Average Bull.......

D

Deerslayer

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There is a little debate going on at another forum I frequent......about the weight of an "average" bull. One of the Residents there sated the average weight was about 800 poounds, but they get a whole lot heavier.

I weighed in and said I thought that was a little high, at which time he got his feathers ruffled. So before I say much else on it, I wanted to get all you experts to weigh in here..........how much would you say the average bull would go?

I personally thought 600 was a fair number, but I have not killed as many as some of you, so I want to defer to those that have toted a bunch of these critters home......

...oh, and the forum is one you guys don't visit...it a local one I go to sometimes.
DS
 
DS, are we talking Rosies or RM Elk? What age? What environment? All of these are factors to consider. The average bull of age 4 is a lot smaller than the average bull of say age 7 and they would be heavier if they were living in a climate with lots of water than if they were living in a semi-arid high desert. Roosevelts, although shorter in stature, weigh more than RM elk of the same age. There is a natural law that says that animal living in far north latitudes will have shorter legs and bigger bodies than animals living in southern latitudes. Given all the variables, I don't think that there is a "right" or a "wrong" answer.

Oh, you also have to depend on who you are getting the information from. I know the cow that I shot 7 years ago seems to get larger or smaller depending on who I'm telling the story to.....

:cool:
 
Everything Dan said.

It really depends on location and age of the elk. The majority of the bulls killed in CO are 2 1/2 year old bulls, so the average would be quite a bit lower than some state that have more older bulls killed. I'd say that for CO, your number is high, if anything. I'll bet that a good portion of bulls in CO weigh between 500 and 600 pounds.

But, depending on where you are, there probably is no wrong answer (as Dan said).

Oak
 
Wait just a minute!!!


Del told me...after he talked me into putting in for Az elk last year...that the average elk, which was also behind every tree, was 1000lb 6X6 :confused:
 
Actually, there can be a right answer. If all the bulls in the world were weighed, those weights added, then divided by the number of bulls, you would have the average weight of a bull.

So, considering that there are a few 1000 pound bulls, a couple 900 pounders, several 800 pounders, a bunch of 700 pounders, tons of 600 pounders and a bunch between 500 and 600, I would think that the avg. would be in the....625-675 range??? Just a guess really, from talking with lots of folks over the years. I do know one thing, the average bull does not weigh 800!

I bet my 3 year old this year and the one two years ago weighed about 600.

Go gettem DS!!!!!!!!
 
Dan, the question was put like this to the guy....."what does an average elk weigh"...he responded that " the average cow was 600 and the average bull was 800 but they get much larger.

I stated I thought the 8oo number for the evrage bull was high. He then said it was the puny Co elk I was hunting. He was talking about Wyo elk. I then told him I hunted elk in Wyo more than Co, and still thought the 800 number was high. He is talking average, and there are a ton of spikes and raghorns that figure into that....so it is just hard for me to believe 800 would be the general average......but then, what do I know.... :rolleyes:
 
Exactly DS
hahahaaha


What do you know :D :D
 
Before I weigh in ... What's the Average weight of a grown man ?!?! ;)

...

...

OK, Her'e my .02 worth. I've killed WAY more smaller bulls then big ones. I know that we can Debone a spike, and 2 guys that are in shape can pack it out in 1 trip (Total 2 trips). That is including the legs from the "HALKS" (SP?) up ,loins, backstraps, 4 quarters, ribmeat and Neckmeat. I'm guessing those packs do NOT exceed 75 lbs. ?

I'm guessing thats 1/3 of the weight with HIDE, GUTS, and bones. So 150#'s x 3 =450#

With the bigger bull, we're easily 2 trips (4 total) @ 75#'s = 300x3 = 900#'s. BUT, thats with the cape so I'm guessing knock 50# or so off.... I'll make the estimate of 850#'s...

Average weight of an AVERAGE Elk 650#'s. I have a crappy memory but know that Greenhorn got that one ELK out whole they were guiding and got the FULL weight of the elk. THAT would probably be the best, then take some of the weight out cuz I'm guessing it was gutted ?!!? ;)

ALSO, I brought in my 40# pack to the office and had Everyone guess what it weighed. THE "Tough" guys estimated it around 50-66 lbs. And I had some gueses as high at 92 lbs.

THAT being carried through to an Elk by adding a 0 at the end makes my 40# pack = 400 and the guess's at 500-600#'s and upwards of 920#'s. Kinda like my 600 YArd shots every year ;)
 
ALSO... AVERAGE bull and Average 6point Fully grown bull might vary. I'd even lay the #-dage lower for the AVERAGE bull taken in Idaho. I know more Spikes and Raggy's get Wacked yearly then Mature 6Pnts.

KINDA like BEARS.. Everyone and their dog see's 400# bears here in Idaho city hunting.. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: WHAT FRIGGIN EVER !!! Kinda funny how the Houndsman that catch bears have a different story. Most 400# bears might go 200 !!! The average bear is more like 120#'s. We've had this discusion, and I did the Fish and game reserch with the bioligists. BUt HEY, THE average bear in Idaho is 400#'s ;)

Stick to your guns DS, And call BS !!
 
the last cow elk i got was estamated at 350lbs by g an f an said she was 3 years old
got to the butcher wiegh 392 an that was guted an skined
 
My point, DS, was that with a statement that broad, the average "elk" will probably weigh about about the same as the average hammerfore... It requires a lot more clarification and specification before you can call and average....

