Today I learned I don't know what a 300" bull is

[Agdog]

Beautiful bull! I’ll be doing back flips if I come across one that nice next month!

 

[Billy Goat]

@cnelk is doing it right far as I can tell, but the perspective is a little funky so it threw me off originally. The royal is sticking off to the left and the main beam is straight up. I would probably shift the vertical string slightly left personally, but he's definitely following the intent of the measuring system.

I was with Dos Perros, but can see it now. Gotta turn the picture sideways.


I was wondering wtf was going on there.

 

[roosiebull]

Oh man, I'm so proud! And I agree. I just found it interesting

I didn’t take your post that way, just goes to show how big a legit 300” bull is, you killed an absolute beautiful bull…

You make a very valid point… kinda like a 300# bear, at least in most regions is a very thrown around number, yet a rare animal in reality

Congrats on a dandy bull!

 

[Geewhiz]

I don't think that's right.

"To accurately calculate the length of each tine, measure along the outside of the tine from the tip to the place where the tine intersects the nearest edge of the main beam (not the center of the main beam or the outside edge of the main beam)."

How To Score Your Elk | Elk101.com | Eat. Sleep. HUNT ELK!

In this section of the Scoring Feature, we'll walk you through the Boone and Crockett (Pope & Young) Scoring method. To begin, you'll need the following items: A flexible measuring tape (cloth or steel) Masking tape Pen and Paper (or a print out of the Boone and Crockett score sheet) Start by...

www.elk101.com

I was going to say at 10 inches to every elk I've taped if thats how you do it.

 

[cgasner1]

For me the only real reason I have my buddy score them for me is so I can compare to things in the field I got a 302 and a 343 and 345 I spend a lot of time looking at doesn’t really matter other than field judging for me in the future I killed each of them for one reason or another the tape didn’t make the difference


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[oake]

Congrats on a fine bull - looking forward to the story

 

[Hoodie]

Today I learned that if that's what a 270" bull looks like, I'll never need to shoot one bigger than that.

Awesome bull.

 

[NDGuy]

Same experience last year. Same measurement actually too.

Regardless good bull. As a warning. When you try and hang it on a wall it gets challenging 270” or 300”. Plan ahead!

I suggest floor pedestals

 

[NDGuy]

I was thrilled my first bull was a 6x6. I thought the second would break 280 but he didn't.

And then you went and dropped dong on us last year...

 

[Indian Summer]

Nice bull. I have a couple like that. When you see guys throw around 300” like it’s a starting point it always makes me roll my eyes. 300 IS A BIG ASS BULL!!!!

Me too!

I used to take that 260 bull to outdoor shows when I was booking hunts. It was a 6 point with really nice fronts and a small back end. I had a ton of guys point at it and say I’d be happy with a 300 incher like that.

 

[TheTone]

Congrats on the bull, he’s a great one. Scoring a nice bull like that really does show how big some are and what it takes to get there. I’ve killed a couple bulls that come in just under 300 (although I wonder if I didn’t short one some tine measurements) and the number doesn’t change anything about what the hunt and memories mean to me

 

[wytx]

Great bull, the fronts and 3rds are the weak part for 300" but he looks bigger than 270".
I would get him scored officially and like cnelk said you will learn a lot from watching the scorer.

Congrats again, nice bull!

 

[Lil-Rokslider]

Story coming soon, but first family dinner and putting kids to bed. Thanks for all the comments, I love this thread so far.

Couple of things........

Not an OTC elk. This unit takes a few points, and I snagged the tag on the reissued list a month before the hunt.


Second, I'm not bummed about this elks size at all. No comparing from me. He's the greatest elk on earth as far as I'm concerned. The inches conversation is just for my own education. I find it interesting.

More to come

 

[Deadfall]

I would remeasure that. It is definitely bigger then 270.

Regardless...CONGRATULATIONS on a fine animal.

 

[IDShane]

Beautiful bull man congrats!

 

[whaack]

Dandy bull!


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[Lil-Rokslider]

Alright, here it is.

My big week long hunt wasn't on the calendar until the end of the month, but the unit is fairly close to home so I snuck out for a couple of day hunts. I've also got a deer tag for the unit, and figured I'd try to fill my deer tag early. I'm usually a backpack hunter, and love the experience of hiking in deep and living out of my pack for a week, and the pain and suffering of packing out critters from miles back. However, this unit is a bit different than where i usually hunt, and there are a bunch of 4 wheeler trails throughout the unit and taking advantage of them can really help a guy get to some places. I don't own a wheeler, but I asked around and a client of mine let me borrow an old school, 4x4 side by side, called "Big Red" (I'll attach a picture, cuz she's a beaut)

Tuesday morning, with "big red" on the trailer behind my truck, we headed out at 4:30. Our first stop was a quick one to glass a mountain we were curious about for the first bit of light. It was me and a buddy of mine, who is a hell of a hunter, but some health challenges lately have made hiking and packing meat more of a challenge than they used to be for him. He's a wizard behind the glass though, and knows how animals think and act.

