Don Wood and his Arkansas Elk

JASPER, AR - Don Wood has faced lions and cape buffalo in Africa at close range, but he grinned broadly about his recent Arkansas elk hunt.

"This is the most exciting hunt I've ever been on."

Wood is an orchardist and rancher in central Washington state. His home is at Monitor. And he's thoroughly familiar with elk virtually in his backyard.

"These Arkansas elk are something else," he said after downing a 6X6 bull in the September Arkansas elk hunt. The bull carried a heavy, wide-beamed set of antlers.

Wood said, "This bull was mad. When Bert (Haralson, of Augusta) called, the elk was in a brush pile in the middle of a field." This was on the Gene Rush Wildlife Management Area of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. "This bull started tearing up things, just ripping and throwing trees up in the air. Then he started coming for Bert." Wood and Haralson were hidden behind trees.

This is a bull elk characteristic. It was the beginning of the rut, the breeding season for elk, and the bull was answering a perceived challenge from another bull, except it was Haralson with a caller.

The bull advanced, and Wood fired from about 30 yards away. "That was a shot to the heart, but the bull tried to get away toward a bluff, so I made a Texas heart shot (into the rear spine) to put him down for good," Wood said.

He was using a Remington 700 bolt action rifle in .300 Ultra Mag caliber.

Haralson and his wife Cheryl have been leading figures in the partnership of the Game and Fish Commission and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. After elk were re-introduced to Arkansas beginning in 1981, the Elk Foundation helped with habitat improvement work. When hunting began on a limited basis in 1998, two of 20 permits were designated for the Elk Foundation for fund-raising purposes, and 85 percent of this money is returned to Arkansas for elk work.

One permit is auctioned at the Elk Foundation's national convention each year. The other is auctioned at its Arkansas convention. Bidding is spirited, and word has spread through foundation members about the hunting for Arkansas elk. It's much different from elk hunting in the western states. The close proximity of Arkansas elk to hunters is one difference. Wood's 30-yard shot isn't normally found in the open, expansive elk country of the west.

Where Wood found his big bull was another aspect of Arkansas elk country. It was a field made into a large grazing plot and used by deer and turkeys as well as elk. The brush in the middle of the field was pushed into a pile when the plot was created, not burned but left for natural changes to take place. It's also wildlife cover.

Wood grows large amounts of cherries in his Washington orchard. But his Arkansas elk wasn't anything like cherry picking.