Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Judging BIG elk....

For a guy who has never killed an elk even CLOSE to that big....he would be shot if I had him walk in front of me during the season...

He's over 320...and thats my mark I'd love to hit......would he go 340?? No idea...haha.

Those main beams are crazy long and he has it all....cept for maybe a few inches on his 5th points.....but heck he makes me drooooool.....

I never said I could judge pictures. And going by what was supposedly known (58" main beams), I used the best tool I knew. Math.
However its no excuse, other than pictures are decieving.

Thanks for sharing that with us. It was fun.

Does anyone know the right score?

Kique

Here is a pic of my elk hunting buddy's elk that looks to be a twin of Kilmer's picture. We got him last fall and he scores (officially) 338 1/8" B&C.


My elk, taken on the same hunt scored 358 2/8"....like someone else said on this thread, most of the big ones are 6x6 big and boxy, with mass...he described mine to a "T", except he had two small additional points up front that made him a 7x7, but it was really a 6x6 frame. Both elk were taken fair chase. Best of luck to you fine folks this fall!

Those are two awesome elk!!! Wow....that bull is what dreams are made of....

Wow !!! Now thats 2 outstanding bulls. What State???
Back to the first photo I'll stick to my first guess.

Those are two great bulls also!!! But the first bull doesn't have 58" mains, let's assume he has 48" beams (which maybe a little long).If he is pretty close to being Kilemer's bull's twin and officially goes 338" adding the extra 20" would put him(Kilmer's) at 358". Just curious Godog what are the main beams and the inside spread on your bull? 50"-52" mains? And FYI here in NM we call those little nontypical points you described "Devil's tines" or "Acoma points". Awesome bull for sure!!!!

58" beams are world class. That first bull doesn't look like anything special to me. It's a nice bull, but not even book. I figured maybe somebody had killed it and measured the beams. I think they look about 50" tops but photos can be deceiving.

In any event, I wouldn't shoot that first bull.

This pic shows his length better



Here he is on the ground, that is me on the left. He's 48" wide at his 3rds, and 22" wide at the tips (pretty cool). Killed with a muzzleloader at 25 yards. This hunter's first elk.



I misjudged this bull after watching him for about an hour (including a 20 minute brawl with a bull about the same size) at 1500 yards. The picture is taken through my spotting scope. His face is really short, which threw me off. I could tell the main beams were exceptional, but I overestimated the length of his fronts. I guessed him at 365-370, he taped just over 352.

I guess my point is, I've looked at a ton of big elk, on the hoof and on the ground, and the difference between a 330 and a 350 (or a 350 and a 370) is less than 2" on each tine, and pretty tough to see at distance.

Shoot one that looks "big enough" to you, and you won't be disappointed. The hunter in the picture wasn't.



PS: Nice bull Godogs.

Thanks Kilmer! I think the short fifths on that bull really throw everyone off! If he would have had 15" fifths everyone would have been calling him 370-380(and I guess he would have been close-approx 366?). Anyway he is a great bull and they're always better when they are on the ground!....Besides I knew a Utahn wouldn't post a pic of a 330 "rat"!!!!

How about this one?





Sorry about the second picture (i hate back of the truck shots) but it shows the tine length a little better. Both pics are of the same bull. I'm on the right in the first pic. I know the score.

Experts?

Wow Kilmer that's a great bull for anyone,anywhere,anytime.
Thanks for the lesson in field judging. I'll take a stab
at that huge 6x6. I'll say 358 and put me down as one of
the guys who would not blink before droping the hammer on
him.
I'm just hoping to top 300 this fall in Colorado. I'm may
never get there hunting public land DIY but I'm still trying.
Thanks again for taking the time to post the photos. Later
Taters

I'm guessing 362 on that last bull. Nice one. I don't mind the back of the truck photo at all. At least it's not a Ford. (sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Im in 362 and call.

I'm damn sure no expert! They kick my a$$ every year!! But to me if you doubled the bulls big side(his left)with average mass and 42 inside you'd have a 380ish gross bull. With the differences between sides -not confused with net- he's a 370s gross bull maybe less. Great thirds!Shows what tine length does for a score. Another gagger bull on most hunts!! But if this bull and the first were standing together I'd shoot the first. I love the mass on those big black horns!!!

Pictures can be tricky, but the first bull is quite a stud, regardless of score and a few shorter tines. From the photos, I can't get more than 340 gross (best case) out of the one in the truck. Nice bull no doubt, and impressive enough to have been able to load him whole. That's my dream.. a big one, whole in the truck.

Once upon a time I was gonna make up a bumper sticker that said "real men get their elk out whole"...

Unless of course it's high fence or big butt rancho.

Dober

"real men get their elk out whole"...

We got the whole elk out, but he was in halves. If you look closely, you can see that the hind end is not in the truck with the front end. There happened to be a 4 wheeler road in the bottom of the canyon he was shot in that we didn't discover until we went to put our hands on him.

The bull in my first pics left the mountain in pieces, on our backs, just like God intended. 2 miles, uphill, to the truck - 3 trips.

Those big thirds are what cost this bull his life. He nets 362 and change. I didn't think he'd break 350 on the hoof, after watching him bedded for about an hour. The guy with the gun disagreed, and he was right.

No fences, no ranchos, just good quality limited-entry units in Utah.

EDIT :By the way Mark, you have yet to ask me about the bear pictured in my avatar. It was killed in your home county. I'm surprised you don't recognize it.

OK, my bad tell me about your bruin...grins

Thx
Dober

Oh, that little old thing? Well, since you asked

I killed it June 2007 just north of the park buffer zone and south of Big Sky (can't remember the name of the drainage, maybe Taylor?). .35 Whelen, 200 grn TSX, 147 yards.



One little rub on a hind leg, and a belly full of rotting elk calf. He was 15 years old, and measured 20 2/16 green. I'm still waiting for it to come back from the beetles for an official score (getting a little nervous about it taking so long). Hide squared 6'10".

Sorry for the hi-jack. Back to elk business.

Nice bruin! I'd kind of like to hunt them some day...

Thx 4 sharing

Dober