No luck glassing up anything at first light so we headed to the 4wd trail to get moving up the mountain. Turns out it was actually a jeep trail that they have added Boulders and and obstacles to for the jeep guys to have some fun...... not what we expected. And probably more than Big Red was built for. We went for it anyways, and it was sketchy and wild. But we made it up, 4 miles to the top.

At the end of our drive, a hiking trail began where the jeep trail ended. The trail paralleled a creek through some thick timber. The noise from the creek made it hard to hear any would-be-bugles as long as we were on the trail. About a half mile into our hike, I climbed a small ridge to the right of the trail, opposite the creek. At the top I let out a locator bugle, and immediately got a response down across the trail and the creek in the timber on the other side. It was the most half hearted and unenthusiastic bugle I've ever heard. I ran down the ridge and back to the trail and found my buddy to report the bugle and bring him along with me back up the ridge. Once we got back up, I bugled again, and immediately got a response again, except way closer this time. I handed the bugle tube off, and told my friend to keep him talking. I dropped down across the trail, across the creek, and through some open meadow towards the timber. As soon as I got into the timber I picked up a game trail with some fresh elk turds. Then I heard my buddy bugle, so I stopped to listen. Then my eye caught some movement up ahead, and I realized that there was a bull 20 yards in front of me beginning to rake a tree, totally unaware of me.

Now, everything was perfect. The wind was downhill in my face. There was a noisy creek behind me, and another smaller creek behind the bull. The ground was lush, so my steps were silent. I slowly knocked an arrow without taking my eyes off the elk. I ranged some trees around the elk. He started walking down hill and to my right. His head went behind a tree and I came to full draw. The next tree he would move behind I had ranged at 14 yards, and I had a shooting lane to the right of it. He walked behind the tree and into the shooting lane. He stopped there with his vitals just past the tree. I was calm, reminding myself to breathe, and going through my mental cues of preparing to take a shot.

There was a problem though. He was quartering towards me. Like most of you guys I'm sure, I've thought about all possible shot scenarios, and this is one I told myself I think I would take at this close of a range and just punch through the back half of the scapula where it's thin and try to catch one lung. I thought about it for a few seconds while I held my top pin steady. I'm sure there is an ethics debate in this part of the story, but I went for it. Hit him solid. He spun and ran, and I started cow calling and stopped him about 15 yards uphill from where I hit him. He stopped and stared back at me for a while. Then he slowly walked uphill another 15 yards. I watched him stand in that place for about 15 minutes without moving, and then he began to breathe heavily and strained. Eventually he layed down, but had his head up looking around. I knew I had to try to get another arrow in him, so I snuck up to the right towards his hind end. I got to 15 yards of him again, and really only had a shot into a hind quarter or into his neck. I aimed for the base of his neck and let another arrow fly. He was uphill from me, and the exit wound from that arrow was up by his ear on the opposite side. A pretty damaging shot, and he didn't even flinch or try to get up when the second arrow hit him. I knew at that point he'd be dead soon.

I marked his location, and then went back to get my buddy to share the news. Sure enough when we returned he was dead. We snapped a few pictures, but it was hot out and we knew the meat care was vital at that point. We worked quickly and got everything in game bags in the shade. Luckily we were only a half mile from Big Red, so it was an easy pack out. I was home that night to see my family and sleep in my own bed.


A couple of side notes. 1) I'm still planning on my week long trip at the end of the month. I've got my archery deer tag and my regular hunting partner, who wasn't on this trip, has an archery cow tag. Both for the same unit this bull was taken from.


2) I'm super grateful for the rokslide community. A number of guys were willing to message with me, have phone calls and texts throughout the scouting process. I got tons of good information from several guys, but I'm especially grateful for @chaza402 .
We didn't know each other a month ago, and we still haven't met in person, but we've had innumerable phone calls and texts over the last month talking about this hunt. He was a huge reason this hunt was a success, and one of these days soon we'll be grabbing a beer and meeting face to face.

 

[jaypope]

Alright, here it is.

My big week long hunt wasn't on the calendar until the end of the month, but the unit is fairly close to home so I snuck out for a couple of day hunts. I've also got a deer tag for the unit, and figured I'd try to fill my deer tag early. I'm usually a backpack hunter, and love the experience of hiking in deep and living out of my pack for a week, and the pain and suffering of packing out critters from miles back. However, this unit is a bit different than where i usually hunt, and there are a bunch of 4 wheeler trails throughout the unit and taking advantage of them can really help a guy get to some places. I don't own a wheeler, but I asked around and a client of mine let me borrow an old school, 4x4 side by side, called "Big Red" (I'll attach a picture, cuz she's a beaut)

Tuesday morning, with "big red" on the trailer behind my truck, we headed out at 4:30. Our first stop was a quick one to glass a mountain we were curious about for the first bit of light. It was me and a buddy of mine, who is a hell of a hunter, but some health challenges lately have made hiking and packing meat more of a challenge than they used to be for him. He's a wizard behind the glass though, and knows how animals think and act.

