Jason Reed of Moore was the first hunter to harvest an elk in Oklahoma’s new statewide elk season. Reed arrowed the 5x6 bull in Coal County.
No one was happier than Jason Reed of Moore when state wildlife officials announced a new statewide elk hunting season this year.
For years, Reed kept seeing elk while deer hunting on his family’s land in Coal County.
“We’ve had free-ranging elk for 15 years but have not been able to shoot them,” Reed said. “Over the years, I’ve had them walk under my tree stand when I was deer hunting for whitetails. I have seen as many as 18 in one group.”
State wildlife officials say there are free-ranging elk in 33 counties in Oklahoma.
An elk hunting season was established this year that mirrors the deer season dates but with quotas for the number of elk that can be killed in each region. With the quota for elk that can be harvested in Oklahoma’s southeast hunting zone only five, Reed made sure to be in his tree stand when archery season opened Wednesday.
He became the first person in the state to check in an elk during the inaugural hunting season on private land in Oklahoma.
Reed arrowed the 5x6 bull elk from 37 yards with his Mathews compound bow early Wednesday morning.
“The first elk I have ever killed in my life,” Reed said. “I have been to Colorado and New Mexico a couple of times and have never gotten one.”
Reed, who was hunting with his 70-year-old father, George Reed, heard the elk bugle and was able to call in the bull with a bugling call. The bigger ordeal was getting the 650-pound elk out of the woods.
“It took us about an hour and a half to get him out of the timber,” he said.
Hunters can check www.wildlifedepartment.com to see how many elk have been harvested in each region and whether the quota has been met.