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    • Carl Brickey
      Member
        February 16, 2015 at 3:24 pm
        Post count: 105
        #5392

        Ok, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted (being dad and working like a dog) but I’m putting in for the Kentucky elk lottery this year. Apparently KY has the largest herd East of the Mississippi at 10k+ animals, and they’re wild and free-ranging where I would hunt (should I draw a tag). Anyone familiar with this? I haven’t been to East KY since I was a kid, and I didn’t pay much attention to the topography then, but to my understanding a lot of the mountaintop removal has been reclaimed and planted in native grasses. So I suppose it looks like a wetter, much smaller version of Southern CO with “mesas”.

        Anyway, hopefully I’ll draw a tag and get to see some elk.

      • wojo14
          February 21, 2015 at 12:30 pm
          Post count: 325
          #46047

          sounds cool!

          i started putting in for the pa elk lottery, but it is a maybe once in a lifetime chance to get drawn. oh well, i will still send my $10 in every year. at least the $ goes to preserving the pa elk heard.

          good luck in you lottery, let us know how it goes.

          you live in ky?

        • Etter1
            February 21, 2015 at 4:29 pm
            Post count: 831
            #46244

            Kentucky odds are really tough. I looked into it once and figured out that as a GA resident, I probably had a better chance of winning the lottery and buying my own elk herd.

            Best of luck to you though. The success rates once drawn are really high!

          • Carl Brickey
            Member
            Member
              February 22, 2015 at 2:40 am
              Post count: 105
              #46708

              No, I live in North East TN, so I’m about an hour from the KY line. Last I checked the archery cow tag odds were 1 in 68 or something close to that, but the bull tags are 1 in 500 and something. I’m banking on the cow tag! I won’t get to go hunt in Colorado for awhile, but I can afford the KY now if I draw. A guy shot a bull this past year that had migrated down into Virginia where I grew up, so maybe one of these days the elk will be re-established in the East. I just hope I’ll see it.

            • Stephen Graf
              Moderator
                February 23, 2015 at 11:55 am
                Post count: 2428
                #48254

                cpbiv wrote: … A guy shot a bull this past year that had migrated down into Virginia where I grew up, so maybe one of these days the elk will be re-established in the East. I just hope I’ll see it.

                Virginia used to allow people to shoot Elk using a deer tag. About 20 elk were harvested every year that had their origins in the Tennessee herd. The DNR tested these elk for CWD and never found any. So they warmed up to allowing Elk to reestablish in VA.

                That said, it has been illegal for 3 years now to shoot elk in some counties as they are now trying to restore a herd: http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/regulations/elk.asp

              • Carl Brickey
                Member
                Member
                  February 23, 2015 at 12:05 pm
                  Post count: 105
                  #48266

                  I’m hoping the herd will be successful in VA. He shot it in Russell County where it is still legal to check a bull or cow in on the corresponding deer tag. It’s nice to know they’re migrating that far from the original release sites though. Buchanan, Wise, and Dickenson counties are the restoration zone. (Lots of reclaimed strip mine land)

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