October 5, 2006

Compton, AR – Patrick Gilligan of San Francisco was the closer for the September 2006 Arkansas elk hunt, and he took a heavyweight who apparently had lost a bout the day, or night, before.

Gilligan killed a 6X10 bull elk, meaning six points on one side of its antlers and a whopping 10 points on the other side. He took it on the Gene Rush Wildlife Management Area of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission near the Buffalo River. The bull weighed 750 pounds.

The hunt ended with its permits and quotas filled. There were four bull permits on the public land portion of the hunt and a quota of five elk in the private land portion.

Gilligan, who is in the commercial real estate business, won his permit through an auction of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, a partner with the AGFC in the Arkansas elk program. A long-experienced elk hunter in western states, Gilligan observed, stalked and finally put down a trophy bull. He had seen it previously in the vicinity of a herd of cow elk bossed by a 9X9 bull.

Gilligan called the 9X9 the Caribou elk for its tall but narrow antlers. He guessed the larger 6X10 bull would do battle with the 9X9 and take over the group of cows. They did fight, evidently, but the 6X10 wound up with a deep cut on its forehead and was off with just a single cow. The 9X9 the next day lay comfortably in grass amid the larger group of cow elk.

When an opening for a shot at the 6X10 appeared, Gilligan took it with his bolt action .300 Magnum rifle. He was accompanied by Bert Haralson of Augusta who is knowledgeable of the Gene Rush WMA country.

Russell Brown of Dardanelle hunted hard for three days with his bull elk permit. Near sundown on the third day, he made a decision when a young bull came within range. It was a forkhorn, two points on each side. Brown downed it with his .30-06 rifle.

The young bull was good-sized – 490 pounds. Brown received his permit through the regular application and public drawing process, and it was the second time he had won an Arkansas elk permit. He killed a cow elk in 2003.

On the first day of the hunt, Walton Short of Magnolia took a 6x6 bull and Charles Platt of Sherwood killed a 5x5 bull. On private land, Ken Reeves of Harrison shot a 4X5 bull, Josh Rutledge of Elkins and Allen Jackson of Witts Spring each took 5x5 bulls, and Charles Magness of Omaha and Steve Cavender of Harrison killed cow elk.

The second segment of the 2006 elk hunt is scheduled for Dec. 4-8, when 16 other hunters will pursue elk – three with bull permits, one with an either-sex permit (youth permit) and 12 with antlerless permits.

The application period for Arkansas’ 2007 elk hunt will be the month of May. There is no cost for applying, nor do the permits cost anything for the lucky persons whose names are drawn.

The applications are available in May on the website www.agfc.com, at license dealers, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission offices and other outlets across the state. The Arkansas elk hunt is limited to 20 permits, with 18 available though the public application process. The other two permits are issued through fund-raising activities of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, with most of the money received returned to Arkansas for elk program work.

The private land elk permits are a separate process. They cost $35, and hunters must have signed permission from a landowner in Elk Zone A to apply. The Zone A application period will run open through July 15.