Missouri held its first elk hunting season this year.Altonmo.com reported about this first hunt here. It ended happily with each of the chosen hunters harvesting the chosen elk. Elk season had an archery portion, with no results, and a firearm portion, that was successful. The Missouri Department Of Conservation (MDC) director [1], Sara Pauley congratulated the hunters on their success. She went on to say,
What an exciting gift right before the holidays to see all five hunters harvest elk in this first inaugural elk season in Missouri.
Who Were Those Who Harvested Elk?
Five men were chosen at a random drawing for this first hunt.
Joe Benthall
Benthall comes from Mount Vernon. On December 12, he harvested a 5X5 bull elk. He harvested it on National Park Service Property in Shannon County. He was the first of the hunters to harvest an elk. Although an avid deer hunter, he hasn’t hunted elk before, so this was quite an opportunity.
Michael Buschjost
Buschjost hales from St. Thomas. He took a 66 bull elk on December 15. He took the Ranch. He has hunted out West. Here in Missouri, he was excited to take his three kids with him to scout the area for elk. That’s the way to get your children excited about land management as they grow older.
Sam Schultz
Schultz harvested a 5X5 bull elk on December 15 on private property in Shannon County. He has hunted for 30 years and has hunted elk in Colorado in the past.
Gene Guilkey
Guilkey harvested a 6X7 bull elk on public land on December 16. He was excited and said,
I have never hunted elk before and this hunt was the dream of a lifetime.
Bill Clark
Clark hails from Van Buren. He was the only resident landowner to harvest a bull elk. This was on his own property on December 19. He owns 80 acres of land just east of Peck Ranch. His hunting experience is best told with his own words:
I was standing on my back deck and saw a group of cow elk about 100 yards through the trees in the yard with a spike bull with them. He stopped, and that was the shot I had and the shot I took.
Notes:
- ^https://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/mdc-reports-elk-hunters-go-five-five-inaugural-elk-hunt (go back ↩)
