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Elk Pictures w/ Score

This thread and some of the frequent contributors has helped convince me I’m either a crummy elk hunter or I hunt really bad areas. I hope it’s the latter.
Buzz and Greenhorn have certainly saved quite a bit of alfalfa...
 
I think these pictures illustrate just how big an elk can look on his feet or ground and still be impressive.

I had a friend who was lifelong hunter and successfully killed many elk. He always said in reference to numbers of elk, a million is 20 elk and a billion is 40…
 
I think these pictures illustrate just how big an elk can look on his feet or ground and still be impressive.

I had a friend who was lifelong hunter and successfully killed many elk. He always said in reference to numbers of elk, a million is 20 elk and a billion is 40…
I like that...
 
Yeah, but I'm really prone to getting sucked into one exceptional attribute, like giant 4ths or mass and not pay enough attention to the 3rds, or that the 1 and 2s are both 1/2 as long as they should be. Similarly if it's very symmetrical I tend to under judge it because I'm not seeing any particular WOW factor jump out.
I'm usually more of a meat hunter than a trophy hunter, but on the few occasions I've drawn a premium tag I've had the same problem trying to judge elk, only noticing one thing. This bull was really wide, I think 44" inside spread, and turned out to be younger so his antlers looked impressive to me, at first glance. He didn't get a 2nd glance, I shot him with no hesitatation or regrets. But this was the worst case of ground shrinkage I've had on deer or elk. I was totally focused on his width, did not notice his very short brow tines and he didn't have much mass. I thought he would be at least 320+, but he grossed 295. Like I said, no regrets, it was near the end of a long tough season so I was happy to get a 6 pt bull.

(On the flip side I thought my 325 bull was in the 300-310 range, so I obviously suck at judging.)

Screenshot_20240211_093120_OneDrive.jpg
 
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