Long before daybreak on Sept. 16, 14-year-old Samantha Bartlett and her dad, Noel, were in the mountains of north-central Pennsylvania listening for bugling and rutting bulls. They were crossbow hunting elk on state-owned public land with two guides hired from Trophy Rack Lodge outfitters.
“We’d hunted a lot of miles in other places for three days and saw lots of elk,” Noel tells Outdoor Life. “But Samantha wanted a big bull, and while we saw some, she just couldn’t get the right chance at a good one. But that fourth morning was different.”
They’d walked several hundred yards uphill to a food plot when the hunters heard bulging. Then a pair of bulls started fighting, causing a lot of commotion and noise.
“They were far off, just out of sight at about dawn,” says Noel, a 47-year-old fire Captain from Oil City. “It was a wild bull elk fight. That’s when our guide Zack [Hassinger] said he and Samantha should sneak closer to the bulls — while our other guide, John Prokop, and I stayed back to keep from spooking them.”
Samantha and Zack eased closer to the fighting bulls, staying in high grass for concealment. Then the fight stopped.
“Zack knew it was time to cow call because bulls want to keep their herd of females, and not lose them to another bull,” Noel says. “He cow-called a few times, and a big bull — that we think was the largest herd bull — came trotting to them.”
Zack ranged the oncoming bull at 40 yards and relayed the info to Samantha. When the bull turned sideways, she leveled her crossbow, and fired an arrow tipped with an expandable three-blade broadhead. The arrow struck the bull perfectly behind the shoulder and exiting the animal on the opposite side.
“The bull was down in less than 100 yards, and they heard it fall. We found the bolt, and the broadhead is still in perfect condition.”
Noel said the weather was warm so the hunters decided to drag the animal 700 yards down a mountain to a vehicle to get the bull out of the area. They believed it would be easier and quicker to drag the animal rather than quarter it and pack it out.
“No vehicles are allowed in that area, and we thought dragging was better since it was all downhill,” he said. “But we were wrong. It took us four hours to drag that bull, which we estimate was 800 pounds” on the hoof.
They took the 6×7 bull to a state game inspection station in the town of Benezette. There workers took blood samples, checked for disease, and recorded other data from the elk.
Noel said the bull’s rack green-scored 310 inches. He also said the state has confirmed that Samantha is the youngest person ever to take a bull elk in Pennsylvania.
“It all happened because I’ve been putting her in for a drawn elk tag for a couple years, and she got lucky and drew a bull tag this year in Zone Three,” Noel says. “I’ve been trying to get a tag forever, and she gets drawn almost right away.”
This is the first year Pennsylvania has allowed Sunday hunting, which is really important for youngsters, said Noel. Saturdays are tough for kids to get out and hunt because of conflicting school activities. Sundays are the best weekend days to hunt, but until this year they couldn’t go in Pennsylvania.
Samantha’s elk was taken to a game processor, and the meat has already been packaged and frozen. Noel says they’ll have a European mount made.
“It’s huge, and we only have 8-foot ceilings in our home,” he says, laughing. “But it’ll fit, and we’ll hang it right beside the 6-point buck that Samantha shot two years ago with a rifle.
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“She wants to try and take a Pennsylvania ‘quad trophy’ this year. That’s a tough one to do with an elk, black bear, turkey, and deer. And she wants to do it with a crossbow.”
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