Elk do vary in size between locations . A 3 -4 yur old bull in Alberta around Baniff will easily out weigh a 7 yr old bull in WY, ID or CO. The cows up there will out weigh the young bulls down here. This is strange because they all came out of the Yellowstone herd many yrs ago. I would go with the 225 lbs or so from an average cow and maybe 250 from an average bull. I probably get a little less now since I do the no gut method. If you process your own, you can always get more meat by leaving the bone in and picking the meat out when you eat it. I don't have space in my freezew=r for all the bone though.
BTW I did contact the CO DOW last year about leaving the neck in the field because of CW. They said no way. Lymph glands are way up past what anybody would cut into on the neck. You could be cited for waste of meat.
