My 2013 Wyoming Elk - WOW!

npaden

Active Member
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Not really trying to toot my own horn because luck had a LOT more to do with it than any skill on my part, but I just shot the biggest elk of my life and probably the biggest elk I ever will shoot.

I'm still a little in shock over being able to take such a tremendous animal.

My goal on the hunt was to shoot a legal bull and I now am looking at a 60 day dry period before having him scored for submission to B&C!

2013_Wy_Elk5.jpg


2013_Wy_Elk2.jpg


packout1_001.jpg


packout_shadow.jpg


Here's a link to my HAC thread that has all the details and some more pictures.

http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID58/18.html#.UkX9k4Y3tc5

Still in shock over the whole deal and for sure on cloud nine!

Nathan
 
Already regretting the "WOW!" in my title, but I can't go back and edit the title.

Still very happy with the Bull and still know it had a lot more to do with luck than skill on my part.

The bull is what I am saying "WOW!" about, not me. Still on cloud nine and it's been a week since I shot him!
 
I knew what you where on about in the title. Anyone who's been around here a while knows that most of us are talking about the critters first.

Congrats on an incredible bull !!!

Cheers,
Pete
 
One wow, Come on I would thrown out at least 2 or 3 Big WOW WOW WOW's.
That's a real good Bull. As far as bulls go that will be hard to top.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
>[Font][Font color = "green"]Life member of
>the MM green signature club.[font/]
 
Congrats on a great bull. I want one of those!!!


Government doesn't fix anything and has spent trillions proving it!!!
Let's face it...After Monday and Tuesday, even the calender says WTF!
 
Very nice Bull. Not that it matters, but did you put a tape to him yet? Congrats!

PM Sent


"The problem with quotes on Internet Forums is that it is often difficult to verify their authenticity." - Abraham Lincoln
 
>Very nice Bull. Not that it
>matters, but did you put
>a tape to him yet?
> Congrats!
>
>PM Sent
>

Thanks again to everyone for the comments. At some point I think I'm going to come off of cloud nine, but not for a while longer! I keep going back and looking at the pictures and reliving the hunt over and over again.

I did put a tape to him, but I keep second and third guessing myself. I see these monster bulls like the Dutton Muzzleloader bull just posted and he says that bull scored 377" and it seems like a HUGE monster bull. Much bigger than mine, but when I put the tape to him, mine comes out pretty close to that gross.

Of course there is no such thing as a > 330" bull on monstermuleys so I probably shouldn't post any real numbers! ;)

I've scored him twice and the second time I used the online B&C calculator so I'm not making any math errors. (Although I did notice that I entered the main beam length as 54 4/5" so it is missing 1/2" of deductions there. It adds correctly as 54 4/8" in the total, but there should be a 1/2" deduction that it missed).

I'm not adding in the spread twice or counting the main beam past the g5 again or anything like that, but it still seems like he scores better than he should. I'm measuring the beam length from the base of the burr on the outside of the beam. On the big curved fronts I'm going from the imaginary spot that it starts on the main beam and coming around the bottom so it gets the benefit of the curve, but that's how they show it in the scoring instructions. Same with the G4, I get about 1" or so better on each of those points measuring from the outside of the curve instead of from the inside of the curve. I'm pretty sure that's right though.

I mean he's a monster to me, but when I first walked up to him I thought he was for sure 330" and maybe 340". The first time I put the tape on him I came up with 374" gross and 363" net and the second time I came up with 377" gross and 366" net. I don't feel like I'm stretching the tape on him, but I'm getting a local guy who is an official P&Y scorer to measure him for me sometime this week I think. If he comes up with the same kind of numbers I'm coming up with I'm hoping that my Christmas present will be having him officially scored by a B&C scorer and that he'll not shrink too much and still make the 360" net to make the minimum.

He's just got so much character and his main beams go forever, a full 18" past his G5's. He has solid mass, fronts are solid, 3's aren't bad, 4's are decent, G5's are good, but they have the biggest deduction with 2" difference between them, and it just all adds up to a big number.

About 5 1/2" of deductions plus you get smoked for the abnormal point just counting as a deduction so that's kind of a double whammy. I'm counting it for my gross number though whenever I decide what that is! I think I'll go with whatever the P&Y guy says.

Here's my tentative score sheet.

2013_wyoming_elk_score.jpg


I'm really curious what the P&Y scorer comes up with, I really don't feel like I'm stretching the tape, but I'm not an official scorer that's for sure.

O_S_O_K - I didn't get a PM. You might want to double check.

Thanks, Nathan
 
Oh yeah, one thing I forgot is to show the picture with my full posse in it. Picture didn't turn out that great with the way the sun was shining, but this was the best picture we got with the timer on the camera.

Just my friend Mike and myself, DIY on public land.

n_and_m_bull_002.jpg
 
Thanks again for the comments everyone. I'm still on cloud nine. I'm still looking at the pictures several times a day!

I got the rest of the hunt posted on my HAC thread if anyone is interested. My friend Mike ended up killing a nice young bull on the 3rd day of the hunt so we ended up going 2 for 2 on a DIY public land hunt.

