Gainesville resident Mike Ellison killed a 5×6 bull elk Oct. 19 while hunting on public land in Shannon County. (Photo courtesy Mike Ellison via Ozark County Times)
Gainesville resident Mike Ellison made Missouri hunting history last month, earning the title as the only Ozark countian and one of fewer than 10 Missouri residents to kill an elk in the state within the last century.
The Ozark County Times reports Ellison, who is an avid deer and turkey hunter, says the elk is the first he has ever killed, but he has accompanied his son Tyler to Colorado where the boy has harvested elk there the last two years.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) announced last year it would hold Missouri’s first annual elk hunt since the 1800s after years of successful restoration efforts to bring back the native species, which had been completely wiped out in the late 19th century.
MDC’s reintroduction efforts began in 2011 when agency employees relocated a group of Kentucky elk onto Peck Ranch Conservation Area in south-central Missouri. The efforts continued, with MDC bringing an additional 108 elk to Missouri from Kentucky in 2011-2013.
MDC set a goal of growing the elk population to 400-500 head and announced it had considered a carefully monitored hunting season just prior to the state herd’s size reaching that goal.
The first hunt, held last year and this year’s event were held through a lottery system in which Missouri residents applied for the chance to be drawn for an elk tag. Only five hunters were drawn each year from the 9,714 permit applications.
MDC said the five hunters could choose to participate in the archery portion, which ran from Oct. 16-24, or the firearms portion, which will be held Dec. 11-19, and could harvest one bull elk each that had at least one antler that was 6 inches or longer.
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