Help on judging elk

[MontanaRifleman]

If the spread is about 40"x 40" and the tines on average are "over" 12" in length, it will probably be a 300 plus bull gross. The eye guards and royal tines (#4) will usually be longe than the #3 and #5 tines.

My 324 gross bull scored...

Lenght of beams 46 and 48
Inside spread 46 ( he was a lot wider than most)
G1's 15 and 14
G2's 18 and 17
G3's 13 and 13
G4's 15 and 15
G5's 8 and 8

He wasn't real heavy nor spindly.

So if you can judge the lengths fairly accurately you can get a good idea of what it might score.

To help, the outside of eyeball spread is about 9 1/2", ear tip to ear tip, avbout 24", and crest of head between the antlers to tip of nose about 17".

Good hunting,

Mark

[esshup]

Thanks guys. I think I'll have to make notes to take along. This has really helped.

[bigngreen]

Using the length of the horns to nose is really good for judging the lower brow tines, if the brows are out to the end of his nose, shoot! I also look for main beams that go past the shoulder. Also that the 4th and 5th aren't bunched up, they should be spaced out indicating better main beam length.

[Long Time Long Ranger]

I really like Buffalobobbs scoring method. The bull I got this year scored 505 according to that. I'll take that. Unless you have max prefference points in Wyoming don't get your hopes up to much for a huge bull. With our drawing system you could draw the best tag in the state on the first shot but not likely. There are soem general ares where you can get a nice representative 6x6. On your first shot at it I think that would be great. Basically if you see a nice 6x6 with long points, SHOOT.

[elkaholic]

A lot of people I've known who haven't really seen how majestic a bull can be in the wild have grand ideas on opening day as far as waiting for a trophy bull and by day 2 it's "hooves or better". My son complained a few years ago about shooting a lot of spikes but not many bulls with racks. I reminded him that his season was normally over by 9:00 opening morning. Since then he has killed some pretty nice bulls. Elk hunting is a rush and it doesn't take much to get an itchy trigger finger. I have probably taken 40 bulls and STILL get excited about it. When that stops, I'll quit. My point is, unless you are VERY disciplined and fully prepared to wait it out, chances of killing a really good bull is slim in a lot of areas. Good luck and let us know how you do.......Rich

[elkaholic]

Originally Posted by elkaholic

A lot of people I've known who haven't really seen how majestic a bull can be in the wild have grand ideas on opening day as far as waiting for a trophy bull and by day 2 it's "hooves or better". My son complained a few years ago about shooting a lot of spikes but not many bulls with racks. I reminded him that his season was normally over by 9:00 opening morning. Since then he has killed some pretty nice bulls. Elk hunting is a rush and it doesn't take much to get an itchy trigger finger. I have probably taken 40 bulls and STILL get excited about it. When that stops, I'll quit. My point is, unless you are VERY disciplined and fully prepared to wait it out, chances of killing a really good bull is slim in a lot of areas. Good luck and let us know how you do.......Rich

Forgot to mention: I like Bigns' method of "if the brow tines are past the nose, Shoot" This makes a lot of sense and more often than not you will have better than a 300 bull without taking a lot of time to add things up.......

[esshup]

Yep, maxed out on points so far, and the elk hunt won't happen in 2010. I'm a patient type of guy, so shooting the first thing that I see won't happen unless it has brow tines past it's nose!

Thanks guys, still learning and reading. (and getting in shape)