His bull wasn't a monster by any means, but to me any bull elk on a DIY public land hunt with a general tag is a trophy.

mikes_bull.jpg


Here's the link to my HAC thread - http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID58/18.html#.Uk2rsYY3tc4

Nathan
 
Love the look of this bull! Congrats, score is great but you'll never shoot a better looking bull!
 
Don't ever let the tape decide if you had a great hunt or not. Your is a WOW bull all the way and one that you'll probably never top..... but that will never keep you out of the hills!
That's just the way hunters are.
Congrats on a great bull and thanks for sharing your hunt with us.
Zeke
 
Thanks again for the comments everyone. Believe it or not it's been almost a month and I'm still on cloud nine!

Just for grins, I had the rack back from the taxidermist and set it on top of my previous best bull that I was very happy with at the time. Here's a picture of him when I shot him back in 2010. Great fronts on him, decent 4ths, but a little weak on the top end. I scored him at 309, but actually messed up on the mass measurements and measured him like a deer on the mass measurements so if I actually went back and rescored him I think he would end up closer to 300 or so gross.

2010_NM_Elk_1.jpg


Still a respectable bull and I'm still happy with him. His great fronts really make him a nice looking mount to have on the wall.

Okay, long winded intro, but here's my Wyoming bull's antlers just sitting on top of my New Mexico bull's antlers. Not a perfect comparison, the antlers on my Wyoming bull are a little forward of the New Mexico bull, but you get a pretty good idea.

elk_comparison1.jpg


Okay, fronts are just a tiny bit better, 3rds are a little better, 4ths are just a little better, mass is quite a bit better, and then everything my New Mexico bull was lacking in the top end is made up for in spades on my Wyoming bull. Almost makes my New Mexico bull look like a raghorn!

I ended up climbing up on my rafters and taking a picture looking down. This really shows off the top end of my Wyoming bull.

elk_comparison2.jpg


Oh well, since I took the silly pictures I thought I would share them.

Nathan
 
Shiz, I want a trophy room like that.


Sit tall in the saddle, hold your head up high, keep your eyes fixed to where the trail meets the sky...
 
npaden, 20 years from now you will look at that rack and think....WOW! And I would too.

I read your HAC. Very well done, Sir!

Eel
 
Now that the 60 day dry period is over, I thought I would update this thread with the official score. After a somewhat nerve wracking morning with the official scorer here in Lubbock, I now have an official score on my bull. It was close, but he made it!

The biggest differences were on the mass measurements, I just used a seamstress tape and just measured about where it looked like it would be the smallest. He used the official 1/4" steel tape and went back and forth and back and forth and found the absolute smallest measurement and entered that. That is the correct way to do it, I just didn't think it would result in as much of a difference as it did.

The other decent difference was on where he drew the line on the G1s and G2's was a little less than I was measuring from and I measured along the bottom of the tine all the way around and he measured from the middle of the tine out and then out and up at the tip. That resulted in a little less length on those.

He ended up with 372 1/8 gross and 361 6/8" net when it was all said and done. Took a lot longer than I expected, close to 2 hours when it was all said and done before we had the official score sheet in ink signed off and ready to submit. I took a picture of the process, lots of masking tape, marking in pencil, measuring with the cable and then marking the end with a little clip, then measuring the cable, using the steel tape to measure the mass, etc.

scoring_process.jpg


Here's the official score sheet.

elk_official_score.jpg


I listed my friend Mike as my guide because he did have his resident guide license for me to be able to hunt the wilderness area. My bull was shot very close to the boundary between national forest and the wilderness area but I figured might as well list him as my guide just to avoid any potential issues or anything, not that it would on a bull that just barely makes it.

Still pretty excited about it. Now I guess I need to actually go through the process and spend the $40 to submit it.
 
That's a great bull Nathan. Congrats on making the book.

Glad you shared your experience with the official measuring. Have been thinking about getting mine measured. Nice to know on how they did the G1 and G2.
 
Congrats to you Nate that is a great Bull and do show us the finished mount later...nice going.

Brian
http://i44.tinypic.com/es7x8z.jpg[/IMG]
 
I think you did good to come that close with your scoring.

Bear country, huh?

Just curious, how comfortable were you? I burned my max points in 2012 on a unit without bears. Prior to that I was hoping to draw a "Bear" unit. My Partner is "bear scared" and the more I thought about it, I feared for the horses more than myself, plus having to do it solo. I've carried pepper spray on my right thigh, at work, for years and after drawing it during emergencies dozens of times, I am confident I could draw and spray in less than 2 seconds. But my fear of a horse incident, hunting solo, and concern about having to sleep alone in bear country won out. I'd like to hear your thoughts when you were actually hunting in grizz country with a bow.
 
As far as hunting bear country, this was the 6th year in a row to hunt this area so I guess I'm not too uncomfortable. I am hunting during rifle season though and with a friend and we camp in travel trailers about 10 miles from where we hunt so it's a lot easier to be comfortable doing it like that than solo with a bow in a tent.

We've seen grizzly and black bears on a fairly regular basis, but never really had any problems with them. There have been a few tense moments in the dark hiking in or out but no direct confrontations. We don't use horses so no idea on issues with them, but the outfitters in the area all use horses and don't seem to have too much trouble.

There was less bear sign this year than any year since I've been hunting in the area. Sounds like the Thorofare is a different story though. Lots of stories of bear problems there.
 

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