First elk! Have y’all ever seen one like this?

I’m thankful to have the benefit of reading about puss explosion rather than experience it one day. I don’t believe I’ll be cutting into any in the future.
 
Congrats on your first elk! I have seen abscesses on bulls before but never one like that.
 
Never seen anything like this before! Did it affect the meat at all? Hopefully not.
 
Love the photos. i wouldn't be able to walk away from that thing without knowing what was inside. Couldn't make a shield out of the cape and give it a little slice just to see?
 
Got to Colorado and set up camp Friday. Listened to a bull bugle all night until about 5:30 when a truck drove by. Headed to a meadow making soft cow calls along the way. Say down at 7:10 made a couple of cow calls and at 7:15 3 cows came trotting down the hill we had just walked down with a bull not far behind. Dropped him with the 30-06 at about 100 yards. After high fives me and my buddy walked up on the bull and discovered this huge tumor or abscess. Anybody know what it is? I helped a friend skin a buck last year and he cut into a small abscess and it ended up with him taking a shower in puss so I was careful to not cut it while skinning him.
that's crazy looking, ever figure out what it was?
 
This bull that I shot back in '09 had a similar, but smaller lump. If I recall this was just a hernia.... no real abcess or puss.

 
Nice bull with or without the "lump".
Not an elk, but i shot a nice whitetail buck in his bed once that had a similar stomach. Turned out to be a "hernia", probably from fighting. He had several "tine" marks around his eyes, ears & back.
Never thought of pictures back then. After carefully skinning around it and seeing part of the abdomen pinched off, it was clear he had a tough go ahead of him. Meat was ok but you had to think of other things than that when eating it...lol.
Worst "stinky" one was when i came upon a wounded mule deer in WY. Someone hit it in the hind leg, broke the femur, and castrated it with a poorly placed shot. Came across it lying in a creek bed and when it got up i saw it was wounded & took it out of its misery. It was hard to burn my NR tag on it, but felt it was the right thing to do. I punched my tag and as i was tying the tag on the 3x3 the wind carried a stench to my nose.
The leg wound already had maggots in it! Obviously this buck was suffering big time. I took pictures of the gross leg & maggots to show the wardens when i packed the meat out. I left that quarter behind with the carcass.
 
Had a friend that as a teenager was out hunting with his buddy in dad's new truck. Came across a very dead cow, and it was warm weather. Very bloated. Thought it would be fun to shoot it and see what happened. From 10 yards away. With the truck door open. Yep....
 
Sitka Gear Turkey Tool Belt

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
110,700
Messages
1,930,966
Members
34,838
Latest member
Crookhunt
Back
Top