10.5 Year Old Bull Tooth Data

[cowslayer]

All,

I just got done clarifying the results from the division of wildlife here in Utah. I was concerned when it said that my bull was a 1 year old bull on my online harvest survey results. I called and did some clarifying. Turns out he was a little bit older.

They mentioned that for some reason if a bulls age is in the double digits, it does not show the actual age in the system, it truncates it and that is why my bull appeared to be a 1 year old on the computer. What do you think, was my bull Regressing or was this just his Genetic potential? or faulty tooth data?

Here is another look at him. As a side note, he was born the year that I started putting in for elk. Seems like he was just waiting for me to find him. I also know of at least 2 other younger bulls killed off the same unit that were younger and scored better. Kind of Funny.

 

[legacy]

Regression? Maybe. Genetics? Maybe. Looks like he has short main beams. His front end is great. But who cares! Dang nice bull! What did he end up scoring?

 

[cowslayer]

He's a 340 bull.

 

[UTodd]

Hey Cowslayer,

How brown were your bull's Ivories?

 

[ismith]

He does look like he regressed to me. Dandy bull anywhere!
ismith

 

[cowslayer]

UTodd,

His Ivories were pretty clean and not very brown. My father in law killed a bull that was 8 years old and those Ivories were carmel colored and dark and cool looking. His ivories looked as if he had worn them down a bunch though. Maybe he was using the mint scope up on the hill to clean his teeth??? I don't know.

Chris

 

[elk_horn]

Cowslayer.. thats a nice bull and the picture is better than the one on your cell phone!
joel

 

[NV4x4]

I was just telling a buddy of mine that I never did get the results of the tooth survey from Utah on my bull taken in 2005 and then I read this post. I just logged on to the Utah site and found that mine was 9 yrs old. We had all guessed him to be around 7 yrs old as his ivories were worn down but not to the point I would expect a 9 yr old bull to be. Does anyone know how exact the tooth aging process is?

Congrats on a great looking bull.

 

[NMPaul]

Great bull. I like the heavy racked bulls. Looks like you had your family with you also.

 

[ismith]

NV4x4,
The tooth aging process that im sure Utah uses is very accurate. The take a thin slice of the tooth, dye it, and then count the rings much like counting the rings of a tree. The tooth wear method is less accurate, but much cheaper.
ismith

 

[PleaseDear]

I always did like that bull cs.... he just has it all and surely must have made a great mount.

Robb

 

[cowslayer]

Thanks PleaseDear,

I am really happy with him. As for the taxidermy work on him. I can't decide what to do and how to get him mounted. I have boiled his skull and like the euro look on him.

What would you guys do with him? I am leaning toward a pedestal mount. I talked to one taxi and he said that it would be smart to have the antlers detachable. I don't know about detachable antlers, what's all of your opinions on detachable antlers?

CS

 

[cowslayer]

NMPaul,

I had some of my best friends with me on the hunt. I consider them to be my brothers for sure.

Shane "Torch" McDougal, Dan "Grizzly" Woodland and Mike "Elkspotter" Sperry.

I sure appreciated there help during this hunt.

CS

 

[NV4x4]

Thanks ismith on the info. As for a mount this is what I went with. He has 56" main beams so I went with the pedestal mount to keep his head up and have him bugling. I didn't go with the detachable antlers.

 

[ismith]

Beautiful bull and sweet mount!
ismith

 

[Prism]

That's a sweet mount. Who did it?

I shot a bull last year that was 8 years old and if not busted would have been around 340 gross. I shot a 370 bull a couple of years ago that I would guess to be a younger bull-never got my tooth data back. I know of several 350 plus bulls that were younger than 6 years old when harvested.

It's interesting that we get so wound up about age classes when it appears the genetics has a lot more to do with antler size than it's given credit for.

 

[NV4x4]

Thanks, it was done by Troy Rose of Artistic Taxidermy in Boise, ID. That picture is from the day I got it home and had to move the entire house around to fit him in. Troy ended up redoing the connection from square tubing inside the neck to the pedestal as the weight was forcing the head to tilt sideways. You can kind of see it in the picture. He modified the form and got the pose I was shooting for and can't be happier. It was well worth the long wait to get it back.

 

[cowslayer]

Gorgeous mount!!! Great looking bull. How does the pedistal keep from falling over? Does it have a lead base or something? Thanks for sharing.

CS

 

[Moosestock]

There was a Bull shot in the Tacoma watershed (Washington state) a number of years ago on a special hunt that was 16 years old. This area had been closed for a number of years. It only had a 4x4 rack but it was as thick as your forearm. It would have been nice to see his racks in his "Hay" day.......Les

 

[NV4x4]

The base is weighted and around 40 lbs. The weight of the bull acts as a cantilever and so its balanced over the base. He originally was going to put him in an aspen tree but I told him there wasn't an aspen within 20 miles of where I shot him. I gave him a picture of the area and he did a great job of coming up with the look of the pedestal.

 

[proutdoors]

Prism, Nevada has been researching the scores of bulls harvested there for the last few years. Their data shows 5 year old bulls are capable of being 350+, but the majority of 350+ are 7-11 yrs old. Genetics AND age AND feed makes 350+ bulls.

PRO