Field Judging Elk

Just curious what some of you guys do to help field judge an elk. I've heard of a few different tricks, but since I have a tag this year I'm interested to hear some ways you have found to help get a good idea of what your looking at.
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DeadI
Go to this website. And look at the elk photos. Gives you a fairly good idea of diferent sizes. That is what we did last year for my dads tag.
Basicaly comes down to looking at alot of different animals and practice.

By the way, welcome to the site and what tag did you draw?

http://www.kingsoutdoorworld.com/index.htm
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MuleyMadness
I'd suggest renting or buying some Elk hunting videos and watching them. The more Elk you look at the better, then you can get experience and train the eye. It's important to look they length of the fronts and all tines for that matter. You'll want to notice the lengths of the 6th's since most big bulls have good long tangs in the back.

Not sure what your holding out for size wise, but a 330 or 340 bull will look really good up close...and you'd could easily end up shooting him thinking he was bigger. So try to know of figure the difference between a bull that size and a 360 ish bull.

I'd bull the trigger on a 360 bull myself anyday. Unless the 380 was standing with him. :)

Good luck! 4c
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yotebuster
I'm in the same boat as you, trying to learn to score, luckily we're gonna get out there 4 days before the season, that will give some time to "look but don't touch"!!! That King's website has some amazing animals in it. It's neat to notice that a good portion of them come from Utah!!!
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dahlmer
"DeadI" wrote:By the way, welcome to the site and what tag did you draw?
 Wasatch...any weapon.

I would like 350+ which I think is achievable on the Wasatch...above that I believe they get fairly few and far between. I've spent the last 12 years looking at bulls on that unit so I'm aware of what's there. The biggest issue I have is I see bulls guys claim to be 350 and I can't see it...just wondering if I'm missing something.
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DeadI
That is the same tag my dad had last year. The bull he shot is not quite 350. In fact I think we only saw one bull while scouting that I would say was that big.

Good luck to you, but you are going to have to work for that bull. It was not as easy as a hunt as I had thought it would be.
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MuleyMadness
Good luck, do your homework and I'm confident you can pull a 350 plus bull off the Wasatch.
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hound_hunter
here's my success story :) haha.. Had the same question on here when I was first starting out on this site; "how can I get better at juding animals in my head?"

well these guys answers havent changed.. I watched videos and looked at websites all the time and it really start to get natural pretty stinkin quick. Also another suggestion i'd have is I un officially tried scoring every pair of antlers I could get my hands on and that helped out a lot I think.

good luck :)
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a_bow_nut
There are 350+ bulls there but you are right they are few and far between. If you've been watching those bulls for that long then you know what the good bulls look like. Alot of people are willing to spit out a score of what they think and animal is but I've seen only a few that are good at it and most of the time they aren't the ones blurting something out as soon as they see it. They will take the time to study it and get a few different looks at it's antlers before saying something.

Another idea that might work for you is to go to the local stores like Sportsmans and cabelas and just look at the mounts up close and as far away as you can get from them so that you are looking at them in person. Then think it over and take a stab at what you think it will score then walk up to it and see what the score says that it measured if it has it. Videos will help but like you said when they would say the score I just didn't see it. I think that the cameras can make things look bigger or smaller than they really are. That's why I like to do it in person.

Oh yeah if I'm up that way and I see something nice I'll let you know.
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9er
a few things I look at are

#1 main beam that touchs his flank
#2 Fronts that are out by his nose
#3 3rd, (hardest to find imo) that look to be at least half the lenght of his fronts
#4 4ths, that are 3/4 or same size as the elk is(measured from bottom of flank/stomach to top of back)
#5, fifths that look good and make a nice whale tail

if you can find something like that my friend, you had better be pulling the trigger or better yet, letting the arrow fly lol!

If its the first 2-3 days of the hunt, and you have to think about if he is big enough, he isnt! you will know when you see a booner.

good luck and keep us posted!

9er

ps, if ya want someone to go out scouting with ya, shoot me a pm!
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Torch
If you can get your hands on some sheds/mounts and score them it should help you out quite a bit. You can just plug the numbers in on the Boone & Crockett website. Post the pics when you get him!
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dahlmer
Thanks guys. I appreciate the help. I'll keep you posted. Keep me in mind if you see anything big. :-$
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IDHunter
I read an article once that I found to be very helpful in field judging elk. The first thing you do is start with a base of 200. If the bull has incredible mass, length on his main beams, or width, you should add a little to the base score. If he has short beams, narrow spread, or less than average mass, you should take points away from the base score. Next you quickly add up the tine length in your head on one side of the bull. Take that number and double it, then add it to the original 200 (unless it changed).

I have tried this method on a lot of mounts I've seen and I'm usually pretty close (Within 10 points). The toughest part is being accurate with the tine length.

It's not perfect, but it works for me, and it's fast. Let me know if you try it and find it works for you. Good luck on your hunt this year.
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proutdoors
"IDHunter" wrote:I read an article once that I found to be very helpful in field judging elk. The first thing you do is start with a base of 200. If the bull has incredible mass, length on his main beams, or width, you should add a little to the base score. If he has short beams, narrow spread, or less than average mass, you should take points away from the base score. Next you quickly add up the tine length in your head on one side of the bull. Take that number and double it, then add it to the original 200 (unless it changed).

I have tried this method on a lot of mounts I've seen and I'm usually pretty close (Within 10 points). The toughest part is being accurate with the tine length.

It's not perfect, but it works for me, and it's fast. Let me know if you try it and find it works for you. Good luck on your hunt this year.
 Good advice. I believe it was an arcticle by Steve Chappell in the Kings World mag.

If there are any elk 'farms' around, they are a good way to see lots of horn.

Nothing beats 'gym' time. Spend as much time as possible looking at photos, vidoes, glassing live elk, looking at mounts in stores, etc.. Good luck.

PRO
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This is all good advice. I am going to take some of it myself since I drew a Fishlake Muzz tag.

I would also be happy with a 350 bull! Everyone is so concerned about that 380+ bull. I am just going to go and if I finda bull that looks good to me and would look good on my wall......then who cares about the score cuz I am going to be............. :222 :222 :222 :222 :222 :222 :222 :222
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TheGreatwhitehunter
They always look bigger before there dead!!
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dahlmer
Here's another question for you guys that spend a lot of time watching the same bulls. Does the front end continue to grow throughout the summer, or does is pretty well stop and all the growth is in the back end later in the year?
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MuleyMadness
It's my understanding that the front end pretty much stays the same.
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dahlmer
That is what I had thought, but was curious. Here is another question...do the bigger bulls stop growing antler sooner than the smaller bulls?
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MuleyMadness
umm...

Not sure on that one, but I guess since they start sooner that might be true. But I'm not sure what to think of that one.

Course they are bigger so they have more bone to grow. (???)
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I look at one and I say "Would I be Happy with that on my wall?" If so shoot it if not dont.
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proutdoors
The fronts are done growing now. Older bulls usually 'shine up' earlier than younger bulls.

I have seen a few bulls 6-8 inches past their fifths already. If they aren't well past their fourths, they will be smaller bulls. After early July, the bulls are 'finishing' on the tines and main beams. Lest that is my experience.

PRO
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Take a friend scouting with you and analyze the bull and then share scores. Video tape them and look them over on TV after the adrenaline has worn off.

I had two experienced guys do this with me last November and it was very valuable as they helped score through the scope several bulls and put a realistic score on two great looking bulls.

CS
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