Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk size and antler development?

Really hard to say as he's kind of atypical, but that huge left 4th suggests he might be older. Looks like a big head too. Large bodied?

Yeah, I think so. He is the first non-spike bull I've ever been next to though also. So I don't have anything to compare it to besides 1 cow and 1 spike.

Obviously, the positioning of this picture makes his body look bigger than it is though.

Still a tough angle, but I'm pretty sure that bull is over 3 years old. Just a guess, open to anyone else's opinion

nice pics and commentary Exbio. But man, some horrific injuries to a couple of those hunters, eh? Their faces are horribly disfigured, I am so glad they can still hunt!

I had this bull(above)aged after I killed him three months after I took these pictures....he was 9 1/2 years old. I have his shed antlers from the year before.



This bull I guided in 2007, was aged at 8 1/2 years old....My opinion is for a bull elk to reach maximun growth, they need to be at least this age. Of course, genetics, habitat and range condition all play a part, but age is the number one factor.

Haha yeah, that's my buddy's uncle who is a CEO of a significant hunting equipment company, and since I haven't seen those pictures on their website, I'm not gonna be the one to show his face.

Most of the 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 year old bulls I see killed are 5pts. Amazing how you guys can tell a 6 or 7 year old bull just standing there in the meadow. Those Colorado bulls must be real predictable.

I have seen bulls as young as 5 1/2 years old reach 375" here in AZ and I have seen a 13 year old bull that was 380+. A lot of it depends on if they still have any molars left at that age.

I have never killed a 5 pt myself but I have killed and been in on a lot of spike kills. Most of the spikes we killed weighed 220-240# and that is the full quarters only which included the rib cages and some neck meat. I never weighed a 6x6 myself. They were never whole when I got them out!

In later years, we boned them all so I don't know what they weighed or bigger ones for that matter. My son killed a big dry cow that the total carcass weight with feet cut off and head cut off was 450#.

A buddy killed a 300" bull in AZ that was weighed at a check station by a guy working on his grad degree. His bull weighed 970# and was 300# bigger than the next biggest bull. He asked the biologist why it was this way and he told him "for the same reason you are 6'4" 250# and I have 5'7".

Good answer to me!

Who aged them?


Casey

The unit biologist.

Some elk are what they are and just don't get really big high scoring racks. I killed the bull pictured below and he would likely never be anything more than a 5x5 with big whale tales. This gene is fairly common in the area and I LOVE big 5x5's. He is a 4.5 year old about 280 B.C. I saw his big brother and he would easily go 330 and was also a 5x5. He had the same rack, but with MUCH longer points and unbelievable mass.


I have shot several arks full of 2 year old bulls. Some are really crappy looking 3x3's and 4x4's, but a couple are really symmetrical 5x5's. "Most" 2 year old bulls that I have watched grow or have killed remain 5x5's from year 2 through year 3. The 4th year, they "generally" get a small 6th point. Again, this is general in the areas around my home. The 5th year they are pretty good looking symmetrical 6 points and start to put on some good mass.

I have a couple of elk farms near my home. It is very educational to watch and study how bulls change/grow with age in a controlled environment. Some are amazing, but others aren't, even though they have the same feed, minerals, water and age. They simply have different genes. There just aren't any absolutes saying that an elk of a certain age will score "X" and have "Y" points. Age is definitely a big factor, but is only part of the puzzle.

I agree with Scenarshooter on this one...and most any biologist worth their salt will agree.

For bulls to reach their maximum growth potential they have to be 8 years and older.

I also think there are very few bulls that "regress" with age. I think some kind of reach a point then dont grow much more. I picked 3 years worth of sheds from a Montana bull that was 330 as a 7 year old bull, about 340 at 8, about 340 at 9...and was killed when he was 10 and scored just a pinch over 340 gross. Tine lengths didnt change much from 7-10 years old on that bull, mass wasnt much different between 8-10 either.