Last year I killed an orphaned calf caribou using my second either sex tag, having used my first one on a limping cow. i'd already passed on the cow earlier, but some yahoo up valley cut loose way beyond range and bullet-chipped her hoof, as it turned out. When she came back by me, limping, I took her. Guilt free on both. In fact, kinda feel good, even tho there was only a few lbs of meat on the female calf. Under similar circumstances (2 tags) I'd do it again. I doubt that the calf-meat went over 20#.
With 6 tags between son, wife, and myself, I felt I could afford it. We only got one more cow, and ran out of meat in the spring. Burned.....
This year was a single tag, either sex year, and we took a big bull, a medium, and a yearling, as first opportunities offered, passing only on the cows....
Next year, having hunted this herd/area now for 3 years, I'll feel safe to hold out for at least a medium bull, unless late in the hunt. What wife and son do is up to them.
The largest bodied yearling moose I've taken had 3 1/2 inch spikes, the smallest had 16 " spikes. Probably just genetics, but I dunno. I've also takrn one with 2" spikes. Boned out meat ranged from lightest to heaviest was about 40 lbs differential IIRC.
As noted above, calves are the least "invested" in the population.
