Hunter Duane Kramer of Bellingham, Washington, bought a lot of raffle tickets for a chance to hunt giant elk in Pennsylvania. Kramer won the Keystone Elk Country Alliance drawing in 2020, and it culminated in the best bull elk of his life. Kramer’s massive non-typical Pennsylvania elk has an incredible entry score of 455 points. It was taken last October and will be officially scored by a Boone & Crockett panel of judges at the 31st Big Game Awards, which are scheduled for July 21 to 23, 2022, in Springfield, Missouri, at Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium.
If the score holds up and is confirmed by B&C officials, Kramer’s bull will be the biggest ever recorded in Pennsylvania, and the sixth largest of all time, according to Boone and Crockett.
Kramer knew to hire an outfitter for his winning-raffle hunt and chose Elk County Outfitters in north-central Pennsylvania. He picked the outfit because they showed him photos of the bulls he’d be hunting, saysKramer. Elk County Outfitters is headquartered north of Altoona, Pennsylvania, between the Susquehannock State Forest and Allegheny National Forest. Its surrounded by many state game lands and state forests.
The region is prime elk country, and it’s produced massive bulls for plenty of hunters. In fact, Kramer passed many bulls in the 420-inch range during his Pennsylvania hunt.
“There were enough 400-class bulls running around there that it wasn’t a question of getting a 400-inch bull, but a matter of how far over 400 we could get,” Kramer told B&C.
One day, Kramer had this massive 455-inch bull at 18 yards, but couldn’t get an ethical shot as the bull’s cows were milling too close.
“I thought he was going to come right for us because we were standing in a game trail,” Kramer said. “I kind of wish I had taken my bow.”
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They hunted that bull for the next several days until, finally, at 70 yards and with an open shooting lane, Kramer made one shot with his 7mm Dakota rifle using a 180-grain Berger bullet.
Pennsylvania’s superb elk habitat has produced no less than 19 elk in the B&C record books, including eight non-typicals more than 400-inches.