Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How big is your elk?

This might be of interest for folks going elking this fall. It is a means of estimating live and field-dressed weight of elk by using a tape measure (or a string). The data behind the measurement come from 57 animals killed in hunts at Custer St. Park in South Dakota.

It might be fun to see the weights of some of these animals that are posted here.

This is the abstract that gives the necessary information
Estimating elk weight from
chest girth
Authors : Joshua J. Millspaugh and Gary C. Brundige
Abstract When body weight is difficult to obtain in the field, an indirect estimator such as chest girth could prove beneficial. Regression equations relating body weight to chest girth have been developed for several wildlife species, but not for elk (Cervus elaphus). We recorded eviscerated weight and chest girth from 57 harvested elk (31 bulls, 22 cows, and 4 calves) in Custer State Park, South Dakota, during fall 1993 and 1994. Nineteen visceral piles were weighed in fall 1994 to estimate total body weight. A significant correlation existed between eviscerated weight and chest girth for 1993 and 1994 combined (r2 = 0.84, n = 57, P < 0.001). Intact body weight (i.e., carcass weight plus visceral weight) and chest girth were linearly related (r2 = 0.88, n = 19, P < 0.001). Regression equations were developed for the estimation of both eviscerated (y = 0.024x1 81) and intact body weight (y = 2.76x - 128.46) from chest girth.

The complete citation for those with access is

Estimating Elk Weight from Chest Girth
Author(s): Joshua J. Millspaugh and Gary C. Brundige
Source: Wildlife Society Bulletin, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 1996), pp. 58-61

Carry the Naught.Pie r round, not Square. Divide by eleventeen.....

I come up with 22,714.777898. No wonder it was soo hard to pack out.

x in inches, y is lbs? Measured where? We need a wee bit more info.

Kawi will be here shortly to clear it up for ya.

now THAT is funny!

How much did your elk weigh? Ask me after it is back in camp.

Yep.

Pie r round, cornbread r square.

Must be grams.

Why not grains?

As in;

It was a windless cold brisk morning, sun incased in a frozen glow low in tbe eastern horizon. Following the movement of 4 very large bulls steeping out into the clearing, one was larger then the others by a considerable margin!

Slowly raising my rifle and taking the safety off, he gave me a clear shot.
That 140 grain AccuBond topping an even 65 grains of H-4831-SC found it's mark.

With a short moment of speed my bull tried to return to where he came from, only to crash into a dead-fall and dance his last gator!

There he was, my first true Rocky Mountain Monarch! A true wall-hanger!

One could only guess as to his live weight? But packing him out, he netted over 2,100,000 grains of prime elk venison!

That sounds better than 300lbs.

My apologies. That was in centimeters and kilograms.

For inches and pounds

Live weight = 15.4*girth in inches - 282.612

Field dressed weight = 0.130*(girth in inches)^1.81 ; where ^ 1.81 means raising the girth to the 1.81 power.

He was 869 on the hoof, and is a 7x7 with 56" main beams and is 51" wide.

Holy Bull! What a beast!

That rack isn't just big, it is beautiful with a ton of character.

What state and what year did you get him?

Hope you didn't have to drag that big boy far to get him whole into the pickup. Nice elk

Betting it's a PA elk. Hell of a bull.