Roseau sib­lings kill two mas­sive bull elk

Shar­lene Peter­son, 63, shot this bull elk with 7‑by‑7 antlers dur­ing the evening of Sat­ur­day, Sept. 9, to fill her once-in-a-life­time license in Minnesota.

By Bri­an Mozey
Staff Writer
Roseau, Minn.

Gary Przek­was, 58, and Shar­lene Peter­son, 63, have applied for Minnesota’s elk-hunt­ing license lot­tery since the hunt began in 2008, for zones 20 and 30 in the Kitt­son Cen­tral hunt­ing area. The broth­er and sis­ter have dreamed about hunt­ing elk in Min­neso­ta for years.

In 2023, they drew once-in-a-life­time licens­es and recent­ly, both shot bulls. Przek­was’ elk sport­ed 10-by-11 non­typ­i­cal antlers, and Peterson’s elk had a 7‑by‑7 rack. Both cre­at­ed mem­o­ries that’ll last a lifetime.

“I was in dis­be­lief the whole time,” Przek­was said. “I don’t know how many prayers I’ve said, but I’m so grate­ful for (the opportunity).”

Przek­was and Peter­son both live in Roseau and have cof­fee togeth­er each morn­ing. Peter­son retired in 2022 from work­ing at a hos­pi­tal, and Przek­was is a water oper­a­tor and assis­tant super­in­ten­dent for the city of Roseau.

A Min­neso­ta elk license is tough to draw; only 17 state licens­es were avail­able for the 2023 season.

Peter­son recalls the recent mid-July morn­ing she walked to her mail­box, and as she flipped through bills and junk mail, she noticed a Min­neso­ta DNR post­card. It said she’d been select­ed for a 2023 elk license.

“I couldn’t even com­pose myself,” Peter­son said.

Roseau res­i­dent Gary Przek­was, 58, shot this elk with non­typ­i­cal 10-by-11 antlers in the morn­ing on Mon­day, Sept. 11.

She imme­di­ate­ly called Przek­was to tell him the good news, then the next morn­ing, around 7 a.m., Przek­was found a post­card say­ing he, too, had received an elk license. Morn­ing cof­fee ses­sions after that focused on plan­ning their elk hunts.

“I had said if we get one tag in our fam­i­ly in our life­time, that’ll be great,” Przek­was said. “Then, we got two.”

Peter­son received a land owner’s license and Przek­was received a 10-year license, which is a spe­cial draw­ing for appli­cants who have applied for more than a decade. They each earned a license for either sex in Zone 30. Peter­son and Przek­was have land in the Zone 30 area that’s been in the fam­i­ly since 1920.

After get­ting the post­cards, the sib­lings start­ed scout­ing. They’ve suc­ceed­ed with elk hunt­ing dur­ing past trips to Col­orado. As the sea­son approached, they would head out at 5 a.m. and lis­ten for bull elk bugling. It helped with their scout­ing, espe­cial­ly as hunt week got closer.

Peterson’s elk hunt start­ed and end­ed on Sat­ur­day, Sept. 9. She drove to her hunt­ing site around 4 a.m. and checked the wind, which was blow­ing the wrong way for her stand at first.

An hour after reach­ing her stand, a big bull came from 225 yards away. She couldn’t get a shot, but she stayed in the stand for a few hours then switched stands to play the wind.

In the evening, the bull even­tu­al­ly exit­ed brush walk­ing hard and fast. Peter­son made a small noise to stop him for a moment, and she shot. At about 250 yards away, the elk was hit and 30 sec­onds lat­er, it dropped to the ground. Peter­son shot around 7 p.m. with a 7mm-08 Remington.

“You get speech­less,” Peter­son said. “I just said, ‘what a mag­nif­i­cent expe­ri­ence to have.’ I wish more peo­ple could expe­ri­ence this.”

Przek­was had a sim­i­lar result, but a dif­fer­ent sto­ry. He hunt­ed all week­end but didn’t shoot his elk until Mon­day morn­ing, Sept. 11. He walked out at 5 a.m. to the side woods of their prop­er­ty and start­ed bulging. He heard some elk, but sus­pect­ed they were smaller.

