Bowsite.com

First, Virginia had a lottery draw for 6 elk tags last year. This year 6 elk were killed. The hunt is during the rut and the bulls were bugling their heads off. I believe all 6 elk responded to the calls. All shots were with a rifle and under 200 yards. The closest was 100. Virginia draw doesn't work off points. It's $15 for residents and $20 for out of state hunters. The out of state hunter was from North Carolina. One tag was given to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for auction. The winning bidder was from New Mexico and paid just shy off 100 grand for the tag. He gave the tag to his 15 year old son. His son ended up shooting the largest elk of the 6. It was a 8x9 that weighed 852 pounds.

Virginia's elk are basically in 3 counties that boarder Kentucky. Buchanan County is their main grounds but they do travel outside the 3 counties and last year 2 elk were killed outside of the 3 and the hunters used whitetail tags for the elk. Most of the land the elk are on is private land and contained in 14,000 acres. The land owners gave permission to the hunters. Some of the owners tagged along on the hunts that were taking place on their land. All the land owners that had elk killed on their property used their farm equipment to load the dead elk onto trucks.

One of the elk had a drop tine. It was aged at 11.5 years old and was one of the first elk that were relocated to Virginia in the return of the native species program 10 years ago.

The antlers in the pic are in the drying period but green scored well over 400.

A buddy sent me this story and picture.

Either way....it's still a pretty elk though.

Is it just me or does the lucky hunter look like Sherman (aka "The Shermantor") from American Pie?

It is just about as rough as any country you will find. A whole great big bunch of up and down.

That's one nice Elk.