On August 6, the second day of the season, Lupien was in a neighbor's old box stand when the animal stepped out of the woods and into a bean field 250 yards away. She shot once with a .300 Winchester Magnum rifle, not sure she hit it. But a slight blood trail led to the downed elk, 120 yards from where it was shot.
"We heard it crash into the woods,'' said Lupien, a nurse who won the elk tag in this year's license lottery. "It was so exciting.''
For more on this story, check out the original reporting by the Star Tribune.