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This 83-year-old hunter got his second lifetime Pa. elk. It's not this week's only trophy.

brian whipkey, pennsylvania outdoors columnist
·6 min read
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BENEZETTE ― Winning the lottery for a Pennsylvania elk license means a one-of-a-kind dream hunt for many people. A Bedford County man, though, received his second hunt of a lifetime this week at age 83.

Tom Smyers, of Bedford, shot a bull Monday afternoon the first day of the general elk season. He had his trophy checked Tuesday morning at the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s check station at the Elk Country Visitor Center in Benezette.

Tom Smyers, 83, of Bedford, poses Tuesday in Benezette has shot two bull elk in Pennsylvania in his hunting career, the most recent on Monday afternoon.
Tom Smyers, 83, of Bedford, poses Tuesday in Benezette has shot two bull elk in Pennsylvania in his hunting career, the most recent on Monday afternoon.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said about receiving the call this summer that his name was drawn for an elk tag. “My wife (Helen) and I apply every year. It’s just a force of habit,” he said.

Smyers said he thought that after he won an elk tag in 2005 he didn’t have a chance at being drawn again in the annual lottery. He shot a 776-pound 6x5 bull that year.

Monday at 4:30 p.m., he got another 6x5 bull, this one weighing 640 pounds.

“I missed the first one, seven o’clock in the morning,” he said. Smyers blamed a shooting stick that someone offered to help steady his aim. “I never shot off a shooting stick.”

They went home for lunch and returned to the woods in the afternoon at the Quehanna Wilds area of Zone 10.

Sean Shaffer, one of his guides from Elk County Outfitters, said, “We sneaked into some pines to check out a food plot. As we eased in, I could see bodies (elk) out there and we brought Tom up to the edge. There were two bulls there and he shot."

Smyers fired his .280 Remington three times before the bull made it back into the woods close to 200 yards away.

He thanks the people who helped him retrieve the heavy animal. “We didn’t get out until about 8:30 that night, dragging,” he said.

Reflecting on the two bulls and his lottery luck, Smyers said this might be his final elk hunt. “I can’t apply for five years. I would be an old man by that time,” he said with a smile. Lottery winners are not permitted to win another elk tag for five years.

While it’s rare that one person draws two tags in their hunting career, Smyers' home actually has another successful elk hunter. His wife drew a cow tag in 2011 and was able to kill a mature elk that fall.

This year more than 57,000 people, including at least one person from every state, applied for 144 licenses.

William Biggs, far right, shot an 8x6 bull elk Tuesday morning with the help of guides Paul Martin, left, and Josh Patton of Trophy Rack Lodge.
William Biggs, far right, shot an 8x6 bull elk Tuesday morning with the help of guides Paul Martin, left, and Josh Patton of Trophy Rack Lodge.

William Biggs, 68, of Stow, Ohio, at first didn’t believe he had won when he received a call this past summer from an outfitter, Trophy Rack Lodge, asking if he wanted to use their services. “I said for what? They said I got an elk tag. I said I don’t know and they said 'yeah, you do,’” he said.

Biggs called the Game Commission the next day to confirm his good fortune and called the outfitter back. “And the rest is history,” he said with a smile.

With their help Monday he was able to shoot an 8x6 bull that weighed 736 pounds. “I would have been happy with anything. I doubt I’ll be back here again, maybe,” he said.

He encountered the bull in a field about 50 to 60 yards away and used a .308 rifle.

Biggs said he has been hunting in Pennsylvania for about 30 years and didn’t expect to win an elk tag. When he buys his license, he considers the optional elk application as a donation. “I donated for a chance to win an elk tag, and this year I did,” he said.

Nathan Wolf, of Reading, checked a cow elk Tuesday morning at the Pennsylvania Game Commission's check station in Benezette.
Nathan Wolf, of Reading, checked a cow elk Tuesday morning at the Pennsylvania Game Commission's check station in Benezette.

Nathan Wolf, 32, of Reading, has applied for an elk tag for five years and this year won a cow tag in Zone 12.

He hunted with Clair Rockey of Trophy Rack Lodge Monday and “didn’t have much luck.”

On Tuesday, their luck changed. “We went to a different spot and that panned out real well,” he said. They stalked a group of elk and he was able to make a 40- or 50-yard shot with his .300 Winchester magnum.

Mike Daniels of Genesee, Potter County, shot a 7x7 bull elk Tuesday morning near Emporium.
Mike Daniels of Genesee, Potter County, shot a 7x7 bull elk Tuesday morning near Emporium.

Mike Daniels, 41, of Genesee, Potter County, shot a 7x7 bull Tuesday morning near Emporium. “I was shellshocked,” he said about the experience. He used a 7mm magnum to shoot the 672-pound elk at about 85 yards along a field edge.

Jeremy Banfield, elk biologist for the Game Commission, said the animals the check station has been receiving have been well fed in the fields and wooded areas.

“Because we had several days of rain, several days of sun, rain, sun ― that was the pattern the whole summer. We’ve had excellent growing conditions, plus there’s a huge bumper crop of acorns this year. That has led to all the cows being healthy,” he said.

When the commissions inspects the harvested animals, Banfield said they’ve noticed more fat on their rumps than previous years.

Jeremy Banfield, Pennsylvania Game Commission elk biologist, left, talks with Tom Smyers of Bedford Tuesday morning at the agency's elk check station at the Elk Country Visitor Center in Benezette. Smyers, 83, shot a bull elk Monday afternoon.
Jeremy Banfield, Pennsylvania Game Commission elk biologist, left, talks with Tom Smyers of Bedford Tuesday morning at the agency's elk check station at the Elk Country Visitor Center in Benezette. Smyers, 83, shot a bull elk Monday afternoon.

He also noticed one bull Monday with unique antlers from Zone 13. “It had huge palmation. I mean, it looked like a moose, it had a really large club on it. It was a very significant abnormality, it’s a perfectly healthy animal. Something probably happened to it when it was in velvet to make it grow that way.”

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As of Wednesday morning, 23 bulls and 16 cows had been killed this week.

This week, 72 of the 144 licenses are for the general season. Of those, 30 hunters are pursuing antlered elk, or bulls, and 42 are hunting antlerless elk, or cows.

More than 1,300 elk roam the 10-county region in the northcentral part of the state. Pennsylvania has three separate elk seasons including a two-week archery season that was held in September, the general season and a late season that begins Dec. 30.

During this year’s archery season 22 elk were harvested, including 17 bulls.

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Every successful hunter is required to have their animal inspected at the Game Commission’s check station at the Elk Country Visitor Center. The check station is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Saturday.

Elk are weighed and samples are collected to test for Chronic Wasting Disease, brucellosis and tuberculosis. CWD has not been detected in Pennsylvania elk.

Real-time harvest results can be viewed at pgcapps.pa.gov/Harvest/Elk.

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors, and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: PA hunters chasing trophy elk through season that ends November 4