Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting I shot grandma

I shot a older cow about 20 years ago. She was still good eating.

I thought his one was dry. She was with a bull and I didn't see a calf. Possibly someone had already shot it.

it's easy to pick a dry cow by color, if there are others around to compare them to. Just like it's easy to tell bull calves from heifer calves by color..... And bulls from cows at distance.

These 2 were by themselves so there were no others to compare them to. Besides, it was a case of 'cow!, close, standing, easy, bang'.

Did you see the pics of the teeth? How old do you think she was?

Nice eats, RC!

I think she's 8 or 9. The ivory is still pretty round. The real old ones flatten off.

If it is like here, the game and fish will section a tooth to find age.

They might but I won't bother them. We'll eat her no matter how old she is.

My group quit hunting bulls some years ago. We've all shot antlers and they just don't cook up very well. Cows are usually more tender and a LOT easier to pack out of the hills. I've shot 6 or 7 cows since I last shot a bull. In this area, cow tags are also much easier to get. Sometimes getting the tag is the hardest part of the hunt. This tag was OTC.

I'd put that elk at 3-5 based on her teeth.

This.
Whenever anyone I'm with (myself included) first thing I do is look in her mouth to see her approximate age.

Scroll up. I posted teeth pics several days ago.

My son killed an old one on an RFW hunt. We left the quarters on the bone for a few days and that thing was still the toughest I've attempted to eat.

What rifle?

RAR 30-06, 165 gr AB. It doesn't really matter much in this case. About anything would have killed her.

Congrats on the cow! Hope she eats well!

That is a fairly young cow. Like posted up thread, the ivories are nowhere close to flat.

Could you explain this more in depth? Both the elk and beef calves?
I am genuinely curious.

No, not beeves. Just elk. If you watch a herd (especially with the sun on them) it is easy to pick them out. The bigger bulls look almost white. You can see this diff from a long ways, even with your naked eye. The bull calves are the same, just a bit lighter than than the heifer calves. As to the dry cows, they have a subdued gray, almost blu-ish tint, compared to the ones with calves that look tan. The differences aren't great, so ya gotta look sharp. If you can watch them for a spell, and pay attention, the dry's never have a calf get near enough to suckle, and you can tell the diff....

Fuggin old blue hairs!

Huh..good info. Thanks for that.
When you said "heifer", I hadn't picked up on the metaphor and presumed you were referring to beef. Yesterday was a long day.....