Every year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, holds two elk hunts on the 59,000 acre Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge; one in December and one in January. This refuge is located in the Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma, adjacent to the Ft. Sill military reservation. The hunts are limited quota hunts and the licenses are by drawing only. Since 2002 these are once in a lifetime licenses. Once you draw either a cow or bull license, you are no longer eligible to apply for either license.
This year my buddy Mark finally drew his tag. You get to put down up to three choices. His first choice was a Dec. bull tag; second choice was a Jan. bull tag and third choice was a December cow tag. You guessed it; he drew a cow tag for the December hunt. These are 2 1/2 day hunts that run from Tuesday morning through Thursday noon. All hunters are required to check in on Monday morning and attend the mandatory orientation meeting and orientation ride with the U.S.F.W.S. officer or Okla. Wildlife Dept. officer who is in charge of the specific area that the hunter is assigned to. The hunters are taken out each morning before daylight and dropped off at a point of his or her choosing in their hunt area in tarp covered pickup trucks that seat ten people in the bed of the truck; five on each side. The hunters are then picked up each evening 30 minutes after sunset and are required to be back at the road by that time.
This year there were 30 bull tags and 70 cow tags issued for each hunt. There were 10 hunt areas with 10 hunters assigned to each area. I believe there were about 95 out of 100 hunters that showed up for the December hunt. Each hunter is allowed to bring "helpers" to help them get their elk out of the field if they are fortunate enough to fill their tag, but the helpers are NOT allowed to accompany the hunters on the hunt. At this point let me say that this is a HUNT, not a "drive out and shoot one" outing. This is a very rugged area with a lot of elevation change and mostly covered by rocks, boulders and scrub oak and cedar and this is a mostly hike, glass, spot and stalk hunt. It is by no means a given that you will fill your tag.
After check in on Monday and after waiting for about 2 or 3 hours for Mark to get back from his orientation ride, we drove to Lawton, about 20 minutes away, where we stayed the nights with Mark's in-laws, Mike and Jonna. Thanks to them we would have a great place to stay for the hunt.
On Tuesday morning we arrived at the hunter check station a little after 5 am. The temperature was around 19 degrees and it was a beautiful morning unless you had to ride in the back of a pickup on bench seats over rough two track roads in the cold darkness. That would be Mark, not me! LOL I sat in the warm pickup with a thermos of hot coffee because I was the lowly "helper" and it was my job to sit around and wait for Mark to let his wildlife officer know when he had an elk down.
Well, I waited around all morning alternately sitting in the pickup drinking coffee and wondering around the check station keeping an eye on the tote board where they were writing the names of the fortunate hunters that had filled their tags. Finally, around 12:30 the U.S. wildlife employee running the hunt asked if there were any volunteers to go help a hunter pack out his elk. Being ready for some action, I volunteered. After going back to the pickup and grabbing my pack frame three of us along with the hunter's dad loaded up in the back of the wildlife pickup and we drove to where the hunter, Jake, was waiting along side the road to guide us in to where he had a cow elk down. We then hiked in around a half a mile and proceeded to field dress, skin and load up his elk on four pack frames.
Jake and his dad did most of the gutting and I did most of the skinning and then we took off the front shoulders and rear haunches and then removed all the rest of the meat from the carcass and put everything in game bags before loading up the packs. As I was the one loading the packs and having a good freighter pack, I kinda loaded myself up pretty heavy. In my cargo bag I loaded a rear haunch and the game bag containing the backstraps, tenderloins, neck roast and all the grinding meat that was taken off the carcass. Now these are Rocky Mountain Elk but are not quite as big as their mountain state cousins, with the field dressed cows weighing around 250 to 300 and the field dressed bulls weighing in around 400-500 lbs. I estimated that I had around 75-80 pounds in my pack and I was mighty happy that we only had about a half a mile to go to the road and not a lot of up and down in between. While we were getting Jake's elk all cut up and packed up, another hunter came by that said he had a cow down "just over the hill" from where Jake's elk was. We told him we would be back as soon as we got Jake's cow to the check station. We got back around 3 o'clock and, after checking to make sure Mark didn't have an elk down, we turned around and headed for the other hunter. He met us along the road and we started in to where his cow was down. Just a little way from the road we had to work our way around several bull buffalo (bison) which can be quite dangerous if you get too close. We didn't get to close!
We hiked in working our way around the shoulder of a rocky peak and ended up hiking about a mile with quite a bit of up and down.
We then gutted, skinned and cut up this hunter's cow which was on a pretty good slope. Again I helped with the gutting and did most of the skinning and quartering. Having been a elk guide in Idaho and Wyoming, it is just natural for me to jump in and do those things. It's been a lot of years since that phase in my life and I definitely miss it!
This time I took it a bit easier on myself and only loaded a rear haunch in my pack. I think it was around 50 pounds maybe. It was a pretty good hike out this time.
The "old man" (me) humping elk meat out of the mountains.
Well folks, we got that second cow back to the check station just before sunset. Mark finally got back after dark having seen very little and nothing to get a shot at. We would be back the next morning before daylight.
On Wednesday morning Mark went hunting and I, once again, hung out at the check station, drank coffee and watched the hunters come in with their elk.
Just before sunset they called for volunteers to help drag an elk up to the road for a hunter.
Having waited all day for Mark to get an elk down, I was ready to go! We drove to where the hunter was and waited while he field dressed his cow and then we dragged her up a hill about 25 yards to the road and loaded her in the back of the pickup.
And that's how the second day ended. Mark showed up well after dark. He got a shot at a cow but didn't connect. Half a day of hunting left.
The last morning there were very few hunters going out. About sixty tags had been filled the first two days and some hunters had given up already. Mark was the only hunter left in his area. And I hung around the check station and drank coffee! Just after daylight I walked over to the meat pole where the hunter from the evening before was skinning and butchering his cow. Next to him a hunter and his helper were skinning a bull. They had the hide down around the neck and I asked them what they were going to do with the hide. They told me they were getting ready to throw it in the dumpster and that I was welcome to it! I didn't waste ANY time taking them up on that! I folded it flesh side in and put it in a game bag that I had brought with me and put it in the back of our pickup to take home and brain tan. I also visited with the guy from the evening before. I should have taken his cow hide but didn't. (Stupid me!) He and his dad cleaned up that carcass pretty dang good.
About 10:30 I got in the pickup with Marcus, the Oklahoma game warden in charge of Mark's area, and rode out to pick Mark up. He had seen a couple of bulls at around 500 yards but no cows. His once in a lifetime hunt was over. He had a really good time even though he didn't get an elk. He got to hike some beautiful country and we had an enjoyable time and some good Christian fellowship in the evenings with Mike. I had a GREAT time gutting, skinning and packing out elk and I got that nice big bull hide which I'm currently working on to make a nice brain tanned bull elk robe.
This will be a great addition to my mountaineer's camp once I have it finished. And I'm seriously considering going down next December just to help pack out some elk, get several elk hides and some elk brains as well. Tanning a large robe like this is a lot of work but I would like to do several to sell. I'll keep you posted on that.
Well, that's the story of Mark's Wichita Mountains Elk Hunt. Anyone can apply and it's a fun hunt to do. If you draw one of these tags let me know. I just might meet you there to be your "helper"!
Until next time, keep yer nose in the wind and yer eyes on the skyline!
TC
