Pennsylvania Game News - July 2021 - 8

LICENSE DRAWING
Hunters who draw a Pennsylvania elk
license can take to the field on their own
or hire a guide.
Records show that about 82 percent of
guided elk hunters fill their tag. Seventy
percent of unguided hunters score.
That's pretty good either way.
Mix those odds with expanded seasons,
increased licenses and the potential to
harvest a huge elk, and it's easy to see why
there's been an upswing in the number of
people entering the license lottery.
Back in 2001, when Pennsylvania held
its first elk hunt since 1931, 50,046 people
applied for an elk license. The number of
applicants consistently dropped in the years
after, bottoming out at 17,245 in 2007. But
the number of elk license applicants has
been climbing annually since about 2011
and hit 47,689 - the second-highest number
ever - in 2020.
While it's impossible to know how many
will enter the 2021 drawing, Game Commission
elk biologist Jeremy Banfield said he
won't be surprised to see 2001's high-water
mark surpassed soon, maybe even this year.
Getting in the game remains affordable.
Hunters again can apply for one, two or
all three of the elk hunting seasons (archery,
general, and late). The cost is $11.97 per
application, or $35.91 for all three.
Once again this year, hunters can specify
their Hunt Zone preference. But, unlike in
other years, if a hunter is selected for a
license after all licenses for their preferred
zone have sold out, they'll have the opportunity
to decline the license.
Meanwhile, those who specify a Hunt
Zone preference, but who are willing to hunt
somewhere else if licenses for their preferred
zone already sold out, still can opt to
receive a license in the next available zone.
Hunters can draw one license per year.
Those who aren't drawn earn a bonus point
for each application.
Those points get carried over every year,
increasing a hunter's odds of drawing a
license over time.
General hunting licenses went on sale
in mid-June. Hunters can apply for an elk
license anytime thereafter, through July 31.
The drawing is held in August.
Winners will be notified by the Game
Commission.
8
say they won't ever browse, like a deer. But
if grass is available, that's where they'll be. "
But here's the thing: no patch of grass, no
matter how lush, will hold elk forever. Wanderers
at heart, elk move, frequently, and for
reasons that aren't always readily apparent,
Banfield said.
That's why elk hunters need to scout early
and often if they want to be successful. Banfield
recommended hunters start looking for
elk as soon as they draw a license, and keep
looking for them - and where they might go
within a hunt zone - throughout fall.
" Even the best habitat in the state won't
hold elk forever. There's something that makes
them want to move, " Banfield said. " So I'd
tell hunters to start looking for them as soon
as they draw a tag. That will familiarize them
with their hunt zone and get them thinking
about where elk live and what types of habitat
they prefer. Then I'd suggest scouting as close
to the opening of the season as possible. That
will help the most when opening day comes. "
Even then, the hunting won't necessarily
be easy. Despite what some may think, given
how elk react to people around places like
Winslow Hill and other viewing areas, Keystone
State elk can be very wild.
But opportunities to pursue elk in Pennsylvania
have matured in a huge way in
recent decades. The potential to reap those
rewards is there for anyone willing to make
the investment.
" This is a great time to be an elk hunter
in Pennsylvania, " Banfield said. " No one
in the early years of the 20th century could
have envisioned the opportunities we have
right now. We've come from a time when
hunters harvested one elk in the entire state
to decades of no hunting to a point where
hunters routinely kill upward of 100 elk a year,
some of them as large or larger than elk found
anywhere in the country. The size of the herd,
the hunting seasons, the available licenses, all
would have been unthinkable then.
" And it costs very little to enter the drawing
and apply for a license, " he said. " So there's
not a lot to lose, especially when you consider
the potential payoff. "
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - July 2021
