Hunting enthusiasts seize once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in Pennsylvania's general elk season

ELK COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) — In the northern part of Pennsylvania, the general season for elk is well underway.

It started Monday.

Wednesday, 6 News stopped by the elk check station at the Elk Country Visitor Center in Benezette to check in with hunters.

Elk are the largest game animals in the state and can be found in parts of Elk, Cameron, Clinton, Clearfield and Centre counties.

The total tag allotment this year was 144, spread across the three seasons: Archery, general and late.

Officials say more than 57,000 people applied for a tag.

Many hunters see this as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Hunter Deborah Lensbower of Chambersburg told 6 News how she felt as she harvested an elk.

“He lifted his head up and I was shaking at first,” Lensbower explained. “I was telling myself, you need to calm down.’ And I took my time and when he told me after the rest of the herd moved away from him a little bit, told me it was okay to shoot, I fired one shot, dropped him and that was it.”

“The odds are very low that anybody is going to draw a tag, so when they do draw, that’s the first excitement and then successfully harvesting a Pennsylvania elk is the second part of it, so a lot of people have been putting in most of their lives and they finally got the opportunity to do that,” said Jeremy Banfield, an elk biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The elk check station is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Friday, Nov. 3.

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