What better way to spend your 40th birthday than bagging what could very well be a record-setting elk?
Every hunter out there dreams of going after big game, but not every hunter gets the opportunity. For Michael Skvarla, he knew just how special it was to be drawn for a Pennsylvania archery tag. After all, only 15 bull archery tags were awarded through the state’s lottery system this year.
So when Skvarla got drawn, he knew he was in store for a once-in-a-lifetime hunt. The Pennsylvania man told WJAC that he wanted to make sure he filled the tag he was blessed with:
“Once you pull a bull tag in Pennsylvania, you don’t get another shot. Even if you don’t get one, your names out and you can’t ever pull again. So, I wanted to make sure that I was going to fill that tag.”
How did he go about making that happen? He went to the Trophy Rack Lodge in Centre County, Pennsylvania and tasked guide Mike Conaway and caller Abner Druckenmiller to help him out with the hunt.
Knowing he might not ever get a chance to take a shot at a monster elk again, Skvarla wasn’t going to waste the moment. He describes himself as an experienced hunter, but he admitted that calling in an elk was a bit above his paygrade:
“They’re professionals, they know how to call the elk, how to set up shots, they get the elk to walk by you using the calls. I couldn’t have done that by myself. I don’t know how to call elk. I can rattle in a deer, but this is a different animal.”
So, on Skvarla’s 40th birthday, he and the guide and caller he teamed up with headed out into the woods.
Getting to hunt on his birthday had to be an omen. I only say that because… the gift of a lifetime presented itself, thanks to the assistance from the guys from the Trophy Rack Lodge. They got within 40 yards of an absolute unit of an elk, and Skvarla recalls being eerily calm when it came time to take the shot with his crossbow:
“I don’t know what happened I was super calm and I wasn’t nervous at all I was just like, ‘Okay, here we go, we’re going to work.’ I bring the crossbow up, 40 yards, pull the trigger and that was that…
They’re enormous. And even having seen them before I was still shocked at how big it is. My guides estimated somewhere over 800 pounds, maybe over 900.”
An absolute monster.
The bull elk was so big, in fact, that it’s set to be scored to see if Skvarla will be able to claim the Pennsylvania state record for an archery elk taken. Early estimates suggest it it’s one of the biggest, and could be the one atop the list once it’s eventually and officially scored. The antlers have to dry for three months before they can be measured… but the chances of the elk breaking the state record are high. It unofficially measured in at 428, which would break both the archery and rifle record in Pennsylvania.
Skvarla is still processing the whole thing:
“I certainly didn’t set out to break any records with it. I just wanted to get a nice elk, get a lot of meat for the freezer, and everything after that point has been shocking and surprising to me.”
Happy 40th Birthday to Michael Skvarla, eh?
