Nearly 13,000 want a shot at Tennessee elk

Just four months away from the first elk hunting season Tennessee has hosted in almost 150 years, 13,000 hopeful hunters are lined up looking for their shot.

Only five will be invited on the hunt.

As restoration efforts to bring the elk back have grown the elk herd, Tennessee's Wildlife Resource Agency decided earlier this year to allow the first hunt in more a century. In all, there will be five permits issued.

Four will be given via a lottery drawn randomly.

The other, auctioned off to the highest bidder. The proceeds will be split between a charity and TWRA for use in restoring more elk habitat.

Monday, TWRA said in all they've received 12,800 applications.

"The fact of the matter is, I might have expected a few more," H.A. LaRue, the owner of Sportsman's Choice Hunters Pro Shop in Hall said. "This is going to be like getting to shake hands with the president, something like that."

LaRue has hunted elk more than a decade, taking several trips out west to Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.

In all, he's bagged 11 elk.

"Somebody, this year with one of those state tags is going to kill a new Tennessee state record elk, no question about it," he said.

But whoever shoots that first (and record) elk won't be LaRue.

As for the charity permit, he estimates it'll sell for around $40,000. To most East Tennesseans, it probably seems like a lot of money. He says in other states out west, a similar deal would sell for almost double the price.

While he supports the hunt, he focuses his efforts on bowhunting. So he's not eligible for this endeavor.

However, with an estimated 300 elk in the North Cumberland WMA, LaRue likes the hunters chances of fully taking advantage of the opportunity.

"My guess is, all the tags will fill. I'll bet my money right now," he said.

Not bad, considering just a few short decades ago, elk were scarce throughout most of East Tennessee. Conservation groups like the Smoky Mountain Elk Foundation, TWRA, and others have made strides.

While it is just four hunting permits, hunting enthusiasts and conservationists alike will tell you it means a lot to the restoration efforts and successes they've seen during that time.

The last legal Tennessee hunt happened in 1865.

"I think most of us are just tickled to death the elk are here," he said. "It was really important to be a part of resurrecting something that man-kind had done away with."

Still, LaRue would like to see the efforts continue and more elk brought in. His fear is one shared with some biologists: that the herd is still too small to escape potential in-breeding somewhere down the line.

Hoping to ensure future generations might have better odds of taking a shot at elk in the wildlife management area someday themselves.

"As you get older, you think more about things like that. I'd like to think my grandson will have a place to go hunt," he said.