A dream elk hunt is turning into a bit of a nightmare after hunting guides that were hired to help bring down an elusive trophy animal may have trespassed.
Every hunter out there fantasizes 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.”
Skvarla trusted the two guides to help him track and bring down a monster elk, and that they did. The Pennsylvania man made headlines when he bagged and tagged this beast, which after unofficially measurement, was expected to be a record-breaking kill:
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.
We were hoping that the next update on this story would be that, after official scoring, Skvarla was able to claim the archery and rifle records. However, there’s a development in the story that not even the hunter himself expected.
The two guides that Skvarla hired – Mike Conaway and caller Abner Druckenmiller – now face trespassing charges. One Pennsylvania landowner says the hunting party they led that day didn’t have permission to be on their land. Harold Malehorn, the Pennsylvania Game Commission north central region law enforcement supervisor, spoke to Go Erie about the charges:
“At this point, charges are only going to be filed on the guides. A hunter hiring a guide is no different than one of us would be going out west hiring a guide. We’re expecting them to take us places where we have permission to hunt. At this point, we have no indication that the hunter was not aware that they didn’t have permission to be there.”
That’s a relief for Skvarla.
The Pennsylvania hunter was still riding the high of his potentially record-breaking hunt when, all of the sudden, a game warden came knocking on his door to ask him some questions. Though it was unexpected, the good news is that Skvarla isn’t going to be charged, and more importantly gets to keep the bull elk he brought down:
“We didn’t sneak onto the property or anything. The game warden assured me. I’m not getting charged. I can keep the elk. I’m in the clear as far as the Game Commission is concerned… I’m glad that I get to keep the bull and everything, but at the same time it’s a crappy way to end the whole thing.”
Crappy indeed.
