10-09-2007, 03:10 PM
COMPTON - Eleven-year-old Joey Shirley forced himself to wait, to wait, to wait. Finally there was enough light. The fog lifted.
Joey Shirley fired his .308-caliber rifle once, and the big bull elk went down.
Shirley, who lives at Dover, was one of the four permit holders in the 2007 September Arkansas elk hunt to score. The other three downed bull elk near sundown the first day, hunting miles apart but taking the challenging big animals within a few minutes of each other.
It was the morning of the fourth day before Joey Shirley connected. Just one more day remained in the hunt after that. He had missed a shot at a bull the first day.
"We went to this field first thing in the morning, and there were elk in it," Joey said. "But we weren't close enough. We crawled. We crawled for a long way. Then we could tell it was a bull, but it wasn't light enough yet." He had his father, Eddie Shirley, as his hunt helper.
Joey, a sixth grader, was the youngest hunter to draw a permit in the 10 years of Arkansas elk hunting. Previous youngest were two 13-year-olds who were successful in getting elk in the 2004 hunt.
Joey Shirley and the other three September bull elk hunters found similar patterns in the four elk zones. All the bulls were taken on the edges of fields. That's a factor for potential hunters to keep in mind. Elk feed in the fields early and late in the day. Midday and at night they use the woods or at least the brush around the field perimeters.
Jimmy Hall, Walter Short and Pat Gilligan killed their bull elk as sunlight was waning on the 2007 hunt's first day.
Hall, who lives at Pea Ridge, downed a 6X7 bull in the Erbie area near the river. Hall and his helpers quartered the elk in the field for transportation, so a weight was not obtained.
"I saw this bull at the far end of that field across the road from the (National Park Service) ranger's house at Erbie," Hall said. "And the bull saw me. I hunched over and got behind a round bale of hay, got a little closer and used the top of the bale for a rifle rest. The bull went down with one shot."
Hall was using a Remington 700 bolt action rifle in 7mm Magnum caliber.
Short, of Magnolia, is 83 years old and wears the unofficial title of Mr. Arkansas Elk Hunter. He got his eighth elk in as many years with a 6X6 bull that weighed 715 pounds. He won his permit at a state Elk Foundation fundraiser, and was hunting in the Hasty-Carver area near the river.
The bull was 182 yards across a field, said guide Todd Weisbrod, who used a rangefinder to measure the distance. Short shot once with the custom-built .30 caliber rifle he has used for many years.
Gilligan, of San Francisco, Calif., won his permit at a Rocky Mount Elk Foundation fundraising auction and took an 8X8 bull, meaning eight points on each side of the antlers, on the Gene Rush Wildlife Management Area of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The bull weighed 855 pounds on check station scales.
Gilligan was a repeat Arkansas elk hunter. He successfully bid on a permit in 2006 and brought in a bull nearly as large as this year's animal.
On the opening morning of the hunt, Gilligan said he spotted a large bull with an 11X9 rack. "But it was an ugly rack with tines going all directions. You wouldn't want it mounted in your living room," he said. "We came back in the afternoon to that area and saw two spike bulls come out of the brush, then a 5X5 bull. We waited, and this bigger bull was with a cow."
Gilligan put it down with one shot from his .300 Ultramag rifle, a Christiansen-built firearm that only weighs 3 pounds.
The elk of the Buffalo River area have developed definite feeding habits, and these are not always conducive to hunters' preferred methods. Two hours or less very early in the morning and two hours or less in late evening as daylight fades are when the elk can be expected in fields, feeding on a variety of grasses.
Most hunters have learned to work this pattern seek elk starting before daylight then take off in the middle of the day and return in late afternoon.
Arkansas has an estimated 450 elk living along the Buffalo River, mostly on National Park service and Game and Fish Commission land. But they are mobile and sometimes move to private land for brief or even extended periods. A recent purchase of 2,700-plus acres of land in western Searcy County is an addition to Gene Rush WMA and is expected to improve public land elk habitat.
