Youngest to ever kill an elk in Arkansas


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Guest Pronghorn

Youngest elk hunter earns his bull the hard way

20071003_joeyshirley.jpgCOMPTON – Eleven-year-old Joey Shirley forced himself to wait, to wait, to wait. Finally there was enough light. The fog lifted.

Joey Shirley fired his .308-caliber rifle once, and the big bull elk went down.

Shirley, who lives at Dover, was one of the four permit holders in the 2007 September Arkansas elk hunt to score. The other three downed bull elk near sundown the first day, hunting miles apart but taking the challenging big animals within a few minutes of each other.

It was the morning of the fourth day before Joey Shirley connected. Just one more day remained in the hunt after that. He had missed a shot at a bull the first day.

“We went to this field first thing in the morning, and there were elk in it,” Joey said. “But we weren’t close enough. We crawled. We crawled for a long way. Then we could tell it was a bull, but it wasn’t light enough yet.” He had his father, Eddie Shirley, as his hunt helper.

Joey, a sixth grader, was the youngest hunter to draw a permit in the 10 years of Arkansas elk hunting. Previous youngest were two 13-year-olds who were successful in getting elk in the 2004 hunt.

Joey Shirley and the other three September bull elk hunters found similar patterns in the four elk zones. All the bulls were taken on the edges of fields. That's a factor for potential hunters to keep in mind. Elk feed in the fields early and late in the day. Midday and at night they use the woods or at least the brush around the field perimeters.

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