear at the time.

An elk liver must be huge. We eat deer liver right away the first night, or freeze it to later dehydrate for dog treats. The younger ones are better, and I don't think it holds up well in the freezer.

[Worth1]

Looks like Ruger Model 77 checkering on the stock.

[DonDuck]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Looks like Ruger Model 77 checkering on the stock.

Mine is a Ruger chambered in 270 and my wife's is a 243 Ruger. My favorite to shoot is the 243, but I use the 270 most of the time (when I still hunted). My favorite hunting was for wild hogs instead of deer. Hogs can be harvested year round without many laws regulating it. We are required to have a hunting license, but no tags are required. Stay off of private property and no hunting from the road are the basic rules for hog hunting. With wide open hunting for hogs, their population increases every year in Texas.

[JRinPA]

The rifle? Maybe, it's a modern bolt action. They are all reliable and accurate and the chambering could be anything. I'm eyeing that hump. I have been wanting to try a hump roast in a dutch oven ever since I first read "The Prairie" by James Fenimore Cooper.