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9/26/2007
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

Elk Hunters Score Impressively On Opening Day

COMPTON – Arkansas’s 10th year of elk hunting opened on a strong note Monday, Sept. 24, along the Buffalo River with three of four bull permit holders successful.

All three got their elk near sundown – just a few minutes apart in time but miles apart in distance. They were hunting three separate elk zones. The three bull elk were impressive, too -- big animals with noteworthy racks or antlers.

Pat Gilligan of San Francisco, Calif., who won his permit at a Rocky Mount Elk Foundation fundraising auction, took an 8X8 bull, meaning eight points on each side of the antlers, on the Gene Rush Wildlife Management Area of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The bull weighed 855 pounds on check station scales.

Gilligan was a repeat Arkansas elk hunter. He successfully bid on a permit in 2006 and brought in a bull nearly as large as this year’s animal.

Walton Short of Magnolia, who wears the unofficial title of Mr. Arkansas Elk Hunter, got his eighth elk in as many years with a 6X6 bull that weighed 715 pounds. He won his permit at a state fundraiser of the Elk Foundation, and he was hunting in the Hasty-Carver area near the river. Two permits are given the foundation by AGFC each year. Other permits are issued through an application period in May and a public drawing in June.

Jimmy Hall of Pea Ridge downed a 6X7 bull in the Erbie area near the river. Hall and his helpers quartered the elk in the field for transportation, so a weight was not obtained.

The fourth hunter, still in the field as this news release went out, was Joey Shirley of Dover. At 11 years of age, he is the youngest Arkansas elk hunter in the 10 years that the season has been established.

Also still underway is the 2007 private land hunt. It is under a different format but runs at the same time as the public land hunt. On private land, there is a quota of three elk. This hunt will continue through Friday unless the quota is reached before then.