Question on elk racks?
06-28-2004, 02:32 PM
#11
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 590
RE: Question on elk racks?
Thanks a million, bob d, elknut 1, and utahhntr! I appreciate it. For the rest of you, plphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The bull I'm sizing up by rubs was perfectly bracketing 8 1/2" diameter lodgepoles with his HORNS, tearing bejesus out of the bark at opposite sides of the tree. On smaller trees, 7 to 7 1/2" diameter, the rubs were left in a way that made it clear the tree was "too small" for his HORNS. I mean that on the smaller trees, at the lower sweep of rubbed off bark, one side would be 12-15" lower than the other, indicating he was working first one brow tine and then the other. At least that's how I see it.
He left several dozen rubs on a benchy ridgeline connecting two elk holes. Found fresh tracks in there of a huge size to indicate he's still alive this year. Judging from the excellent info you all provided, I'll guess he's going to score 300 plus this year. His tracks suggest to me that he's 5 or 6 years old. Also, I found a shed in there that had lain on the ground for a year, this shed of a 4 1/2 year old bull, by my math this shedhorn bull would be 6 years old now. Whoopee!
(Note my continued stubborn insistence on saying HORNS, HORNS, HORNS! I like saying HORNS!)
The bull I'm sizing up by rubs was perfectly bracketing 8 1/2" diameter lodgepoles with his HORNS, tearing bejesus out of the bark at opposite sides of the tree. On smaller trees, 7 to 7 1/2" diameter, the rubs were left in a way that made it clear the tree was "too small" for his HORNS. I mean that on the smaller trees, at the lower sweep of rubbed off bark, one side would be 12-15" lower than the other, indicating he was working first one brow tine and then the other. At least that's how I see it.
He left several dozen rubs on a benchy ridgeline connecting two elk holes. Found fresh tracks in there of a huge size to indicate he's still alive this year. Judging from the excellent info you all provided, I'll guess he's going to score 300 plus this year. His tracks suggest to me that he's 5 or 6 years old. Also, I found a shed in there that had lain on the ground for a year, this shed of a 4 1/2 year old bull, by my math this shedhorn bull would be 6 years old now. Whoopee!
(Note my continued stubborn insistence on saying HORNS, HORNS, HORNS! I like saying HORNS!)
06-28-2004, 03:17 PM
#12
Join Date: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 24
RE: Question on elk racks?
Just checked this board for the first time in a month or so. Nevertheless, I measured the bull I took in Colorado last year in GMU 201. If I'm measuring where you indicated, it's 5 1/2". The bull was estimated to be 10 years old, was a 6 x 6, and green scored 342 (with 4 broken tines).
06-28-2004, 06:22 PM
#13
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location:
Posts: 1,572
RE: Question on elk racks?
ORIGINAL: Dirt2
Thanks a million, bob d, elknut 1, and utahhntr! I appreciate it. For the rest of you, plphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The bull I'm sizing up by rubs was perfectly bracketing 8 1/2" diameter lodgepoles with his HORNS, tearing bejesus out of the bark at opposite sides of the tree. On smaller trees, 7 to 7 1/2" diameter, the rubs were left in a way that made it clear the tree was "too small" for his HORNS. I mean that on the smaller trees, at the lower sweep of rubbed off bark, one side would be 12-15" lower than the other, indicating he was working first one brow tine and then the other. At least that's how I see it.
He left several dozen rubs on a benchy ridgeline connecting two elk holes. Found fresh tracks in there of a huge size to indicate he's still alive this year. Judging from the excellent info you all provided, I'll guess he's going to score 300 plus this year. His tracks suggest to me that he's 5 or 6 years old. Also, I found a shed in there that had lain on the ground for a year, this shed of a 4 1/2 year old bull, by my math this shedhorn bull would be 6 years old now. Whoopee!
(Note my continued stubborn insistence on saying HORNS, HORNS, HORNS! I like saying HORNS!)
Thanks a million, bob d, elknut 1, and utahhntr! I appreciate it. For the rest of you, plphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The bull I'm sizing up by rubs was perfectly bracketing 8 1/2" diameter lodgepoles with his HORNS, tearing bejesus out of the bark at opposite sides of the tree. On smaller trees, 7 to 7 1/2" diameter, the rubs were left in a way that made it clear the tree was "too small" for his HORNS. I mean that on the smaller trees, at the lower sweep of rubbed off bark, one side would be 12-15" lower than the other, indicating he was working first one brow tine and then the other. At least that's how I see it.