The year's second elk hunt will be in early December, with 20 hunters in the field on public land four with bull permits, 15 with cow elk permits and one youth with an either-sex permit
Joey Shirley fired his .308-caliber rifle once, and the big bull elk went down.
Shirley, who lives at Dover, was one of the four permit holders in the 2007 September Arkansas elk hunt to score. The other three downed bull elk near sundown the first day, hunting miles apart but taking the challenging big animals within a few minutes of each other.
It was the morning of the fourth day before Joey Shirley connected. Just one more day remained in the hunt after that. He had missed a shot at a bull the first day.
"We went to this field first thing in the morning, and there were elk in it," Joey said. "But we weren't close enough. We crawled. We crawled for a long way. Then we could tell it was a bull, but it wasn't light enough yet." He had his father, Eddie Shirley, as his hunt helper.
Joey, a sixth grader, was the youngest hunter to draw a permit in the 10 years of Arkansas elk hunting. Previous youngest were two 13-year-olds who were successful in getting elk in the 2004 hunt.
Joey Shirley and the other three September bull elk hunters found similar patterns in the four elk zones. All the bulls were taken on the edges of fields. That's a factor for potential hunters to keep in mind. Elk feed in the fields early and late in the day. Midday and at night they use the woods or at least the brush around the field perimeters.
Jimmy Hall, Walter Short and Pat Gilligan killed their bull elk as sunlight was waning on the 2007 hunt's first day.
Hall, who lives at Pea Ridge, downed a 6X7 bull in the Erbie area near the river. Hall and his helpers quartered the elk in the field for transportation, so a weight was not obtained.
"I saw this bull at the far end of that field across the road from the (National Park Service) ranger's house at Erbie," Hall said. "And the bull saw me. I hunched over and got behind a round bale of hay, got a little closer and used the top of the bale for a rifle rest. The bull went down with one shot."
Hall was using a Remington 700 bolt action rifle in 7mm Magnum caliber.
Short, of Magnolia, is 83 years old and wears the unofficial title of Mr. Arkansas Elk Hunter. He got his eighth elk in as many years with a 6X6 bull that weighed 715 pounds. He won his permit at a state Elk Foundation fundraiser, and was hunting in the Hasty-Carver area near the river.
The bull was 182 yards across a field, said guide Todd Weisbrod, who used a rangefinder to measure the distance. Short shot once with the custom-built .30 caliber rifle he has used for many years.
Gilligan, of San Francisco, Calif., won his permit at a Rocky Mount Elk Foundation fundraising auction and took an 8X8 bull, meaning eight points on each side of the antlers, on the Gene Rush Wildlife Management Area of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The bull weighed 855 pounds on check station scales.
Gilligan was a repeat Arkansas elk hunter. He successfully bid on a permit in 2006 and brought in a bull nearly as large as this year's animal.
On the opening morning of the hunt, Gilligan said he spotted a large bull with an 11X9 rack. "But it was an ugly rack with tines going all directions. You wouldn't want it mounted in your living room," he said. "We came back in the afternoon to that area and saw two spike bulls come out of the brush, then a 5X5 bull. We waited, and this bigger bull was with a cow."
Gilligan put it down with one shot from his .300 Ultramag rifle, a Christiansen-built firearm that only weighs 3 pounds.
The elk of the Buffalo River area have developed definite feeding habits, and these are not always conducive to hunters' preferred methods. Two hours or less very early in the morning and two hours or less in late evening as daylight fades are when the elk can be expected in fields, feeding on a variety of grasses.
Most hunters have learned to work this pattern seek elk starting before daylight then take off in the middle of the day and return in late afternoon.
Arkansas has an estimated 450 elk living along the Buffalo River, mostly on National Park service and Game and Fish Commission land. But they are mobile and sometimes move to private land for brief or even extended periods. A recent purchase of 2,700-plus acres of land in western Searcy County is an addition to Gene Rush WMA and is expected to improve public land elk habitat.
The year's second elk hunt will be in early December, with 20 hunters in the field on public land four with bull permits, 15 with cow elk permits and one youth with an either-sex permit