Fifty Additional Hunters Drawn for Special Season Hunt for Cow Elk in January-February

Frankfort, Ky. – Elk hunters who applied for this year’s hunt but were not drawn now have a second chance.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources has selected an additional 50 hunters from among the previous pool of unsuccessful applicants for a special cow elk hunt in January and February.

This special season for antlerless elk is designed to help private landowners reduce damage from elk in portions of Knott, Bell and Harlan counties.

Hunters who bought an elk lottery application for the 2008-09 season can now go to Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s website at fw.ky.gov to see if they were drawn. Applicants must enter either their Social Security number or their date of birth and the 19-digit number that appears on their elk lottery application. Applicants without Internet access may call the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Information Center toll-free at 1-800-858-1549 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Eastern) during the week.

The special season will take place Jan. 24 – Feb. 6 on private land within two of the state’s Elk Management Units.

“What we’re hoping to accomplish is to have some animals removed from specific landholdings that have had problems with elk,” said Tina Brunjes, big game program coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “The primary goal is to provide these landowners an opportunity to have elk taken from their property during the time of year when most damage occurs.”

Drawn hunters must purchase a quota elk permit from Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. Permit fees of $30 for Kentucky residents and $365 for nonresidents are the same as for the regular-season quota elk hunt. After confirming that they were drawn online, hunters will see several information links detailing special season hunt regulations, where to send a check or money order for the permit, and who to contact to find a place to hunt.

Hunters must possess an annual Kentucky hunting license in addition to the quota elk permit. General elk hunting regulations, including equipment restrictions, hunter education requirements and more, are available in the 2008-09 Kentucky Hunting & Trapping Guide at fw.ky.gov and wherever hunting licenses are sold.

Shift to Online-Only Applications to Solve Elk Hunter Notification Problem

.

Frankfort, Ky. – A shift to online-only applications for Kentucky elk quota hunts will solve problems with notifying people drawn for a hunt. The new system takes effect Dec. 1, when the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources begins its application sales for the 2009-10 elk hunt.

Other licenses and permits will not be affected by the change.

Under the old system, the department faced difficulties obtaining the names and addresses of youth hunters and those without a Kentucky driver’s license. This delayed notifications to all hunters and mailings of elk hunt information to all those drawn for the hunt.

Under the new system, hunters will provide their names and addresses when they register online at the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website, fw.ky.gov. The new system speeds up the notification process and increases its efficiency.

“A majority of people were already using the Internet to verify if they were drawn for the elk hunt,” said Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Jon Gassett. “This is the next logical step to promote the elk project and maintain a database to improve future elk drawings.”

Previously, hunters could purchase an application for a quota elk hunt through a license vendor such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart or county court clerk offices, or by calling the department’s license sales phone number. However, applicants did not have to supply their names or addresses at the time of purchase, making it difficult for department personnel to track down this information and contact hunters who were drawn. Department officials were able to obtain most names and addresses by cross-referencing Kentucky driver’s license records.

However, there remained a number of hunters the department had difficulty contacting. “Each year, we have a percentage of folks whose name and address information is not captured via phone or point-of-sale vendors,” said Tina Brunjes, big game program coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

Brunjes said these ‘unknown’ applicants can make up as much as 10 percent of those drawn for an elk permit. Department personnel must then try to find the drawn hunters by making phone calls, sending out press releases and posting information on the department’s website. The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission awarded 400 permits for the current season and will increase substantially the number of permits for the 2009-10 hunting season, making it even more difficult to locate unknown hunters.

“We put a lot of hours into tracking those people down,” Brunjes said. “With the number of permits issued increasing each year, we could be looking at far more unknowns in future years. The best way to remedy this is via online sales only.”

Hunters drawn for the 2009-10 elk hunt will also be able to pay for their elk permit online rather than sending a check to the department. Elk permits for those drawn to hunt cost $30 for Kentucky residents and $365 for nonresidents.

Elk lottery applications for the 2009-10 hunting season go on sale Dec. 1, 2008. Applicants can purchase their $10 quota hunt application through the department’s secure license sales webpage by going to fw.ky.gov and clicking on “Purchase Licenses Here”.

Good year for elk in state – Glasgow Daily Times, Glasgow, KY

Published October 16, 2008 07:17 am – Elk hunters bag some possible record takes in non-typical class.

Good year for elk in state

By JOEL WILSON

Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW —

Last week on Kentucky Afield we saw 10-year old John Taylor Shirley, of Warren County, have great success on his elk hunt in eastern Kentucky. John Taylor also has some local connections.

On this week’s show, another 10-year old is featured as he participates in Kentucky’s youth hunt weekend. Bourbon County’s Houston McFarland is joined in the deer woods by host Tim Farmer. We’ll also get part two of the deer dressing tutorial and there will be a segment on rifle marksmanship.

Kentucky Afield airs on KET at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and repeats at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Back on the subject of elk season, KDFW outdoor writer Hayley Lynch tells us that it was a good year.

Kentucky’s 2008 bull elk firearms quota hunt ended Oct. 11, with hunters taking 115 bulls in the southeastern part of the state.

“Hunters had an 88 percent success rate, and most of those bulls were taken within the first four days of the season. This level of success is outstanding,” said Tina Brunjes, big game program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “It would not be possible without the hard work of our biologists and officers in the elk zone. Most of our hunters at some point speak to a Fish and Wildlife employee, who gives them information on where to hunt, both public and private land.”  Full Story

Glasgow Daily Times, Glasgow, KY – Good year for elk in state.

Patience pays nicely for elk hunter | The Courier-Journal

By Gary Garth • Special to The Courier-Journal

Kentuckys firearm bull elk quota hunt ended Friday, and the vast majority of the hunters who held tags were successful.

George Johnson of Louisville was one of them.

He was hunting near Hazard last weekend with guide Voncel Thacker, accompanied by friends Alan Blair and Ken Tuck of Louisville. They camped near their hunting site the night before opening morning.

We were on top of this glorious mountain,” said Johnson, 49. “Then we got up Saturday morning and heard some elk bugling.”

By midmorning Thacker had called two bulls, a 6 x 6 and a 4 x 6, within 20 yards of Johnson, an experienced deer hunter but a rookie with elk. He passed on both shots, but by the next afternoon he was having second thoughts  Full Story

Patience pays nicely for elk hunter | courier-journal | The Courier-Journal

« Previous Page