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Photo by Abbi Ottoman.<\/p>\nFIELD & STREAM NEWSLETTERS<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania is home to roughly 1,400 elk that roam 3,000 square miles in the states north-central region. This year, the Pennsylvania Game Commission awarded 140 tags after receiving more than 50,000 applications. One of the those lucky hunters was Mike Skvarla, who walked away with would should be the next state-record bull after an exciting early-morning archery hunt.<\/p>\n
Skvarla shot the enormous bull with a crossbow during a guided hunt on private property, he tells Field & Stream. A Pennsylvania resident who works as an entomologist at Penn State University, he\u2019s been putting in for the tag since 2019. But he\u2019d never been on an elk hunt until this year. \u201cI was fishing in Indiana when they called and said I\u2019d drawn the tag,\u201d he says. \u201cI was in complete shock. I thought someone was messing with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photo by Abbi Ottoman.<\/p>\n
On the morning of Tuesday, September 15, Skvarla drove 45 minutes from his home to Unit 307. \u201cWe went in sight unseen,\u201d he recalls. \u201cNone of my guides had ever seen this property before. But I trusted that they knew what they were doing, and it turns out they did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skvarla and his guides\u2014from Trophy Rack Lodge in nearby Karthaus\u2014hiked in by moonlight and found a place to set up in the dark. \u201cThe caller calls and immediately there are three or four bulls bugling right around us,\u201d he recalls. \u201cHe called a few more times, and one of them started moving in closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
After calling back and forth with the bull for 15 minutes, the guide moved up to Skvarla\u2019s position and told him it was coming in from behind. \u201cBy now, it was getting light, and we repositioned ourselves behind two scraggly pine trees,\u201d he says. \u201cI had two or three narrow shooting lanes out in front of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skvarla could hear the big bull moving closer. \u201cAll of the sudden, my guide says he can see the antlers,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I still couldn\u2019t see anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the bull got to within 60 yards, it stopped and bugled again. Skvarla could see its giant body through the thick cover. \u201cI didn\u2019t really look at the rack,\u201d he says. \u201cI could tell it was big, but I just wanted to get the crossbow in place and get ready for the shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Photo by Abbi Ottoman.<\/p>\n
He says he felt a rush of adrenaline when the bull first appeared. But then his focus narrowed. \u201cI was as calm as I could be. No rising heart rate, no nothing, just focused,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen he stepped up to 42 yards, I put my pin on him and pulled the trigger. It was as good a shot as you could ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bull ran 20 yards and fell down, he says. But then it got up and ran another 20 before falling again. \u201cThat happened two or three more times before he eventually ran out of sight,\u201d says Skvarla, who studies deer keds and ticks at Penn State. \u201cWe gave him 30 minutes and then started blood trailing him. We\u2019d leave one person on whatever speck of blood we could find and then push on ahead because we didn\u2019t want to lose the blood trail.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Skvarla with guides Mike Conway and Abner Druckenmiller. (Photo by Abbi Ottoman)<\/p>\n