Ini­tial­ly, Przek­was had his sights on an 8‑by‑8 bull until his neigh­bor showed him images of a 10-by-11 elk he’d seen near his prop­er­ty. After see­ing the pho­tos, he changed his plan.

After bulging for a bit, he tried a cow elk call, and his tar­get­ed bull came through the woods “like a freight train.” The elk, which appeared to have branch­es in its antlers, slowed broad­side for a moment and Przek­was took a shot, but it wasn’t a great shot.

He shot again with his .300 Rem­ing­ton Ultra Mag, then wait­ed ner­vous­ly. Przek­was wait­ed until about 10:30 a.m. to walk into the woods and they found blood. Even­tu­al­ly, the blood trail went cold but after 90 min­utes of search­ing, they found the elk.

Przek­was has been to Col­orado for 10 sea­sons, so he’s now shot 11 bulls in 11 sea­sons. Even so, he admit­ted get­ting emo­tion­al about this animal.

“I’ve been hunt­ing for so long, and I know the val­ue of some­thing like that. I’ve hunt­ed in the moun­tains, and I’ve nev­er seen some­thing like that. I’ve seen big elk out (in Col­orado), but noth­ing like this,” Przek­was said.

By Mon­day night, Przek­was said there more than 80 peo­ple at their prop­er­ty cel­e­brat­ing their fine week­end. The best part for the two hunters is shar­ing this moment with grand­chil­dren, chil­dren, and oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends.

Przek­was and Peter­son doubt­ed whether they’d ever get an elk license, but they stayed pos­i­tive and it paid off.

RECORD-BOOK BULL. Gary Przek­was, of Roseau, shot this 10-by-11 bull elk Sept. 11 while hunt­ing in Kitt­son Coun­ty. The non­typ­i­cal antlers green-scored 413 7⁄8 gross. His sis­ter, Shar­lene Peter­son, also scored a big elk in the Roseau area. See Przek­was’ elk on dis­play at the Min­neso­ta Deer and Turkey Clas­sic, March 8–10, 2024, at Can­ter­bury Park.

Peter­son has heard peo­ple say that they’d choose a Min­neso­ta elk license over the Min­neso­ta lottery.

The two elk can­not be offi­cial­ly scored until after a 60-day dry-down peri­od, but Randy Dufault, a cer­ti­fied mea­sur­er for the Boone and Crock­ett Club in East Grand Forks, said Ryan Spindler unof­fi­cial­ly green-scored the bull elk on Mon­day, Sept. 11. Dufault said Spindler is a bear guide and has expe­ri­ence scor­ing tro­phy ani­mals. He’s also neigh­bors to Przek­was and Peterson.

Dufault said Przek­was’ elk was green-scored at 413 7⁄8, which would place the rack third among the Min­neso­ta state records in the non­typ­i­cal elk cat­e­go­ry. A bull tak­en by Bradley Penas cur­rent­ly is sec­ond at 419, and the largest was found dead at 462 2⁄8, accord­ing to Boone and Crock­ett Club website.

Peterson’s elk green-scored 368, which puts her at sec­ond for the Min­neso­ta state record in the typ­i­cal elk cat­e­go­ry. She’s behind G.R. Rode and J.L. Dale, who hold the top spot at 371 6⁄8, accord­ing to Boone and Crock­ett Club website.

Dufault said he’ll trav­el to Roseau to score both elk after the 60-day dry-down period.

Ear­ly suc­cess for elk hunters

Jason Wollin, the Min­neso­ta DNR’s Karl­stad-area wildlife super­vi­sor, pro­vid­ed an elk sea­son update on Tues­day, Sept. 19, after the first sea­son ended.

Hunters were three-for-three for har­vest­ed bulls in Zone 30, two-for-two for har­vest­ed bulls in Zone 20, and one of two hunters filled their antler­less-only tags in Zone 20. The first sea­son con­clud­ed Sept. 17, and the sec­ond sea­son begins Sept. 23.