Page 12 - November/December 2022 Outdoor Oklahoma Magazine

Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, in con-
junction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has offered PROVIDED
an annual controlled hunt for elk in the Wichita Mountains
Wildlife Refuge. But drawing that tag is like winning the
lottery. So, I more or less put the matter out of my mind.
Then things began to change.
Thanks in part to Oklahoma’s nearly 2,500 Rocky Mountain
Elk Foundation members, the Sooner State’s wapiti (elk)
herd began to grow, and the Wildlife Department increased
opportunities to hunt wapiti. In 2014, a statewide elk season
opened for private lands. And for Lifetime Hunting License
holders like me, the privilege to harvest an elk is includ-
ed without having to buy the regular elk hunting license. It
wasn’t long before photos of hunters beaming behind their
homegrown elk began to show up on my social media sites.
The bulls being taken at first weren’t giants. But they were
getting better every year. Then young Olivia Parry took the
best typical on the Oklahoma record books in 2016, an elk
that stretched the tape to 377 6/8”. The nontypical record
was set just a year later when Johnathan Moore downed a bull
that measured 371 6/8”. As encouraging as those successes Kyle Wright with a white-tailed buck he took during archery season 2019.
were, though, I still had no access to the private lands where landmarks can easily be identified in four other states.
elk were being hunted, and I just never gave it much thought. There are no snow-capped mountains or aspen-rimmed
Until my friend Chandler Henderson uttered something meadows in Cimarron County. But there is a lot for elk to
as I stepped out of his truck a couple of Decembers ago in eat. They can feed on a veritable buffet of corn and milo
my quest to take a mule deer. and soybeans and wheat.
“If you see an elk, feel free to shoot it.” “If you see an elk, feel free to shoot it.”
I’d first hunted with Chandler after drawing one of The minute those words came out of Chandler’s mouth,
Oklahoma’s coveted rifle tags for a pronghorn antelope. That I looked down at the rifle in my hands. I was carrying an
draw works the same way the elk draw does, but with better as-yet-unbloodied 7mm-08, more than enough gun to take
odds. It’s still a once-in-a-lifetime pull, though. Chandler farms the white-tailed deer I hunt close to home, and plenty for
and hunts private land in Cimarron County, the westernmost a deep-chested muley. But, I thought, what about an 800-
county in Oklahoma’s Panhandle. He was kind enough to pound bull elk? With the 120-grain hand-loaded ammo I
guide me to a heavy horned goat one September. So when had with me, I considered that fate could lead the bull of my
he invited me out to try for a muley, I made the drive back to dreams across my path that afternoon, and I feared not having
the Panhandle that December. Chandler is well-acquainted enough gun — everything considered — to get the job done.
with mule deer hunting; he holds the Cy Curtis state record for I’m sure Chandler attributed my silence on that first
the species, a 191 7/8” monster he arrowed in 2014. afternoon’s hunt to a deep focus on muleys. But in truth, a
Oklahoma’s Panhandle doesn’t look like elk country. It’s debate was raging in my head: If I saw an elk, and since I was
so flat that on a clear day and from a good vantage point, concerned about the punch of my bullet, would I shoot? Or
CAROL VANHOOK/FLICKR CC-BYSA2

“The Sooner State’s wapiti (elk) herd began to grow, and the Wildlife Department increased opportunities to hunt wapiti.”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 9