Elknut yes and no to some of your question,,my thoughts where JR Koop found all these elk sheds was in a remote area no shed hunter within this area to pick up the past years antler drop offs they
found a honey hole that no others have found over the past years and there has to be a good number of elk within this area to drop this many antlers in March ,April ,May the past years..
If JR Koop was shed hunting in the northern part of BC many places that carry good numbers of bull elk are not in high mountains as the likes of the EK
Here in the EK the big bulls stay up in hi country where the snow depth is deep in the winter months very few of them big bulls don't come down to lower elevations some do but very few.
Why so many 5 point antlers I find my thoughts is have not made it into adult age to carry a 6 point set of antlers and most of these 5 point elk sheds I find are from local bulls that don't
leave to go up into the high elevation when the snow starts declining in April there called local bulls some of these bulls with new growth this year will be a legal bull this fall to shoot in the GOS
but not all..
All the pressure in GOS is on 6 point bulls and yes big herd bulls do get worn down after the rut and yes some do die or fall prey to predators from not being able to recover their body weight.
Your correct on predators taking some of the big bulls and predators do take smaller bulls as well ,,it's just not winter time that elk or deer fall prey to predators it's the whole calendar year
that weak or healthy bulls, cows or deer are killed by predators..
Wolves will take down the weak or the strong they keep on running after their prey till the prey is exhausted then its game over..hope this answers your question somewhat
this is my thoughts on your question on why..