Hunt Masters' Gregg Ritz harvested a massive elk while hunting in northcentral Pa. Here's how it happened and where and when to see the videos.
A nationally known hunter has capitalized on his rare opportunity to archery hunt a massive Pennsylvania bull elk.
Gregg Ritz, president and CEO of Thompson/Center Arms, and host and executive producer of Hunt Masters outdoors show, got his bull on the sixth day of his adventure.
“It was quite the experience,” the New Hampshire hunter said in a telephone interview.
He was hunting with Elk County Outfitters, which has been scouting and monitoring the bulls in Zone 5. That’s the region where he won the tag in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s annual license lottery. The agency awarded 140 tags for this license year including 16 bull tags for the September archery season.
“The hunt kicked off on Saturday and we had an encounter with a really nice elk, probably in the 350s,” he said about its inches of antler. “We couldn’t stalk and get a shot. By the time we saw him, he had seen us and then he caught our wind.
“It was hot and sunny the whole time. It was in the 80s and sunny every single day,” Ritz, 56, said about the challenging conditions for elk which prefer cooler weather.
“I was in Zone 5, which is one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, zone to hunt in because it has the lowest elk density in it,” he said.
“We spent a couple days not even hearing an elk, not even seeing an elk, not even an animal,” he said about the rugged mountain.
“I think there’s a perception, that if you get a tag, there’s a big bull around every corner. And that’s certainly not the case, at least in the zone I was in,” he said. “You really had to hunt hard for them.”
On Monday, they had an encounter with the bull he would eventually harvest several days later. They were walking on the paths through the woods that led to food plot fields when they heard the bull bugle and then eventually step out into a clearing. However, the closest he came was 83 yards which was too far for Ritz to make an ethical shot with his compound bow. It was difficult to stalk on the dry ground with a cameraman along. “He barked at us and circled around and came back and circled around,” he said about the encounter.
The bull eventually took off over the countryside.However, Ritz ended up meeting up with him again on Thursday about 2 miles away from their first encounter.
“We were back in the timber a long way and heard a faint bugle,” he said. They climbed on top of the mountain and heard another bugle. “So, then we called, he responded. And that’s always a good thing."
The bull bugled back to their call from a cool hemlock stand and walked out into an open area. “It’s unbelievable. The lighting was pretty, the color on the leaves and ferns, it was just gorgeous,” he said.
Ritz set up away from the guide and caller and waited for the bull to move in. When the bull appeared, the guide displayed a cow elk decoy that got the attention of the bull. “It turns him on a dime, 90 degrees. And he literally walked within 14 yards of us,” he said. “It was spectacular. But it happened so quickly,” he said about the shot opportunity.
The bull has a 6x8 rack. “He’s a main frame 6x6 and he had a flyer coming off his left G2 and then that split. So that was like 15 inches of extra points. So, he was in the 360s and probably weighed about 700 pounds,” he said.
What was interesting about the bull, is that it was one of the bulls the Game Commission captured when it was a calf and tagged seven and a half years ago for research. The ear tag has the name of Steve Smith, who became executive director of the agency just over a year ago. “He was there for that calf capture and did all the biology work on my bull,” Ritz said. “What a neat story.”
The public can watch the adventure unfold online through videos on Hunt Masters Youtube: @GreggRitzHuntMasters and on his Instagram, TikTok and Facebook pages. The hunt will air on Hunt Masters on Outdoor Channel in 2026 during the season that starts early in July and runs through the end of September.
The Game Commission is happy Ritz was able to harvest a bull and that the experience will be shared on his various media platforms.
“I think the great thing about Gregg’s hunt is that he’s been able to share it with so many people. In any given year, only so many elk licenses are allocated, and only so many hunters have the opportunity to hunt Pennsylvania elk,” Travis Lau, communications director, said.
“The number of archery elk hunters is smaller yet. Gregg is allowing the masses to experience what it’s like — and not just a peek behind the curtain, but in a way that makes you feel you’re walking alongside him,” Lau said.
Ritz has been blessed to hunt in many states across the country and has harvested about 20 elk over his hunting career. He rates his Pennsylvania hunt as one of the top adventures.
“It’s probably the most memorable archery hunt I ever had,” he said about how the bull quickly responded and trotted to the hunters.
He appreciates how the guides and the hunters work together to get the elk out of the woods. For his bull, 10 guys used a plastic sled to pull the heavy animal about two miles to the nearest road. “We had so much fun,” he said about everyone being excited about the bull and working together to navigate the terrain.
It's something he noticed earlier in the week when other hunters got an elk.
“It’s very much like deer camp. Everybody rallies behind that. They’re excited about it and want to lend a helping hand and celebrate the harvest,” he said. “It’s a great thing to see the culture of the hunting community in Pennsylvania.”
He's having a European skull mount made of the head and rack.
“It’s a once in a lifetime tag,” he said. However, for those who don’t get to hunt, he encourages everyone to visit the elk range to observe these large deer. “It they can ever take the time to view the elk, just go and take a weekend, go spend a couple of days, I mean so there are so opportunities,” he said. Driving around the viewing areas early morning and evening, he said people should be able to see elk every day. “It’s really easy to do and worth the trip."
While he was hunting in a remote area, he did spend some time in Benezette, where the Keystone Elk Country Alliance (KECA) Visitor Center attracts hundreds of thousands of people each year to see wild elk roaming through the community. “This elk viewing is massive,” he said.
Ritz credits KECA, the Game Commission, the Pa. Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) for their efforts to improve the habitat for elk to thrive and grow. “They’re constantly bulldozing and mowing and opening up the timber to create elk habitat. Without them doing that, you wouldn’t have the elk you have,” he said.
Pennsylvania has more than 1,400 wild elk roaming northcentral Pennsylvania.
The money for the Game Commission to improve the area comes from hunters. He also spoke about the money from hunting licenses and Pittman Robertson Act tax funds that come from the sale of guns, ammunition and archery gear, and donations through RMEF and KECA.
“You have hundreds of thousands of people who are taking pictures, elk viewing, that are not hunters that aren’t paying into the system but are out there enjoying the resource of the elk,” he said. “I don’t know if the hunters get enough credit for what they do.”
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at [email protected] and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Gregg Ritz gets massive bull during Pennsylvania archery adventure
Category: General Sports