He left several dozen rubs on a benchy ridgeline connecting two elk holes. Found fresh tracks in there of a huge size to indicate he's still alive this year. Judging from the excellent info you all provided, I'll guess he's going to score 300 plus this year. His tracks suggest to me that he's 5 or 6 years old. Also, I found a shed in there that had lain on the ground for a year, this shed of a 4 1/2 year old bull, by my math this shedhorn bull would be 6 years old now. Whoopee!
(Note my continued stubborn insistence on saying HORNS, HORNS, HORNS! I like saying HORNS!)
If you will stop making yourself look ignorant by continuing to use the term "horns" when they are actually antlers, I have two bulls hanging here one scored 336 B&C (6x6, ~8 years old), the other 348 B&C (7x7 , cementum annuli inconclusive) with a broken brow tine. I will be happy to give the measurements you need if you will use the correct term.
Here let me help you:
Antlers are found on deer, elk, caribou and moose species
Antlers grow each spring, reach full size at mating season and fall off thereafter. Antlers may be branched. Only male deer (except caribou) have antlers.
Antlers are made completely of bone without a keratin covering
Horns are found on antelope, sheep, goat, and muskox species
Horns are permanent. Horns are not branched, but can take on bizarre shapes: spiralling twists, angular kinks. Horns may be found on most female antelopes too.
Antelope horns are made of a bone core with a keratin covering. Keratin is a horny material that makes up our hair and fingernails too.
06-29-2004, 04:49 AM
#14
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Glen MT USA
Posts: 72
RE: Question on elk racks?
Brutal if we are going to be politicaly correct here on horns and antlers i can live with that because its just a little fun.
You must rmember that the pronghorn antelope is the only horned animal to shed its horn each fall soon after the rut. Now i dont know if you would call the prong a branch but it is scored sepperate.
To the question at hand i measured a 360 bull and it was only 7.5 between. I think this can be a miss conception because of different antler shapes and genetics. I have seen really big bulls rub on over hanging branches on big trees. Typically the bigger the tree and the highter it is rubbed up indicates a bigger bull but not always.
You must rmember that the pronghorn antelope is the only horned animal to shed its horn each fall soon after the rut. Now i dont know if you would call the prong a branch but it is scored sepperate.
To the question at hand i measured a 360 bull and it was only 7.5 between. I think this can be a miss conception because of different antler shapes and genetics. I have seen really big bulls rub on over hanging branches on big trees. Typically the bigger the tree and the highter it is rubbed up indicates a bigger bull but not always.
06-29-2004, 09:14 AM
#15
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location:
Posts: 1,572
RE: Question on elk racks?
ORIGINAL: buck59
You must rmember that the pronghorn antelope is the only horned animal to shed its horn each fall soon after the rut. Now i dont know if you would call the prong a branch but it is scored sepperate.
You must rmember that the pronghorn antelope is the only horned animal to shed its horn each fall soon after the rut. Now i dont know if you would call the prong a branch but it is scored sepperate.
06-30-2004, 02:32 PM
#17
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 590
RE: Question on elk racks?
Brutal, I'm trying really hard to be civil and not get into a you-know-what measuring contest with you. I too used to be the kind of uptight snob (before that I was a smartass teenager) who would run around correcting people on the definition of horns and antlers. That was around the time I was getting my degree in wildlife management. Nowadays, I'm a little less anal about it. I think "antlers" sounds effete and wimpy. I think "horns" sound gnarly and tough, so I say, HORNS HORNS HORNS!
07-01-2004, 09:23 AM
#19
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location:
Posts: 1,572
RE: Question on elk racks?
ORIGINAL: Dirt2
Brutal, I'm trying really hard to be civil and not get into a you-know-what measuring contest with you. I too used to be the kind of uptight snob (before that I was a smartass teenager) who would run around correcting people on the definition of horns and antlers. That was around the time I was getting my degree in wildlife management. Nowadays, I'm a little less anal about it. I think "antlers" sounds effete and wimpy. I think "horns" sound gnarly and tough, so I say, HORNS HORNS HORNS!
Brutal, I'm trying really hard to be civil and not get into a you-know-what measuring contest with you. I too used to be the kind of uptight snob (before that I was a smartass teenager) who would run around correcting people on the definition of horns and antlers. That was around the time I was getting my degree in wildlife management. Nowadays, I'm a little less anal about it. I think "antlers" sounds effete and wimpy. I think "horns" sound gnarly and tough, so I say, HORNS HORNS HORNS!
