Army Veteran Arrows State-Record Elk on a Military Base in Oklahoma

It was earlier than daylight on Sept. 28, and retired Military Workers Sergeant Zane Scrivner was listening for bugling bulls on Fort Sill. Scrivner had a one-day bowhunting allow on the army base, which covers 94,000 acres in southwest Oklahoma, and he was working to get near a bull earlier than daybreak.

“At first mild, I had an enormous bull at about 120 yards, and I cow-called to him,” Scrivner tells Outside Life. “He got here proper to me at 70 yards, however a smaller bull confirmed up, and he turned again and went over a hill.”

Different elk have been close by, and Scrivner thought it greatest to again out of the world and meet along with his Military buddy Joe Cooper. The pair had scouted for elk and hunted the bottom the day earlier than, when Cooper had his one-day archery tag. Cooper got here near harvesting an enormous bull in the identical basic space, and he was now there to assist his buddy.

“Joe added one other set of eyes and ears for my hunt,” Scrivner says. “We have been a group.”

Quickly after Scrivner met Cooper, they heard the large bull once more. Now they needed to resolve how one can get into bow vary.

“I believed I’d pushed him away earlier, however he bugled again to me after I cow-called,” says Scrivner, who’s initially from Idaho. “We headed to the place we final heard him bugle, which was in a briar-infested creek that had loads of elk signal and wallows.”

It was getting heat rapidly and the briars made it not possible to stalk towards the bugling bull. So Scrivner and Cooper obtained into the creek for canopy, the place they watched and waited.

“About 10:30 a.m. a gaggle of elk got here shut, and I had a pleasant cow at 12 yards that I’d have shot with my bow,” Scrivner remembers. “I got here to full draw on her, nevertheless it was too thick to shoot, so I let her cross.”

The September mid-day warmth was rising steadily, so the 2 buddies went again to their car to relaxation and regroup.

“We shed some garments at our truck as a result of it was about 80 levels, and we would have liked some water. We determined that within the mid-day warmth the elk can be within the creek backside thickets, in order that’s the place we headed.”

Dropping again into the creek the place they’d discovered wallows earlier, they took a seat close to a downed tree. Cooper watched a technique whereas Scrivner watched the opposite. They hadn’t been there lengthy after they smelled a musky odor, and so they each knew it was a rutting bull.

“We smelled him earlier than we noticed him at 80 yards,” says Scrivner. “With binoculars we may see him thrashing timber along with his antlers, and he was enormous.”

Cooper stayed by the downed tree whereas Scrivner started crawling by briars and underbrush towards the bull. He lined about 20 yards to a small opening he thought he may shoot an arrow by. Then he knelt along with his bow on the prepared, and cow referred to as to the bull.

“I used to be hidden in brush, and after I referred to as, he began strolling towards me. He was slashing timber as he got here my manner. I drew my bow when he was at 32 yards and shot him.”

Scrivner noticed the arrow penetrate to the fletching and knew he’d made a lethal shot. The bull disappeared at a gentle stroll into some timber. Cooper noticed Scrivner’s stalk and knew precisely the place the hit bull was headed.

They adopted a heavy blood path for a number of hundred yards and located the bull alive. Scrivner shot it once more by the chest with one other arrow from 26 yards, which completed the elk.

It was about 1 p.m. by that time, and the hunters labored laborious and quick to cape and pores and skin the elk, quarter it, and get the meat on ice. Then they loaded every little thing of their truck and headed house.

Scrivner’s 9×9 bull has been formally scored by Boone & Crockett at 411 1/8-inches, and it was only recently declared a brand new Oklahoma report for a nontypical bull elk. In Its announcement on Dec. 31, the Oklahoma Division of Wildlife Conservation famous that it was the primary 400-class elk that’s ever been tagged and formally measured within the state.

Though it isn’t as broad as some bulls, the 12- to 15-year-old elk has large antler mass. Scrivner says he’ll get a shoulder mount made and grasp it in his Idaho house, the place he’s labored in heavy development since retiring from the Military.

“It was a hunt I’ll at all times keep in mind.”