Teen becomes youngest Pennsylvania female archer to get bull elk

A teen who has become the youngest female archer to get a bull elk in Pennsylvania enjoys hunting for a variety of reasons, including the conservation measures the sport provides.

Samantha Bartlett, 14, of Oil City, used her crossbow to harvest a bull elk September 16 in northcentral Pennsylvania. She won one of only 16 archery bull elk tags in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s annual license drawing. Overall, only 140 elk licenses were awarded this year over three hunting seasons.

The Game Commission reports while there have been younger hunters than Samantha to get an elk in Pennsylvania, she is the youngest female to get a bull with archery gear.

“It’s quite an accomplishment, and the accounts I’ve heard suggest Samantha paid her dues in getting her bull, putting in long days afield for multiple days, with a level of dedication that’s not necessarily common. Hats off to her for making it happen, and placing a good shot when opportunity knocked,” Travis Lau, communications director for the agency, said.

The daughter of Noel and Sandra Bartlett is a freshman at Oil City High School in Venango County and this is her third-year hunting deer.

The elk license lottery system allows hunters to accumulate points to give them a better chance at one of the coveted tags. Her father decided to purchase elk applications for her when they got their general hunting licenses just to give her better odds of being drawn some day.

“She didn’t even know she was applying. I’ve been putting her in since she turned 12,” her father said. He’s been applying for himself for a couple decades and never won a tag. “It just happens she didn’t have to wait as long as I’ve been waiting.”

When the Game Commission called to say she won, he was wondering why a grown man was calling to talk to his daughter.

“He told me she had drawn (a tag), and I was taken aback by the fact that I’ve been trying for a very long time,” he said. “When I told her, she was pretty excited.”

When Samantha heard the news, she didn’t really believe her father.

“I thought he was messing with me, and I didn’t think he was being serious because not many people get drawn especially when they’re young,” she said.

She’s been whitetail deer hunting the past two years and has been able to get a buck and two does with a rifle.

This is her first year archery hunting. With the Game Commission including Sundays in this fall’s archery season, her dad said she would have time to go this year. She’s too busy on Fridays and Saturdays with a variety of activities including track and field, roller hockey, marching band, cheerleading and Civil Air Patrol.

She’s been shooting her crossbow through the summer months. “I picked it up pretty quickly,” she said. She likes archery because she’s shooting at closer ranges than she would with a rifle. Her dad was impressed with her accuracy. “She ended up being a natural. She was dead on out to 60 yards,” he said.

Her tag was for Zone 3 which is about two hours east of their home. Instead of driving each day, they took advantage of the opportunity to stay at a hunting camp with Trophy Rack Lodge Outfitters who provided two guides for her adventure. “Their guides were incredible,” he said.

The season opened on Saturday, Sept. 16, and they hunted three full days before they found a good shoot opportunity at a bull. “We’d get up at 3 in the morning and didn’t get back until 10 at night, putting on about 10 miles a day,” he said. “We saw plenty of elk leading up to it,” he said, but they didn’t have any ethical archery range opportunities.

However, on September 15, she was able to get a coyote with her crossbow that was moving through about 30 yards away. “It was pretty neat. I never coyote hunted before and when it came out, it was a split-second decision. It was trotting along and I shot pretty fast,” she said.

The next morning, they were in the woods before daylight. “We decided to try a new spot. We got out of the truck and we could hear them bugling pretty close. So, we waited for it to get a little lighter out and we walked up about 700 yards to a food plot and there were two elk fighting,” she said.

“Once they stopped fighting, the guide called (to the bulls) and one of the elk came running toward me and it kind of stopped. It went to turn away and it gave me a perfect broadside shot and I shot,” she said.

The bull was about 40 yards away and traveled about 100 yards more before falling over. “It was pretty exciting,” she said.

Her dad was proud of the way she handled the intense encounter. “I was so impressed with how she kept her composure. The guide was just amazed by her,” he said.

She enjoyed hearing the bulls bugle and the cow calls. “I thought it was kind of funny because they are these ginormous animals and they have this little high pitch scream,” she said.

With the help of their guides, they moved the bull down off a hill and through a field to a road. “It’s about an 800-pound animal, so obviously, it wasn’t easy,” she said. Her dad said, “it took about four hours to go 700 yards.”

The elk had a 7×6 point rack and was estimated to have an 850-pound live weight. The bull was taken to a butcher shop, and the head and rack is going to made into a European skull mount.

Now she’s looking to accomplish the quadruple trophy in Pennsylvania. That’s a rare feat of getting an elk, a buck, turkey and black bear all in the same hunting year.

Her dad said, “The deer and turkey won’t be too difficult, but the bear — that’s going to be the tough one to accomplish for her.”

The Game Commission reports less that 3% of the hunters with a bear license get a bear each year.

“If I were to get all the animals in archery, I would be the first person to do that,” she said.

Looking back on her adventure, she said, “It’s a really great opportunity, and I like the way that it’s moderated, so you don’t have a lot of people doing it over and over again.”  Her dad added, “If you try long enough, you’ll eventually be drawn.”

For Samantha, she enjoys spending time in the woods with her family and helping the environment. “Hunting is really important to maintain a healthy ecosystem, at least in moderation. Hunting, you need it to keep populations where they need to be, so that their habitats can flourish and stuff. So, I like being able to do that,” she said. “I think it’s really important to conserve what we have here in Pennsylvania.”