From my brother in Eastern Montana

7mm mag 140 nos ballistic tip. He dropped like a rock when hit in the neck at 250 yards. But 30 seconds later he got up and started to run away. I hit him again in the neck. This time the spine was broken.

Its a big yearling the picture does it no favor. It dwarfed the deer cart. A week ago several elk were taken in the same area. I hear it was a regular bullet festival. This one was an orphan trying to cross a fence to join some beef cows. I hunted the same spot for 3 days now.

Good eats

Nice!!

That'll make a handsome mount.

L.W.

That calf (not a yearling) should be tender vittles.

veal.....

who the hell shoots a calf? if i had an antlerless tag id be looking for a mature cow and if not then just eat my tag. this is what anti hunters use to shut us down.

Orphaning a calf wouldn't be something antis use against us?

To each their own but normally when I have an antlerless tag I purposefully look for a calf, for a variety of reasons.

It's better to shot the calf------If it's a bad winter they are to first to die off. Mama cow will probable survive the hard winter and have another calf in the spring.

my 1st look said calf, too. A yearling would have spikes and a heavier body shape.

do heifers have those spike things you mention?

It depends on if they identify as a heifer or bull calf.


Maybe they are gender neutral.

Congrats!

The OP calls it a 'him several times.

No problem shooting calves,but I think that may have been an early spring calf.Here is a yearling I shot several years ago with a ML. It was a bull and no spikes. Just small buttons

I've shot spikes several times. They ranged from 3' spears down to one in Sept with 6" velvets. All had much larger bodies, though, and a more mature shape. I have no doubt that this one's a calf

Why post this?

the pic of the elk?.....why not.......bob

That’s the perfect size to fit into a Toyota Celica.

Great eats, right there.

🦫

The compact shaped face, neck, and body all look like a calf to me.

Did you check inside its mouth.................probably still had some of mommys milk in there.

Who are you to judge what anyone else shoots! If it's legal, who cares? Besides you obviously. I've been a member on this site long enough to see the constant childish BS. For all you know the man may just be trying to put food on the table. If you don't agree with what he does just keep your opinion to yourself and go on about life. There is NO need to post a comment about what somebody shoots or should have shot other than congratulations. Just my 2 cents. Congratulations Clarkm!

Hey that’s more of an elk than 99 percent of the guys I know have killed. Most of them can’t get off the couch long enough or can’t possibly drive to the mtns and go hunting somewhere they’ve never been. Hope it’s good eating for you.

Congrats on making meat.

Many people call calves yearlings.

only the ones that don't know the difference....

In general "yearlings" are defined as having lived at least a year....

This is what a yearling elk bull or cow will look like for size. Pic taken on game cam in Sept 2018 in my driveway. This guy would have been born around June 1, 2017, so about 15 months old.






This is what a elk calf would look like in September at about 3-4 months old. Pic taken also in Sept this year by gamecam at my watertrough.
t

All those backeasters that age their deer as 3 1/2, 4 1/2, 5 1/2 year olds instead of them just being even years like their kids by birthday, would call this elk a half-year old.....

😄

A good reminder that the neck is never an appropriate place to shoot an elk, or probably any game animal. They MAY drop, but it's entirely possible for a bullet to pass through the neck without hitting anything vital.

I never have figured out where that came from. Being a westerner, I don't play.

We call it live and let live but it seems there's an ever dwindling supply of that nowadays.

Did you happen to notice this?

"A week ago several elk were taken in the same area. I hear it was a regular bullet festival. This one was an orphan trying to cross a fence to join some beef cows."


I bet it's tasty!

This year, I killed a yearling with my muzzleloader... Guilt free....



Last year I killed this calf with my muzzleloader, shortly after killing it's mother with my muzzleloader.. All guilt free....



This year my wife killed this calf with my rifle, very shortly after I killed its mother with my rifle.... I was pretty guilt free but my wife didn't enjoy shooting the calf. She says she never will again and I'll respect that. But she sure loves eating them...



Calf elk is the 2nd best piece of elk steak there is. Followed by a yearling because they taste very similarly delicious, just about 100 more pounds of meat on a yearling compared to a calf...

All you anti hunter sympathizers that are worried about their little anti feelings need to grow a set of nuts and realize they could care less what you kill. You can hide in a closet for what you are all you want. A legally taken elk is a legally taken elk. Go pound sand if you have a problem with it and think your hunting ethics somehow make you superior to those who subsist of wild game instead of needing a trophy rack for the wall. We're all murderers in the eyes of antis.. Who gives a crap what they think....

Todd

justahunter. you are dead nuts right with what you posted . if it is legal and you kill it any body that don't like it should shut the fugg up

Idaho recognizes only 2 types of elk - antlered and antler-less. The legal difference is whether the longest antler (if any) exceeds 6" in length. A spike with antlers that small is so rare that guessing the length is almost irrelevant.

Can you be a sport and explain how killing a calf impacts the herd negatively as opposed to a cow? And why Game and Fish departments use the criteria of antlerless to manage game?

Or do you not care about that and are just taking this opportunity to judge others with your emotion-based yet fact-less ethics and crackpot lay-theories?

Calves make up the biggest share of winter kill. Shooting a calf that could well not survive anyway is better for the herd than shooting a producing cow that's almost certain to survive.

Winter kill is now but a myth. All little calves will surely survive to old age due to global warming.......

How much does a calf when its gutted?

yep. usually see the first calves dropping starting third week of May and into June. 5 to 6 months old then. Seen many calves make it through winter especially the ones hanging around ag land. Around 90 lbs boned out meat on him/her maybe bit more based on ones friends have shot.

Nothing wrong with shooting any legal elk

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.

As a comparison, here's a yearling cow that I shot a couple days ago compared to the OP photo. Note the length of the head.