I've only seen one bull elk that probably weighed 1,000 pounds on the hoof. He was killed by my guide in Alberta and he was an absolutely huge old thing. Ugly horns, worn out, toothless and absolutely enormous. He actually outweighed Chub's 60-inch fully mature moose by at least 100 pounds. I'm trying to remember the weight, but it was something like 860 pounds; gutted, skinned, head & legs off.
It was amazing comparing the size of the elk and Chub's moose.
And it was so damned tough that you could not eat the gravy.
I guided for many years and have thrown around a lot of elk parts and pieces. Mostly, I'm thinking mature bulls run, as you say, 500 lbs to 750 lbs (for a damned big one) on the hoof.
And I've seen some bulls, spikes mostly, that were so small that a very strong man carried the gutted carcass. I've never done that, I never was that strong and/or stupid, but I've actually seen men carry a spike.
Elk, of course, are subject to sexual dimorphism and the cows run somewhat smaller. I've personally killed some pretty huge cows, just trying to knock off the herd leader, and they can be decent size. I've also seen quite a few little cows that only went 250 or so for the slick carcass.
I haven't killed many Roosevelt elk, but they look the same to me on the ground. Hell, it's just a dead flippin' elk
But, the common knowledge is that they are larger than Rocky Mountain elk. Prolly so, I imagine.
Elk are all pretty good size and they eat a hell of a lot better than deer. And that's all I know.
Steve
