aging elk

[accubond]

In 2004 I shot a nice bull(by colorado standards) that brows and thirds all exceeding 17" but after that he was on the week side in comparison to his bottoms. I've been doing some reading and some say this a sign of old age. I have this bulls ivorys and was wondering if I could find out the age of this bull and if so could I do it myself?

 

[doityourself]

I've also heard that when the fronts are great and the back tapers off that they had a good feed in the spring and not so good later on.

 

[WapitiBob]

game dept can age the teeth for you.

 

[slamdunk]

Genetics have a HUGE role in tine length, so does water and feed.
When you have those three things all come together at once......you get the spider bull.
Even on the spider bull, if all those things didn't come together like they did this year, he wouldn't be nearly as impressive as he is, age, genetics or not.

Elk are aged by doing a cross cut section of the teeth, they have growth rings similar to a tree.

Another way to quickly see if a bull has much age on him is to look at the 4th tooth back and see the wear he has.
If you have some other jaws to compare that too, you will have a pretty good estimate on how old he is.

A bull elk is in his prime years from 7-9, but even in those years if things don't all come together, a potential 400" bull may only be a 350".
He may grow great fronts due to a good wet early spring, but if things dry up early, his back end may be "sub par".

 

[accubond]

Here is a couple pics of my 2004 bull with the good bottoms and ok tops. Thats interesting info on the wet spring dry summer theory. His longest brow tine is over 19" with the rest of his brows and his thirds not far behind. It was an otc tag and I could not be happier as this was my first elk. Thanks for the intertesting feedback guys.

 

[leftturnabq]

I'm no expert, but I think this was a young bull.

Old bulls are very large bodied, and have a lot of mass in the main beam...particularly the bottom portion of the main beam.

Over-the-hill bulls, will keep strong brow-tines and have huge bases, but will lose noticeable length from the 3rd's back, maybe even display some "palmation" in the back half along the main beam. They lose spread too.

Of course, as mentioned, feed and water for the growing season have huge effects on antler development for that year.

 

[slamdunk]

+1 leftturn.

I beleive this is a younger bull, 6 years old at best.
ESPECIALLY due to the fact that he was taken in an OTC unit, that bull was lucky to make it that long.

 

[birdbuster]

+1. Younger bull with good genes based on mass and beam length.

 

[completesportsman]

He must have been a UT bull that ran over to CO!

 

[accubond]

Thanks for the interesting info guys. I just read about age and the week tops, but the above advice all sounds very legit and I will remember that in the future. Thanks again and good hunting this fall.