Hell, i shot a cow in '92 that weighed almost 800 pounds on the hoof. We boned her out and took 206 pounds of meat to the butcher... So what qualifies as the 'average' elk? Average Bull, average Cow, average Elk killed by hunters? There are all kinds of questions when you start talking averages.... If I had to guess on bulls killed in a year in Arizona, I would say that 800 pounds is pretty close. If you figure in antlerless, then the average goes down considerably to somewhere around 500 pounds....

:cool:
 
Hell Moosie.....You know me!...I woulda called BS either way just to have something to talk about over there! :D

Dan...no need for tons of data on this one I think......we're not trying to document in scientific evidence,...just shootin' the shit a litlle on elk weights.

I know I was guessing, and figure the other guy is too. Whne I asked him how many he ever had actually weighed, he quit posting.

The scenario is a simple one.....if Jon Doe goes out and whacks an elk, what should he be considering packing out on average? Not the biggest elk in the woods, not the smallest, but what would be a good "norm" to be prepared on.

My guess is the elk I have had to pack out, either by foot or horse, would probably be around 600.....I could be wrong, because that is a guess. An we are talking live weight, not boned out.

Moosie.....I'm with you on the long ass shots and the large ass bears....read what I posted over there.....

"Wahnie.........you said the average bull is about 800 pounds, but can get much bigger. I think that is an exageration ...kinda like the "1000" yards shot. Most shots that were said to be "1000 yards" probably were more like 5 or 6 hundred. Most folks wouldn't know 1000 yards if it bit them in the butt. I used to hunt whitetails with folks that repeatedly killed their deer at 300 yards....but the only problem was, if you took the time to step it off, most times the visibilty rarely went beyond 150 yards or so.

Same as the 250 pound bucks back home. Everyone I know killed one that big.......but when you look at the state record books....there were only a handful in there that went that big.

My point is, I respectfully disagree with you about the average bulls being 800 pounds. When is the last time you weighed one?....not guessing, but actually put one on the scales? I don't think the average bull will make it that heavy. I have killed elk in Wyoming as well as Colorado, so it has nothing to do with smallish Colorado bulls. It takes a lot of animal to make 800 pounds......and I know elk get that big, but I would venture they average much less than that...........just as I think most of the lower 48 black bears are closer to the 250 pound range than the 400-500 most hunters report when they post them on the forums. Call me a skeptic...hehehhehe
DS"
 
Exactly DS.....you skeptic



But North Carloina and Pennsylvania do average a tad bit more than the 250lb range on black bear. :D


North Carolina grows black bears as big or bigger than anywhere else on the planet, and 2001 produced a record harvest.


It took a "mule train" of six hunters to drag the bear from the woods. The hunters tied a stick inside the bear's mouth, and three hunters held onto each end of the stick to pull the bear. They made it to the edge of a cut-down where an ATV was brought in to help. Still, it took four hunters plus the power of an ATV to drag the bear to the road. It took the hunters 90 minutes to drag the bear 200 yards, and that was longer than the time of the actual hunt.

When the bear was measured, the tape stretched 81 inches from his nose to his tail. At A.T. Byrum Farm Supplies in Ahoskie, the bear was weighed on certified scales at 742 pounds and was, at the time it was killed, the second-heaviest black bear ever taken in North Carolina. The heaviest weighed 880 pounds. A slightly smaller bear - it weighed 730 pounds - had been taken earlier, according to Mark Jones, NCWRC bear biologist.Skinning the bear revealed between 250 and 300 pounds of fat.

Robert Waters and Vann Jones of Vanceboro wounded a 720-pound black bear. The men were forced to follow a long trail into dense cover. At the end of that trail, the wounded bear charged Jones at close range, but Jones took the bear down with a 12-gauge shotgun slug. However, last December Jones exceeded his quota of once-in-a-lifetime bears by one more with a black bear that weighed 750 pounds from the same vicinity in Beaufort County. Jones still-hunts bears by using a tree stand and waiting along trails that lead from agricultural fields of wheat, soybeans or corn found throughout the upper Coastal Plain.
 
Huge bears Flipper!..and they get big in Co and Wyo as well......but a great many taken each year here are not much over 250lbs.....and the hunter always guess another 100 or so to that! :D
 
I hear those bears get Big Flipper.... But my topic and coment on bears was In IDAHO, and I specifically stated that comment for that reason. ALSO, We're talking Averages.

Average Elk in Montana isn't what you hear about... HELL, TAKE Fuggingood hunters, yetti, Greenhorn, Weekend Warrior, and My elk that were talken in Montana. Looking at that someone could say the average elk is a 330 class bull.... AND, My friends, we know that is just what it is..... BULL :D :D
 
No not BULL :D

You take ALL the elk from HuntTalk and I bet the AVERAGE BULL is 300 gross :D
 
I have helped to pack out some of the elk out of areas on the west side of the cascades in Wa...Those elk are really big bodied. Not lots of antler mass. The last spike I helped haul out was weighed and the meat in quarters with bone at the game check station hit the scales at 430 lbs...I am not really great at guessing weights that I can't actually see. If you put the other half at guts, hide, and head. That should double its total weight. That is a spike. Now I do know that the elk in the Rockies have small bodies comparitivly to, but the antlers more than make up for it..I would guess if they fellow was talking elk generally, I would also disagree, if he was talking about the fellows on the coast of a different breed. He would probably be right on the money, or close. :D
 
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