Would you shoot?

[GoatGuy]

Here's a pic of a bull we took last year. Just found these pics on my memory stick - figured I'd make some sort of contribution here instead of just arguing! I have a bunch of video too but I'm too busy or lazy to figure out how to use the software. The pictures are grainy do the the resolution but in the 2nd and 3rd pictures you can see the sixth point - - is he a shooter?

http://www.hunt101.com/img/505556.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/461434.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/505567.jpg

[BCrams]

Based on the photo, I wouldn't shoot as the 6th appears to be too much of a palmated point where the 1 inch protrusion won't exceed the width.

Anyone who shoots that as it is viewed in the photograph is teetering a mighty fine line on whether that point is a solid inch or more.

With a spotter on the antler - it could very well make it.

So based on the photo - no.

Seeing it live with a spotter and time to watch him - who knows.

[77hunt]

pretty risky to shoot that elk .touch and go if that is a inch long no shot for me

[Jelvis]

I would let em go, a little bit thin looking and antlers too light colored should be darker the antlers the better the health. I would guess thats after the rut. late October or something to make him seem underweight maybe? I would keep looking.

[brotherjack]

Nope, I can't count to 6 - that's only about 5.5..... 2.5cm before you can call it a tine, and that doesn't look like it makes it to me. If it's just the picture quality making me think that, and there was a clear (legal) sixth point there - heck yeah, I'd shoot it!

[BCBear]

It would be tempting, but i would have to pass on that fella and look for his older brother.

[Mr. Dean]

I'd have to go home and blow-up that photo before making a decision.

[moosinaround]

Not sure of the tip there, I always err on the safe side, but the picture may not do the antlers justice.

[Mr. Dean]

It's a trick question, I bet.


Wouldn't be GOS for any bull would it?

LEH?

[30-06]

if legal i would shoot it

[todbartell]

well Ive never gotten a chance at a legal elk before, actually Ive only seen one bull while hunting with a tag in my pocket. For sure he is going down :mrgreen:

[tufferthandug]

2 years ago in Chetwynd (Where people say there's too many hunters...LOL), I ran in to a giant bull with the ass end that looked just like that. It was my pre-Leica year and had to pass on him. My ol Bushnell's just couldn't build the inch.

He came down from a blowdown of aspen, with just short lil bugles. My hoochie mama kept him standing around for about 15 minutes.

[tuchodi]

He looks good enough to shoot in 3 point season and I bet the steaks are good. In 6 Point I would have to let him go there would be nothing worse than to guess and found out you guessed wrong, then what would you do turn yourself in?

[Fisher-Dude]

No shot from me on that one. I've taken a couple in 3 point seasons just like that. The end of the main beam tends to web where the 5th takes off, and it doesn't make a 6th point because the base of the main beam at that point is wider than it is long.

My huntin buddy took one a few years back that was more of a raghorn with a similar configuration, and because the main beam was so thin, the sixth point wasn't webbed and was legal by about 1/2 inch. After studying it with 10x42 Leicas from 25 yards, he dropped the hammer, as he was certain it made the grade with a healthy safety margin.

If at all in doubt, don't shoot. There are lots of elk around, and patience will be rewarded.

[Walksalot]

Not from that picture but that is what binoculars are for.

[Benthos]

in a 6 point only area, i would not shoot


if open for any bull, he'd be on the ground!

[blaker_99]

Average bull but mighty risky may i add. Let him go his big brothers out there somewhere, keep tootin the horn you'll find him.

[mainland hunter]

looks like 6 to me. i agree that id want to get a bit better look before pulling the trigger

[Dirty]

From the pictures I would say that is not a shooter. In the field with better visuals there could be bullets flyin'.

[Gateholio]

Looks liek you could drive the truck right ot it, so yes, I'd shoot:mrgreen:

[boxhitch]

He looks like a crop-destroying pest, treat 'em like the vermin he is.

[talver]

Hes a walking based on those pics, way too close better be on the safe side than not, and besides this year he should be a true 6point

[Brambles]

Archery season, any bull???????? Sure, as soon as he turns a bit he's dead, 6 point only season, he'd be walkin because that 6th point doesn't cut it.

[dana]

I'll play devils advocate here. The mainbeam goes from the base all the way to that blunt stub. It quite abit longer than 1 inch when you look at it from that perspective isn't it?

[Fisher-Dude]

I'll play devils advocate here. The mainbeam goes from the base all the way to that blunt stub. It quite abit longer than 1 inch when you look at it from that perspective isn't it?

In scoring, that main beam continues up that "5th" point to its tip if the rear stub is less than 1 inch long from the "5th" point rear junction. So, main beam to the tip of the "5th" + G1 + G2 + G3 + G4 = 5 points.

[Fisher-Dude]

Looks liek you could drive the truck right ot it, so yes, I'd shoot:mrgreen:

Somethin to be said for that. :mrgreen:

[hunter1947]

I would take him ,if you look at the main beam on the left side up on top and were to draw a line along the fifth point ,you would have about 2 inches legal. First of all I would have a real good spotting scope on him to make sure he was legal before i took him.

[Fisher-Dude]

I would take him ,if you look at the main beam on the left side up on top and were to draw a line along the fifth point ,you would have about 2 inches legal. First of all I would have a real good spotting scope on him to make sure he was legal before i took him.

2 inches? Makes me wonder what you've been telling your wife all these years. :???:

[hunter1947]

2 inches? Makes me wonder what you've been telling your wife all these years. :???:
You can see that it has a tang sticking out at the rear from the fifth point and this is with using a camera ,if you had a spotting scope on him you would be surprised how much legal this elk would be then you think.:wink:.

[Fisher-Dude]

So what do you think, a slam-dunk 6 point?

