NEW SALEM, North Dakota (STPNS) -- The following article is about Jenn Pazdernik?s North Dakota elk and moose hunts. Jenn is the wife of Carrington elementary instructor and wrestling coach Mark Pazdernik. Mark is the son of Jim and Bonnie Pazdernik of New Salem and a 1993 graduate of New Salem High School who earned four state high school Class B wrestling titles along the way.

Jenn Pazdernik had the very rare distinction of having her name picked for both a North Dakota elk and a moose permit this year. It doesn?t happen very often and she made the best of it.



Jenn, wife of Carrington elementary instructor and wrestling coach Mark Pazdernik, filled both of the tags, the first on an elk hunt in western North Dakota on August 19, and the cow moose on Sunday, Oct. 7.

The cow elk was shot northeast of Beach, ND, and the  moose north of the Lone Tree Refuge near Harvey. She was using a 270 rifle with 130 grain bullets for both.

?The only other elk we saw were a couple of cows, two calves and a rag horn bull,? said Mark. ?One of the cows had a radio collar around her neck.?

Mark said the elk was not very big, but the moose was a ?giant.?

?The hanging weight in the cooler was 520 pounds and it was estimated that she probably weighed around 900 pounds or even closer to 1,000 pounds,? Mark said.

?We barely got it in the back of the pickup?it took five people to load her.?

The moose had two ear tags, one a bright orange tag with the number 39, and the other a small metal clip with the number 197.

When the Pazderniks reported the tag numbers to the authorities, they learned a bit of the history of the cow.

She was figured to be about four and a half years old, and at one time wore a GPS collar around her neck. She was tracked from June of 2004 through February 2007 when the collar was removed.

?They (authorities) told us they tracked her in a 100-square-mile area around the Lone Tree area which is located southwest of Harvey,? Mark concluded.

Permits are chosen by way of a lottery system each year and some North Dakota hunters wait a lifetime to receive a moose tag.

To receive both an elk and a moose permit in one year is almost unheard of.

Jenn made her shots count.