Field Judging Elk

im not to good at judging them either :-k

I'm not the best, but my husband is really good at it. This is how he helped me get better. We'll watch an elk hunting video (Archery preferably - you get to see the bulls closer, not through optics and that's the way we prefer to hunt) Judge the bulls as you watch the movie. Pause the DVD if you have to, decide what you think the animal will score, and then more than likely they will tell you what the elk scored after they've shot it. I will try and dig up an article I read by steve chapell on field judging. It was pretty helpful to me .

If you start to instantly start shaking and drooling all over yourself uncontrolably when it steps out. It's big enough.

"a_bow_nut" wrote:If you start to instantly start shaking and drooling all over yourself uncontrolably when it steps out. It's big enough.

I like to use the heart monitor scale. In other words, if your heart is beating loud enough that you don't hear the bull bugle at 20 yards, he's a shooter!

My dad has drawn a wasatch early rifle elk tag for here in utah. I am not the greatest at judging a bulls size. Does anyone now of a site on the net that shows lots of phots and the scores of those elk. I have been looking on this site. There are a lot of photos but no scores that I can compare. This way i can class the animal and know if I am looking at a 320 bull a 340 bull or a 350 bull and on up. Thanks.

DeadI, I sent you a PM. When is your Dad's hunt? Let us know how he does, Thanks.

I am by no means an expert, but here's what I did a few weeks ago. When I spotted my bull, I did the math like this:

Looking at him broadside at 50 yards through 10 power glass, I could tell his mains were at least 48" based on his body size. I rounded it off to an even 50 to make the math easier.

50" X 2= 100"

Then I looked at his G1's and G2's and estimated them to be between 14" and 16". I averaged them out at 15" to be safe.

15" X 4 = 60"

Then on to his G3's and G4's. They both looked the same and had excellent symmetry. I guessed them to be between 16" and 18". I settled on a 15" average.

15" X 4 = 60"

His G4's and G5's were weak, I estimated I might pick up 20" overall there.

Then came the spread. He wasn't really wide, but he was straight. I estimated about a 25" average.

25" X 3 = 75"

He had good mass so I just picked 7" and went from there.

7" X 8 = 56 ( called it 60" in my head)

That put me at 355" without deductions. And that gave me the green light!

When it was all said and done, he grossed 347" and net is somewhere around 330" (green). Also, keep in mind that I had over 10 minutes to do all of this math. You won't always have that much time.

Download a score sheet from the B&C website and go over the scoring system so you know what to look for. Try to keep the numbers ending at 0 or 5 for simplicity. Try to be conservative on the LOW side to reduce "ground shrinkage". Had I gone with my high mental numbers my bull would have been over 400"! By being conservative I was within 8".

Good luck on your hunt. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics!

Mark, that was an excellent description of how to field judge an elk. I am totally impressed! Afraid I'm of the heart monitor and drool factor crowd myself but nonetheless very impressed.

"ABert" wrote:Mark, that was an excellent description of how to field judge an elk. I am totally impressed! Afraid I'm of the heart monitor and drool factor crowd myself but nonetheless very impressed.

Thanks! Believe me, there was a lot of drooling going on! My heart was beating loud enough that I could hear it... seriously! Especially when he stared me down at 35 yards for a full 70 seconds! (Did you happen to watch the video I posted?) The shakes came after the shot. My knees got pretty weak too.

It's nice when you have a lot of time. It also helps if you've measured a couple. Then it's just a matter of adding up the numbers.

In my case a few weeks ago, I had the luxury of a lot of time. I added those numbers up over and over and still came to about the same conclusion. His G3's were what impressed me the most. His G4's are nice too! Hell, I liked everything about him!

He was 74 yards away from me at the wallow and I had about 10 minutes to look him over. That's a lot of time. I came pretty close with my estimate. I was only off by 8".