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e70/Fisher-Dude/Hpim0187.jpg



Close up of the right side, which is similar to GG's picture, the main beam doesn't branch far enough to make the 6th point. Lots of 5 point bulls are like GG's with that shallow 5/6 split:



http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e70/Fisher-Dude/Hpim0182.jpg



Think the left side is an easy 6? Well, not as easy as you may think, the dimensions are 1 1/8 wide, 1 3/8 long. A legal six, but only by 1/4 inch!


http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e70/Fisher-Dude/Hpim0188.jpg

I was happy to bag this guy up in Region 7B during a 3 point season, and it was easy to tell he had at least 3 legal points. At the 140 yards I shot him, it would have been very difficult to determine if he was a 6 point, especially since elk are typically looking in your direction, making the sixth point hard to see. I doubt if I would have dumped him in a 6 point season where it was this close to not being a tine.

[Gateholio]

He looks like a crop-destroying pest, treat 'em like the vermin he is.

Good point....:mrgreen:

[hotload]

Noop, not me brother. He ain't got nothing that I would get into trouble over. He needs to walk. Keep eatin and will see ya next year, or more than likely the next.

[Fisher-Dude]

I would let em go, a little bit thin looking and antlers too light colored should be darker the antlers the better the health.

Since when is light antler colour an indication of poor health? Antlers become dark primarily from being stained by pitch from the type of trees they rub on. If the elk lives in an area that is primarily aspen, his antlers will tend to be lighter colour. In spruce/balsam, they will usually have brown antlers. On the Island where they rub on alders, they are reddish.

When an elk sheds his velvet, his antlers will be very light coloured until he rubs them. And, theoretically, an elk would be at his prime health-wise after an easy summer of good food and no women - and have the lightest antlers until he starts rubbing.

[Jelvis]

I guess I like real dark antlers with just the tips being white. An old hunter told me the darker the antlers the healthier the animal, on deer moose and elk. He passed away so I won't be able to tell him you think he's full of $-it

[hunter1947]

My thought is ,it is in the food that they eat ,that is what determines there color in the antlers ,weeks after they have shed there velvet.

[Fisher-Dude]

My thought is ,it is in the food that they eat ,that is what determines there color in the antlers ,weeks after they have shed there velvet.

Pray tell how food colouration flows up through the bloodstream, somehow flows up velvet-free antlers with no more blood vessels in/on them, through bone, and comes out of the antlers? And how would it colour only the outer surface of the bone, and not colour it through and through? If I eat carrots, do my hair and finger nails turn orange?

[BCrams]

My thought is ,it is in the food that they eat ,that is what determines there color in the antlers ,weeks after they have shed there velvet.

The antlers get their colour from what they're rubbing on and how much rubbing they're doing. Many factors - such as how much pitch is on the tree they're rubbing? Species of tree? How much dirt they get on their antlers by flinging mud around their wallows and then rubbing again? How much sun exposure? Etc......

A good example is mule deer: have one buck rubbing only alder = reddish antlers vs having another buck rubbing only young pine with lots of pitch = dark antlers

[hunter1947]

The antlers get their colour from what they're rubbing on and how much rubbing they're doing. Many factors - such as how much pitch is on the tree they're rubbing? Species of tree? How much dirt they get on their antlers by flinging mud around their wallows and then rubbing again? How much sun exposure? Etc......

A good example is mule deer: have one buck rubbing only alder = reddish antlers vs having another buck rubbing only young pine with lots of pitch = dark antlers How do you know that a buck will only rub one kind of tree i have seen over a hundred elk rub on all kinds of differnt type of tress and there antler color's vary :???:.

[BCrams]

How do you know that a buck will only rub one kind of tree i have seen over a hundred elk rub on all kinds of differnt type of tress and there antler color's vary :???:.

I wasn't saying bucks only rub one kind of tree. It was just an example to illustrate how rubbing trees can affect the antler colour vs your belief that it was what they ate. To re-emphasize - if a buck decides he only prefers rubbing alders - you're going to have reddish antlers where if a another decides he likes rubbing pine all the time - you're going to have darker antlers. Depending on what the bucks are rubbing, how much rubbing, etc will dictate the colouration.

Re-read the post - all kinds of factors will affect the colour. You can have a bull elk that wants to do nothing but rub trees every day and as a result have dark dark antlers where you will have another bull who's happy to have rubbed a couple trees and let it go at that and he will have lighter antlers.

[bighornbob]

Hunter1947

Your right the animals will rub on whatever they can and this will give the color variation. I saw a dead elk in the back of a guys truck and it had the darkest antlers I have ever seen with the whitest tips. Talked to the guy and he said he shot the bull in a old burn. Hence the dark horns the bull was proably rubbing on burnt trees.

A buck or bull rubbing on a young tree with the sap blisters will always be darker then a antler rubbed on a aspen. Thats where the color variations come from, the differnet trees they rub on.

BHB

[Mr. Dean]

Personaly, I'd 'rub' all day long if I thought I could get away with it. :twisted:




:shock: :shock: :shock:









Of course I'm meaning my temples.

[Fisher-Dude]

Keep doin that and you'll go blind.

We once had an elk bugling below us for about 5 hours, but he wouldn't show himself. When we finally went down to force his hand, we found about 25 - 30 trees on the ridge he was on all freshly rubbed and broken off. I've never seen so much carnage in one spot. Of course he gave us the slip that day...the guy with the WK LEH couldn't put it together.

The day before the tag-holder got there, that 350 bull was standing 15 feet from me, bugling. Impressive seeing the snot blow out of his nose when he bugled, and the red in his eyes. My ears were ringing from the sound. Talk about an adrenaline rush being unarmed and that close to such a huge, enraged animal. Unfortunately, he busted me as I was raising the camera. It's an experience I'll never forget. 8)