No luck glassing up anything at first light so we headed to the 4wd trail to get moving up the mountain. Turns out it was actually a jeep trail that they have added Boulders and and obstacles to for the jeep guys to have some fun...... not what we expected. And probably more than Big Red was built for. We went for it anyways, and it was sketchy and wild. But we made it up, 4 miles to the top.

At the end of our drive, a hiking trail began where the jeep trail ended. The trail paralleled a creek through some thick timber. The noise from the creek made it hard to hear any would-be-bugles as long as we were on the trail. About a half mile into our hike, I climbed a small ridge to the right of the trail, opposite the creek. At the top I let out a locator bugle, and immediately got a response down across the trail and the creek in the timber on the other side. It was the most half hearted and unenthusiastic bugle I've ever heard. I ran down the ridge and back to the trail and found my buddy to report the bugle and bring him along with me back up the ridge. Once we got back up, I bugled again, and immediately got a response again, except way closer this time. I handed the bugle tube off, and told my friend to keep him talking. I dropped down across the trail, across the creek, and through some open meadow towards the timber. As soon as I got into the timber I picked up a game trail with some fresh elk turds. Then I heard my buddy bugle, so I stopped to listen. Then my eye caught some movement up ahead, and I realized that there was a bull 20 yards in front of me beginning to rake a tree, totally unaware of me.

Now, everything was perfect. The wind was downhill in my face. There was a noisy creek behind me, and another smaller creek behind the bull. The ground was lush, so my steps were silent. I slowly knocked an arrow without taking my eyes off the elk. I ranged some trees around the elk. He started walking down hill and to my right. His head went behind a tree and I came to full draw. The next tree he would move behind I had ranged at 14 yards, and I had a shooting lane to the right of it. He walked behind the tree and into the shooting lane. He stopped there with his vitals just past the tree. I was calm, reminding myself to breathe, and going through my mental cues of preparing to take a shot.

There was a problem though. He was quartering towards me. Like most of you guys I'm sure, I've thought about all possible shot scenarios, and this is one I told myself I think I would take at this close of a range and just punch through the back half of the scapula where it's thin and try to catch one lung. I thought about it for a few seconds while I held my top pin steady. I'm sure there is an ethics debate in this part of the story, but I went for it. Hit him solid. He spun and ran, and I started cow calling and stopped him about 15 yards uphill from where I hit him. He stopped and stared back at me for a while. Then he slowly walked uphill another 15 yards. I watched him stand in that place for about 15 minutes without moving, and then he began to breathe heavily and strained. Eventually he layed down, but had his head up looking around. I knew I had to try to get another arrow in him, so I snuck up to the right towards his hind end. I got to 15 yards of him again, and really only had a shot into a hind quarter or into his neck. I aimed for the base of his neck and let another arrow fly. He was uphill from me, and the exit wound from that arrow was up by his ear on the opposite side. A pretty damaging shot, and he didn't even flinch or try to get up when the second arrow hit him. I knew at that point he'd be dead soon.

I marked his location, and then went back to get my buddy to share the news. Sure enough when we returned he was dead. We snapped a few pictures, but it was hot out and we knew the meat care was vital at that point. We worked quickly and got everything in game bags in the shade. Luckily we were only a half mile from Big Red, so it was an easy pack out. I was home that night to see my family and sleep in my own bed.


A couple of side notes. 1) I'm still planning on my week long trip at the end of the month. I've got my archery deer tag and my regular hunting partner, who wasn't on this trip, has an archery cow tag. Both for the same unit this bull was taken from.


2) I'm super grateful for the rokslide community. A number of guys were willing to message with me, have phone calls and texts throughout the scouting process. I got tons of good information from several guys, but I'm especially grateful for @chaza402 .
We didn't know each other a month ago, and we still haven't met in person, but we've had innumerable phone calls and texts over the last month talking about this hunt. He was a huge reason this hunt was a success, and one of these days soon we'll be grabbing a beer and meeting face to face.View attachment 450172

Great story and super bull!

As a B&C and P&Y OM I’m interested in knowing what he officially scores. Being from NC I’ve only measured a few elk. Let us know if you ever get him measured!

 

[Dos Perros]

@cnelk is doing it right far as I can tell, but the perspective is a little funky so it threw me off originally. The royal is sticking off to the left and the main beam is straight up. I would probably shift the vertical string slightly left personally, but he's definitely following the intent of the measuring system.

Ya you're right. I was thrown off as well. Whoops!

 

[CRJR45]

Nice Bull , no matter what the tape says , good job !