Pennsylvania Game News - November 2012 - 7

hollow did not follow the herd. Instead they crossed to follow the trail leading to the cornfield, with the bull 10 yards behind. Zee hooked his elbows over his knees, brought the rifle up. Three more feet, he thought. Just three feet and he’d have a clear shot. Then the wind shifted and the cows started barking in alarm. The bull raised his head and started to turn back. Zee eased his pressure on the trigger and waited. There was no clear shot. Zee’s mind was spinning. That miserable wind again, he thought. The guide had said they might not get a second chance. The scope reticle seemed pasted on the bull’s neck as it turned to go back. Zee fired. The bull flinched and exploded into a dead run up the drainage, broadside to Zee. Zee wiped the bolt back and then forward, swung the gun instinctively and fired again. The bull sagged but kept going as Zee reloaded once more, but collapsed before he could fire again. Watching through the scope, Zee let his breath out in a long sigh, lowered the Remington and thumbed the safety on. Moments later, standing over the elk and gazing wide-eyed at those incredible antlers, Zee saw where his first bullet had come out the far side of the bull’s neck. It had missed the spine but took out the windpipe and arteries. His second bullet was right behind the shoulder through the lungs. “I guess my ace-in-the-hole photo paid off,” he said. Under the trees, darkness set in and the task of getting the bull out of the woods was at hand. Standing in the fading light, Zee, Harvey and Couteret, plus Jim Wolfe and Dennis Mowers, who had joined them a bit earlier, pondered the situation. Then Bill Shugerts showed up. Some were still taking photos, but having no camera, Bill went back up the hollow. Twenty minutes later he came back on his ATV, carrying a fully charged spotlight. Talk about saving the day. After more photos were taken and the field-dressing chores were done, the gang loaded the elk on the ATV. It wasn’t
NOVEMBER 2012

easy. Even an average size elk is a big animal compared to a whitetail, and Zee’s bull wasn’t average. It weighed almost half a ton when shot. The men persevered, however, and after almost tipping the ATV over and throwing Shugerts off, eventually the elk was out of the woods. The next day the elk was taken to the Game Commission check station. With crowds of people watching and taking photos, Zee’s bull was hoisted up on a scale. It weighed 715 pounds. Live weight was estimated at 930 pounds. During the weighing somebody said, “You sure were lucky to get this one,” and Zee agreed. “You probably don’t know why I said that,” the man chuckled, and Zee looked at him quizzically. “This elk is the one hunters around here have been calling the River Bull for years,” the man said. “About five years ago it almost drowned in Sinnemahoning Creek. It got tangled up in a kid’s tire swing, and when he dragged it into the creek, the tire got a lot of water in it and was so heavy it was draggin’ his head under water. Some passing kayakers called the Game Commission and some biologists managed to free him. If they hadn’t, he wouldn’t have lived long enough to grow those big antlers. I don’t remember all the details, but you could probably check ’em out somewhere.” Zee did. A woman named Carol Mulvihill from Benezette, a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association who was often called the “Elk Lady,” because of her interest in photographing elk, had written several detailed articles about them. One appeared in northcentral Pennsylvania’s Endeavor News. Another, titled “Swiftwater Rescue on Bennett’s Branch,” was in the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s journal.
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Pennsylvania Game News - November 2012

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