Editor’s Note: Mossy Oak ProStaffer Parrey Cremeans is the owner of Just For Hunting (www.facebook.com/parrey.cremeans). This outfitting company out of Redding, California, hunts on 35,000 acres in northern California and guides on thousands more acres of public land. Just For Hunting also books hunts all over the world, such as dove hunts in Argentina, red stags in New Zealand, British Columbian moose and all the states in North America. Cremeans hunts for elk, blacktail deer, mule deer, hogs, predators, waterfowl and any of the game species in northern California. For his personal hunting, Cremeans hunts outside of California in Oregon and Missouri.
All the elk hunts in California are premium elk hunts. You have to draw a tag or buy a conservation tag, which can cost as much as $20,000. However, there’s some private land we hunt that’s part of a conservation program with the State of California. Because we’re on this program, we get one elk tag each year that sells for $6,000. But there is a trophy fee attached to that elk tag. You’ll be hunting in low oak savannahs on property about 15-minutes outside of Redding, California. We’ve had this same tag for 3 years. The first elk taken with a bow scored 351 inches. The second year a gun hunter bought this tag, and his elk scored 372 -5/8 inches. This past fall of 2013, we took a bull elk that scored 365-5/8 inches and had 20 inches of tine length broken off his rack. We’ve got some really big bull elks on this property we’re hunting. We’ve also acquired some private land around this property. So, anyone who draws an elk tag in the northeastern section of California can hunt this property with us. This year, we took one elk off the new land that was 362 inches and had 70 inches of mass.
The elk we hunt are in open country and are feeding on agriculture. Although these elk have been on the land for 60 years, we haven’t been able to hunt them until 3-years ago, when the size of the unit was extended. California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife started stocking these elk in three different locations. The department stocked Roosevelt elk and Rocky Mountain elk. But as you may guess, elk don’t stay right where they’re planted. So, many of our Rocky Mountain elk have Roosevelt elk influence in their gene pool.
One of the animals taken this year had a locker weight (total weight of the meat without the head, the hide and the intestines) of 500 pounds. Because we’re hunting a mature elk herd with Roosevelt elk genetics in some of them, we take some elk with really-big antlers. This elk hunt is really fun, since you often can hunt and stalk these elk from a long way off. You’ll see plenty of elk. The hunter has an opportunity to pick out the bull he wants to try and take. As this elk herd continues to grow, over the years, we’re hoping to have a much-more liberal number of elk tags available for hunters. Call Just For Hunting at 650-888-0808 to learn more, or check out the website.
